Configura Unveils Transformative Updates with 15.0 Major Release
Configura, a provider of innovative design solutions for the material handling industry, is thrilled to unveil the exciting changes in the latest 15.0 Major update to CET.
Linköping, Sweden–May 20—Configura, a provider of innovative design solutions for the material handling industry, is thrilled to unveil the exciting changes in the latest 15.0 Major update to CET. The update includes a sleeker, more modern interface that's easier on the eyes and smoother to navigate.
“These enhancements mark a significant step forward in our commitment to fostering greater feedback and communication within our user community,” said Erin Corrill, Global Head of User Community at Configura. “Us Configurans are dedicated to continuously improving our products to enhance design flow, speed and overall user experience. By listening closely to our users and implementing their valuable feedback, we can ensure our products remain at the forefront of innovation in the design industry, empowering designers worldwide to achieve their creative visions with greater efficiency and ease."
A New Look for CET
While maintaining the beloved CET user experience, Configura introduces this facelift as part of its steadfast commitment to enhancing usability and delivering a standardized user experience across the platform. Users have complete control over whether they want to opt in and embrace the makeover or prefer the classic look; both options will coexist for a seamless transition.
Users can acquaint themselves with the new interface by simply switching between the two with the convenient UI toggle at the top right of the window or by participating in an interactive tour of the new features.
Expansions for CET Material Handling
In its ongoing efforts to enhance the Essentials for the CET Material Handling family, Configura is thrilled to introduce the debut of the Essential ASRS Extension. This new Extension offers a single-mast crane system that seamlessly integrates with selective racking systems from Essential Pallet Racking. This latest Extension not only broadens the scope of Configura’s material handling solutions but also enriches its platform's overall versatility and functionality.
Essential Conveyor Extension
Configura’s ongoing commitment to refinement and innovation is also exemplified in the recent updates to the Essential Conveyor Extension. Among these enhancements is the introduction of the Total Length Legend tool, which simplifies tracking the overall length of conveyor systems within designs. Additionally, curved conveyor units now boast an expanded range of angle options, offering greater flexibility in design configurations.
Including Pallet Conveyors as a new system type further enriches the conveyor offerings, providing access to essential conveyor parts tailored specifically for pallet movement, such as chain conveyors and pallet turntables. These updates underscore Configura’s dedication to empowering users with comprehensive tools and features that streamline design processes and elevate material handling solutions.
Partnership with Epic Games
Configura is also excited to announce an expanded partnership with Epic Games. This partnership will make Twinmotion the preferred fly-through tool, sunsetting Configura’s in-house solution, Movie Studio. Collaborating with Epic Games offers CET users first-class rendering and flythrough capabilities, elevating design projects to new heights.
As an authorized reseller, Configura offers a Twinmotion bundle for just $445 USD. This includes one year of the Twinmotion for CET Extension and one year of Twinmotion, offering a $100 USD savings. Users who already have a Twinmotion license can still enhance their CET experience with the Twinmotion for CET Extension available in the Configura Marketplace.
CAD Improvements
The 15.0 Major update also significantly improves CAD functionality to ensure a more stable and efficient experience when working with CAD files. These updates ensure users can work seamlessly with CAD files from different sources without a disrupted workflow caused by frequent bugs or performance issues.
The latest updates in CAD functionality include the option to import materials in the CAD Settings dialog, requiring materials to be locally available for import. Additionally, the Export CAD drawing dialog now offers the ability to export materials to DWG format, enabling the retention of CET materials for rendering within DWG drawings. Another new feature allows users to flatten 2D in the 3D view when importing CAD drawings, giving more control over the visualization. Lastly, users can now resize the CAD Settings dialog for improved readability, facilitating adjustments to window size and space distribution within the dialog.
Enhancements to Dimensions
Additional improvements to Dimensions empower users to create, measure and position objects with greater efficiency and precision. The new Quick Chain Dimensions and Quick Measure Mode tools make dimensioning faster and more intuitive.
The Quick Chain Dimensions tool lets users place chain dimensions faster and with fewer clicks. Once placed, Quick Chain Dimensions work with any type of object in CET from any Extension, and their properties and behavior are equivalent to those of the regular chain dimensions. With Quick Measure Mode, CET can automatically detect and measure distances, boosting design accuracy and speed.
COM Dialog Updates
In the design world, it’s common for users to have multiple unique Customer’s Own Materials (COMs) that are consistently used across various products within the same drawing. To simplify and standardize the time-consuming process of integrating COMs, Configura is releasing several updates to the COM dialog box in CET. By implementing these changes, Configura stays committed to streamlining its users’ design workflow, reducing the time spent on COM integration, and setting the stage for greater efficiency.
For more information on these exciting updates, explore Configura’s Roadmap, where users can discover upcoming projects, read full release notes and rate the importance of current ideas and projects.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.