New NASTRAN Product Offers Extensive CAD Support and Easy-to-Use Interface.

Business Editors

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 2003

ALGOR, Inc., a leading maker of software for mechanical engineers, announced an initiative to offer a new NASTRAN computer-aided engineering (CAE) solution that provides extensive CAD support, finite element modeling, hybrid solid FEA meshing, results evaluation and presentation capabilities and complementary analysis tools. Companies that use NASTRAN can seamlessly upgrade to this new solution and incorporate ALGOR's full range of simulation tools, including Mechanical Event Simulation for combined motion and stress analysis.

"In the first quarter of 2003, new partnerships will enable us to offer a new NASTRAN CAE solution within our FEMPRO user interface," said ALGOR product manager, Bob Williams. "This new and easy-to-use NASTRAN solution with full CAD support will broaden opportunities for both ALGOR as a supplier and the worldwide NASTRAN user community that will now have a broader range of affordable modeling and analysis options. In keeping with our customer-driven product development tradition, we are working with aerospace and automotive companies to ensure that this solution can be easily implemented to increase the efficiency and productivity of their work with NASTRAN."

ALGOR's FEMPRO, a complete and easy-to-use single user interface with full finite element modeling, results evaluation and presentation capabilities, offers complete data exchange with third-party software that reads and writes data in the NASTRAN format. This solution processes input data and generates binary output files that are entirely NASTRAN compatible. "By offering data exchange with the industry-standard NASTRAN file format, FEMPRO fits seamlessly into the existing product development process and infrastructure of NASTRAN-dependent companies," said Williams.

FEMPRO provides the following features to NASTRAN users:

-- InCAD technology for direct CAD/CAE data exchange with Autodesk Inventor, CADKEY, Mechanical Desktop, Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge and SolidWorks and CAD support for Alibre Design and Rhinoceros or universal files such as ACIS, IGES and STEP

-- built-in precision FEA model-building capabilities with structured meshing tools and automatic, unstructured hybrid solid meshing with automatic mesh refinement

-- extensibility to ALGOR's full range of simulation capabilities including static stress analysis with linear and nonlinear material models, Mechanical Event Simulation with linear and nonlinear material models, linear dynamic analysis, steady-state and transient heat transfer analysis, steady and unsteady fluid flow analysis with turbulence, electrostatic analysis, full multiphysics and piping.

-- docking toolbars, multiple view windows, a tree view of model parts and associated data, Windows-native data input screens with real-time data checking for reasonable input and right-click functionality for applying, modifying and deleting loads, constraints and FEA properties

-- a built-in graphics environment that features fast dynamic viewing controls and customization options including user-defined color palettes, annotations and options so that all analysis results can be displayed graphically as contours or plots, output as images, animated and presented in text or HTML reports

ALGOR's NASTRAN solution will be available for PC workstations running Windows 98/2000/NT/Me/XP.

ALGOR makes computer software and provides services for mechanical and civil engineers. The company serves over 20,000 engineers in over 60 countries in organizations such as DuPont, General Motors, Goodyear, Hewlett-Packard, NASA, Naval Surface Warfare Center and Yale University. Partnerships with other leading mechanical engineering software companies offer data interchange with products from ANSYS, Inc. (Nasdaq:ANSS); Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADSK); CADKEY Corporation; MSC.Software Corporation (NYSE:MNS); Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC); Robert McNeel & Associates; Structural Dynamics Research Corporation; Solid Edge, EDS-PLM Solutions (NYSE:EDS); SolidWorks Corporation, a Dassault Systemes S.A. (Nasdaq:DASTY) company; and others. Educational support and customer service include the use of Internet audio/video technology for distance learning and free, live software demonstrations.