Press Releases

The DiSTI Corporation, a leading provider of graphical user interface development software and solutions to the aerospace industry, announces the selection of its GL Studio® software by California-based Scaled Composites, LLC after a competitive evaluation of HMI development tools.|

The company chose GL Studio® for its unique ability to support prototyping, training, and the embedded target within a single HMI toolkit. The specialty aerospace and composites development company will use GL Studio’s HMI software tools for research and development projects and within programs focused on HMI display prototyping.

“GL Studio was a key success factor in our avionics development program for our rocket planes,” said Bob Withrow, Vice President of Scaled Composites. Scaled Composites has experience using GL Studio to layout and design avionics displays, improving the display of information with GL Studio generated code to create more capable HMI’s supporting complex flight tests.

Building on this experience, Scaled Composites is looking forward to developing more refined tools for use during flight tests: enabling high accuracy vehicle maneuvering, responsive indicators, and updating current aircraft systems with simpler and easier to maintain solutions via GL Studio®. With a portfolio of unique one-off aircraft, each of Scaled Composites’ vehicles contain a custom avionics solution – GL Studio® will provide the ease and flexibility to develop custom configurations and flight test data for future work.

Scaled Composites will leverage the flexibility and ease of use of GL Studio® to build HMI displays specialized for the unique needs of this industry. Unlike typical avionics displays, spaceflight platforms must be ruggedized and built to endure the extreme conditions in space between radiation and temperature fluctuations. The ability to address the complete lifecycle needs, from prototyping to production, showcases the unique reusability and efficiency offered by GL Studio® development software.

“It’s great to see Scaled Composites once again taking full advantage of GL Studio’s time-saving and innovative development benefits,” said Christopher Giordano, Vice President of UX/UI Technology at The DiSTI Corporation. “Their first GL Studio project, building prototype displays for the follow on to SpaceShipOne took a fraction of the time. The ability to get to market faster saves time and money, which is critical for these complex flight test endeavors.”

As the world’s leading provider of HMI development solutions, GL Studio® is utilized for a wide array of space programs, including simulation and training, rapid prototyping, spacecraft avionics, next-generation spacesuits, and ground telemetry stations.

Visit our space solutions page to discover why DiSTI is a trusted solutions provider for companies specializing in space and beyond. To learn more about our safety-critical expertise and the cutting-edge HMI software developed by The DiSTI Corporation, please contact sales@disti.com.

The DiSTI Corporation unveiled a new corporate logo, reflecting its software expertise and its defined strategy focused on the global future of simulation and training. DiSTI’s new look and feel represent the brand’s commitment to innovation and the company’s role and purpose of developing innovative software solutions for training and production across a wide range of markets.

“DiSTI has transformed dramatically over the past few years, and we have increased business significantly during that time,” explained Dawn Haulter, DiSTI’s Global Brand Director. “DiSTI is a trusted source for software and solutions worldwide. Our brand must reflect and promote our company and the tremendous value we bring. As our company grows, the perception of our brand must evolve at a similar pace.”

As the foremost representation of the company, people, and brand, the new logo is playful, optimistic, and intelligent. The new logo design works effortlessly across digital and physical channels, drawing inspiration from the cursor utilized by software programs. The forms come together subtly to create a ‘D’ letterform from the cursor’s negative space, signifying the company’s software and solution business.

“DiSTI has successfully diversified and scaled its software offerings while broadening our global footprint across six continents,” said John Hayward, CEO of The DiSTI Corporation. “Along with our new website, this updated brand identity better reflects our market-leading position. Demonstrating the comprehensive lifecycle of services, we bring to our clients across the globe.”

Visit our Media & Press Kit page to view DiSTI’s latest style guide, new logo, and variations. To learn more about software and solutions developed by The DiSTI Corporation, please contact sales@disti.com.

