INTERCONNECTS

CONCORD, MA -- China Aviation Industry Corporation will purchase 50 additional licenses of SolidWorks(R) three dimensional computer-aided design (3D CAD) software to reduce the time and expense of designing its airborne equipment, SolidWorks announced today. SolidWorks is the standard 3D CAD tool for China Aviation, which will have 160 SolidWorks licenses installed in its 30 factories by the end of the year. China Aviation's products range from connectors, to motors, to testing equipment. Before SolidWorks software, most of the factories used 2D design packages or expensive, Unix-based CAD systems. The company started using SolidWorks in 1998 and its design engineers immediately embraced the technology. SolidWorks' powerful design functions and intuitive user interface helped the China Aviation engineers seamlessly migrate thousands of 2D drawings into 3D SolidWorks models. "SolidWorks has helped our factories significantly shorten their design cycles," said Shao Qilong, general manager of Beijing Zhongxing Airborne Information Co. Ltd., the purchasing agent for China Aviation Industry Corporation. "SolidWorks helps our design engineers visualize the products' motion and performance before physical prototyping is required. We purchased SolidWorks software not only for its advanced assembly and modeling capabilities, but also because SolidWorks Corporation has a reputation as the leading innovator in the 3D CAD industry. Our ongoing partnership with SolidWorks will secure our long-term plan to improve our design technology." "China Aviation has demanding design requirements in a high-volume production environment spread across several facilities," said Dave Corcoran, vice president of research and development for SolidWorks Corporation. "By deploying our 3D CAD capabilities throughout their operations, China Aviation has created a flexible design process that gets modifications and new products into production faster, with fewer errors. That kind of speed-to-market has a great effect on profitability." China Aviation is working with SolidWorks' reseller General Faith Int. Ltd. for ongoing software implementation, training, and support.