VISTAGY Announces a New Generation of FiberSIM Software

The new architecture of FiberSIM 4.0 brings a complete digital design solution to the engineering and manufacture of composite parts and promotes the sharing of data across the enterprise.

WALTHAM, Mass. (USA), April 9, 2002—VISTAGY, Inc., today announced the release of Version 4.0 of FiberSIM™. The software enables engineers working with computer-aided-design (CAD) systems to design products made of lightweight, high-performance composite materials. A new architecture in Version 4.0 promotes complete digital product definition, a strategy that leading engineering organizations are using to streamline product development cycles and automate manufacturing processes.

“We saw the value to our customers of completely overhauling the structure of the software,” says Steve Luby, President and CEO of VISTAGY, Inc. “FiberSIM 4.0 is a powerful combination of new software technology with production-proven capabilities for composites design and manufacture. Next-generation FiberSIM represents our most
important development effort for the composites industry since our inception ten years
ago. The new architecture uniquely positions the software for growth, so that we can continue to offer improvements and new functionality that will benefit our customers.”

FiberSIM 4.0 is built on the same architecture as VISTAGY’s award-winning EnCapta™ software, which allows engineers to capture and communicate specialized non-geometric design data. Next-generation FiberSIM offers extensive data integration capabilities based on the open standard of XML, so users can share more detailed data about their composite designs—for example, a list of materials specifications and quantities used—with manufacturing and process engineering, quality assurance, cost modeling, and other systems in the enterprise. Whereas designers must currently use manual methods to exchange this information, electronic data sharing is faster and eliminates data re-entry errors.

FiberSIM 4.0 introduces a new and intuitive user interface with a native look and feel for Microsoft® Windows on PCs and Motif® on UNIX systems. Data generated in previous versions of FiberSIM is fully compatible with the new release. The new architecture also provides an increased level of integration with the leading CAD systems, reducing the learning curve and increasing ease-of-use.

About FiberSIM

FiberSIM is a suite of software that transforms CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER and Unigraphics CAD systems into specialized environments for designing and manufacturing composite parts. FiberSIM tools automate the design process, assess the producibility of a composite part, and generate manufacturing information including documentation, flat patterns, and data to interface with laser projectors, automated cutters and fiber placement machines. Consequently, FiberSIM enables users to drive all aspects of preliminary design, analysis, detailed design, and manufacturing from within a single CAD master model. FiberSIM incorporates XML tools to share composites data with other applications throughout the enterprise, such as software for procurement, quality assurance and manufacturing.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 100 companies worldwide in the aerospace, high-performance automotive, sporting goods, medical equipment, airline, 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

Editor's note:

EnCapta™ software from VISTAGY received the Computer Graphics World 2001 Innovation Award in November 2001 and was named the NASA Tech Briefs Product of the Month for May 2001.