Coventry, UK. 14 January, 2011. – Dassault Systèmes, the world leading 3D PLM (product lifecycle management) software solutions developer and ACT, its exclusive Northern Europe value-added reseller (VAR) for the CATIA ICEM Shape software portfolio, have announced new software licencing options that enable ICEM Surf and CATIA ICEM Shape Design users to cater for peaks in their work-loads.

Rent and/or borrow
With the new licencing arrangements, customers are able to ‘borrow’ a software licence from the master licence file and to take it off-site. So, for example, a user of the ICEM Surf 3D modelling software suite could ‘borrow’ a licence for the ICEM Surf Real-time Renderer (RTR) module and use it on a customer site for a design review meeting. During the time it is being borrowed from the Licence Server, the RTR licence is attached to the remote machine.

In addition, new software rental facilities have been introduced that enable ICEM Surf users to rent individual software modules for the time needed to complete a special project or to cater for a peak in their workload. An example here could be a vehicle safety analysis project as part of an overall vehicle development programme. The user could rent the ICEM Surf Safety Analysis module for the time needed to complete the specific safety analysis project.

“These new licencing arrangements enable customers to maximise their investment in ICEM Surf or CATIA ICEM Shape Design by allowing them to use the software away from their offices when necessary and to quickly and cost-efficiently deploy additional software to cater for one-off projects or peaks in their workloads,” said Phil Botley, chief operating officer of ACT. “We believe it provides our customers with a level of flexibility that’s not available from other software providers.”

64-bit power
In associated news, it is announced that a new 64-bit version of ICEM Surf that was introduced with the latest version, ICEM Surf 4.9, is now shipping to customers. The 64-bit version allows users to handle datasets of almost unlimited size – the only restriction being the amount of memory installed in a user’s machine.

Enabling massive models, such as a complete vehicle, to be handled efficiently, the 64-bit version provides scan data processing, model manipulation, design review preparation and interaction with the model during design review sessions that are an order of magnitude faster than the 32-bit version. It also provides better integration with downstream engineering data.

“The release of the 64-bit version of ICEM Surf and the new licencing arrangements are a practical illustration of the fact that Dassault Systèmes is committed to further developing the ICEM Surf software suite in order to satisfy existing and future customers’ requirements,” stated Botley.

About ICEM Surf
Part of the Dassault Systèmes CATIA family of 3D product design, engineering, manufacturing and lifecycle management software products, ICEM Surf has been the leading Class-A surface modelling, surface quality analysis and surfaces visualisation software suite for the past 20 years. ICEM Surf has become a de-facto industry-standard automotive Class-A surfacing software tool. In the final stages of a vehicle or other product design, ICEM Surf is used to clarify and to fully resolve the customer-visible surfaces of a product before tool and die fabrication starts. Designers can also use ICEM Surf to create extremely accurate 3D design visualisations through static and dynamic renderings as well as 3D virtual reality views using stereo mode.

About ACT
Based in Coventry in the UK, ACT is a member of a consortium of companies owned by Envisage Group Limited. Envisage provides turnkey design, engineering and manufacturing services and software solutions to manufacturing companies globally. As part of the Group, ACT specialises in providing advanced 3D product design software solutions, software consulting and customer training and software support services to automotive vehicle and other transportation equipment OEMs and their supply chains.

ENDS

Editors: for further information contact:
Phil Botley, +44 (0)7808 766824, e-mail: Email Contact
or
Neil McLeod, Tel: +44 (0)1666 504293, e-mail: Email Contact