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COSTA MESA -- PDA Engineering, one of the county's top performing stocks this year, is banking on the proliferation of lower-cost computer workstations to spur demand for its engineering analysis software.
By several accounts, the company already offers an industry standard with its Patran software. The software is used by automobile and aerospace companies, among others, to analyze mechanical designs. For instance, the software simulates a component or object's ability to withstand wear, tear and heat. The company's software can simulate auto crashes to optimize designs, saving on the need to build and destroy prototypes.
But to date, the Patran software has remained in the hands of analysis engineers, a relatively small group of highly trained people who have the analytic know-how to scrutinize computer drawings by design engineers. It is this larger group of designers that PDA now hopes to reach.
While there are some 20,000 to 30,000 analysis engineers in the country, design engineers number up to 600,000. Getting analysis products in their hands could speed the design-to-manufacturing process, allowing companies to get product innovations to market faster and at a lower cost. Improved designs could also cut warranty and production costs.
"That's the million-dollar question these days," said Mark Halpren of D.H. Brown Associates, a market research and consulting firm specializing in engineering technology. "There are a lot of guys trying to get analysis software in the...