Productivity-Enhancing Software Helps Civil Engineering Design Firm Take On as
                  Many as Ten Additional Projects Each Year

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced that Coastal Engineering Associates (COASTAL), one of Florida's most respected engineering firms, is using Autodesk Civil 3D software, an industry-proven civil engineering solution, to help increase the productivity of its staff and take on more new business-without having to hire additional employees.

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Over the last several decades, Florida has seen incredible population growth, which has led to a land development boom for civil engineering firms like COASTAL. Unfortunately, the population growth has not resulted in an increase in the number of available professionals with civil engineering design experience. Consequently, many firms are forced to turn work away or present potential clients with project schedules that do not best meet the clients' needs.

Instead of turning away work or disappointing clients, COASTAL is investing in technology like Autodesk Civil 3D to keep its productivity levels high. "With Civil 3D, we are able to design projects faster and more efficiently than many of our competitors," said Quinton McDaniel, a project manager with COASTAL. "That allows us to take on more projects without adding staff members."

Dynamic Model Saves Time

Much of the timesavings on design projects come from the dynamic Autodesk Civil 3D engineering model, which links elements in designs and enables faster revisions. Surfaces, cross sections, profiles, annotations and more are dynamically linked and updated automatically, reducing costly errors and omissions. As a result, Civil 3D customers can evaluate multiple alternatives quickly, make smarter decisions, minimize manual edits and output updated plans automatically.

These dynamic change capabilities proved their value while COASTAL was working on the Southern Hills Plantation, a 1,000-acre luxury residential community. COASTAL discovered that some of the site's elevation figures needed to be adjusted, and was able to correct the elevation issue in one day using Autodesk Civil 3D-a task that previously would have taken several days to complete.

"We are completing the Southern Hills project 30 to 35 percent faster thanks to Autodesk Civil 3D," said McDaniel. "These savings help us to accept more projects than before. We have been able to take on as many as ten additional projects."

Chris Bradshaw, vice president, Autodesk Infrastructure Solutions, believes COASTAL is a great example of the typical Autodesk customer who, facing a range of industry-wide pressures-including high demand and a shrinking workforce-has turned to advanced technology to improve productivity. "COASTAL is leveraging Autodesk Civil 3D so that they can work smarter, not harder. Their success demonstrates what a difference the right civil engineering application can make to a company's bottom line."

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 www.autodesk.com .

About Coastal Engineering Associates

Coastal Engineering Associates is a multi-disciplined firm with a wide range of professional, technical and support skills. Since its inception in 1958, Coastal has completed a diversity of projects in its many fields of specialization including civil engineering, planning, survey, environmental services, transportation and construction administration.

NOTE: Autodesk and Civil 3D are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Contact: Alan Dunton, 415-318-4141

Email: duntona@fleishman.com

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.
Web site: http://www.autodesk.com
(ADSK)