Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2007 and Autodesk MapGuide Studio 2007 Provide

Customers Benefits of Open Source with the Backing of Autodesk

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Following its groundbreaking contribution to the open source community, Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced the commercial version of its open source web mapping platform, Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2007. This certified version features all of the benefits of the open source version, plus additional quality assurance, technical support, connectivity to additional data sources including Oracle and SQL Server, as well as integration of numerous third-party components. Also available is Autodesk MapGuide Studio 2007-a powerful authoring environment for creating and publishing maps and related data with the open source or commercial versions of MapGuide.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050415/SFF034LOGO )

"Both MapGuide Open Source and Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise offer customers the benefits of open source -- strong community, quick innovation, and the ability to easily customize the software," said Chris Bradshaw, vice president of Autodesk's Infrastructure Solutions Division. "Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise takes it a step further by providing customers with the support and backing of one of the world's largest software companies."

Specific customer benefits of an Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise subscription include the ability to:

    -- Deploy solutions with the confidence that software applications and
       hardware are fully certified
    -- Contact web support with unlimited incidents
    -- Connect to Oracle and SQL Server databases
    -- Integrate third-party components such as the Mentor coordinate system
    -- Access continual enhancements from Autodesk through regular updates
       that provide additional features and new hardware support

    Autodesk MapGuide:  A New Powerful and Flexible Web Mapping Platform

MapGuide Open Source and Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2007 both provide a powerful new platform for creating and publishing maps and related information to the web. MapGuide technology works with the latest PHP, .NET, and Java tools to quickly build powerful applications for Windows or Linux server environments. Developers can also publish spatial views internally, over the web, or using Autodesk DWF viewing technology for offline portability. Applications built using the MapGuide platform give users a faster and more flexible way to query, analyze, and view critical spatial information.

"With the release of Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise and Autodesk MapGuide Studio, Autodesk has obviously been listening," said Jason Birch, senior applications analyst, City of Nanaimo. "I had a long wish list of features that I wanted to see, such as printing to scale, improved symbology and layer grouping-all these and more have been delivered. The API has been enhanced to provide developers with powerful and extremely flexible methods for manipulating and publishing geospatial information. Updates to layers are immediately reflected in all maps that reference them. These features will greatly reduce time spent on development and data management."

Autodesk MapGuide Studio 2007: Simple Web Map Authoring

The Autodesk MapGuide Studio authoring tool streamlines all aspects of preparing maps and geospatial data for distribution on the Internet or in the field. Users of MapGuide Open Source and/or Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2007 can use Autodesk MapGuide Studio to build stylized layers and make attractive maps by easily configuring settings, color, display attributes, labels, URLs, pop-up menus and more. It is then simple to add maps to existing applications, publish on the Internet, or customize for enterprise, municipal or field use. Autodesk MapGuide Studio users have full control over toolbars and menus, can use dozens of pre-made functions such as Zoom, Pan, Select, and can define custom buttons and menus. Autodesk MapGuide Studio streamlines aggregation and publishing of geospatial data, allows for rapid map creation and customization by leveraging previously authored maps and drawings, and negates need to use different tools for loading data types, connecting to databases and publishing to the web.

Roots in Open Source Technology

Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2007 is based on MapGuide Open Source, an active open source project hosted by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (http://www.osgeo.org ). The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. The foundation's projects are all freely available and useable under OSI-certified open source licenses. Since its inception in November 2005, OSGeo has met with encouraging success: the site, which launched March 7, 2006, currently hosts eight projects, and the number of registered members has climbed 33% month to month.

Distribution and Availability

Autodesk anticipates Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2007 and Autodesk MapGuide Studio 2007 will be available worldwide in International English in July 2006, with localized versions planned in the future. The software can be purchased through Autodesk Authorized Resellers (www.autodesk.com/reseller.) For additional information on MapGuide products, please visit: www.autodesk.com/mapguide.

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.

NOTE: Autodesk, Autodesk MapGuide, and DWF 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. We may make statements regarding planned or future development efforts for our existing or new products and services. These statements are not intended to be a promise or guarantee of future delivery of products, services or features but merely reflect our current plans, which may change. Purchasing decisions should not be made based upon reliance on these statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist or change after the date on which they were made.

CONTACT:
Alan Dunton
Fleishman-Hillard
+1-415-318-4141
duntona@fleishman.com

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