Autodesk Inc, Sausolito, California has reached definitive agreement for acquisition of Cadetron Inc of Atlanta for Autodesk shares worth about $6m. The agreement is subject to the usual conditions, and the acquisition is expected to be completed in late March. Cadetron has developed a solid modelling package and several applications modules, collectively called The Engineer Works. The solid modelling package enables integration of design, analysis, and manufacturing from the same database, and deliveries of The Engineer Works to customers is pencilled in for late 1987 through selected Autodesk dealers. This acquisition gives us three-dimensional capabilities far beyond anything that’s now available in Personal Computer-based CAD systems, says Autodesk technology director Eric Lyons – instead of starting with a drawing and attaching some solid properties to it, a solid modelling package starts with a mathematical model of a solid object and lets you visualise it, analyse it, and modify it. It’s impossible to create something ambiguous or physically impossible. The Engineer Works is based on PADL-2, the solid modeller from the Production Automation Project of the University of Rochester. PADL-2 has been used as the foundation for several firms’ mainframe- and mini-based solid modelling systems.
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