HP Announces HP PE/WorkManager For Workgroups, The Complete Solution For Workgroup-Oriented Engineering Data Management

Palo Alto, California. December 5, 1995 -- Hewlett-Packard Company today announced HP Precision Engineering (HP PE)/WorkManager for Workgroups, a new, team-oriented data-management solution for engineering workgroups.

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups provides tight integration with HP PE/ME10, the leading 2-D design and drafting application, and with HP PE/SolidDesigner, HP's next-generation solids-modeling software.

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups, an easy-to-use solution developed to for today's design engineer, is derived from HP WorkManager, HP's leading, enterprise product-data and workflow management system. Its architecture allows unsurpassed extendibility to cover enterprisewide workflow processes and to integrate other departments. The modular approach allows the customer to begin with document management and to grow to product-structure management, classification or workflow at a later date. A broad offering of HP WorkManager add-on modules, such as on-line SAP integration, also is available. This ensures a stepwise implementation of product data management (PDM) without losing the growth path to an enterprisewide PDM solution.

"The introduction of HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups provides engineering workgroups with the data and document management, and bill-of-materials (BOMs)-generation capability appropriate to their needs," said Peter D. Bohn, general manager of HP's Mechanical Design Division (MDD). "The tight integration with HP PE/ME10 and HP PE/SolidDesigner makes it possible for engineers to work concurrently on product design in order to reduce development cycles and improve time-to-market."

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups manages 3-D models and 2-D drawings as well as other kinds of engineering and manufacturing documents. All the required functionality for Engineering Change Control management, release control and version management are integrated. The bill-of-materials processor allows users to generate BoMs directly from HP PE/ME10 drawings and from HP PE/SolidDesigner assemblies.

The user interface is designed to allow fast and efficient communication with the database. All required commands for the retrieval of parts or documents are accessible within one window and can be called directly from the CAD application. The central editor window provides an instant overview of the master data for a selected part and all its related documents, be they 3-D models, 2-D drawings or other design documents. The user can select the desired document directly and load it into the corresponding application with a single mouse pick.

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups comes preconfigured. Predefined forms and processes for document management, master data management, BoMs, and change management allow the user to become productive instantly and help reduce implementation time to a minimum.

The product is fully customizable; user-defined functions and integration to other applications can be added by simple macro-programming.

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups provides significant productivity improvements for users who have to work concurrently on complex assemblies in 3-D.

A comprehensive versioning concept allows users to handle version changes over the assembly structure. If an engineering change results in a new version or revision of a part, the user can, in just one step, decide to replace the previous version with the new one in all relevant assemblies. Where-used queries provide an instant overview of other designs in which a certain part is used.

Access permissions set in the database are reflected in HP PE/SolidDesigner. Only parts and assemblies that have been reserved for modification can be modified with HP PE/SolidDesigner. Released parts or parts which have been reserved by somebody else on the design team are displayed as read-only. This allows several users to work in parallel on one assembly. HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups keeps track of ownership of all components in an assembly during the design process.

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups fully supports the 2-D documentation process. The user interface provides an instant overview of all part drawings and their corresponding 3-D models. In just one easy operation, the engineer responsible for 2-D documentation can select and load the previous version of the drawing and the new layout from HP PE/SolidDesigner into HP PE/ME10, which then updates the drawing automatically. This can be done on the 3-D designer's workstation or at any other workstation or PC on the network. This allows users to move the documentation work to lower-cost hardware within the design department.

With HP PE/ME10, full title-block management capabilities are provided. The user-configurable title block can contain part- and document-related information, as well as the change history of the drawing. When a drawing is loaded into PE/ME10, the title-block is automatically updated with the latest information coming from the database.

The new BoMs processor, which is integrated in HP PE/ME10 and HP PE/SolidDesigner, provides all the functionality needed to create and modify bills-of-materials. The BoMs can be updated if the assembly structure has changed in the CAD model. In addition, a BoMs generated from a 3-D assembly may be used directly on its corresponding 2-D drawing, that is to place the position-number labels on the drawing.

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups is affordable. For example, the entry-level version includes all the required modules for document management with HP PE/ME10 and HP PE/SolidDesigner.

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups is available as an add-on to or bundled with HP WorkManager. It supports a variety of commercial relational databases, such as Informix, Sybase, Oracle or HP ALLBASE.

U.S. Prices and Delivery

HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups runs on HP 9000 Series 700 workstations and Intel-compatible PCs under Microsoft Windows in conjunction with HP PE/ME10.

Prices start from $1,950/seat for HP PE/WorkManager for Workgroups. This price includes the HP WorkManager Document module.

Bill-of-materials handling, a separate module, is $1,600/seat. This product includes the BoM-integration product for HP PE/ME10 and HP PE/SolidDesigner and the HP WorkManager configuration module.

HP's Mechanical Design Division (MDD) 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 57,000 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 electromechanical design and HP/PE WorkManager for product-data and workflow management.

HP is the second-largest computer supplier in the United States, with computer-related revenue in excess of $25.3 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

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 102,300 employees and had revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

Information in this release applies specifically too products available in the United States. Product availability and specifications may vary in non-U.S. markets.

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