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What is Aras Labs?

Eli Donahue
What is Aras Labs?

Our Mission

Aras Labs is the Advanced Research & Development organization within Aras. Our charter is to push the envelope of what enterprise software can be. We lead by example, building innovative new apps and services to help shape the future of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

Why have an R&D team?

Aras Labs fills a unique niche between the Product Management, Pre-sales, and Development teams at Aras. Our partnerships with these teams enable us to rapidly prototype applications and services based on customer feedback. Because the team is not dedicated to a single product area, we are able to provide the Development team with prototypes spanning the entire spectrum of PLM. Development then leverages our work to build supported applications.

Our hybrid role also gives us the flexibility to interface with the broader Aras Community - Aras partners, customers, and open source users. We contribute to open source projects, provide resources, and exchange ideas with Aras users and developers.

Right, but what does Aras Labs do?

Aras Labs team members spend roughly 70-80% of their time on development activities such as:

  • Learning, researching, and recommending cutting edge technologies for future product development.
  • Architecting and developing prototypes for future applications and platform functionality.
  • Developing proof of concept (POC) projects that demonstrate the power and flexibility of the Aras Innovator platform.

The other 20-30% is spent working with the broader Aras Community. Examples of Aras Labs community engagement includes:

  • Authoring documentation and technical resources for the Aras Community on the Aras Labs blog, Aras Developer Forums, GitHub, and Twitter.
  • Managing the Aras Community Projects platform - whether by vetting community submissions, maintaining and contributing to existing projects, or creating new open-source projects.
  • Connecting with the Aras Community at events like ACE, Aras' annual conference series held in the US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan.

What are some of Aras Labs' projects?

Federation Services Prototype

The Aras PLM Platform already enables organizations to federate data between Aras Innovator and other systems, but we're striving to make it even easier with Aras Federation Services. The prototype explores how Aras can extend the platform to allow admins and developers to configure data integrations with other systems with less code. This is one of Aras Labs' research projects designed to help gather community feedback and jumpstart future product development. Check out the Demo Series webinar to learn more.

Alternate Method Editor

Aras Labs publishes a lot of community projects including sample code, applications, new features, and enhancements. One popular enhancement is the Alternate Method Editor. This free, open-source project brings the best parts of the Visual Studio Code editing experience to the Aras Innovator built-in method editor. One quick install and developers can take advantage of features like autocomplete, style themes, and side-by-side version comparison.

Visual Integration with MagicDraw

Systems engineers use software like MagicDraw to model assemblies and run simulations. Aras Labs collaborated with No Magic to create a visual integration between Aras Innovator and MagicDraw. The integration allows the user to import parts and system data into MagicDraw from Aras Innovator. The user can then run simulations in MagicDraw before exporting the system data and simulation results back to Aras. A custom graph helps the user visualize the changes made to the system in MagicDraw.

Where can I follow Aras Labs?

Aras Labs Blog

Find Aras Innovator technical tips and tricks from the team on the Aras Labs blog.

GitHub

Aras Labs publishes all our open-source Community Projects to the Aras Labs GitHub. This is the best place to check out our code.

Twitter

The Aras Labs Twitter feed is full of open-source projects, blog posts, helpful resources, and the occasional nerdy joke.

Aras Community Forums

The team moderates and contributes to discussions in the Aras Community Forums.

How do I join Aras Labs?

Still interested in a career that combines the best of enterprise software and a growing open-source community?

Apply for the Aras Labs Software Engineer openings in our Andover, MA, headquarters or our Munich office. If you want to know more about Aras Labs or Aras Corporation, reach out to us on Twitter or check out our work on GitHub.