Today’s engineering simulation software such as Finite Element Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, and Multi-Body Simulation, provide a huge range of capabilities for users of these technologies. Even so, the vendors of this software continue to devote substantial resources to the development of new capabilities and the improvement of existing capabilities.

In 2010 NAFEMS launched the Vendor Advisory Board (VAB) which was designed to give providers of engineering analysis software a channel to deliver input on NAFEMS activities. The Vendor Advisory board initiated a capability survey in 2013 and the results of the survey were documented in a report titled "The NAFEMS Simulation Capability Survey 2013", Report reference R0113. The Survey was conducted to provide insight into the use of simulation capabilities. Specifically the survey was designed to determine which capabilities:

• were being most used,
  
• had the greatest (and least)impact,
  
• were most in need of improvement,and
  
• were more likely to increase in usage in the future.

The survey, with some minor modifications was repeated during 2015. There were over 600 meaningful responses. Further details of the number and nature of the respondents can be found in Appendix 1.

The results of the survey are presented as a set of bar charts.Results are presented for the data set and also for a subset of respondents who are experienced in the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics capabilities. This subset consisted of 156 respondents. See Appendix 1 for further details of the nature of the respondents in this subset. The bar charts related to this subset have CFD at the beginning of the title of the bar chart.

A summary of the results of the results is presented in section 9 and a brief comparison with the results of the survey conducted in 2013 is found in section 10.

During 2015 the role of membership of the Vendor Advisory Board was reviewed leading to the launch of the NAFEMS Vendor Network at the 2015 NAFEMS World Congress in San Diego. The primary role of the Vendor Network is to provide a communication channel that keep our NAFEMS vendor members fully informed of the activities and initiative that affect them. The vendor network provides a direct link to key NAFEMS staff and allows members  to contact other vendor membors in a non-competitive forum.

The only requirementson joining the NAFEMS  Vendor Network is that you are affiliated with an organisation that is a NAFEMS member and are currently engaged in the creation, support or sale of tools used for engineering analysis and simul;ation. There is no limitation on the number of individuals from a single organisation who can join the network. more information on the Vendor Network is available at nafems.org/about/vendor_network and contact the NAFEMS technical officer if you are interested in joining the network nafems.org/contact.