The Auto Channel: North America | Europe

VISTAGY Announces New Seat Design Environment(TM) Powered by EnCapta(R); New software for engineering automotive seat systems and interior components will be demonstrated at IQPC's Innovations in Automotive Seating conference

WALTHAM, Mass.--July 20, 2006--VISTAGY, Inc., a leading global provider of specialized engineering software, today announced the release of its Seat Design Environment(TM) (SDE), the newest member of VISTAGY's family of commercial-off-the-shelf specialized engineering environments, powered by EnCapta(R). The SDE is the first specialized software application specifically tailored to address the entire process of designing and manufacturing automotive seat systems and interior components. VISTAGY will be demonstrating the software at the Innovations in Automotive Seating conference (http://www.iqpc.com) in Dearborn, Michigan, on July 25-26, 2006.

With the Seat Design Environment, automotive engineers, for the first time, can capture a complete, digital 3D definition of a seat system that includes all details of the seat cover and takes advantage of the power and advanced capabilities of leading commercial CAD systems. As opposed to traditional seat design methods that rely on extensive physical prototyping, the SDE helps engineers rapidly explore the feasibility of new designs by providing a complete digital model as well as virtual prototyping and manufacturing simulation tools. As a result, the SDE significantly streamlines and automates engineering processes, reduces cycle times and costs, ensures all styling requirements are satisfied by assessing development issues early in the development phase, and limits or completely eliminates physical prototyping.

According to industry analysts, the automotive seating market is approximately $40 billion annually and growing. Due to the very competitive industry landscape and the ever-increasing number of new car models and interior variants, seat manufacturers are under constant pressure to accelerate their engineering and manufacturing processes. At the same time, new seat styles and a variety of comfort and safety innovations have significantly increased the complexity of seat systems. Today's seat models can include heating and cooling functions, occupant weight sensors for airbag deployment, and many electro-mechanical components, as well as different foam densities and a mix of cover materials. The SDE helps automotive manufacturers manage this complexity and more efficiently share design information and changes across styling, trim cover, foam, and structure engineering groups in order to achieve design goals and delivery times.

"Automotive manufacturers understand that car purchases are based nearly as much on the interior look and feel of a vehicle as the exterior shape, performance and features. As a result, seat systems have become highly stylized, highly engineered assemblies with specific design and manufacturing challenges to solve," said Bob Flory, vice president of product development at VISTAGY, Inc. "The Seat Design Environment provides a vastly better alternative to the way seat systems have been developed in the past. It allows engineers to 'work how they think' and compare designs faster than ever while utilizing their own specific terminology, tools and knowledge in order to create the most desirable interior components in the least amount of time."

The Seat Design Environment supports the entire seat development process:

-- Capturing the seat architecture - The SDE brings together all elements of seat design into a leading commercial 3D CAD environment and captures the key relationships between seat styles and supporting components. The software digitally captures and models all critical styling and soft-good requirements including trim cover surface, sew lines, retainers and attachments, and hardware including labels, safety equipment tags (airbag, seat belt), and sensor locations and descriptions. This seat architecture information can be stored and automatically shared by all seat engineering groups across the organization to develop the components of the seat, cover, foam, and other parts.

-- Designing the seat cover - The SDE enables engineers to design all the pieces needed for the seat cover by using the previously defined sew lines. The software then simulates how the cover will actually fit over the seat, based on the deformation properties of the chosen materials. The cover fit analysis is completed in seconds, enabling a rapid comparison of various style changes and materials in order to alleviate any wrinkling, stretching and foam compression problems.

-- Developing manufacturing data - The SDE enables engineers to quickly create accurate and "sew-ready" flat patterns from the 3D seat geometry. It provides a new, innovative capability for automatically generating an "orange peel" arrangement of the flat pattern pieces with the click of a button. It also captures all details related to each step of the sewing process, including information about sewing sequences and manufacturing details such as seam-allowance, sew direction, and backtack. The software exports flat patterns to all major nesting and cutting systems for a more efficient transition from engineering to manufacturing.

-- Automatically generating documentation - The SDE makes it easy to publish the documents required for process planning and production or to send information to a PDM or ERP system. For example, the SDE can publish extended bills of materials, sewing reports or other customized production documents. Using the power of XML, the software can export documents in any format including HTML, spreadsheets or word-processing applications.

All software applications powered by EnCapta, including the Seat Design Environment, operate within the CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, and NX CAD systems. The SDE is currently available to all global customers. For more information on the SDE, please visit http://www.vistagy.com/products/encapta-seat-design.htm

About EnCapta(R)

EnCapta(R) is VISTAGY's unique technology that powers all of its CAD-integrated specialized engineering environments available as commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software products. Software built with this technology captures, structures, and communicates the non-geometric design data that is vital for complete product definition. And it links this information, such as specifications or manufacturing notes, associatively with features of the geometric CAD model for easy reference and retrieval. It then uses XML technology to share the information with people and applications throughout the enterprise, such as PDM systems and software for procurement, quality assurance, and manufacturing.

About VISTAGY, Inc.

VISTAGY, Inc. develops engineering software that provides specialized functionality to significantly improve the value of commercial 3D CAD systems. VISTAGY's specialized engineering environments enable engineers to capture and communicate complete digital product definitions within CAD, thereby increasing productivity, improving the communication of product information throughout the product lifecycle, and allowing better-informed decision-making early in design. VISTAGY software is used throughout the world in the aerospace, automotive, marine, medical, sporting goods, and transportation interiors industries. The company also offers training and consulting services. For more information, contact VISTAGY in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, at +1.781.250.6868 or visit www.vistagy.com.

"VISTAGY. Empowering engineers."(TM)

VISTAGY, the VISTAGY logo, EnCapta, Seat Design Environment, and Empowering Engineers are registered trademarks or trademarks of VISTAGY, Inc., in the United States and in other countries. All other companies and products referenced herein have trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.