The size of the CAE market is on the size of 10s of thousands to 100s of thousands at the absolute most. The size of those that actually have the time/skills to actively develop is a few % of that. Plus, the culture and expectations of the user community is one of dependence on the commercial vendors to handle everything. There hasn’t been an outcry by the user community to provide “the source” or allow access to the internals. In fact, the outcry is usually the exact opposite. The expectations from the user community are immensely high in that they want to adopt a new way of product development (ie simulation), but.. they expect it…
- To be super simple to use and implement
- Extremely accurate with minimal user input
- Reasonably priced
- Fantastic support
The CAE space is very competitive and many people still view it as “nice to have”. Until it is mainstream and on the critical path, it will be difficult to see a vendor making the big leap into the wide open world of FOSS.
I am a big fan of the FOSS model in mass adopted applications – firefox, thunderbird, ubuntu, banshee etc… Would love to hear an argument how to take a very competitive, “niche” product like FEA or CFD and make a business model that can survive as FOSS.
Would love to hear alternative arguments to this.
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A mechanical engineer that is obsessed with technology. I am the Product Manager for CFdesign and work in a virtual office in Philadelphia, PA USA. Outside of technology, I am an avid Liverpool FC supporter and a massive phan of the band PHISH.
