Schneider Electric, the France-based controls company, and Dassault Systèmes, of Paris, have announced a business partnership to sell Delmia software—including a new line developed for the automation market—and to provide consulting and services for the automation and production engineering markets.

The partnership is structured around a new company called Dextus, fully owned by Schneider Electric, and software solutions from Delmia Corp., Troy, Mich., a Dassault Systèmes company.

The partnership will leverage the two companies respective strengths, the companies said in the announcement—Schneider Electric’s know-how in the industrial field and knowledge of the industrial market, and Dassault Systèmes expertise in software solutions for automation and production engineering.

A new product line from Dassault known as Delmia Automation is designed to enable companies to digitally define, control and monitor automated systems. With its Logic Control Modeler (LCM), Delmia Automation will provide a “digital and generative model” of the control logic of an entire automation system independent of the programmable logic controller (PLC) software. This is a first for the automation market, the companies said. Delmia Automation will also deliver PLC program validation entirely in a 3-dimensional, virtual environment.

Dextus will develop all the services required to implement a new approach for end users, line and machine builders, from production process definition to commissioning. The new company’s core business will focus on consulting around organization, project management, design process definition, information system definition and implementation.

Dextus and Delmia Corp. will extend existing Delmia product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions for production engineering activities, and Dextus will sell and provide services for both Delmia PLM and Delmia Automation. In addition, Dextus will become a Gold Software Partner in Dassault Systèmes’s CAA V5 software community Program in order to develop the integration of Delmia Automation products on PLCs.