AutoCAD Electrical 2004, AutoCAD Mechanical 2004, and 3ds max 6 Deliver on Innovation and Real-World Productivity

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), the world's leading design software and digital content company, today announced that it has received awards for its AutoCAD(R) Electrical 2004, AutoCAD(R) Mechanical 2004, and Discreet(R) 3ds max(R) 6 software solutions. Autodesk solutions continue to be recognized for their industry-leading innovation, superior quality, and value.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000518/SFTH083LOGO )

The awards include:

-- The Control Magazine Readers' Choice Award for Software, Design/Documentation (featured in January issue) for AutoCAD Electrical 2004

-- The Control Engineering 2003 Editors' Choice Award (featured in January issue) for AutoCAD Electrical 2004

-- The 2003 Cadalyst Labs All Star Award (featured in December issue) for AutoCAD Mechanical 2004

-- The Cadalyst semiannual Editors' WOW! Award (featured in December issue) for Discreet 3ds max 6

-- The Computer Graphics World magazine Innovation Award (featured in December issue) for Discreet 3ds max 6

"Industry recognition is a strong indicator that we are developing innovative solutions that deliver on the functionality that customers need most," said Robert Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing Solutions Division at Autodesk. "Our products are terrific in and of themselves, but can offer even greater value when combined to form a complete solution for our customers to create, manage, and share digital design data."

AutoCAD Electrical 2004 Continues to Receive Industry Recognition

Following on the heels of winning the Control Design 2003 Readers' Choice Award in the Electrical CAD Software category last November, AutoCAD Electrical 2004 is continuing to be recognized by the electrical controls industry with two recent awards. For its Readers Choice Award, Control Magazine (www.controlmag.com) polled its readers, who selected AutoCAD Electrical 2004 based on their real-world use of the product. Because vendors and their products were not listed, readers wrote in their choice, making a win an even greater achievement.

For the Control Engineering 2003 Editors' Choice Award, the publication's editors selected AutoCAD Electrical 2004 based on the following criteria: service to the industry, technological advancement, and market impact. As a winner, AutoCAD Electrical 2004 is among the most significant innovations featured in Control Engineering (www.controleng.com) during the past year.

AutoCAD Electrical 2004 helps electrical engineers, designers, and detailers create better electrical designs, reduce costs, and accelerate time to market for their products. It provides extensive electrical controls design functionality as part of the industry's most comprehensive 2D and 3D design solutions for the manufacturing marketplace. It is built on the AutoCAD(R) 2004 foundation to maintain full, native DWG format compatibility. Wire data reports created in AutoCAD Electrical can be leveraged directly by the cable and wire harness functionality in Autodesk Inventor(R) Professional software to further accelerate and simplify the design process. AutoCAD Electrical is currently available only in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. For more information on AutoCAD Electrical, visit www.autodesk.com/autocadelectrical.

Cadalyst Select Two Autodesk Products for its Highest Honors

According to Cadalyst magazine's (www.cadalyst.com) December issue in which it names AutoCAD Mechanical 2004 software as a 2003 Cadalyst Labs All Star award winner, "Though most vendors are focusing their development efforts and marketing pitches on 3D design, Autodesk earns a nod for acknowledging that for many mechanical design applications, 2D works just fine." The award was based on a thorough hands-on review of the product in September for which it received a rating of five out of five stars. The magazine states that particularly noteworthy is the software's mechanical structure, "which lets users organize geometry into reusable components using a tree format. The mechanical structure browser is similar to the feature trees found in 3D modeling applications. Mechanical design tasks are made easier through standard parts libraries, mechanical line objects, and the ability to perform simple FEA calculations." In November, Autodesk introduced a new version of the software -- AutoCAD Mechanical 2004 DX, offering seamless Autodesk Inventor interoperability. For more information on AutoCAD Mechanical, visit www.autodesk.com/autocadmechanical.

Cadalyst also named Discreet 3ds max 6 a Cadalyst Editors' WOW! Award winner. Selection is based primarily on the Wow! factor: product innovation, its ability to solve problems creatively, and how distinctive the product is compared with others in its market segment. According to Cadalyst, "With 3ds max 6, Discreet acknowledges that the product remains popular for architectural design visualization. Many new features cater specifically to this market, in particular support for VIZ Render DRF files and enhanced DWG support. 3ds max 6's layer management system resembles that found in other Autodesk products. There you control rendering and selectability."

Computer Graphics World's 2003 Innovation Awards

Editors and industry luminaries from Computer Graphics World recognized the greatest releases of 2003 -- a vast array of technological advancements in modeling, animation, motion capture, simulation, rendering, compositing, digital video editing, and more. According to Computer Graphics World, Discreet 3ds max 6, the newest version of Discreet's modeling, animation, and rendering solution, incorporates such innovations as a ragdoll/virtual stuntman system, a vertex painting tool, schematic view, Shell Modifier, and skin utilities.

"This package has evolved into one of the most robust and easy-to-use 3D applications on the market," explains Contributing Editor George Maestri. "The addition of mental ray rounds out its wide array of renderers available, and the new Particle Flow module makes it a formidable special-effects application."

For more information on 3ds max 6, visit www.discreet.com.

About Autodesk

Autodesk is the world's leading design software and digital content company, offering customers progressive business solutions through powerful technology products and services. Autodesk helps customers in the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, digital media, and wireless data services fields increase the value of their digital design data and improve efficiencies across their entire project lifecycle management processes. For more information about the company, see www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Discreet, and 3ds max are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. mental ray is a registered trademark of mental images GmbH & Co. KG, licensed for use by Autodesk, Inc. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

(C) 2004 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Contact: Amal Nichols, 1-925-736-2433 EMAIL: amal@sbcglobal.net

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc. -0- 01/15/2004 /CONTACT: Amal Nichols, +1-925-736-2433 or amal@sbcglobal.net, for Autodesk, Inc./ /Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000518/SFTH083LOGO AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org PRN Photo Desk, +1-888-776-6555 or +1-212-782-2840/ /Web site: http://www.autodesk.com / (ADSK) CO: Autodesk, Inc. ST: California IN: CPR STW SU: AWD JO -- SFTH002 -- 1540 01/15/2004 08:00 EST http://www.prnewswire.com