Autodesk Inventor Users Access Algor's Full Range of FEA and Mechanical Event Simulation Within CAD.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 2000

Algor, Inc., a leading maker of software for mechanical engineers, today announced expansion of its InCAD family of products to include Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk, Inc.'s adaptive design software.

Algor's InCAD family of products enables engineers to capture solid model data seamlessly and work within popular CAD solid modelers. Providing access to the InCAD interface through the Autodesk Inventor menu connects users to Algor's entire range of modeling, finite element analysis and Mechanical Event Simulation software.

Even if Algor and Autodesk Inventor are installed on different computers, Algor's InCAD family of products is immune to problems with translation of universal files. Through Direct Memory Image Transfer, Algor can capture mathematically perfect model descriptions that recreate the CAD solid model for finite element meshing and analysis.

"The InCAD software products provide engineers with the tools to perform a vast array of analyses easily and quickly while working within Autodesk Inventor," said Michael L. Bussler, president of Pittsburgh-based Algor. "This upcoming release continues our commitment to providing CAD interoperability tools to any of our customers looking for direct, seamless geometry capture."

"InCAD technology will enable engineers using our feature-based, solid-modeling and drawing-production system to apply Algor's unique FEA functionality to their Autodesk Inventor models," said Robert Kross, vice president of the mechanical market group at Autodesk.

Algor's InCAD products include a feature suppression utility within CAD, which engineers can use to easily eliminate any CAD solid model details that are unnecessary to include in the FEA analysis. That way, fewer elements are included in the FEA model, since only the areas of interest are captured, and less time is needed for the analysis.

The new Algor interface working within Autodesk Inventor will provide designers using Autodesk Inventor with direct access to full-featured FEA capabilities ranging from Mechanical Event Simulation to linear static stress, and multiphysics, which includes heat transfer, fluid flow and dynamic stress. Autodesk Inventor users also will be able to use Superdraw III, Algor's automated modeling and precision finite element model-building tool, and a variety of mesh refinement tools.

Once in Algor, engineers have access to Superdraw III. There they are able to manually or automatically generate and refine the surface mesh, solid mesh or prepare the model for analysis by combining more than one element type. Algor's Merlin Meshing Technology, a fully automatic surface mesh enhancement tool, is built-in for enhancing the surface mesh of the solid model prior to solid FEA meshing.

Algor's InCAD family of products consists of InCAD DesignPak and InCADPlus. For just $975, InCAD DesignPak (www.feaincad.com) comes with a solid tetrahedral mesh engine for faster solid meshes, enhanced plate/shell modeling, linear static stress analysis, a fast solver and an HTML Report Wizard. Engineers can add additional engineering capabilities to InCAD DesignPak for linear dynamic stress, heat transfer, electrostatic, piping design and analysis and Dynamic Design Analysis Method.

InCADPlus provides solid brick meshing, a wider range of element types and analysis add-ons. Both InCAD packages come with midplane meshing. Midplane meshing converts thin, solid features into plate/shell elements, making it easier for engineers to take advantage of the processing speed associated with fewer elements. The engineer simply specifies a thickness. Any plate-like regions of the model or assembly thinner than that thickness are converted automatically to plate/shell elements. The generated plate/shell elements are assigned an appropriate thickness and are placed at the midplane of the solid regions they replace.

Further information about InCAD for Autodesk Inventor is available through Algor account representatives and the company's Web sites, www.algor.com or www.feaincad.com.

Algor has been a leader in the engineering software industry since introducing FEA for PCs in 1984 and interfacing with CAD systems in 1985. The company provides innovative, affordable and easy-to-use software products that have enabled 20,000 engineers in 60 countries to create safe, efficient, cost-effective designs. Algor also offers superior educational support and customer service that includes the use of state-of-the-art Internet audio/video technology for "Web Courses," which provide step-by-step software instruction, and free public "Webcasts" in live demonstration format.

Algor's product line features FEA-based Accupak/VE Mechanical Event Simulation software. Accupak/VE reduces the need for physical prototyping and eliminates the need to input dynamic loads by determining the motion, flexing and resulting stresses of a part or assembly at each instant of an event. Algor's proprietary kinematic element technology makes performing Mechanical Event Simulations using CAD solid parts and assemblies practical for realistic, accurate results. Engineers can use Algor's InCADPlus and InCAD DesignPak products to seamlessly capture exact CAD geometry from popular CAD systems within Algor. The company also offers linear stress, vibration, heat transfer, electrostatic, fluid flow, composite materials and piping systems analysis tools. Algor's software interchanges data with products from ANSYS, Inc. (Nasdaq:ANSS), Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADSK), CADKEY Corporation, MSC.Software Corporation (NYSE:MNS), Parametric Technology Corporation, Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, Unigraphics Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:UGS), SolidWorks Corporation, a Dassault Systemes S.A. (Nasdaq:DASTY) company, and others.