SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Apr 23, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADSK), the world's leading design software and digital content company, today announced that Brakes India Limited, the leading manufacturer of braking systems for all the major auto makers operating in India, recently upgraded to the Autodesk Inventor(R) Series from AutoCAD(R) and Autodesk(R) Mechanical Desktop(R) software after an extensive evaluation. Autodesk Inventor Series includes Autodesk Inventor 3D mechanical design software and Autodesk Mechanical Desktop software. The company will be using Autodesk Inventor as its primary design tool in their Tool Design Section to meet its business objectives of achieving significant cost benefits and tackling large assembly designs with relative ease.

"We have saved significantly in initial costs by opting for the Autodesk Inventor Series. We are using the Autodesk Inventor application to design our tooling for new products and intend to reap more benefits with the passage of time through reduced design lead times and the ability to design large assemblies and create innovative designs," said S.Ravishankar, New Products Manager, Brakes India Limited. "Autodesk Inventor software displayed superior large assembly performance and offered uncompromised compatibility with legacy data from AutoCAD and Autodesk Mechanical Desktop -- saving us enormous amounts of rework time."

"As engineers' design requirements and capabilities evolve, Autodesk offers them a family of design software options that will help them easily transition from 2D to 3D design," said Robert Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing Solutions Division at Autodesk.

Brakes India has a large portfolio of tooling for their diverse products supplied to consumer and industrial vehicles. The company caters to a global client base. As a result, all of their products are required to adhere to the most stringent world standards while maintaining cost competitiveness. Their client list includes market leaders Volvo, Ford, Maruti, Mercedes Benz, and Bosch.

Immediate Benefits

Brakes India realized immediate benefits following its adoption of the Autodesk Inventor Series. It generated significant savings on the initial investment costs as compared to competitor offerings. In addition, training costs were minimized as the design engineers started working on Autodesk Inventor software from the first day. Brakes India is now able to design large assemblies with relative ease and has access to a range of powerful tools that will help them in creating innovative products for their customers.

The tool design team at Brakes India has already successfully created several new product designs with the Autodesk Inventor software. In fact, the team has been working on a design automation solution for all their gauges that they plan to release to the public this year.

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 to Editors: Autodesk, AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, and Autodesk Inventor 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.

Autodesk, Inc.
Cindi Goodsell, 415/507-8452
cindi.goodsell@autodesk.com

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