HP Introduces Precision Engineering (PE)/Workmanager for ME10, the Complete Data-Management Solution for Mechanical CAD Workgroups

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 15, 1995 -- Hewlett-Packard Company today introduced a design-management-integration product designed to provide a complete data-management solution for mechanical CAD workgroups. The new product, HP Precision Engineering (PE)/WorkManager for ME10, extends HP's PE family and gives users of HP PE/ME10 2-D mechanical design, drafting and documentation system a complete, workgroup-oriented solution based on HP WorkManager. HP WorkManager is HP's open, enterprise information- and workflow-management system.

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 allows designers to organize, retrieve and archive design data at the workgroup level. It is sold as an add-on module to HP WorkManager or bundled with HP WorkManager and HP PE/ME10 as a complete data-management solution. It replaces the existing application-integration product for HP PE/ME10.

Complete CAD Workgroup Solution

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 gives design engineers a complete solution for managing engineering drawings and other related design data in a comprehensive way. It also helps customers establish an ISO 9001 conformance process for quality management.

"With the introduction of HP PE/WorkManager for ME10, HP provides a superior solution for our customers that will help them improve their product quality, reduce development costs and help them get their products to market faster," said Peter Bohn, general manager of HP's Mechanical Design Division.

Ease of Use

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 provides a specially tailored, user-friendly interface that "speaks" the language of the designer. It offers a highly intuitive user interface, to retrieve and modify engineering data. Multiple sheet drawings and different versions of drawings are handled in a single-screen user interface.

The "out-of-the-box" approach, along with predefined forms and title-block formats, makes the product ready for immediate and productive use -- without expensive consulting or training.

Flexibility

The entry-level HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 solution includes the HP WorkManager module for document management. The product can be extended easily with any other HP WorkManager module, such as configuration management, classification, history and workflow. It also can be extended -- via the standard HP WorkManager environment -- with other integration products. This outstanding flexibility helps meet the user's specific needs.

The flexibility of the HP WorkManager-based architecture permits a seamless growth path to enterprise-level product data management (PDM) for connecting different workgroups, and for maintaining and controlling information flow in heterogeneous environments.

"This growth path will appeal to organizations that wish to implement CAD design management initially and evolve to enterprise-level PDM later on," said Bohn. "We believe this will be the preferred approach for many companies."

Functionality

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 supports the loading and storing of complete drawings, assemblies and single parts. Changes to a design can be captured using change notes and versions. The system keeps track of the different versions created as well as the change history of a drawing.

Comprehensive query mechanisms allow fast access to design information and support the reuse of existing designs so that there can be several versions or multiple sheets of a drawing related to a part. Different kinds of documents can be managed, and the model also supports family of parts drawings.

With HP PE/ME10's special revision-checking feature, HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 retrieves different versions of a drawing. Two versions can be selected easily and fed into HP PE/ME10's Revision Checker, which highlights the changes from one version to another graphically.

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 also supports 3-D to 2-D associativity. Drawings and new layouts produced by HP PE/SolidDesigner can be selected and loaded into the automatic drawing-update mechanisms in HP PE/ME10.

U.S. Price and Availability

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 is $2,050 per concurrent user license. This price includes the required module for document management, including the HP WorkManager server software that allows users to connect to a variety of their relational databases, such as Informix, ORACLE, Sybase and ALLBASE. In combination with a predefined database schema for drawing management and the installation mechanisms supplied, HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 allows the implementation of a workgroup-oriented PDM solution at one of the lowest cost in the industry.

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 is expected to be available in midsummer '95.

HP PE/WorkManager for ME10 initially is available for HP-UX(1) and Microsoft(R) Windows.

HP's Mechanical Design Division develops 2-D and 3-D mechanical computer-aided design software, the Precision Engineering Systems, known for quality, ease of use, customization capability and support of industry standards. These products are installed on more than 55,000 systems in design, engineering and manufacturing organizations worldwide, and are localized in 10 languages. The software includes HP PE/SolidDesigner for product-modeling design; HP PE/ME10 for 2-D design, drafting and documentation; HP PE/ME30 for 3-D modeling, design and drafting; HP PE/SheetAdvisor for sheet-metal design, HP PE/DDS-C for electro-mechanical design and HP/PE WorkManager for product-data and workflow management.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing, communications and measurement products and services recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 98,200 employees and had revenue of $25 billion in its 1994 fiscal year.

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