India, Aug. 12 -- Dassault Systemes believes much of the cost of developing a new product can now be shifted into software before a single physical component is built. Speaking at SYNC 2026, the company's first India-focused user conference held in Pune this week, Deepak NG, Managing Director, Dassault Systemes India, said a car or aircraft component that once required 700 to 800 physical prototypes before production can now be developed with fewer than ten.

That reduction, he said, is made possible through virtual twins, digital replicas of products, factories or processes that can be tested for material behaviour, crash performance and manufacturing defects before anything is manufactured.

The company, which has sold three-dimensional...