Everything to Look Forward to in Actran 2026.1

Cadence has released Actran 2026.1, and this version adds more capabilities to two key areas: high-frequency radiosity modeling and turbomachinery duct acoustics. It also makes it noticeably easier to bring real-world measurement data into your simulations. Here's a look at the highlights.

Radiosity Gets Easier and More Powerful

Setting up a radiosity model traditionally meant manually building element sets in ActranVI. In 2026.1, that step is now automated, with element set size and angle thresholds optimized for convergence, while still leaving room for manual control. The radiosity solver now also supports multiple meshes across different topologies in a single radiosity analysis, allowing independent meshes to be combined without grid or element-numbering conflicts. For teams doing large-domain, high-frequency acoustic work, this translates directly into faster model builds.

Radiosity also gains two significant modeling capabilities. First, transmission effects: using transmission loss (TL) data assigned to a PANEL component, the solver can now account for acoustic energy that passes through surfaces, not just energy that reflects or is absorbed. That's a meaningful addition for automotive, aerospace, and shipbuilding applications, where sound transmission through panels and structures often drives the acoustic outcome. Second, radiosity sources can now be defined directly from structural vibration or acoustic intensity data, pulled from measurements or simulation, with user-supplied radiation-efficiency data feeding into accurate power injection. Together, these updates mean radiosity models can better reflect what's actually happening in physical systems.

Duct Acoustics: Now with Shear and Swirl

For aeroacoustics and turbomachinery teams, 2026.1 introduces modal extraction and injection with non-uniform mean flows, such as axial shear and swirl, across Actran TM, Actran DGM, and iTM modal matching. Both 2D axisymmetric and 3D annular/circular duct geometries are supported, with user-defined, CFD-fitted, or fully interpolated flow profiles. The payoff is more accurate mode refraction, smoother SPL predictions, and better robustness in the complex rotating-flow environments typical of aircraft engines, turbochargers, and industrial fans.

Measurement Data Gets Streamlined

A new experimental data conversion tool in ActranVI turns raw .csv measurement data, vibration or acoustic, into Actran-ready .nff and .plt files with no manual scripting required. This pairs well with the new accelerometer-based source type in the pass-by noise workflow manager, which maps accelerometer measurements onto automatically generated transfer functions across RPM-, speed-, and time-dependent formats.

Small Changes Mean Real Time Savings

A small change can translate into real time savings for acoustic simulation. The unified search bar on the ribbon now offers instant suggestions and bookmarkable favorites that reduce the learning curve for new users, and can help power users get more productivity out of Actran.

The Actran 2026.1 release is all about closing the gap between acoustic simulation and the real world with easier setup, real-world physics, and tighter data integration, all while shaving time off routine or less-frequently performed tasks.

To see all the updates in the Actran 2026.1 release, be sure to check out SimCompanion!