What's New
M4 Phoenix Technology Works has received AS9100D certification for composite manufacturing.
M4 Engineering Inc. and M4 Phoenix Technology Works announce M4 PTW’s AS9100D certification for composite manufacturing. Long Beach, CA, and Maricopa, AZ 09/29/25– M4 Engineering Inc. and M4 Phoenix Technology Works (M4 PTW) are excited to announce M4 PTW’s AS9100 certification, completed earlier this month. AS9100D certification is a critical differentiator that signifies adherence to the […]
New engineering partnership designed to address increasing thermal management challenges
Long Beach, CA and Cupertino, CA 03/05/25– M4 Engineering Inc. and HeatSync consortium are excited to announce a strategic partnership. M4 is a leading Engineering, Prototyping, and Testing firm. HeatSync is a leading provider of advanced thermal management solutions. This collaboration will bring together M4 Engineering’s expertise in simulation, structural optimization, and aerospace engineering with […]
Beam Column Effect – Simcenter 3D vs. Hand Calculations
The beam column effect can have a highly detrimental impact on the strength of members subjected to combined axial and transverse loads. In this post you will learn what the beam column effect is, see a hand calculation to estimate its impact, and finally compare the hand calculation results against Simcenter 3D.
Custom Result Visualization in Simcenter 3D
Learn how to visualize custom result data in Simcenter 3D by leveraging the I-deas Universal (UNV) file format. This post will focus on the step-by-step procedure needed to go from a Nastran BDF and OP2 file to a contour plot of margins within Simcenter 3D. Challenges: Generation of custom result data of interest within Simcenter […]
Q-criterion for Vortex Visualization
Learn how to gain key insights into flowfield dynamics through effective visualization of vortical structures in CFD. Challenges: Visualization of unsteadiness in a flowfield can be difficult to convey and illustrate Identifying coherent vortical structures Values: Key insights can be obtained through understanding the dynamics of a flowfield Effective flow visualization can provide quick verification […]
UCSD and M4 Engineering get nearly $6 million from NASA to help design flying taxis
SANDIEGOUNIONTRIBUNE.COM / STAFF WRITER: GARY ROBBINS NASA has given UC San Diego $5.8 million to help develop electric-powered flying taxis, a form of ride sharing that has been envisioned for decades but is struggling to get beyond the concept stage. UCSD will lead a group of five universities and companies in creating software tools to […]
Automating Load Case Combination and Enveloping in Simcenter 3D using NXOpen + Python
Learn how NXOpen can be used to combine and envelop load cases in Simcenter 3D. Take advantage of this capability to achieve quicker analysis turnaround and architect a more seamless multi-disciplinary optimization workflow. Challenges: Large number of load case combinations Frequent design iterations Manual process is time-consuming with slow turnaround Majority of time spent performing […]
Structural Weight Prediction for an Urban Air Mobility Concept (2020)
Authors Tyler Winter, Joe Robinson, Mark Sutton, Julius Chua, Armando Gamez, and Thomas Nascenzi Introduction Accurate structural weight prediction for novel vehicle configurations is an important and often neglected aspect of conceptual design. Many unconventional vehicle concepts are not well represented by empirical structural weight models based on historical data. Traditional finite element modeling and […]