AUTODESK LAUNCHES INTEGRATED MECHANICAL CAD SOFTWARE SOLUTION FOR DESKTOP
MARKET

Autodesk Mechanical Desktop delivers sophisticated 2D and 3D design and
assembly capability

SAN RAFAEL, CA., Sept. 11, 1995 -- Autodesk today announced its most
aggressive push ever into the mechanical CAD market with the introduction
of the Autodesk Mechanical Desktop, a tightly integrated software
application that provides advanced 2D and 3D mechanical CAD functions on
desktop systems.

With a suggested retail price of $6,250, the Mechanical Desktop offers a
comprehensive solution for the mechanical engineer that is aggressively
priced with capabilities often only found in some high end systems. The
new software -- in combination with programs developed by a dozen
industry-leading partners in the most important mechanical market niches
-- will provide complete design-through-manufacturing solutions for
Autodesk customers.

The Mechanical Desktop contains integrated modules for parametric solid and
surface modeling, assembly modeling, and associative drafting, as well as
AutoCADR Release 13 and the Autodesk IGES translator. It provides
significant new and enhanced functions most requested by designers of
machines, electro-mechanical assemblies, common molded parts, and other
mechanical products.

The 12 partner companies -- all part of Autodesk's previously announced
Mechanical Applications Initiative (MAI) -- provided their input and
expertise throughout the development of the Mechanical Desktop and its
Application Programming Interface (API) to ensure the product meets the
needs of their most exacting customers. The MAI partners will deliver
fully integrated products under a common Autodesk user interface that will
offer users a complete solution from analysis through manufacturing. This
will allow users a choice of best-of- breed applications.

The Mechanical Desktop can be installed quickly from a single CD. All the
modules share a common interface with completely integrated menus. New
applications from MAI partners can have this same look and feel.

"The Autodesk Mechanical Desktop is a production ready tool for users who
want to do surface and solid modeling on the desktop," said Dominic
Gallello, vice president of Autodesk's Mechanical Market Group. "This
level of performance previously has been available only on
workstation-based software costing substantially more, so the Mechanical
Desktop takes advanced modeling techniques out of the realm of the
back-room specialist and onto the desktop."

Major new features and functions incorporated into the Autodesk Mechanical
Desktop suite include:

PARAMETRIC, FEATURE-BASED SOLID MODELING capability for easy creation and
revision of 2D and 3D designs, letting designers work like they think
instead of tediously reworking designs as parameters change. For example,
if a designer finds he/she has made the buttons on a cellular phone too
small, he/she can change one of them and the others will automatically be
adjusted to the new size, with correct spacing and distance from the
edge.

SOPHISTICATED SURFACING capability, using the latest NURBS-BASED GEOMETRY
to create, edit, join and analyze a wide variety of basic and advanced
surfaces. A NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) curve passes smoothly
through and between a given set of points. This capability is useful in
creating the free-form surfaces often required in mechanical design.

INTEGRATED SURFACES AND SOLIDS, which means, for example, that a user can
take a solid block and easily "cut" a sculpted surface through it to
create a particular shape, such as the free- form shape of a cellular
phone.

COMPREHENSIVE ASSEMBLY MODELING, the feature most requested by Autodesk
mechanical customers. This lets designers take separately modeled parts --
such as the battery pack, keypad and housing of a cellular phone -- and
combine them into assemblies to create complete product models. In
addition, the assembled parts can be separated into "exploded views" so
that users can easily see how and where the parts come together. Users
also can generate bills-of-material (BOM) on-screen.

ASSOCIATIVE BI-DIRECTIONAL DRAFTING, which means that when a part is
changed in a drawing, the related model will automatically update -- and
vice-versa

APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACES lets MAI partners develop applications
that communicate directly with the Mechanical Desktop without the need for
data translation.

DATA EXCHANGE, since the Mechanical Desktop supports several import/export
exchange interfaces (for example, IGES version 5.2, .STL, .DWG, DXF,
.SAT--ACIS version 1.6, 3DS, WMF, EPS, and BMP) users can share or send
data to other CAD/CAM applications or to the suite of third party
developer products within Autodesk's virtual corporate family.

WINDOWS-BASED tools for ease-of-use, including pull-down menus, icons, and
26 ON-LINE "CUE CARDS" to prompt users through common commands.

The Mechanical Desktop is compatible with other Autodesk offerings,
including WorkCenter for technical document and workflow management,
AutoVision Release 2 for advanced visualization and rendering, and
MaterialSpec, a database of more than 25,000 material types.

The $6,250 suggested retail price includes the new AutoCADR Designer 2.0
with assembly capability, new AutoSurfR3.0, AutoCAD Release 13, advanced
integration, and the IGES translator, which facilitates exchange of
information with other CAD systems. Customers who already have purchased
AutoCAD Release 13 may upgrade to the Mechanical Desktop for $2,750.
AutoCAD Release 13 customers who have purchased previous versions of
AutoCAD Designer or AutoSurf may upgrade to the Mechanical Desktop for a
limited-time promotional price of $495.

Shipments of the Mechanical Desktop will begin in late fourth-quarter 1995
or early first-quarter 1996, and will be followed by related announcements
from the MAI partners. The Mechanical Desktop will be delivered with a
multi-platform license which will include MS- DOS, and Microsoft's Windows
NT, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. The Mechanical Desktop will also be ported
to various UNIX platforms at a later date.

For more information on Autodesk, please call 415-507-5000, type GO ADESK
on CompuServeR, or log-in with a World Wide Web browser at
http://www.autodesk.com

Autodesk is the world's leading supplier of PC and UNIX-based design
software and PC multimedia tools. The company's 2D and 3D products and
data management tools are used in many industries for architectural
design, mechanical design, film-making, videography and geographic
information systems. The fourth largest PC software company in the world,
Autodesk has three million customers in 118 countries. Autodesk products
are sold through Autodesk Systems Centers, Dealers and Distributors
worldwide. CompuServe is a registered trademark of H & R Block. All other
brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective
holders. All prices are suggested retail prices.
 
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