New EnCapta Software from VISTAGY Enriches the CAD Environment for Engineers

Allows CAD systems to capture more specialized design information about products

WALTHAM, Mass., February 26, 2001 — VISTAGY, Inc., announced today the release of EnCapta™ software, which extends the power of sophisticated computer-aided-design (CAD) systems that engineers use to create 3D product geometry. EnCapta augments CAD software by providing engineers with tools for capturing and communicating specialized non-geometric design data that are vital for complete product definition. Engineering organizations that use CAD models as a primary source of information about products will benefit from EnCapta’s complementary software tools for enriching the design environment.

VISTAGY has longtime expertise in providing specialized CAD-integrated design environments for customers such as Sikorsky Aircraft, The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, Bombardier Aerospace, and many other companies. EnCapta advances the technology underlying the company's well-regarded FiberSIM™ software, which provides engineers with a specialized environment integrated into the CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, and Unigraphics CAD systems to meet the demands of composite part design and manufacture. With EnCapta, engineers can now capture complex non-geometric design data for any specialized area of engineering and store it associatively with the CAD geometry.

"Engineers today perform under compressed design schedules in an information-intensive atmosphere," says Steven C. Luby, president and CEO of VISTAGY, Inc. "In addition to creating the product geometry, they are responsible for organizing an enormous amount of non-geometric design data that cannot be expressed or managed efficiently in the traditional CAD environment. Crucial product data resides in spreadsheets, text documents, email messages, even handwritten notes. With EnCapta, engineers now have a structured way to capture all this information, associate it with the CAD geometry, and communicate it to other applications and decision-makers throughout the enterprise. Because EnCapta presents the complete design context associated with the geometry, more-informed decisions can be made, resulting in better products going to market faster at lower cost."

About EnCapta

EnCapta provides engineering organizations with the capability for building specialized, CAD-integrated design environments that enrich the CAD model as a source of information. Once engineers capture a complete digital product definition, they can also use EnCapta to distribute this valuable resource to other engineering applications and to the entire product development team. EnCapta features three main components: customizable templates for defining EnCapta objects, an interactive user interface, and XML tools.

Using customizable templates, engineers define the type and structure of the specialized information they wish to capture. Data such as design details, cost estimates, engineering change orders, materials specifications, and assembly instructions that are often stored separately from the CAD model can now be captured and managed as objects and linked to the relevant CAD geometry. Multiple EnCapta objects can reference a single geometric feature, and a single EnCapta object can link to multiple geometric features.

The EnCapta user interface manages all types of specialized non-geometric product information from within the CAD session. Engineers can browse EnCapta objects and display the associated geometry, or they can select geometry on the CAD model to discover the associated EnCapta data. EnCapta objects maintain their associative links within the single repository of the CAD model, so there is no need to re-enter data after making design revisions. Without leaving the modeling environment, engineers can view, edit, sort, and search the design and manufacturing information associated with product geometry.

EnCapta XML tools make it easy to extract specific design information from the CAD model so it can be reported to other systems or databases throughout the enterprise. As a result, manufacturing, purchasing, quality assurance, and other groups in the organization can receive design data in a format customized for their own use. Because EnCapta data are associative with the CAD model, information that engineers share electronically with others is always complete and up to date. Engineers can also use the XML tools to import information from databases and other sources of design data.

EnCapta software is currently integrated into the CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, and Unigraphics CAD systems.

About VISTAGY

VISTAGY, Inc., founded in 1991 as Composite Design Technologies, Inc., develops software that integrates sophisticated tools for engineers into popular CAD systems. Customers for VISTAGY software include more than 80 companies worldwide in the aerospace, high-performance automotive, sporting goods, medical equipment, and marine industries. VISTAGY empowers engineers with software that increases productivity, improves communication, and enables manufacturing organizations to make more-informed decisions. The company offers training and consulting to engineering organizations that wish to integrate their design and manufacturing tools.

For more information, contact VISTAGY in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, at +1.781.290.0506 x 300, or visit www.vistagy.com.