Tech Soft America Announces FREE Personal Use License for the HOOPS 3D Application Framework on LINUX.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2000

FREE 3D Graphics Framework, Enabling Rapid Development

of Commercial-grade Applications, Will be On Display

At Linux World Expo, Booth No. 673

Tech Soft America (TSA), developers of the widely-used HOOPS(TM) 3D Application Framework (HOOPS/3dAF), today announced an aggressive program to promote the development of advanced 3D desktop and web-based applications for the rapidly growing Linux platform.

In partnership with Troll Tech and their popular Qt(TM) GUI Software Toolkit, Tech Soft will be demonstrating this framework, based on both the HOOPS and Qt products at Linux World Expo, February 1-4, 2000 in New York City at booth No. 673. HOOPS and a HOOPS-based CFD application will also be on display at the Hewlett-Packard booth No. 655.

This &uot;Free 3D for Linux&uot; program is designed to promote the development of advanced 3D applications on Linux, and the royalty-free proliferation of non-commercial applications. Commercial applications based on the HOOPS framework, as well as applications ported and distributed on platforms other than Linux will be subject to HOOPS' standard license and royalty terms.

What is HOOPS?

HOOPS is a robust graphics development component with a proven track record in the CAD/CAM/CAE, Scientific Visualization, GIS, Earth Science, and Business Graphics application markets. HOOPS is the core graphics component for commercial applications from such leading companies as Parametric Technologies (PTC), SDRC, CADKEY, Microcadam, Fluent, Mechanical Dynamics, Tecnomatics, Tecoplan, Surpac, Mintec, Landmark Graphics, COADE, Minitab, SPSS, and ships in over 100 other applications world-wide.

In addition to its wide acceptance as a commercial-grade component, HOOPS is used in key applications by over 50 internal, governmental and university development groups, as well as by several hundred independent developers around the globe. In addition to Linux, HOOPS supports the Windows 95/98//NT, Dec Alpha, HPUX, IBM AIX, SGI IRIX, and SUN SOLARIS, operating systems as well as numerous other platforms through obfuscated source code.

Haavard Nord, CEO of Troll Tech AS commented, &uot;Qt, our cross-platform UI tool, has been successfully distributed and freely used on the Linux platform for some time and we are pleased to see other tool providers showing this sort of commitment to the Linux development community. We're quite certain HOOPS and this new licensing program will be embraced by developers looking to leverage a powerful and proven graphics development component and we're happy to be part of the complete framework solution.&uot;

&uot;Hewlett-Packard is committed to delivering the most advanced graphics to the Linux community, and we are pleased to see the major tool vendors, like Tech Soft, are dedicated to that goal as well. We agree that Linux developers expect and deserve advanced tools like HOOPS, and the Linux user community is eager for high-performance graphics applications,&uot; commented Munir Mallal, Software Planning Manager, Technical Computing Division, Hewlett-Packard.

Jim Merry, Director of Marketing for TSA states, &uot;Tech Soft is a company built by developers to serve developers. As a result, we understand the passion of the Linux development community and we want to whole-heartedly participate in this remarkable revolution. By putting advanced tools in the hands of talented developers, we look forward to seeing a day when the Linux community has access to hundred of advanced 3D applications, for free, and built around HOOPS.&uot;

About Tech Soft America

Tech Soft America (TSA) provides premier customer-driven development tools, consulting and support services that enable their partners to rapidly deliver world-class technical software.

TSA develops the HOOPS 3D Application Framework, a high-level, object-oriented application framework that dramatically simplifies the design, development and maintenance of high-performance, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications built for PCs and UNIX workstations.

HOOPS encapsulates highly optimized data structures and algorithms for the creation, editing, storage, manipulation, querying, rendering and printing of the 3D graphical information needed for the rapid production of advanced, commercial-grade graphics applications. In addition, TSA develops and distributes the ParaHOOPS 3D Application Framework, which includes the Parasolid(R) Kernel Modeler from Unigraphics Solutions, which extends the framework to include advanced solid modeling capabilities.

The core of HOOPS 3D Application Framework is the HOOPS 3D Graphics system, which has been integrated into many of the world's leading technical software applications, including; Pro/Mechanica, CADDS5, Optegra Visualizer, ICEMSurf, and EPD.Connect from PTC, CAMAND from SDRC, Helix Design System from MicroCADAM, ADAMS from Mechanical Dynamics, Fluent5, Rampant and Cortex from Fluent, Excaline from Tecnomatix, CADKEY from CADKEY, Inc, and IGES/Works from ITI. Globally, over 100 commercially-shipped applications rely on HOOPS/3dGS as their core graphics subsystem.

The company maintains corporate headquarters in Alameda, Calif. and can be reached at http://www.hoops3d.com.

Note to Editors: HOOPS is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc. Qt is a registered trademark of Troll Tech AS. Parasolid is a registered trademark of Unigraphics Solutions. All other trademarks mentioned in this release are recognized as belonging to their respective owners, including but not limited to Linux, Windows 95/98/2000/NT, Dec Alpha, HPUX, IBM AIX, SGI IRIX, and SUN SOLARIS.