Structural Research Debuts COSMOS/DesignSTAR; Design Analysis That Works With Nearly Every CAD Program.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 1999--Structural Research & Analysis Corp. (SRAC) Monday announced the release of COSMOS/DesignSTAR, a new Windows(R)-based design analysis program that communicates with, and can analyze geometry from, virtually every CAD program currently available.

COSMOS/DesignSTAR offers design analysis in a native Windows program powered by the Parasolid(R) and ACIS(R) modeling kernels, as well as a STEP AP203 translator for designs created with other modeling systems. It provides CAD model associativity through DMAC(R) integration.

Users of COSMOS/DesignSTAR work in a windows-based multiple document environment that makes it possible for them to analyze multiple designs simultaneously -- even designs from multiple CAD programs.

COSMOS/DesignSTAR's initial capabilities include:

-- Basic analysis bundle containing stress, displacement,

frequency, buckling, steady state and transient thermal analyses,

and optional assembly analysis

-- Advanced analysis bundles including nonlinear stress, dynamic

response, low frequency electromagnetics and fatigue capabilities

-- APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow

integration of complementary programs, user customization and VAR

additions

-- Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) with popular engineering

office programs such as Word, Excel, and MathCAD

-- Automatic transfer of motion loads from Dynamic

Designer/Motion and Working Model 3D

-- Results visualization with advanced Open GL graphics

-- Automatically prepared Web-enabled design reports in Text and

HTML, with embedded VRML and AVI visualization tools

-- Loads and boundary conditions applied to the geometry, not to

nodes or elements, allowing automatic bi-directional CAD model

update

-- Design Check Wizard to compare results against factor of

safety criteria

-- COSMOS/FFE(R) solvers that eliminate the need to defeature

designs in 90% of analyses, as well as new, fast direct solvers

Structural Research expects to release an early COSMOS/DesignSTAR update containing design optimization, automatic transitional meshing and linear contact/gap simulation in assembly analysis.

SRAC designed COSMOS/DesignSTAR as an open analysis system to enable easy linkage with complementary programs. "Users and their companies don't want to purchase numerous point solutions for capabilities such as motion simulation, PDF, injection molding and advanced analyses," said V.I. Weingarten, president and CEO of SRAC.

"By providing an open system that enables our partners to attach their programs to COSMOS/DesignSTAR," he said, "we can help users to save the cost of a series of totally new programs, as well as the time involved in having to learn to use their interfaces.

"With COSMOS/DesignSTAR, users will have the same CAD and design analysis they already know how to use, with new capabilities available in a familiar interface, and obtainable at a much more reasonable cost. And the open system approach provides many opportunities for users and value-added resellers who want to customize systems."

COSMOS/DesignSTAR will be shown at NDES in Chicago, from March 15-18, 1999, in the IronCAD, CADKEY and Ashlar booths.

Structural Research was founded in 1982 to design, develop and market design analysis software for the mechanical computer-aided engineering market. Since its inception, Structural Research has contributed innovations that have had a significant impact on the evolution of FEA.

SRAC offers interfaces to programs from Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), Parametric Technology Corp. (NASDAQ:PMTC), SolidWorks Corp., SDRC (NASDAQ: SDRC), Dassault Systemes (NASDAQ: DASTY), MacNeal Schwendler Corp. (NYSE:MNS), ANSYS Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), Unigraphics Solutions (NYSE:UGS), Mechanical Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ:MDII), Universal Analytics Inc., Bentley Systems Inc., Working Model Inc., think3, and MICROCADAM Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CADAM Systems Co.

Structural Research markets its products worldwide, and has headquarters at 12121 Wilshire Blvd., 7th Floor, Los Angeles, Calif. 90025. Its website address is: www.cosmosm.com.

NOTE: COSMOS/M and FFE are registered trademarks and COSMOS/Edge is a trademark of Structural Research & Analysis Corp. All other product names are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.