What are “3D UNIV+RSES”, Dassault Systèmes’ latest creation?

Unpacking the "seventh generation of representation of the world," plus an update on Onshape CAM Studio, Ansys 2025 R1 and more.

By Michael Alba

Welcome to Engineering Paper, a weekly column bringing you the latest updates from the world of design and simulation software.

First some news from developer Dassault Systèmes. At least, I think it’s news. I’m having a hard time deciphering this press release introducing “3D UNIV+RSES”, the “seventh generation of representation of the world introduced by Dassault Systèmes.”

I have thoughts about that branding, but I’ll keep them to myself. +veryone can see how well a plus sign resembles an uppercase E—no need to point it out.

So what exactly are 3D Univpluserses? I’ll quote Dassault’s description:

“3D UNIV+RSES” represent a new class of representation of the world: virtual-plus-real representations that holistically combine modeling, simulation, real-world evidence and AI-generated content. They offer a unique and secured industry environment for combining and cross-simulating virtual twins and for training multi-AI engines while protecting customers’ IP.

That’s clear, right? We’re talking about something that represents a new class of representation. It combines real and non-real reality and virtuality (it doesn’t get any more holistic than that, folks). We’re talking AI and IP, all in one multi-engine secure industry environment.

I think I’m starting to understand the plus sign.

Dassault’s announcement doesn’t provide much concrete detail about “3D UNIV+RSES” and when or how users will interact with them. I’m sure the developer will have more to say at its upcoming user conference, 3DExperience World 2025, taking place in Houston in a couple weeks. I’ll be there myself to chase down some answers. (If you’ll be at the event and want to say hello, drop me a line at [email protected].)

Until then, I’ll try to read between the lines. It seems like Dassault is embracing the industrial metaverse, which was the trendy tech before generative AI stole our attention (and our collective cultural and scientific heritage). My guess is that this will be something like Nvidia’s Omniverse platform, a hub to integrate 3D assets for spatial computing and digital twin (er, I mean virtual twin) applications.

Whatever “3D UNIV+RSES” are, I suspect we’ll be hearing about them a lot over the next few years. At least until Dassault invents an eight representation of the world.

A few updates on Onshape CAM Studio

Last week Onshape announced CAM Studio, a new manufacturing workspace available in beta for Professional and Enterprise subscribers, and CAM Studio Advanced, an extended manufacturing feature set that will be available as a paid extension.

I’ve since seen a demo of CAM Studio (including Advanced) from Onshape’s Cody Armstrong , senior director of technical services, and Darren Henry , senior vice president of general operations. I still don’t have details on pricing or availability, but they did answer a few of my questions about the new manufacturing environment.

As expected, CAM Studio fits naturally into the browser-based platform. You launch it from a part and it opens in a new tab (an Onshape tab, not a browser tab), where you can switch between it and other workspaces. CAM Studio has an easy-to-follow workflow—it took Armstrong seconds to generate an example toolpath—and it includes an extensive machine and tool library that will continue to expand with Onshape’s triweekly release schedule.

It still needs time to mature, but Armstrong believes CAM Studio is a viable replacement for existing desktop CAM tools—as long as you just need milling. Turning is yet to come.

I’ll write more about CAM Studio, but here are two more details for now. One, there are no additive manufacturing capabilities in CAM Studio, but Armstrong said it’s on Onshape’s radar for a future release. Two, CAM Studio provides machine simulation, but not G-code simulation. The former uses specialized CAM data, whereas the latter uses the actual code that drives a specific CNC machine. Theoretically these simulations are the same, but in reality they may not be perfectly identical.

Ansys 2025 R1 now available

Ansys announced a slew of updates across its portfolio with the Ansys 2025 R1 release. Some of the highlights include expanded thermal modeling in Ansys Discovery, support for higher mesh counts in Ansys Fluent fluid simulations, more GPU support and high performance computing (HPC) tools across applications, a better way to prepare training data for Ansys SimAI, and lots of other new features. If you use any Ansys products, you’ll probably find something of interest.

Here’s a video overview with more of the Ansys 2025 R1 updates:

For full details, see the Ansys 2025 R1 highlights.

Quick hits: HPCWorks, SpiCAT, and digital twin training

• Altair announced Altair HPCWorks 2025, the latest update to the developer’s HPC and cloud platform. HPCWorks 2025 is now available through Altair Units, the company’s token-based licensing system. The new release also integrates with Altair RapidMiner for HPC-enabled AI and data analytics workflows, and includes the usual bout of security enhancements and performance improvements.
• Kyocera AVX now supports supercapacitors in a new version of its SpiCAT online catalog for its electronic components. SpiCAT provides specs and downloadable 3D part models for many types of AVX capacitors including multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), polymer, tantalum, niobium and more. (If you want to learn more about the differences between these, check out The engineer’s complete guide to capacitors.)
• The Digital Twin Consortium announced a series of training workshops to build hands-on experience with digital twins. The day-long event will take place on March 17, 2025 at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, Virginia, and feature industry speakers from Dassault Systèmes, Axomem and others.

One last link

Have you ever wondered how massive cruise ships are designed and built? Wonder no longer with this shipyard tour from cruise-aficionado and mechanical engineer Paul J. Heney : Design software helping to build the largest cruise ships.

Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: [email protected].

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