Autodesk Puts the Cost Saving and Time-to-Market Benefits of Digital Prototyping within Reach of Mainstream Manufacturers

SYDNEY, Australia Feb. 26, 2008— Autodeskunveiled the latest versions of its industry-leading design software for manufacturing, enhancing the ability of manufacturers to implement the process of Digital Prototyping – giving them the ability to virtually design a complete product and simulate how it will work under real world conditions before it is built. With updates to Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Electrical, Autodesk AliasStudio, Autodesk Showcase and Autodesk Productstream software products unveiled at the company’s annual World Press Days event, users can further exploit Digital Prototyping by connecting the industrial design, engineering and manufacturing teams through the use of a single digital model. Digital Prototyping reduces a manufacturer’s reliance on physical prototypes, which in turn helps reduce cost and speeds time to market in highly competitive industries.

“Autodesk is changing the way companies think about their design processes, with workflows more efficient and effective than ever before,” said Rod Hunt, Sales Execution Manager Manufacturing Solutions Division, Autodesk. “With the release of our 2009 product line, we’re helping manufacturers address their business-critical issues such as innovation, support for larger designs, and working with other people’s data. By putting powerful Digital Prototyping technology within the reach of mainstream manufacturers, they can experience the future results of their work with analysis, simulation tools and detailed visualisation.”

Digital Prototyping Improves Manufacturers Competitive Strengths
International Data Corporation (IDC) analyst Gisela Wilson, Director of IDC’s Product, Project and Portfolio Management Solutions Program recently issued a report on the competitive advantage that Digital Prototyping provides in today’s manufacturing area. “Manufacturers are embracing Digital Prototyping as a way to stay ahead of market trends, such as the growing demand for superior styling of consumer goods and the need for accelerated time-to-market.” Wilson said, “Additionally, designers can try a larger number of design choices because designs can be executed much more rapidly than with physical prototypes.”

The report emphasised Autodesk’s strong competitive position within the Digital Prototyping marketplace, due to its comprehensive and ever-evolving product portfolio. “Autodesk is poised to become the clear leader in Digital Prototyping – from industrial design and high end visualisation through to manufacturing – with its broad product offering for new product design, development and data management,” said Wilson.

Inventor 2009: The Foundation of Digital Prototyping
Since its initial release in 1999, manufacturers in a variety of fields – from automotive and consumer products, to industrial equipment and machinery – have relied on Inventor software to streamline their workflows. As the foundation of Digital Prototyping, the products in the Inventor product family produce 3D models that validate the form, fit and function of a design before it is built. The Inventor 2009 product line makes enhancements to many of the core design tools within the Inventor product line, offering significant increases in productivity. New features include: 

• Enhanced Sheet Metal Design – Inventor 2009 simplifies the design of a large range of widely used sheet metal constructs by providing accurate digital prototypes that faithfully represent the asmanufactured part. 
• Enhanced Simulation – Numerous enhancements to the dynamic simulation environment make the tools more accessible and easier to use, allowing users to more efficiently validate their digital prototypes very early in the design process. 
• Native 64 Bit Support – Inventor 2009 ships with 32 bit and 64 bit implementations so users can take full advantage of newer 64 bit computers. Users can confidently approach even larger projects knowing that they will be able to work with very large part counts and not have to worry about the memory barrier of 32 bit systems. 
• Large Assembly Capacity – Using assembly substitutes, users have the advantages of lighter assemblies that still preserve accurate mass properties, including centre of gravity, assembly constraints and bill of materials data. 
• Interoperability – Native translators support direct data exchange between Autodesk Inventor and UGS, SolidWorks or Pro/ENGINEER by importing and exporting Parasolid, importing UG-NX, importing SolidWorks, importing and exporting Granite and importing Pro/E. 
• Self Draining Pipe Runs – Inventor Routed Systems Suite 2009 allows users to define tube and pipe styles to support the design of self draining lines. Users can also auto-route self draining lines by automatically generating hygienic pipe routes with the correct runoff to eliminate horizontal segments. 
• Enhanced Design Accelerators – Inventor 2009 reduces the learning curve associated with rapidly designing, analysing and creating commonly used machine components such as bolted connections, gears and shafts by using real-world attributes, such as speed, power and material properties. 
• Frame Generator – In Inventor 2009, users can publish their profiles to the Content Center for use in Frame Generator. A new Frame Shape Authoring tool has been developed to facilitate the publishing operations.

The Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping drives Triple Eight Race Engineering’s concept-tomanufacturing process—helping the company create, optimise and validate its winning car designs. Prior to production, engineers can use a digital prototype to simulate the dynamic behavior of a car’s numerous components throughout the full operating cycle. As a result, the team can accurately predict operating loads, avoid stress-related track failures, and optimise the performance of the vehicle —all done digitally, and cost effectively, during the engineering phases of development.

“Without Autodesk Inventor, the design of the car would have been impossible. Every component of the car is created, modeled, and analysed using the software. Inventor has enhanced our design creativity by allowing us to model conceptually and test different scenarios early in the development process. It has also enabled us to produce designs faster” said Peter Jamieson, Commercial Manager at Triple Eight.

Digital Prototyping Solutions for Every Stage of Design
Along with Inventor, Autodesk is releasing new versions of its Digital Prototyping (asean.autodesk.com/digitalprototyping ) applications, which extend and enhance the workflows of its customers, including: 

• AutoCAD Mechanical 2009 – AutoCAD Mechanical is the AutoCAD software for manufacturing, purpose-built to accelerate the mechanical design process with standards-based symbol libraries, engineering calculators and a mechanical-specific workflow created to significantly improve productivity for AutoCAD users in manufacturing. New features such as support for the international GOST drafting standard and instant access to a Favorites List of standard parts save countless hours of effort, allowing users to spend more time innovating and less time drafting. 
• AutoCAD Electrical 2009 – AutoCAD Electrical is the AutoCAD software for controls designers, purpose-built to design electrical controls systems quickly and accurately with automated tasks, comprehensive symbol libraries, and an electrical-specific workflow designed to dramatically increase productivity in controls engineering. The new release delivers the tools needed to develop designs faster and more accurately than ever before, including a Circuit Builder that allows users to dynamically generate circuits based upon functional requirements. 
• AliasStudio 2009 – The Autodesk AliasStudio product line provides a set of tools for the industrial design process, helping companies create superior designs in less time. It enables designers to work and capture their ideas digitally, from initial sketches to 3D concept models. From its unique integrated paint tools, to its enhanced modeling and reverse engineering capabilities, the AliasStudio products address the unique creative requirements of the entire industrial design workflow in product and transportation design. 
• Showcase 2009 – Autodesk Showcase software helps users create accurate, highly realistic representations from 3D CAD data, enabling informed decision making on digital prototypes. With updated ambient shadow features and an expanded library of realistic materials, this latest release of Showcase makes it easier than ever to present and review designs for important product decisions or presentations. Showcase gathers data from various 3D sources now including reading in data from Inventor. 
• Productstream 2009 – Autodesk Productstream securely stores and manages engineering design data and related documents. Powerful new search engine technology is incorporated into the latest release, along with a multi-site replication module which allows digital information to be shared easily between sites, thereby speeding up data search, increasing design reuse and collaboration.

Availability
Products are scheduled to be available starting March 25,2008. For details about new products please contact an Autodesk Authorised Reseller: asean.autodesk.com/resellerlookup Users of any of the AutoCAD 2009 family of products will also benefit from the availability of free Autodesk Design Review 2009 software, which allows team members to participate in the digital review process with tools to view, mark up and revise designs electronically.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, AliasStudio, Showcase, Productstream, Autodesk Inventor and Inventor are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. IDC, “Autodesk Acquires Three Visualisation Companies, Opening the Door for Broader Use of Digital Prototyping in Manufacturing” (September 2007)

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