Most engineering students have drawn a part in AutoCAD or a similar tool in a college lab. Everything that is manufactured is first designed this way, on a screen: a car, a phone, the pipes of a refinery, the carton a breakfast cereal comes in. The software for this work is one of the oldest and most profitable parts of the software industry. India builds a large share of it.
The main kinds of design software
CAD, computer-aided designThe engineer draws the part as a 3D shape on screen. This shape is called a 3D model.
SimulationBefore anything is built, software tests the design. It works out whether the part will bend, break, overheat or shake under load. This saves the cost of building and breaking real samples.
CAM, computer-aided manufacturingIt turns the design into instructions for the machine that makes the part. A CNC machine is a cutting machine controlled by a computer, and CAM software writes the program it follows.
PLM, product lifecycle managementA product has thousands of parts, and each part goes through many versions. PLM keeps track of every version of every part, and of who approved each change.
How a product goes from screen to machine: the engineer draws it in CAD, from makers such as Autodesk, Dassault Systemes and PTC, simulation tests it, CAM from makers such as Mastercam turns it into a program, and a CNC machine cuts the part, while PLM keeps every version of every part and who approved each change.
In this Market Segment, a model means a 3D model or a mathematical model of a system. AI models are always called AI models.
Designing a plant. A refinery or a chemical plant is designed on screen too. Process simulation works out how materials will flow and react through the plant. Plant design software lays out its pipes, vessels and structures in 3D.
Who buys, and why they rarely switch. The buyers are manufacturers of every kind, engineering firms and architects. They used to buy a licence for each engineer. Now most pay a yearly subscription. A company's designs from past decades are stored in one maker's file format, and its engineers are trained on that tool. Large manufacturers also ask their suppliers to use the same software. So buyers rarely change their design software.
Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.
This Market Segment has two sub-segments:
Designing the product: software for designing, testing and costing a product, and preparing it for manufacture
Designing the plant: software for designing refineries, chemical plants and other sites
Designing the product
CAD and CAM (computer-aided design and manufacturing), product lifecycle management, packaging design, simulation and modelling, cost engineering
The large design-software makers
Autodeskwith engineers in Pune and Bengaluru, makes AutoCAD, Revit, Fusion and Maya. Architects design buildings in Revit, product designers work in Fusion, and animators work in Maya. Its Pune and Bengaluru centres are among its largest. Autodesk has the most job postings in this Market Segment.
Dassault Systemeswith engineers in Pune and Bengaluru, makes CATIA, in which cars and aircraft are designed. It also makes SOLIDWORKS.
PTCmakes Creo, a CAD tool, and Windchill, a PLM system for managing every version of a product. It also makes ThingWorx.
Preparing for manufacture
Mastercamnow part of Sandvik, with engineers in Pune, makes CAM software. It writes the programs that tell CNC machines how to cut a part. (More on Sandvik in Market Segment 37.5, Industrial machinery and robotics.)
Eskowith engineers in Bengaluru, makes software in which packaging is designed and prepared for printing.
True ValueHubwith engineers in Bengaluru, works out from a design what a part should cost, and who should make it.
Accuris is another company in this area.
Two companies covered mainly in other Market Segments also work here:
MathWorkswith engineers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, makes MATLAB and Simulink, in which engineers build mathematical models of control systems. (More on it in Market Segment 6.1, DevOps and CI/CD tools, in Industry Vertical 6, Devtools companies.)
Metadome.aiwith engineers in Bengaluru, makes 3D models of vehicles and their parts. (More on it in Market Segment 38.5, Car dealer software and used-car marketplaces, in Industry Vertical 38, Automotive and mobility.)
Siemens makes NX and Teamcenter, which are among the leading products in this market. (More on Siemens in the GCC collection.) Ansys, a maker of simulation software, is now part of Synopsys Inc. (More on Synopsys in Market Segment 35.7, Chip design software (EDA), in Industry Vertical 35, Semiconductors and chip design.) Altair is not covered in this Market Segment.
Designing the plant
Process simulation, plant design and engineering, digital twins of plants, industrial knowledge graphs
A plant is designed on screen too: process simulation, as in Aspen Technology's software, works out how materials flow, plant design from Hexagon R&D India lays out the pipes and vessels in 3D, and once the plant runs, a digital twin from companies such as Hexagon Asset Lifecycle Intelligence and cerebre keeps a copy of it up to date with its data.
Process simulation and plant design
Aspen Technologynow part of Emerson, with engineers in Bengaluru, Pune and Delhi, makes process simulation software. Refineries and chemical plants are designed in it, and tuned to run better. (More on Emerson in the GCC collection.)
Hexagon R&D Indiawith engineers in Hyderabad and Pune, builds Smart 3D, Hexagon's plant design software. It also builds Hexagon's metrology software, which is used to measure manufactured parts. (More on it in Market Segment 37.11, Machine vision and quality inspection, and in Market Segment 40.5, Asset performance management and digital twins, in Industry Vertical 40, Energy and climate tech.)
Digital twins of plants. A digital twin is a digital copy of a real plant, kept up to date with data from it.
Hexagon Asset Lifecycle Intelligencewith engineers in Hyderabad, sells digital twins of plants to their owners. (More on it in Market Segment 41.1, Construction tech, in Industry Vertical 41, Proptech.)
cerebrewith engineers in Bengaluru, builds knowledge graphs of a plant's equipment, for use in digital twins. A knowledge graph records each piece of equipment and how it connects to the others.
Elecdes Systems, in Chennai, is another company in this area.
Three companies covered mainly in other Market Segments design the site and the plant:
Trimble Inc.with most of its Indian engineers in Chennai, makes modelling and surveying software. Bentley Systems, with engineers in Pune and Kolkata, makes software for designing infrastructure. (More on both in Market Segment 41.1, Construction tech, in Industry Vertical 41, Proptech.)
Ravenwith engineers in Bengaluru, makes interactive diagrams of plants. (More on it in Market Segment 37.4, Predictive maintenance and industrial IoT platforms.)
The design that AI proposes.
Design software has long offered generative design. The engineer sets the goals, and the software proposes shapes. AI models now go further. They create the shape from a written description, check it against engineering standards, and simulate it in minutes. Autodesk, Dassault Systemes and PTC are putting AI models into every tool. The engineers in their Indian centres are building them.
That is design software: tools to draw a product, test it, prepare it for manufacture and track its every version, and tools to design a whole plant. Buyers rarely switch, which has made it one of the most profitable parts of the software industry. India builds a large share of it.