GEOPAK Introduces New Civil Engineering Suite Software Increased Productivity through Enhancements to Project Management and Decision Making.

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 1997--GEOPAK Corporation, the leading provider of roadway design and engineering software, today announced the release of GEOPAK(R) Civil Engineering Suite software. Running on MicroStation(R) 95 from Bentley, the GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite handles every phase of the civil engineering workflow, conceptual studies through detail plans. In keeping with its attention to inter-discipline team design and standards consistency, GEOPAK brings two remarkable new technologies to the table in the Civil Engineering Suite: 3-Port Viewer and Project Manager.

Project Manager brings better control over projects with a sleek interface that organizes files across multiple platforms and tracks project history and settings. 3-Port Viewer provides real-time viewing in plan, profile, and cross section modes for fast, interactive decision making.

"3-Port Viewer is great for setting my proposed vertical alignment such that right-of-way impacts are minimized," says Frances Gallagher at HNTB Corporation in Atlanta. "I'm able to see the changes in limits of construction resulting from proposed grade changes and, therefore, see the likely effect on each property."

The Civil Engineering Suite is the flagship product in the GEOPAK 97 product line, also announced today. The Suite incorporates the widely used GEOPAK Road solution into a new package that includes new Bridge and Drainage modules, along with upgraded versions of the Survey Manager, Site, and Road modules. The Suite is used for complete design of roads, bridges, multi-level overpasses, rail corridors, transfer facility yards, and more.

"We began using GEOPAK Civil Design Suite two months ago for a roadway expansion project and the results have been fantastic," says Sean C. Marsden at Cobb Fendley in Houston. "We look forward to using GEOPAK on all Texas DOT projects."

New Drainage and Bridge Software

Exciting new module additions to the Suite are Drainage and Bridge software. "This is the first time I've ever told anyone that working on drainage is fun," says Chuck Lawson, a user in an engineering consulting firm located in St. Louis. "I've had several people looking over my shoulder in amazement."

-- Drainage closely mirrors conventional processes. It leverages existing civil engineering data and performs design and analysis of surface collection systems and subsequent conveyance systems. A drainage project may contain multiple drainage networks, each comprised of any number of topologically connected drainage areas, inlets, pipes, and ditches. Interactive dialogues and design visualization shorten the learning curve and let hydraulics designers create and manipulate elements of the system while simultaneously seeing the effects of changes.

-- Bridge supports analysis, design, and production of plans for complex multilevel exchange bridges and simple span bridges alike. Bridge creates 3D models in which the designer can place pre-cast concrete beams, steel I-beams, steel box girders, concrete segmental box girders, arbitrary sections, and piers and barriers of all types. Multiple bridge types can be included in the same .DGN design file from which finish grade elevations, beam seat elevations, and quantities can be computed.

Also included on the GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite are upgraded, enhanced modules.

-- Road: A comprehensive solution for the design and production of plans for a wide range of roadway projects

-- Site: A unique set of tools for site design projects, from digital terrain modeling to automated plan view quantities

-- Survey Manager: Tools that allow for formatting all forms of ASCII data and incorporating data into the design

New Enhancements in GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite

The new 3-Port Viewer makes GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite the only civil software that lets users simultaneously work in three separate yet synchronized files: plan, profile, and cross section. This makes fast work of correlating vertical and horizontal alignments, matching grades, analyzing slope stakes, resolving right-of-way encroachments, and more.

Project Manager offers an interface that resembles an organization chart to stratify and organize files to the user's preference, maintain project standards, and allow house preferences to be set for every dialogue used, for every project. A historical audit trail tracks project files, saves settings, and makes it easy to go back to a project or pass it on to other designers or consultants.

The Design and Computation Manager has been refined to give the user on-the-fly control of standardized settings for pay items such as pipes, traffic separators, barrier walls, sidewalks, gutters, pavement, and inlets. This handy system takes much of the human error out of plan production. Other boosts include GEOPAK digital terrain modeling (DTM). Always fast and comprehensive, GEOPAK has taken its DTM technology to the next level with dynamic, on- the-fly editing. Users can see contours shift in real time as they modify a triangle vertex.

Favored by consultants for its flexible licensing terms, GEOPAK products are sold by GEOPAK direct and the Bentley reseller channel. GEOPAK operates identically on DOS and Windows NT-based personal computers, HP Series 700, Sun SPARC, Silicon Graphics, and Intergraph Clipper Workstations. GEOPAK databases are binary compatible across all platforms.

About GEOPAK Corporation

A Bentley Strategic Affiliate, GEOPAK has been providing civil engineering software to the market since 1984. More than any other product on the market, GEOPAK is developed and supported by practicing civil engineers and land surveyors. GEOPAK is the market leader of roadway design and engineering software and the fastest growing civil engineering software provider, with revenue growth topping 40 percent in 1996. GEOPAK is headquartered in North Miami Beach, Florida.

GEOPAK can be reached

-- by telephone toll-free at 888-GEOPAK1 (888-436-7251)

-- by FAX at 305-948-6290

-- by email at [e-mail]

-- on the World Wide Web at http://www.geopak.com -0-

GEOPAK is a registered trademark of GEOPAK Corporation. MicroStation is a registered trademark and Bentley is a trademark of Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Cissell Consulting

Jackie Cissell, 205-536-2822

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