Autodesk Delivers on Customers' Top Requests

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mechanical users groups of Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), the world's leading design software and digital content company, are applauding the company's latest release of Autodesk Inventor(R), software, the cornerstone of Autodesk Inventor(R) Series, the world's best selling 3D mechanical design solution and the only solution that unites the power of 2D and 3D in one box.

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"Our primary objective with Autodesk Inventor 8 was to stay very customer-focused with our software and provide users with exactly what they've been asking for most-outstanding performance, drawing creation, and stability," said Robert Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing Solutions Division at Autodesk. "Customer feedback has proven that we have accomplished our goals by delivering superior, industry-leading tools from Autodesk to help customers accomplish their jobs better and faster."

Silicon Valley-based User Groups

In late November, Autodesk demonstrated its Autodesk Inventor Series 8, Autodesk Inventor(R) Professional 8, and AutoCAD(R) Electrical 2004 software to close to 200 members of the Silicon Valley AutoCAD Power Users group (www.power.org) and the Silicon Valley Inventor Power Users group (www.InventorValley.org). Response was positive as members were able to see the benefits they could gain with these new solutions.

"The crowd was visibly impressed by the upgrades, actually clapping and cheering at several times during the demonstration," said Dean Villegas, president, Silicon Valley AutoCAD Power Users group. "Afterwards, a number of users told me they were seriously considering moving from a 2D design platform to a 3D application."

"The new contact detection solver feature in Autodesk Inventor Series 8 is reason alone to upgrade," stated Kerwin Kassulker, president of the Silicon Valley Inventor Power Users group and owner of A2Win PRO, an Autodesk Authorized Developer. "The contact detection solver gives users the ability to analyze how components of mechanical assemblies interact, with only a couple of selection clicks, bringing realistic design feedback in only a matter of seconds."

"No other application gives us the flexibility to quickly and easily communicate our client's designs to their customers," said Rick Bonnell, senior associate, California Design Engineering Consortium. "We're looking forward to the drawing performance improvements in Autodesk Inventor Series 8 to further increase the speed with which our clients provide drawings to their customers."

Portland User Group Cheers Performance Improvements and Other Enhancements

Members of the Portland Inventor Users group run by RAND IMAGINiT Technologies (www.IMAGINiT-tech.com), the only authorized Autodesk Inventor reseller in Oregon and Western Washington, who previewed the new software release in October were very enthusiastic and had this to say:

"Autodesk Inventor Series 8 destroys the competition," said Phil Eichmiller, mechanical designer, Phoenix Gold.

"I'm very impressed with the speed of Autodesk Inventor Series 8," said Larry Long, Mechanical Design Group Leader, Wellons, Inc.

Reiterating the performance improvements, Steve Taatjes, Project Engineer, DCI International stated, "The speed and enhancements of Autodesk Inventor Series 8 are well-targeted."

Autodesk Inventor Professional 8, a superset of Autodesk Inventor Series, expands beyond its tube and pipe functionality offered in Autodesk Inventor Professional 7 to include cable and wire harness capabilities. Users were happy to see the new additions in the latest release.

"The harness module in Autodesk Inventor Professional 8 is something we have been awaiting for a long time here," remarked Alexandre Duteau of Oerlikon Concave in Canada.

Autodesk Manufacturing's Design and Data Management Solutions

As part of its strategy to help customers create, manage, and share their digital design data and solve critical business challenges, the Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions Division offers companies the most comprehensive portfolio of integrated 2D and 3D design and data management solutions, critical tools that help customers innovate, increase productivity, simplify processes, improve product quality, and accelerate time to market for less cost. Unlike other offerings on the market today, Autodesk's design and data management solutions are easy to buy, deploy and use, and provide significant process improvements and rapid results without the complex, costly installations of large-scale product lifecycle management systems. Autodesk's manufacturing solutions include AutoCAD(R), AutoCAD(R) Mechanical and AutoCAD Electrical software, Autodesk Inventor Professional and Autodesk Inventor Series 3D mechanical design packages that are integrated with new Autodesk(R) Vault functionality, and the Autodesk Streamline(R) collaboration service. In addition, customers can take advantage of widely available third-party applications purpose-built for Autodesk software and they can utilize Autodesk Professional Services to garner greater value from their software.

For an annual fee, Autodesk(R) Subscription customers benefit from a complete technology, training, and support program that protects their software investments by providing them with the most current design technology, web support direct from Autodesk, flexible self-paced training options, and a broad range of other technology and business benefits. For products like Autodesk Inventor Series and Professional, the program provides a timely cycle of new releases with rich new content as soon as it becomes available. For more information about Autodesk Subscription, visit www.autodesk.com/subscription.

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 United States and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

CONTACT: Cindi Goodsell of Autodesk, Inc., +1-415-507-8452, or cindi.goodsell@autodesk.com.

SOURCE  Autodesk, Inc.
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