Lisbon and Charlotte Digitize Design Review and Permit-granting Process

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., July 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced that the cities of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Lisbon, Portugal, have selected Autodesk software to share design content with architects, engineers, designers and other professionals who need to consult or print drawings in digital format. The cities are embracing DWF and Autodesk DWF Composer to accelerate projects and keep pace with building and development in these fast-growing urban areas. DWF is an open, standards-based specification for securely sharing rich, digital data design files. With DWF Composer, the files can be reviewed, marked up and revised through an integrated design review process between team members. DWF and the DWF Composer software have nearly eliminated the paper-process design review that these cities once employed for development and planning, reducing costs and accelerating design review processes.

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"Autodesk DWF Composer is definitely the future of our digitization project," said Ken Przybysz, business systems specialist, City of Charlotte, Engineering and Property Management Department. "With 12 agencies involved in developing, submitting and reviewing preliminary plans and final plans, we needed an efficient and easy way to review, mark up and communicate changes to other project team members."

The cities of Charlotte and Lisbon count on Autodesk software to create, manage and share design data with project team members. Because DWF is uniquely smaller than other design file formats, it enables faster and easier sharing of design content with extended team members. Additionally, DWF preserves the fidelity and intelligence of designs, including 3D information, object and mass properties, sheets and layers so information is not lost. DWF Composer allows the many architects, structural engineers, contactors and subcontractors involved in any city-funded projects to review, mark up and revise these design files and share them digitally.

"DWF can be used in any region and multiple languages to streamline design workflow processes," said Amar Hanspal, vice president of Autodesk Collaboration Services. "We are pleased that city engineers around the world are realizing their ideas and new efficiencies with Autodesk DWF Composer to digitally review, mark up and revise their 2D and 3D drawings, maps and models. Working with secure and precise digital DWF data can reduce the design review process by several days, enabling project teams to maximize efficiency and budgets."

Lisbon Municipal Council

With approximately 10,000 employees and 2,000 contract workers, Lisbon Municipal Council (CML) has hundreds of architects and engineers, and other professionals who need to consult or print drawings in digital format. The adoption of the DWF specification and the DWF Composer software has made it possible for designers, as well as legal and finance teams to view and mark up design content digitally. The CML purchased 2,000 seats of DWF Composer to enable employees across the entire city to cost effectively review, print and archive planning designs digitally.

"All of our people who use drawings only for consultation or printing -- and who are not familiar with design tools such as AutoCAD software -- now could fully participate in the design review cycle," remarked Henrique Salas, CAD Manager of Lisbon Municipal Council.

City of Charlotte

The implementation of Autodesk DWF Composer software within Charlotte's engineering department has added many valuable capabilities to the city's technology infrastructure. With DWF Composer in place, city building officials are able to share DWF-based design files and other permit documents with developer customers as well as with colleagues at other county agencies.

Charlotte has improved the efficiency and speed of the entire design review process. By using DWF Composer, each person involved in the review can make "redline" changes and comments using a different color, and then share those changes with the entire project team.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is wholly focused on ensuring that great ideas are turned into reality. With six million users, Autodesk is the world's leading software and services company for the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, digital media 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 by becoming more productive, streamlining project efficiency and maximizing profits. Founded in 1982, Autodesk is headquartered in San Rafael, California. For additional information about Autodesk, please visit www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD 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.

Contact: Jennifer Giles of Autodesk, +1-415-547-2458, or Jennifer.giles@autodesk.com.

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.
07/11/2005
CONTACT: Jennifer Giles of Autodesk, +1-415-547-2458, or Jennifer.giles@autodesk.com
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