3D Design Lights Up 2D Workflow for Innovative Headlamp

LAS VEGAS, Autodesk University, Nov. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced that QED, a leading manufacturer of professional and consumer lighting devices, has been named as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for November 2006. The Inventor of the Month program recognizes the most innovative design and engineering advancements made by the extensive community of customers using Autodesk Inventor software, the world's best-selling 3D mechanical design software and best choice for 3D design.

In the early 1970s, QED designed and marketed its first product: a fiber optic headlight and halogen light source, designed to give doctors more control over lighting when performing medical and surgical procedures. Today, QED designs and manufactures a full range of head-mounted lighting gear with intricate lens and linkage systems.

In recent years, QED has expanded into the consumer lighting industry with a line of LED products, the most innovative of which is the Bil-Lite. A fully integrated lighting system that clips to the front of a baseball cap, the Bil-Lite provides hands-free lighting. No ordinary headlamp, the Bil-Lite's housing contains a two-axis pivot system that allows it to rotate 360 degrees and pivot 90 degrees.

Combined the Bil-Lite has between 12 to 15 different components that must function together as an integrated system. After seeing a demonstration of Inventor by Autodesk technology solutions provider Avatech, QED saw how valuable a 3D design environment could be in bringing these disparate parts together into a unified whole.

"There are small problems that can arise in production -- such as component interference or tolerance issues -- that are just too difficult and time-consuming to try and address in a 2D design environment," said David Russell, a design engineer at QED. "We saw Inventor 3D modeling capabilities and its assembly feature as a way to address these issues ahead of time."

By performing virtual test runs within the Inventor 3D environment, QED was able to release its product designs to manufacturing with confidence. Moreover, they reduced the number of physical prototypes that needed to be built and the number of back-and-forth modifications that needed to be conducted before full production on the Bil-Lite could begin.

"When we were working in a solely 2D design environment, product development for something as complex as the Bil-Lite would have taken 12 to 24 months," said Russell. "With Autodesk Inventor, we have been able to cut that product development time in half."

Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the more than 600,000 users of Autodesk Inventor. To nominate an Inventor of the Month, log onto http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com. For more information on Autodesk Inventor of the Month, contact us at IOM@autodesk.com.

About QED

Headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, QED, Inc. is a manufacturer of medical lighting devices for use by doctors, surgeons and dentists. The company designs and manufactures lighting using low wattage LEDs, halogen lamps with a power range of up to 250 watts, and high energy arc lamps such as metal halide and xenon lamps. In recent years, QED has expanded into the consumer lighting industry with a line of LED products. The complete line can be seen at: http://www.q-lighting.com/index.htm.

About Avatech Solutions

Avatech Solutions, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AVSO.OB) is a nationwide design automation and technology services company providing innovative solutions that enable clients to more effectively design, develop, and manage projects, products and facilities. Avatech experts give customers a competitive advantage through technology consulting, implementation, integration, training, and support services exclusively for the design, engineering and facilities management industries. Headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland, Avatech is one of the largest integrators of Autodesk software worldwide and a leading provider of PLM solutions. Customers include industry leaders from the Fortune 500 and Engineering News Record's Top 100 companies. Visit http://www.avatech.com for more information.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is a Fortune 1000 company, wholly focused on ensuring that great ideas are turned into reality. With seven million users, Autodesk is the world's leading software and services company for the manufacturing, infrastructure, building, media and entertainment, and wireless data services fields. Autodesk's solutions help customers create, manage and share their data and digital assets more effectively. As a result, customers turn ideas into competitive advantage, become more productive, streamline project efficiency and maximize profits.

Founded in 1982, Autodesk is headquartered in San Rafael, California. For additional information about Autodesk, please visit http://www.autodesk.com.

NOTE: Autodesk, Autodesk Inventor and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

    
Contact:   Carly Herrig  312.233.1356    Alyson Howard  312.297.7430
Email:     carly.herrig@edelman.com      alyson.howard@edelman.com

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc. 11/27/2006


Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050415/SFF034LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Web site: http://www.avatech.com
Web site: http://www.autodesk.com
(ADSK AVSO)


6094 11/27/2006 08:30 EST http://www.prnewswire.com