Virtual training solution developer, The DiSTI Corporation, along with pilot training innovators, Visionary Training Resources (VTR), have entered into a partnership to develop virtual reality (VR) pilot training for the 737 and A320 aircraft.

Recent research by one of the United States’ leading four-year flight training degree programs estimates that the U.S. has a shortage of at least 3,500 commercial pilots, annually. That number is estimated to grow as approximately 5,000 pilots accepted early retirement offers from mainline U.S. carriers during the COVID pandemic.

“VTR chose to partner with DiSTI because they have a proven record of success,” commented Rick Parker, VTR’s Co-Founder and CTO. “With DiSTI’s VE Studio we get a superior software platform and a collaborative partner that can help us solve the inevitable challenges that come with using cutting edge technology. This will allow us to deliver cost-effective virtual airline pilot training solutions that meet the complex and customized requirements of commercial airlines.”

Focusing on the popular Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 aircraft, DiSTI and VTR are working to optimize the time pilots spend in training, while simultaneously delivering lower costs compared to traditional airline training methods alone.

This VR-focused solution creates a detailed digital twin of each of the aircrafts’ flight decks, allowing pilots to interact with switches, dials, and levers to build muscle memory before entering more costly simulator training. Additionally, the solution is entirely portable, deploying on mobile VR headsets like the Pico NEO Pro Eye.

In addition to the tracking of all virtual interactions, this solution utilizes the eye-tracking technology provided by the VR headset to track visual inspection tasks performed by the student automatically. With the ability to integrate into any learning management system (LMS) via DiSTI’s Schoolhouse software, students can train from anywhere while having their results recorded and achievements tracked for future review at their respective training entities.

“The combination of immersion, spatially accurate movements, eye tracking, and portability make this solution ideal for procedure training,” explains Chris Van Duyne, DiSTI’s Chief Engineer. “And because the students can train on their own, they can practice as much as they need, so pilots are optimally prepared when they show up to the full flight simulator.”

In its Safety Briefing, the FAA highlighted that the shortage of pilots demands more accessible means for training. The partnership between DiSTI and VTR aims to reduce the unpredictability and costs for airlines by providing highly standardized pilot training and better preparing pilots for simulator training.

Visit our Aviation solutions market page to learn more about DiSTI’s extensive experience building custom solutions for this industry. To learn more about The DiSTI Corporation’s virtual training development and solutions, please contact sales@disti.com.

The DiSTI Corporation and RRC Technology and Innovation (formally RRC Robotica Submarina) have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop, promote, and facilitate Advanced Virtual Maintenance and Training applications to the Oil and Gas Subsea market.

The agreement formalizes a collaboration of both parties spanning back to the first remotely-operated-vehicle (ROV) virtual maintenance training system (VMT) built together over ten years ago.

José Ramos Duarte Junior, Co-Founder, and Director of Technology & Innovation had the following to say about the agreement: “Virtual training and maintenance technology is critical to the Oil and Gas industry’s continued growth within Brazil. This partnership will help train highly skilled personnel faster while lowering training and operational costs. Additionally, carbon footprint reduction is made possible through remote learning/training options aligning with our commitment to the environment.”

Virtual Reality (VR) technology is well-suited for the offshore oil and gas industry, particularly for the virtual maintenance of ROVs and other complex equipment related to the industry. Remotely operated vehicles facilitate the development of oil and gas resources in deeper water. By enabling access to areas that divers could not safely reach, they extended capabilities for handling more complex situations and operations in deeper water.

The partnership between DiSTI and RRC will continue to develop realistic simulations that allow a trainee to make mistakes, sometimes of the life-threatening variety, and experience the outcomes with no serious repercussions. Virtual training solutions can log metrics on the accuracy, time, errors, and completion percentage with the software during training reviewed with the training managers. This approach allows users and trainers to establish pass/fail criteria more accurately. Furthermore, these technologies allow companies to track and trend retention rates performance and identify gaps in the training program.

