GOVERNMENT

CONCORD, MA -- SolidWorks Corporation today unveiled eDrawings Professional, a new software tool that enables team members to communicate and review designs via e-mail. Most CAD viewing and markup tools available in the market require all users to buy the software in order to mark up a design - however, anyone who receives an eDrawing published using eDrawings Professional can review, mark up, and measure it without having to purchase any software. These unique capabilities eliminate common communication barriers and expedite the design review process, thereby reducing costly manufacturing errors. SolidWorks' eDrawings breaks down software incompatibility and drawing interpretation hurdles by allowing engineers and designers to easily create compressed electronic drawings and email them to anyone. eDrawings' small file size speeds the delivery of designs, eliminating the need for "snail mail" or faxing. eDrawings' built-in viewer and self-explanatory tools make it the ideal solution for anyone who needs to send drawings, part designs, and assembly designs electronically. eDrawings Professional essentially embeds "a markup pen" in an eDrawing, making it "review-enabled." Anyone who receives a review-enabled eDrawing can measure (determine size and distance within a model) and mark up (highlight specific areas of a part and add written comments) that eDrawing without having to purchase additional software. Users can save these markups in separate files called "reviews" and then later merge them into the original eDrawing. "There is inherently a lot of back and forth in the design review process," said Patrick Crooks, engineering technician with Canadian Tool and Die, one of the leading welded cylinder manufacturers in Canada. "I don't know how many times I've had to circle something on a drawing and fax it back to customers. Using a fax machine as the primary means of communication and securing customer approval on a hydraulic cylinder design can take a couple of days and a lot of telephone conversations. Because eDrawings Professional allows our customers to view measurements on the screen and make changes to the file, we've been able to cut the design review time down to a day, or even hours. When you're talking about time to market, that's a significant reduction." In addition, users can protect sensitive design data when creating an eDrawing by disabling the measurement feature so others can't determine exact specifications. eDrawings Professional also includes advanced viewing capabilities such as dynamic component translation (users can interactively move parts in an assembly model to see areas of interest that may otherwise be hidden), and cross section views (cut a model in half to view internal details). The eDrawings Viewer, the foundation for eDrawings Professional, has been upgraded to include several customer requested enhancements. The eDrawings Viewer provides higher quality graphics and sharper print-quality than in previous versions of eDrawings so that designers and reviewers have a clearer view of the products they need to prepare for production. "For some companies, the design review process can be a Herculean task," said Robert McDonald, eDrawings product manager for SolidWorks. "There may be 50 or more people reviewing a single design, and that could take weeks. With the eDrawings Viewer and eDrawings Professional, we've accelerated that process so that once an eDrawing arrives for review, the recipient can immediately begin editing it without having to download anything. That speeds time to market, which is critical in competitive industries." The eDrawings Viewer and eDrawings Professional are built using HOOPS technology from Tech Soft America (TSA). The HOOPS 3D Application Framework, Stream Toolkit, and Net Server components enable eDrawings to deliver sophisticated graphics capabilities including advanced streaming and file compression. For more information visit www.solidworks.com/edrawings