SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Sep 26, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADSK), the world's leading design software and digital content company, today announced that Pillar Industries, a leading manufacturer of heat induction machines, has achieved remarkable business process efficiency after implementing the Autodesk Inventor Series, a collection of 2D and 3D design applications that includes Autodesk Inventor high-performance 3D design software and Autodesk Mechanical Desktop, in one package. Pillar is seeing dramatic results including one-third faster time-to-market and almost complete elimination of assembly rework.

"With Autodesk Inventor, we can design simultaneously and complete custom products faster," said Donald Wiseman, executive vice president in charge of Product Engineering at Pillar in Brookfield, Wisconsin. "We are able to keep up with the increasing work volume without adding head count, completing our first project with (Autodesk) Inventor in four months versus six months -- the time it would have taken with AutoCAD software."

Pillar moved from AutoCAD software to Autodesk Inventor. According to Pillar, it evaluated other solutions, including CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidEdge, and SolidWorks, but found they were too complicated to use and lacked the functionality needed for the material handling industry. Its business objectives are to deliver reliable products within a short time frame and at a low cost to drive profitability and enhance customer satisfaction.

"(Autodesk) Inventor is especially well-suited for creating the kind of custom machines we specialize in. Its intuitive interface and adaptive capabilities let us try design iterations quickly," said Dean Stefanac, senior project engineer at Pillar. "What's more, the software easily handles large assemblies and generates accurate designs, which has eliminated costly errors on the manufacturing floor and reduced the rework for assembly by more than 90 percent."

Pillar (www.pillar.com) manufactures heat induction machines for a variety of industries including automotive, agriculture, and appliances. It offers standard and custom equipment that provide customers with a non-contact method for heating metals as part of their product manufacturing process.

"Autodesk Inventor software is a powerful solution that gives companies the power to maximize their manufacturing efficiency," said Robert Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing Division at Autodesk. "It has helped many companies survive during this difficult economic period and we feel it will contribute to their prosperity when the economy turns around."

    IMAGINiT Technolgies Completes Pillar Training

Pillar's Product Engineering Department used a staged approach to roll out the Autodesk Inventor product and train its 16 engineers and designers. The last group of four engineers recently completed training.

IMAGINiT Technologies (www.imaginit-tech.com), an Autodesk Channel Business Partner, was instrumental in providing the necessary training and support to Pillar. IMAGINiT is a member of RAND Worldwide, a global, diversified engineering group with 110 offices in 28 countries -- the world's largest independent provider of enterprise solutions to the engineering industry.

"We work with companies to evaluate their design processes, offer best practices, and deliver leading-edge tools like Autodesk Inventor to improve their time-to-market and profitability," said Bob Hess, application engineer at IMAGINiT. "Pillar engineers were productive after the first two days of (Autodesk) Inventor training. The more accomplished they become with the product, the more it will contribute to Pillar's bottom line profitability."

    About Autodesk

Founded in 1982, Autodesk, Inc., is the world's leading design software and digital content company. Autodesk offers solutions for professionals in building design, geographic information systems, manufacturing, digital media, and wireless data services. By delivering progressive products and services, Autodesk helps customers create, manage, use and maximize the value of their digital data throughout the lifecycle of their projects. For more information about the company, see www.autodesk.com.

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.

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

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