CoCreate's VRML Viewing Technology Selected by HP as Standard for VISUALIZE Workstations

VRML is a file format for describing interactive 3-D objects designed to be used on hyperlinked Internet, intranet and local-client systems.

FirstSpace allows users to collaborate with other participants in different geographic locations to optimize engineering-design productivity by enabling them to work together in an electronic gathering. The product allows participants to see the same model and contribute ideas interactively, while operating on a wide variety of computing platforms.

FirstSpace is scheduled to ship in December, preloaded on all HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations using the HP-UX¹ operating environment. It also is slated to be available in December for Windows^® 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT^®, together with co-view collaboration features, as a free download from www.cocreate.com/links/viewer/ " www.cocreate.com/links/viewer/ and http://software.hp.com . The FirstSpace viewer offers support using the industry-standard VRML 97 (2.0).

"Collaboration is fast becoming a critical component of leading-edge companies, and FirstSpace will allow users to take advantage of this technology both today and in the future," said Adam Grosser, senior product manager for CoCreate. "We are extremely proud to have been selected to provide the viewer technology for HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations. This is the first of a family of products that will allow interoperability among designers using various PDM and CAD systems. The scalability of FirstSpace allows users to start with an easy-to-use basic viewing system and expand into Cocreate's award-winning OneSpace solution. In the future, we plan on adding collaborative mark-up and annotation capabilities.

"Users tell us that they want easy-to-use, pervasive viewer technology that offers more than just browser plug-in capability and is accessible to all people in the enterprise," said Munir Mallal, worldwide software planning manager for HP's Workstation Systems Division. "This includes areas in the enterprise such as engineering, manufacturing, sales and marketing, purchasing and quality control. CoCreate's FirstSpace provides this functionality. We were looking for a supplier with world-class 3-D viewing and collaboration technology. After we conducted an extensive review of all existing technology, we found CoCreate's FirstSpace the most suitable solution, which not only met, but exceeded our customers' needs."

"SDRC is pleased to offer our HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstation customers the ability to use CoCreate's viewer technology," said William Carrelli, vice president, marketing, SDRC. "CoCreate's FirstSpace, together with SDRC's I-DEAS and Metaphase software, will provide our joint customers with advanced solutions that can address the most demanding requirements for data creation, collaboration and management within the product-development process. HP and SDRC enjoy a very strong relationship, and the release of the FirstSpace technology is just another example of the benefits realized by our customers as a result of our collaborative efforts. Customers can have a fully certified solution that will allow them to bring their products to market faster, while maintaining high quality, to achieve a competitive advantage."

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