After releasing the first public version of the Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) data interface standard in January,
the ITEA VMAP project has now started distributing version 0.4 of this interoperability standard for the creation of
use cases external to the project (available on www.vmap.eu.com).
VMAP is an open and free standard for the transfer of material and engineering information between simulations
within a Computer-Aided Engineering process chain. This provides engineers carrying out simulations for their design
process with a fast solution to pass information from one calculation to another without needing to create one-off
interfaces. Initially work on the VMAP standard has focussed on the manufacturing industry but the standard is
general enough to enable many other sectors to use it.
The great benefit of VMAP is that the open-source standard is accompanied by a software library of input/output tools
for reading/writing the VMAP data files and thus enable fast development of transfer operations between different
software packages in a simulation workflow.
The VMAP project objectives are endorsed by Audi, Bosch, EDAG, Rikutec and Philips who are using the current version
within their simulation process workflows. The automotive process for a composite lightweight vehicle is seen in the
image below which shows the softwares integrated in this workflow are: PAM-Form (draping), OpenFOAM (moulding),
Abaqus (curing and cooling) and LS-Dyna/PAM-Crash (structural analysis).
VMAP is cost-free and is supported by the international VMAP Standards Community made up of independent software
vendors (ISVs), developers, academia and other entities that provides the CAE industry with a focus group to provide
guidance, collaborate, evolve and maintain VMAP.
Simulation process for a composite lightweight vehicle.
(Kärger, L.; Bernath, A.; Fritz, F.; Galkin, S.; Magagnato, D.; Oeckerath, A.; Schön, A.; Henning, F.
Development and validation of a CAE chain for unidirectional fibre reinforced composite components.
Composite Structures 132: 350–358, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.05.047)
More information
VMAP project website
Related articles
ITEA VMAP project released first public version of the CAE data interface standard
