Design Changes During 'Work in Progress' Phase Cited by CAD Survey as Roadblock to Product Schedules; Responses from Engineers Underscore Need for More Sophisticated Tools.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2004

While tremendous advances in CAD software have helped engineers accelerate product development schedules, significant technical obstacles remain during the highly iterative "work in progress" phase. New and emerging 3D design tools are needed to help engineers and product managers more quickly and efficiently understand a design, make design changes, and communicate design changes across a globally distributed product development team.

These opinions were reflected in survey responses from CAD and design engineers attending National Manufacturing Week's NDES Show where thousands of industry professionals gathered to meet with suppliers, view product demonstrations and have access to all of the latest products available. Conducted by ImpactXoft, the survey found that for many CAD engineers even moderate design changes are still taking a longer time than they should and that despite significant technology improvements over the past several years, 3D models remain very difficult to interpret.

Results highlights include (percentages are percent of respondents):

-- 52 percent stated it can still take weeks and months to make

extensive changes to a design

-- 72 percent had significant issues interpreting design changes

-- 70 percent had significant issues incorporating suggested

changes to their designs

-- 42 percent said that overlapping design changes continue to

hamper, and often delay, design efforts

"The engineers we surveyed are clear on this point - the tremendous pressure on manufacturers to continue cutting development time and costs is creating a demand for more advanced yet user-friendly and intuitive tools that enable engineers to make design changes with the click of a button and then communicate those changes as simply as sending an email," said Attilio Rimoldi, ImpactXoft's co-founder, president and CEO. "Once these tools are accepted throughout the design industry, the speed at which products are developed will increase dramatically."

CAD design tools that enable "order independence" - meaning that a user can create designs based on a behavior driven approach as opposed to the order dependant design tree model - exemplify the capabilities design engineers need to take product development to the next level of efficiency. Collaboration and communication problems are being addressed by new capabilities enabling design engineers to work in parallel on the same design and share and merge design changes with the simplicity of an email exchange.

For more detailed information about the survey, the survey results, and these emerging approaches for solving design problems for engineers, please visit http://www.impactxoft.com/NDES2004/survey.asp.

About ImpactXoft

ImpactXoft is a private, venture-funded software company providing a suite of products that enable Simultaneous Product Development. The IX SPeeD Suite for collaborative 3D design delivers a new way to manage engineering design changes that fosters innovation, accelerates the product development cycle, and reduces design costs. It is based on two key technologies unique to ImpactXoft: IX Instant Participation enables real-time or on-demand parallel product development, while IX Functional Modeling enables a flexible, behavior-driven design approach. ImpactXoft has formed strategic partnerships with Dassault Systemes and Toyota Caelum Inc. More information about ImpactXoft is available at www.impactxoft.com.

ImpactXoft, IX, IX SPeeD, IX Design, IX Functional Modeling, and Simultaneous Product Development are trademarks or registered trademarks of ImpactXoft. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.