---

ANSYS, Inc. Launches DesignSpace for Inventor

3 August 2000

New Product Fully Associative With Autodesk Inventor

       
    SOUTHPOINTE, Pa. - ANSYS, Inc. , announces DesignSpace for Inventor, with 
full associativity and assembly support for Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk's new 
3D modeling package.  Demonstrated at Autodesk's One Team Conference in Nice, 
France, DesignSpace successfully read and solved a 37-piece bicycle frame model 
created in Inventor.

    DesignSpace software has been proven to be the most productive first pass
simulation tool in head-to-head product comparisons according to a report
published by ARA Engineering, Inc., an independent consulting firm with over
20 years of experience in product design, engineering analysis, and systems
integration.  Autodesk Inventor, a mechanical design software, consists of
assembly-centric solid modeling (3D) and a drawing production (2D) system
built with adaptive technologies.  Because of the full associativity, design
engineers can simulate the performance of numerous configurations in a
fraction of the time it takes to perform a single evaluation.

    "Our alliance with ANSYS has always been strong and vital to designers
using many of our mechanical design products," said Robert Kross, vice
president, Autodesk Mechanical Division.  "Unlike traditional analysis and
simulation techniques, the DesignSpace knowledge-based approach focuses on
assembly design and unparalleled ease-of-use, and this fits very well as a
tool to be used in conjunction with Inventor and Mechanical Desktop.
DesignSpace gives our customers excellent analysis capability, and it comes as
no surprise that DesignSpace is one of the first analysis tools to be totally
associative with Inventor," said Kross.

    In the design of high-performance underwater vehicles, Hawkes Ocean
Technologies, Point Richmond, CA, uses DesignSpace in conjunction with
Autodesk Inventor.  "The key advantage of working with DesignSpace for
Inventor is that we are able to seamlessly attach our models to the
DesignSpace database and retain all the associativity when we make changes to
the Inventor models," said Eric Hobson, mechanical engineer, Hawkes Ocean
Technologies.

    Hawkes' designs and analyses eventually must win certification by the
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).  "The ability to bring changes made in
Inventor directly into DesignSpace saves considerable time," Hobson explained.
"Without this tight associativity, the constraints, loads, and supports would
have to be reapplied to the geometry of the model in DesignSpace after almost
every change.  Reapplying takes perhaps 10 minutes but it would have to be
done after every change.  In the critical designs we might run 20-30
iterations, and reapplying quickly becomes time consuming and irritating.  For
us, this associativity works beautifully," Hobson added.

    "Our customers have been guiding us to build tools that will allow them to
test their designs or product assemblies within the design environment and
validate them against design specifications early in the development process.
DesignSpace is built specifically for the design engineer," said Lee Stotler,
business unit manager, ANSYS, Inc.  "Our long standing relationship with
Autodesk helps to insure that we remain the early providers of this
engineering technology for Autodesk products."

    Like Autodesk Inventor, DesignSpace operates completely in the Windows
environment and is available at a price engineers can afford.  Inventor is
supported in DesignSpace Release 5.0.2 and currently available.  

    About ANSYS, Inc.

    ANSYS, Inc., headquartered at Southpointe in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, is
committed to providing the highest level of performance on the most advanced
simulation applications in the CAE industry.  ANSYS, Inc. strives to meet the
software requirements for the entire engineering enterprise that is created by
today's competitive marketplace.  ANSYS, Inc. partners with leading hardware
and software suppliers to provide the best engineering environments available.
A global network of ANSYS Support Distributors provides sales, support, and
training for customers.