“We have had the privilege of working with RRC since 2011. We are honored to form a tighter alliance to bring DiSTI’s Virtual Training expertise to the Oil and Gas Subsea markets,” stated John Hayward, CEO of DiSTI.

Virtual training solutions allow companies to address the growing knowledge gap in the Oil and Gas, and Subsea industry. Leveraging new technology will help attract top talent, lower costs improve safety and efficiencies while further growing market share.

Visit our Power & Energy market page to learn more about DiSTI’s extensive experience building custom solutions for this industry. If you’d like to explore your own virtual maintenance training solutions, contact us at sales@disti.com.

A new major revision of The DiSTI Corporation’s HMI development tool, GL Studio, has just been released. This latest update of the popular software tool adds MacOS support, editor internationalization, interactive tutorials, and automatic texture atlasing, amongst other new features.

“For over 22 years, GL Studio has been the HMI software development tool of choice for leading organizations across the globe. This latest release is a reflection of feature requests made by customers as well as DISTI’s own commitment to innovation,” said John Hayward, CEO. “This new version of GL Studio not only helps users future-proof their HMI content but also empowers them with a wide array of cutting-edge features.”

Current users of GL Studio will find that this latest iteration’s editor is now a 64-bit application on Windows. This allows GL Studio projects to bypass the 3GB memory limit of 32-bit applications. Additionally, automatic texture atlasing improves the performance of GL Studio applications on embedded devices.

GL Studio 8.0 now offers MacOS support, allowing the use of the editor on a platform preferred by UX designers and technical artists. Available on MacOS 10.14 or higher, and both Intel x64 and Apple Silicon (M1) Mac users can now easily wield DiSTI’s award-winning GL Studio editor, desktop, ES, and Safety-Critical code generators.

The new Editor Internationalization features provide full Unicode support throughout the GL Studio editor, allowing for Unicode identifier names, property names, geometry names, file names, and file paths. This Internationalization support improves support for non-English languages in the editor as well. Non-English users can write code, comments, property names, design files, and object names in their native language.

With the new Automatic Texture Atlasing, texture files are automatically combined into atlases at generation time. This feature improves performance by reducing memory usage and overhead from switching between many individual texture files.

Easier onboarding through step-by-step tutorials driven entirely in the editor is now made possible through GL Studio 8.0’s Interactive Tutorials. The revised tutorial highlights key items in the editor necessary to complete each step, validating the completion of each step before moving forward.

“The new GL Studio 8.0 features allow more ways to incorporate existing inputs and assets, train your team, and seamlessly generate applications on your target,” said GL Studio Engineering Manager Linda Flannery.

Along with these new features, many improvements to the HMI software tool are now present in GL Studio 8.0. Some of these improvements to existing features are:

• Code Browser now allows for multiple selections
• Raspberry Pi 4 support added to RaspberryPiDeployment package
• RaspberryPiDeployment now supports multitouch
• FlexNet Embedded stability improvements
• Linker fix for GlsRSOLoader on 64-bit Linux.

Customers under current maintenance and support contracts for GL Studio can log into DiSTI’s customer support portal to download the latest version. For more information on GL Studio, contact us at sales@disti.com.

To learn more about DiSTI’s award-winning HMI software development tool please visit our GL Studio page.

DiSTI has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2021 honor by Orlando Sentinel Media Group.

The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

“During this very challenging time, Top Workplaces has proven to be a beacon of light for organizations, as well as a sign of resiliency and strong business performance,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “When you give your employees a voice, you come together to navigate challenges and shape your path forward. Top Workplaces draw on real-time insights into what works best for their organization, so they can make informed decisions that have a positive impact on their people and their business.”

“It means a great deal to a company when it is recognized for being one of the top places to work,” states DiSTI CEO John Hayward. “This award is made all the more special because it is based on feedback from our own employees. We work hard to foster the best environment possible for our team, and we will continue listening to our employees to make it even better.”

To learn more about opportunities to work at DiSTI please visit our Career page.