QED, Micro Motors, Inc., and Joy Mining Machinery Use Autodesk Vault to Manage Design Data for Streamlined Product Development

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), the world's leading design software and digital content company, today announced that QED, Micro Motors, Inc. and Joy Mining Machinery have adopted the latest version of Autodesk(R) Vault to extend their data management capabilities. By standardizing on Autodesk Inventor(R) Series, the world's #1 selling 3D mechanical design software, these companies can securely manage engineering data, minimize version control errors, and increase design reuse because these features are integrated within the design tool. Autodesk Vault has helped significantly improve productivity, accelerate development cycles, and promote collaboration efforts across design teams.

Autodesk Vault gives these companies a way to organize and store designs and engineering data that is effective for locating and reusing content, accessing release history, and ensuring version control. So instead of searching for files and fixing errors due to using outdated designs, they can focus on solving engineering problems.

"We understand that tight synchronization among product teams is essential for speeding time-to-market," said Robert Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing Solutions Division at Autodesk. "Because 60 to 90 percent of components are reused within an organization, storing and managing all design data within an easy-to-use data management application can dramatically improve productivity. Autodesk Vault, integrated within Autodesk Inventor Series and Autodesk Inventor Professional, provides a practical approach to data management. With this intuitive and easy to deploy system, we are truly helping manufacturers maximize their return on investment in design data."

"Autodesk Vault helped us move to a new level of data management," said David Russell, Design Engineer of QED. "The workgroup data management solution helped us get the most out of Autodesk Inventor software while eliminating errors and improving design reuse. Because we are a small company, the cost and overhead of an EDM/PDM system was prohibitive. Vault provides us with a simple and secure work-in-process management and version control system that is cost effective and easy to learn. We are confident that, as our company grows, Vault will grow with us."

For Micro Motors, Inc., a leading manufacturer of electric and pneumatic motors and hand pieces for the medical and dental fields, Autodesk Vault was a natural progression for the design teams. "Autodesk Vault significantly simplifies the way we manage our data. It enables us to reduce costly errors and leverage components from other products for use in current products," said Roger McPherson, Director of Engineering at Micro Motors, Inc.

Tim Morris, Director of Global Engineering Systems at Joy Mining Machinery, a global manufacturer of mining equipment, said that he uses Autodesk Vault "to organize our multi-team, multi-location development engineering data into local repositories. Working outside of the enterprise PDM system for development accelerates design cycles, improves reuse and repurposing of data, and enables better version control with fewer errors."

Autodesk Vault-A Practical Approach to Data Management

Autodesk Vault helps customers securely manage work-in-process design data, minimize version control errors, and increase design reuse because the data management capabilities are built right into the Autodesk Inventor Series design solution. Further, Autodesk Vault is simple to install, which eliminates costly, complex IT deployments. This approach dramatically improves engineering productivity and accelerates development cycles by synchronizing the efforts of individual designers across the workgroup.

A Comprehensive Portfolio of Manufacturing Solutions

Delivering on its strategy to help customers create, manage, and share their digital design data and solve critical business challenges, Autodesk offers the most comprehensive portfolio of integrated 2D and 3D design and data management solutions available -- helping customers design better quality products, accelerate time to market, and achieve maximum project visibility and collaboration. Unlike other offerings on the market today, these solutions are easy to deploy and use, and help companies easily transition from 2D to 3D design. Autodesk's manufacturing solutions include Autodesk Inventor Series, the #1 selling 3D mechanical design software, and Autodesk Inventor Professional-both with Autodesk Vault data management capabilities built in; AutoCAD(R) Mechanical and AutoCAD(R) Electrical software; and the Autodesk Streamline(R) collaboration service. In addition, customers can take advantage of widely available third-party applications purpose-built for Autodesk software.

Autodesk(R) Subscription is the easiest way to keep your design tools and learning up to date. For an annual fee you get the latest versions of your licensed Autodesk software, web support direct from Autodesk, self-paced training options, and a broad range of other technology and business benefits. For more information, contact your Autodesk Authorized Reseller or visit www.autodesk.com/subscription.

Autodesk Consulting offers services that can help customers streamline business processes and get the best possible return on their investment in Autodesk technology. For more information about Autodesk Consulting, including integrated consulting and training, visit www.autodesk.com/consulting.

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.

NOTE: Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, and Autodesk Streamline 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:

Tiffany Pence, 415-507-6493

tiffany.pence@autodesk.com

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc. -0- 04/30/2004 /CONTACT: Tiffany Pence, of Autodesk, Inc., +1-415-507-6493, or tiffany.pence@autodesk.com/ /Web site: http://www.autodesk.com / (ADSK) CO: Autodesk, Inc.; QED; Micro Motors, Inc.; Joy Mining Machinery ST: California IN: CPR STW MNG SU: CON TX-MW -- SFF005 -- 0879 04/30/2004 08:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com