ALGOR PROVIDES QUICKER, EASIER AND MORE ACCURATE FINITE ELEMENT MESHES WORKING WITHIN CAD

Three of Algor’s most recent advances in finite element meshing are illustrated in this example. In the background is an example of InCAD technology. The insets depict a bearing assembly with 50 percent feature suppression (top) and midplane meshing (bottom).

PITTSBURGH, PA – May 25, 2000 – Algor Inc., a leading maker of software for mechanical engineers, continues to expand its line of innovative meshing tools, making them faster and easier to use so that engineers performing finite element analyses can get accurate results more quickly, all available while working within CAD.

In recent months, Algor has introduced automatic midplane meshing, user-controlled feature suppression and the expansion of its InCAD family of products so that more CAD solid modeler users can seamlessly access Algor’s comprehensive meshing and analysis capabilities.

Automatic midplane meshing is a tremendous time-saver for engineers because it reduces thin, solid features in a CAD model to plate/shell elements that can be analyzed more quickly. The engineer specifies a desired thickness and all regions of the model or assembly thinner than that specification are automatically converted to plate/shell elements. The new plate/shell elements are assigned an appropriate thickness and are placed at the midplane of the solid regions they replace.

A new version of Algor’s solid mesh engine, released late last year, made solid FEA mesh generation faster than ever with the introduction of a pop-up "feature control" control window within the CAD solid modeler. Here an engineer can remove small features from a model if they are of no consequence to the results of the analysis at hand. Removing small features allows for a coarser mesh, which means fewer elements and quicker analysis time.

Algor’s InCAD family of products features superior solid meshing capabilities with its new tetrahedral mesh engine, which creates fast, high-quality tetrahedral elements by meshing inward from nearly equilateral surface triangles. It provides an accurate solid FEA mesh in the same or less time than competing mesh engines. InCAD also features Merlin Meshing Technology, a fully automatic surface mesh enhancement tool, which can be used to refine the surface mesh of the CAD solid model before solid mesh generation.

Earlier this year, Algor expanded the InCAD family to include CADKEY users. An engineer using CADKEY simply selects the "Algor" option from the "Application" menu to launch Algor’s "CAD Solid Model Interface," from which engineers can then capture exact geometry from CADKEY and create an FEA surface mesh with the easy-to-use sliding mesh density control. Superdraw III, Algor’s single user interface and precision finite element model-building tool, can be activated with one mouse click to access Algor’s automatic or manual surface mesh refinement options. Algor recently announced it is working to bring InCAD technology to Autodesk Inventor, as well. By gaining access to Algor within CAD, CADKEY users joined engineers using Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, Mechanical Desktop and Solid Edge.

While engineers seek more expeditious ways to make safer and less-expensive products, Algor looks for ways to get its full-featured finite element analysis technology to engineers in the least-costly manner. In that spirit, Algor recently introduced InCAD DesignPak. At $975, DesignPak features an all-new solid tetrahedral mesh engine for faster solid FEA meshes, enhanced plate/shell modeling (including the all-new midplane meshing), linear static stress analysis and an HTML Report Wizard.

All Algor software works with Windows NT/95/98/2000. Customers with current technical support and maintenance agreements can request a complete software update, including the meshing enhancements, through Algor’s Web site (www.algor.com) or an Algor account representative.

Algor has been a leader in the engineering software industry since introducing FEA for PCs in 1984 and interfacing with CAD systems in 1985. The company provides innovative, affordable and easy-to-use software products that have enabled 20,000 engineers in 60 countries to create safe, efficient, cost-effective designs. Algor also offers superior educational support and customer service that includes the use of state-of-the-art Internet audio/video technology for "Web Courses," which provide step-by-step software instruction, and free public "Webcasts" in live demonstration format.

Algor’s product line features FEA-based Accupak/VE Mechanical Event Simulation software. Accupak/VE reduces the need for physical prototyping and eliminates the need to input dynamic loads by determining the motion, flexing and resulting stresses of a part or assembly at each instant of an event. Algor’s proprietary kinematic element technology makes performing Mechanical Event Simulations using CAD solid parts and assemblies practical for realistic, accurate results. Engineers can use Algor’s InCAD^Plus and InCAD DesignPak products to seamlessly capture exact CAD geometry from popular CAD systems within Algor. The company also offers linear stress, vibration, heat transfer, electrostatic, fluid flow, composite materials and piping systems analysis tools. Algor’s software interchanges data with products from ANSYS, Inc. (Nasdaq:ANSS), Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADSK), CADKEY Corporation, MSC.Software Corporation (NYSE:MNS), Parametric Technology Corporation, Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, Unigraphics Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:UGS), SolidWorks Corporation, a Dassault Systemes S.A. (Nasdaq:DASTY) company, and others.