Cosworth designs road car engine in full 3D solid using CATIA, CAD/CAM/CAE software and reduces the lead-time from 10 to 6 1/2 months.

SURESNES, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 1997--IBM and Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq : DASTY) announced today that their CATIA Solutions have been selected and implemented by the engine design consultancy Cosworth Engineering.

In January 1996, Cosworth was chosen by a major automotive manufacturer to design and manufacture a new engine for their latest road car. The challenge for this new engine project was to reduce the lead-time for complete prototype engine design and manufacturing from 10 to 6 1/2 months.

Up to this point Cosworth had been working with a mixed CAD solution. After a two month evaluation period of the CATIA solid modelling functions, Cosworth opted for CATIA Solutions Version 4 Release 1.5 installed on Silicon Graphics workstations.

The engine design team received CATIA education over a three week period and immediately started working in concurrent engineering.

For the new project, all parts, including the cylinder head and engine block, were designed using CATIA 3D solid modelling. In addition, CATIA was used to generate the drawings for tooling manufacture.

Darren Cairns, Powertrain Design Manager at Cosworth, explains, "We have traditionally designed our engines using the wireframe, surfacing and drawing functions of our previous CAD systems. Using CATIA 3D is a quantum leap. The CATIA Part Editor has proven to be a powerful tool in organizing the design stages. During the early trials in the concept phase, engineers often do not know how the solid organization will look. The part editor helps us to very easily reorganize our parts prior to detailed design."

Darren continued, "CATIA also provides us with tools for quick analysis and very efficient packaging studies."

The integrated CATIA Finite Element product now enables designers to mesh CATIA Solid models for applications with dedicated finite element analysis and fluid dynamic analysis packages very early in the process, thus reducing design iterations.

Using CATIA digital mock-up concepts and products, the engineer responsible for packaging studies is able to easily test the fitting of different components and their integration into the engine bay.

According to Darren, "CATIA was the right choice to get the engine prototype running on the test bed within the desired 6 1/2 month lead-time."

Further progress is expected by using 3D definition for tooling design and manufacture.

Cosworth commenced a second major road engine design project using CATIA in January 1997, upgrading to CATIA Solutions Version 4 Release 1.7 and doubling their installation of CATIA workstations.

CATIA-CADAM Solutions Version 4 provides unique Solutions for integrated product and processes development and teamwork optimization. It includes an evolutionary architecture which enables customer growth and leading-edge applications for task optimization. CATIA(a) and CADAM(b) are developed by Dassault Systemes and marketed and supported worldwide by IBM. These solutions are leaders in the CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM marketplace with more than 9,000 customers. Many of the world s largest manufacturers as well as smaller companies with as few as one or two seats, are gaining a competitive advantage and achieving design excellence with these systems.

Cosworth Engineering has a team of over 140 people who specialize in the design and development of road engines for many of the world s major automotive manufacturers. The Cosworth group of companies employ over 1,300 people and are part of the industrial group Vickers. -0- (a) CATIA is a registered trademark of Dassault Systemes S.A. (b) CADAM is a registered trademark of Dassault Systemes of America Corp. (c) CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM: Computer-Aided Design, Computer-Aided

Manufacturing, Computer-Aided Engineering, Product Data Management.

CONTACT: Cosworth Press contact:

Darren Cairns

Tel : + 44 1 604 732100

Fax: + 44 1604 732101

or

Press Contact:

Dassault Systemes

Martine Vesco

Tel. : [phone]

[e-mail]

or

Morgen-Walke Associates, Inc.

Brian Maddox

Tel: [phone]

or

Investor Contacts:

Dassault Systemes

Morgen-Walke Associates, Inc.

Michele Katz/ Jessica Davis

Tel: [phone]

or

Morgen-Walke Europe S.A.

Nancy Teitelbaum/Caroline Bruel

Tel : [phone]