UGS' Strategy to Publish 3D JT Data Format Draws Strong Support from Global Manufacturing Community and PLM Industry Experts

Statements from Customers, Vendors and Analysts Highlight the Value of an Open JT Standard to Enable Product Lifecycle Processes Throughout the Global Manufacturing Industry

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- DARATECH SUMMIT 2006 -- UGS Corp., a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, today announced strong support from the global manufacturing community and several PLM suppliers and industry analysts for its recent announcement to publish the JT data format, the widely adopted 3D standard used throughout the global manufacturing industry that enables product visualization, collaboration and data sharing.

UGS made the announcement in conjunction with today's opening of the Daratech Summit 2006 event in Cambridge, Mass., where UGS Chairman, CEO and President Tony Affuso delivered a keynote address.

UGS announced on January 23 that the governing body of the JT Open Program -- a global community of leading manufacturers, PLM suppliers and academic institutions around the world -- unanimously agreed to recommend UGS take immediate action to publish JT to more quickly promote its ongoing development, proliferation and support. Since then, industry reaction to the announcement has been overwhelmingly positive.

Customers and suppliers speak out in support of JT

Following last month's announcement, several of UGS' customers and fellow PLM suppliers shared their views on the potential impact -- both to themselves and the broader manufacturing industry -- of publishing JT. The responses reflect a variety of opinions, but all support the initiative as a way to further facilitate the rapid adoption of JT as an open standard within their enterprises and throughout the PLM industry.

* Visteon -- John Jewell, Global IT Director, Climate Product Group and Engineering IT "Visteon has adopted JT as its 3D visualization standard. The real impact of publishing JT for Visteon is in the long-term influence on our partners. For example, other CAD/CAM/CAE and PLM software suppliers will find it easier to adopt the JT standard and incorporate it into their tools. As a result, the software tools we use throughout our product lifecycle will be able to read JT files, and translation will be a thing of the past. Publishing JT will also make it easier to interact with our OEM's and suppliers."

* Autoweb -- Craig A. Strzyzewski Director, Strategic Relationship Management "We are pleased that UGS went forward with the JT Open Consortium's request to publish JT reference. This provides Autoweb and other companies a greater opportunity to incorporate the JT data format and its use into product suites and workflows throughout the supply chain."

* Opticore -- Peter Larsson, vice president, Products "Opticore believes that the publishing of the JT format is an extremely important step in getting wider acceptance for JT as the standard for visualization data exchange. It will allow Opticore -- and other vendors -- to further invest in JT interfaces and JT data generation as a general solution for data exchange. It will also quiet any discussions and hesitations related to JT not being a truly open format.

* T-Systems, Germany -- Juergen Mohrmann, Sr. Manager, Digital Engineering Solutions "Publishing JT will enable us to recommend JT as a long term archiving format for 3D data to our customers."

* Technische Universitat Darmstadt -- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reiner Anderl, Vice-President "Publishing JT will enable development of a common format for multi-CAD data archiving and will thus significantly enhance technical product documentation. JT considerably improves sustainable integration of downstream processes from product development and manufacturing engineering processes enabling holistic usage of CAD and digital manufacturing data. Therefore JT will continuously advance product development in leading industries such as automotive, aerospace and mechanical engineering, including suppliers."

Analysts see publishing of JT as advantageous to PLM industry

Several analysts who follow the PLM industry have also weighed in with their views on how publishing JT will create broader global adoption and as a result could enhance the benefits of interoperability and collaboration for manufacturing companies worldwide.

* Charles Foundyller, CEO, Daratech, Inc. "We congratulate UGS on their decision to publish JT and bring down another barrier to global 3D collaboration and innovation. Users have been asking for open data models and file formats for the past 35 years. We're sure this move by UGS will find great acclaim throughout the JT community and beyond, and will motivate more people to use JT."

* Evan Yares, Open Design Alliance "All the big PLM vendors like to talk about how open they are, yet, only UGS has been willing to make the hard decisions that give users control of their data. UGS' decision to publish the JT specification may be one of those rare disruptive events that can change the direction of an industry."

* Brad Holtz, President & CEO, Cyon Research "The cost of poor interoperability has been estimated at greater than the entire annual market capitalization of the CAD industry. JT is a well-established tool that addresses the interoperability problem, but had until now been criticized as a proprietary approach. This announcement removes the basis for that criticism and validates JT as a workable data-exchange platform."

* Gisela Wilson, Director of PLM Solutions analysis at IDC "JT is technology that has been enhanced over the past 10 years and is competent and reliable. By making it public, UGS is enabling connectivity to a whole new class of CAD geometry users and expanding collaboration in New Product Development among global business networks."

* Jim Brown, VP Global Product Innovation & Engineering Research, Aberdeen Group "Our research indicates that employing enhanced collaboration technologies, such as JT, in product development can have a significant impact on a company's ability to innovate and meet their product development targets. The publishing of JT is a positive step towards openness and should make collaboration technology more accessible and easier to adopt."

"In order to remain competitive, manufacturers need best-in-class PLM software solutions that can share 3D product data seamlessly," said Dave Shirk, executive vice president, Global Marketing for UGS. "The accelerated industry adoption of JT that will be facilitated by publishing the format will enable this kind of interoperability and continues UGS' longstanding tradition of delivering open solutions that help our customers transform their process of innovation."

About UGS

UGS is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with nearly 4 million licensed seats and 46,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, UGS' vision is to enable a world where organizations and their partners collaborate through global innovation networks to deliver world-class products and services while leveraging UGS' open enterprise solutions, fulfilling the mission of enabling them to transform their process of innovation. 

www.ugs.com

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