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SensAble Tech. and Dassault Systemes Announce Cooperative Effort

13 October 1998

SensAble Technologies and Dassault Systemes Announce A Cooperative Effort to Develop 3D Touch Enabled Design Applications for CATIA Version 5


    CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Oct. 13, 1998--SensAble Technologies (SensAble) and Dassault Systemes today announced that they are collaborating to integrate SensAble's 3D Touch(TM) technology with CATIA Version 5. The first step in the implementation effort is to "touch-enable" the shape design and styling application of CATIA Version 5. This capability will be demonstrated at the CATIA Operators Exchange (COE) conference, taking place this week.
    SensAble's award-winning 3D Touch system, which consists of the PHANTOM(R) force-feedback interface hardware and GHOST(R) software, allows users to create, touch and manipulate 3D digital objects exactly as they do in the real world, directly by hand. 3D Touch is already being used to enhance productivity in applications such as medical simulation, virtual assembly and seismic interpretation.
    "Touch interaction becomes a critical component of 3D Design applications like Surface Modeling and Virtual Assembly simulation," according to Dominique Florack, Executive Vice-President of R&D at Dassault Systemes. "SensAble delivers high fidelity 3D Touch systems that will enable our customers to interact with CATIA models in a direct and natural manner. This represents a great step forward, towards total immersive design in digital environments and demonstrates the scalability of the CATIA Version 5 offering. We at Dassault Systemes are excited about collaborating with SensAble Technologies to develop next-generation solutions for digital design and manufacturing."
    SensAble Executive Vice President Tom Ellery views the collaboration as significant. "Our technology continues to build momentum in the design and manufacturing communities. The integration of 3D Touch with CATIA Version 5 provides a complete solution that will enable designers and engineers to break `through the looking glass' of the computer to create innovative products and streamline the product development process."
    "Leading global manufacturing companies see virtual reality and digital mock-up as key strategic technologies that will give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace," according to Phil Uchno, Vice President of Manufacturing Marketing at Silicon Graphics. "Silicon Graphics is proud to be a clear leader in delivering superior realism to the world of virtual reality. With the PHANTOM and CATIA Version 5, SensAble Technologies and Dassault Systemes have added a whole new level to virtual reality. Customers can now touch and manipulate their digital mock-up models in real-time, yielding significant productivity improvements immediately. Silicon Graphics' workstations have brought unmatched realism to CATIA models, with the addition of the PHANTOM, our customers will truly be able to `touch' the power of insight."
    SensAble Technologies is demonstrating its 3D Touch solutions in a joint SensAble/Dassault Systemes/SGI Booth at the COE Technifair in Traverse City, Michigan from October 12-14th.
    Complementing the CATIA product line, CATIA Version 5 is a completely re-engineered CAx offering which utilizes next generation object technologies and leading edge industry standards such as STEP, JAVA, and CORBA. It delivers an innovative and intuitive user interface and a platform independent architecture for native Windows/NT and UNIX systems. The result is an easy to install, fun to learn, and natural to use system. Its native OLE and Internet/intranet web compliance enables system integration within the office environment and across the digital enterprise. CATIA Version 5 delivers breakthrough, scalable applications for companies at all levels in design automation. At its core, CATIA Version 5 builds on powerful smart modeling concepts enabling the capture and reuse of corporate engineering knowledge and the implementation of generative rule-based product development processes. Versions 5 offers compatibility with Version 4. This allows both systems to be used together and provides a smooth progression for existing users.
    Dassault Systemes is the worldwide-recognized leader in Cax and PDM II markets. CATIA-CADAM Solutions with Deneb, the digital manufacturing company, address the CAD/CAM/CAE process-centric market. Through a unique strategic partnership, CATIA-CADAM Solutions are marketed, distributed, and supported by IBM worldwide. This unique partnership is now extended to PDM II solutions. SolidWorks, a Dassault Systemes company, addresses the CAD design-centric market, with its flagship native Windows NT product and its dedicated distribution channel. In the network computing environments, the Java-based CATweb product line provides a graphical window into native enterprise product data. For the PDM II market, ENOVIA Corp., a Dassault Systemes company, provides with its ENOVIAvpm and ENOVIApm product lines a new multi-CAD collaborative and innovative environment for virtual product and process modeling and management across the extended enterprise.
    Silicon Graphics, Inc. is a leading supplier of visual computing and high-performance systems. The company offers the broadest range of products in the industry -- from low-end desktop workstations to servers and high-end supercomputers. Key industries include communications, energy, entertainment, government, manufacturing and sciences. Silicon Graphics and its subsidiaries have offices throughout the world and corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.


    Cambridge, MA based SensAble Technologies, the industry leader in 3D force feedback systems, is dedicated to bringing 3D Touch to the desktop. SensAble's products are sold worldwide by distributors in Scandinavia, Japan, Taiwan, France, Canada, the U.K. and the USA.


    For additional information please visit our web sites. SensAble Technologies, www.sensable.com; CATIA, www.catia.com; Silicon Graphics, www.sgi.com.


    SensAble, PHANTOM, GHOST and 3D Touch are trademarks of SensAble Technologies, Inc. SensAble Technologies, Inc., 215 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. Tel: 617-621-0150, Fax: 617-621-0135, Email: info@sensable.com. CATIA is a registered trademark of Dassault Systemes SA.