PLM software editors propose to the manufacturing industries (automotive, aerospace…) a set of tools to simulate the product and the manufacturing processes thanks to numerical models. One of these tools is the simulation of the part assembly or disassembly to validate the final assembly process or the maintainability of a complex product like an automobile or an aircraft. The commercial product, KineoWorks, developed by Kineo C.A.M. is able to automatically generate a collision free motion of a rigid part simulating its assembly (or disassembly) inside the digital mockup. This product is integrated in widely used CAD software like CATIA, DELMIA from Dassault Systèmes and NX, Vizmockup or Process Simulate from Siemens PLM Software. However, the algorithm cannot simulate the flexibility of the components in the digital mockup such as cables. They need to be removed from the study or considered as rigid. Thus, the simulation is not complete due to this lack of realism. Such a flexible component simulation nevertheless begins to be available on the market. In particular, CEA-LIST develops the XDE physics engine that is able to simulate cable deformation in a digital mockup with real time interaction. The project Flecto proposes to bring these two technologies together: path planning and flexible simulation. The goal is to develop an easy-to-use software component that automatically computes collision free extraction path of flexible components in a flexible assembly. We will focus our objectives on the end-user requirements so that the customer-installed base will provide real case scenarios. Moreover, we will integrate the results into an addon of CATIA to facilitate the testing and the validation by the industrial end-users. The project objectives perfectly fit with several thematic axes of the “Modèles Numériques” ANR program. The primary axis is axis 2, Design and Optimization because the result will be integrated in CAD/CAM tools to help the industries to check the assembly process and to optimize the product maintainability. The axis 1, Complex Systems Simulation and Modeling is the secondary axis because of the flexible models complexity. The project also matches with the axes 4 and 5. The consortium is made of the Kineo C.A.M. Company and the laboratories CEA-LIST and LAAS-CNRS. Kineo C.A.M. is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) SME recognized as the international leader in industrial software solution for path planning and collision detection with more than 150 customers in 20 countries. The company will coordinate the project; it will gather the end-user requirements and it will exploit the final product. CEA-LIST is one of the best laboratories in interactive simulation and virtual reality. It will bring to the project its knowledge in flexible simulation with its XDE physics engine. Finally, the project will benefit from decades of LAAS-CNRS experience in motion planning algorithms. We will gather the end-user requirements and real usecase dataset. From this input, we will adapt the physics engine to match the path planning needs in term of performance and available data. In parallel, we will enhance the path planning algorithm to take into account additional degrees of freedom due to the flexibility of the component. Finally, we will integrate the algorithms into CAD software like CATIA V5 and we will propose to the end-user to test and to validate the solution. Kineo C.A.M. will exploit the result of the project thanks to a planned consortium agreement with integration in its product portfolio. The commercial solution will be proposed to its existing and future customers. The project has thus five main tasks: project management, flexible models, collision detection, path planning and solution deployment. The project is 36 months long. It represents 122 person.months for a total budget of 1310.4 K€ and we apply for a ANR grant of 609.6 K€.