Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Siemens buys Waltham CAD software maker Vistagy

By Rodney Brown

Vistagy Inc., a CAD software company based in Waltham, has been acquired by German industrial giant Siemens AG for an undisclosed amount.

According to a release from Siemens posted on the Vistagy website, Siemens was particularly interested in Vistagy’s composite material design expertise, saying that, following the purchase of Vistagy, “Siemens will become the only company worldwide to support the whole value creation for carbon fiber components with its software tools.”

Vistagy will be rolled into the PLM software business unit of Siemens, a part of the Siemens Industry Automation Division. Acording to a report fromn the Associated Press, the company has 80 employees. Vistagy was founded in 1991, and reports approximately 300 customers worldwide according to the release.

In March, Vistagy donated 10 of its FiberSIM composites engineering software licenses to the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Engineering. Using the new software, researchers in the Wind Energy Center are able to improve their design of wind turbine blades, the company said at the time.  Other products the company has developed include SyncroFIT for designing and manufacturing complex assemblies and large aerostructures, Quality Planning Environment for developing plans to assess aerostructure quality and Seat Design Environment for designing and manufacturing innovative transportation seat systems and interior components.

The bulk of Vistagy’s customers are in the aerospace, automotive, and wind energy industries, and include Bombardier Aerospace, General Motors, Lotus Renault GP and Sinomatech Wind Power Blade Co.