TSA's Free HOOPS 3D Part Viewer for Granite Supports Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003

OpenHSF publishing and Real-time Collaboration among highlights in

Granite/HOOPS demonstration viewer

Tech Soft America (TSA), the leading provider of component graphics technology to the engineering software industry, today announced the latest release of the free HOOPS 3D Part Viewer for Granite(TM), which incorporates the latest HOOPS Technology from TSA and the latest version of the Granite interoperability kernel from PTC. The HOOPS 3D Part Viewer for Granite enables reading native parts and assemblies from Pro/ENGINEER(R) Wildfire(TM), the breakthrough version of PTC's industry-leading product design and development software.

The viewer was built using the Granite release 2.0 modeling kernel from PTC and the HOOPS 3D Application Framework v 8.0 (HOOPS/3DAF) from TSA. This viewer serves as a demonstration of the power of Granite and HOOPS based applications, and can be fully customized and extended using full API level access to both HOOPS and Granite as well as to easily reusable HOOPS 3D Part Viewer source code.

The HOOPS 3D Part Viewer allows users to view data from all Granite-based applications and to navigate their models and assemblies, collaborate with other users in real-time, as well as publish their CAD models to the Web using the popular HSF streaming format. HSF users can exchange visual models with the many other applications supporting the OpenHSF Initiative. www.openhsf.org.

The HOOPS 3D Part Viewer for Granite is intended for personal, non-commercial use by end-users and may be downloaded from www.hoops3d.com.

Major functionality includes:

-- Read, view and manipulate parts and assemblies from any Granite-based application, including Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, the latest breakthrough release of PTC's product design and development software

-- Publish Granite models to the HSF format for streamed Web viewing and for interchange with other applications supporting the OpenHSF Initiative

-- Save as HTML pages with HSF files and free HOOPS 3D Stream Control embedded for immediate web publishing

-- Navigate even the most complex assembly using HOOPS' level-of-detail, constant frame-rate and other large-model visualization capabilities

-- Engage in real-time collaboration with other users

-- Query the Granite model and perform distance calculations

-- Browse the topological hierarchy of the Granite file

-- Render models in shaded, triangulated, wireframe or hidden-line modes

"Beyond seeing this free viewer's value as a powerful demonstration of Granite and HOOPS, end users will be impressed with their ability to view, navigate, web publish and collaborate on Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire files. Given our long-standing technology partnership with PTC, their commitment to the OpenHSF Initiative and the excitement around the release of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, we're pleased to be the first Granite licensee to ship a native Pro/E Wildfire viewing solution that will, it is anticipated, be customized into a wide range of powerful commercial grade engineering software," affirmed Yanick Fluhmann, co-founder of TSA.

Brian Shepherd, senior vice president, MCAD Solutions & Technical Marketing, PTC added, "As a supporter of the OpenHSF Initiative, PTC is enabling users of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire and other Granite-based applications to easily publish their CAD models in the HSF format for reuse on the Web. We feel that it is important for the industry to have access to non-proprietary file formats so they can collaborate with others."

Granite is an interoperability platform based on the unmatched geometry, feature and data exchange capabilities at the core of Pro/ENGINEER, PTC's market leading mechanical computer-aided design software. HOOPS/3dAF provides a flexible development framework that enables the rapid development of high-performance design, visualization and engineering applications. The integration provides a bi-directional, associative bridge between the Granite parametric database and HOOPS graphics database. The linking of these two components allows Granite licensees to leverage the HOOPS technology to help them more rapidly deliver sophisticated applications.

Developers licensing the Granite release 2.0 kernel from PTC and HOOPS 3dAF from TSA will now also receive a source-code level version of the HOOPS 3D Part Viewer for Granite as a sample application to be used as the foundation for their own unique products. Developers wishing to license the Granite or HOOPS components for application development or commercial-use publishing of Granite data into HSF may contact PTC and TSA directly to arrange an evaluation.

About Tech Soft America

Tech Soft America (TSA) provides premier customer driven development tools, consulting and support services enabling their partners to rapidly deliver world-class technical software. TSA develops the HOOPS 3D Application Framework, HOOPS Stream Toolkit and HOOPS Net Server, all components designed to dramatically simplify the design, development and maintenance of high-performance, interactive 2D and 3D applications built for PCs, UNIX workstations, Linux and the Web.

HOOPS technology has been incorporated into over 150 commercial software applications, from such leaders as SolidWorks, PTC, Autodesk/CaiCE, MSC.Software, CADKEY, Fluent, and COADE.

The company maintains corporate headquarters in Oakland, California and can be reached at www.hoops3d.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, matters discussed in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in reports filed by PTC with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including PTC's most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q.

HOOPS is a registered trademark of Tech Soft. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. PTC, Pro/ENGINEER and Granite are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC.