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Spatial Technology Inc. Strengthens its Growing Development Organization

4 January 1999

Spatial Technology Inc. Strengthens its Growing Development Organization


    BOULDER, Colo.--Jan. 4, 1999--Spatial Technology Inc. (AMEX: STY), the leading developer of open, component 3D modeling technology, today announced the strengthening of its rapidly expanding development organization with two important executive appointments.
    "In the past year we have grown our development organization significantly, as we promised last January," said Bruce Morgan, president and CEO, Spatial. "With this rapid expansion, we believe it is an appropriate time to divide-up responsibilities between advanced technology development and day-to-day operations. This will allow us to focus on providing our more than 470 customers with the most advanced products and services in the industry, while maintaining our rapid pace of new product deliveries."
    Spatial is announcing the appointment of Lee Cole, Ph.D. as vice president, engineering. Dr. Cole will be responsible for managing Spatial's research and development operations. Dr. Cole has over seventeen years of experience in the areas of engineering project management and CAD/CAM software development. He has held executive and management positions at the Solar Energy Research Institute, Honeywell Inc., Unisys CAD/CAM Inc., and Hunter Douglas. Dr. Cole received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Dartmouth.
    Regarding his appointment, Lee Cole said, "It is very exciting to join a company that is a recognized technology center of excellence in the MCAD industry, and for the opportunity to oversee such a large, prestigious development team. I am looking forward to working with the team to further modernize the company's tools and processes so we can better serve our customers."
    "Lee's broad technical knowledge, combined with his extensive software and engineering operations experience, will prove to be a great asset to our development organization and will further strengthen Spatial's development processes," said Bruce Morgan. "We look to Lee to bring his proven management skills to the task of delivering our customers timely, high quality releases at an industry leading pace."
    The company also announced that Doug Hakala, formerly vice president of engineering, has been appointed to the position of corporate fellow and vice president of advanced technologies. In his new role, Mr. Hakala will be responsible for the architectural vision of Spatial's industry leading ACIS(R) 3D modeling kernel, and for the direct management and execution of key advanced technology projects that the company's customers have identified as high priority.
    Speaking of his new position, Doug Hakala said, "This is a great opportunity for me to focus exclusively on advancing the core technologies of Spatial to ensure we remain at the forefront of the MCAD industry as we move into the twenty-first century. I am looking forward to this opportunity to concentrate on next generation technology projects, and to assist the company in evolving the architecture of ACIS."
    "Since joining Spatial in 1989, Doug has been a key contributor to the design and development of ACIS. In his new executive position, Doug will lead the development of advanced technology projects, including the multi-threading of ACIS, feature modeling, feature recognition, and advanced surfacing technologies," said Dick Sowar, chairman of the board and CTO, Spatial. "We have made both of these important appointments to ensure our growing customer base continues to have the fastest possible access to state-of-the-art 3D modeling technology. We believe no other 3D modeling development team in the industry can match the quality or the quantity of Spatial's team, which is now comprised of 67 developers, 22 with Ph.D.s. This new development management structure will ensure we continue to offer customers the best possible products today, while planning appropriately for the new technologies they will need in the future."


    About Spatial Technology
    Spatial Technology Inc. is the world leader in the development of open, component 3D modeling technology. The ACIS 3D Toolkit(TM), Spatial's flagship product, is universally recognized as the de facto standard 3D modeling kernel for the MCAD, CAM, CAE, and AEC industries. With over 470 ACIS licensees and more than 1.3 million end users of over 180 ACIS-enabled applications, ACIS is undisputedly the most widely used 3D modeling kernel in the world.
    The open architecture of ACIS and the industry standard ACIS SAT(TM) file format are known as the "ACIS Geometry Bus." The ACIS Geometry Bus is the key to 3D model interoperability among ACIS-enabled applications, including AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop by Autodesk, Inc , Bravo by Applicon, Inc., CADKEY by Baystate Technologies, Inc., Grade/CUBE II by Hitachi Zosen Information Systems, GSCAD by Intergraph Corporation , IronCAD by Visionary Design Systems, Inc., MegaCAD by Megatech Software GmbH, TurboCAD Solid Modeler by IMSI , and Vellum Solids by Ashlar Inc.
    To further extend Spatial's leadership in sharing and accessing CAD model data throughout the design and manufacturing process, Spatial and InterData Access, Inc. (IDA) have combined their technical expertise, products, and financial strength. IDA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spatial, is a leading provider of product data viewing, data translation, and digital mock-up software and consulting services to Fortune 500 industrial companies worldwide. IDA products include IntraVISION(TM), CALSVIEW(TM), VisionShare(TM), Data Exchange Manager, and IGES/STEP development tools. IDA's customers include Boeing, Bombardiar, Caterpillar, Diebold, General Electric, Harley Davidson, Hitachi, Lear Jet, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, and Silicon Graphics. For more information, visit IDA's Web site at http://www.ida.com.
    Spatial Technology is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado and has subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Shares of Spatial stock are publicly traded on the Nasdaq-Amex exchange under the symbol "STY" (AMEX: STY). For more information, visit Spatial's Web site at http://www.spatial.com, or call (303) 544-2900.


    Statements made in this news release that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by any forward-looking information. A description of risks and uncertainties attendant to Spatial Technology Inc. and its industry, and other factors which could affect the Company's financial results, are included in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Company's annual report on Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 1997.


    Spatial Technology Inc., ACIS 3D Toolkit and SAT are trademarks. ACIS is a registered trademark of Spatial Technology Inc. IntraVISION, CALSVIEW, and VisionShare are trademarks of InterData Access Inc. All other products are trademarks of their respective owners.