Autodesk Announces Plan to Develop A New 3D Solid-Modeling Kernel Named "Shape Manager" Based on ACIS 7.0 Kernel Licenced From Spatial Corp

Nov. 28, 2001--Robert Cross, vice president of Autodesk manufacturing division, announced Autodesk's plan to develop a new 3D modeling kernel, to eventually be incorporated into Inventor and other Autodesk design software.

Autodesk has added a development team, tasked to create a purpose-built, feature-based modeling engine for Inventor. Cross sad it would be "the biggest team within the Inventor project." The team will include personnel provided by D-Cubed from its consultancy software development business unit, located in Cambridge, England.

Named Autodesk ShapeManager, the new modeling engine is based on the ACIS 7.0 kernel Autodesk licensed from Spatial Corp, a Dassault Systemes company. Cross cited the desire to be able to synchronize the release cycles of Inventor and its modeling engine as the motivation for creating ShapeManager. ACIS 7.0, Cross pointed out, shipped in October--a month later than Inventor 5.0's release.

The new engine will maintain compatibility with ACIS 7.0 or earlier versions. Further development efforts will be aimed at fulfilling Inventor's feature-modeling needs and the design requirements of those in the consumer products industries. ShapeManager will feature, among other things, enhanced shelling and lofting capabilities.

Dassault Systemes, a global CAD/CAM/CAE solution provider, acquired Spatial Technology in Nov. 2000. Dassault Systemes product line includes CATIA, ENOVIA, and DELMIA.