CONCORD, Mass., Feb. 14, 2005 — SolidWorks Corporation for the first time has added tightly focused engineering search tools to 3D mechanical design software, providing access to GlobalSpec, The Engineering Search Enginesm directly inside its computer-aided design environment. This new functionality will provide engineers with more, higher-quality engineering information in a fraction of the time that it takes a separate, general-purpose search engine.

SolidWorks Corporation is providing this new functionality through its partnership with GlobalSpec, the leading specialized search engine and information resource for the engineering community. GlobalSpec provides SolidWorks® software users with three critical search services:

•  SpecSearch®, which lets engineers discover and compare products and services by their specifications;

•  The Engineering Websm, more than 200 million tech-centric Web pages filtered from the World Wide Web for their engineering relevance; and

•  The Hidden Web – which provides access to proprietary technical content not found on general search engines, including fully indexed content such as application notes, material properties, standards, patent information, and general engineering research.

SolidWorks users will access GlobalSpec through a search field in the SolidWorks 2005 Task Pane, which appears on the SolidWorks desktop whenever the application is open. The new capability will be available at no cost to subscription users next month by downloading SolidWorks 2005 Service Pack 3.

“Conventional Internet searches typically uncover rafts of information irrelevant to engineering and often fail to uncover what the engineer really wants to find,” said Ed Miller, president of CIMdata, a worldwide consulting and research firm focused on product lifecycle management (PLM). “GlobalSpec has worked diligently to aggregate and index engineering information, including the ‘Hidden Web' – behind-the-firewall and pay-per-view material – so that engineers will find appropriate information fast. SolidWorks is taking the next step in exploiting this capability by putting GlobalSpec – The Engineering Search Engine – on the SolidWorks Task Pane, so engineers can access and use this extended engineering information as they work.”

For example, a SolidWorks user designing a household appliance can use GlobalSpec to find a motor that fits the design without ever leaving the SolidWorks design page. The engineer can limit the search by variables such as shaft size, RPMs, and voltage. Alternatively, the engineer can specify a part and issue an electronic request for quotes to the suppliers represented on GlobalSpec. With a conventional search engine, the search could take hours, render “hits” on everything from weather to NASCAR, or be entirely fruitless. GlobalSpec-powered searches on application notes, materials properties, standards, and patents also quickly and efficiently steer engineers to the right information.

“Engineers are increasingly relying on the Internet to accomplish their work, but general search tools are coming up short,” said Chris Garcia, SolidWorks vice president of research and development . “By using SolidWorks as a platform to bring our users the high-quality engineering-specific search tools GlobalSpec has developed, we ensure the search is focused on engineering content and that the results are precise and valuable.”

GlobalSpec's trademarked search technology, SpecSearch, allows users to search by specification more than 78 million parts in 1,200,000 product families from more than 12,500 supplier catalogs. GlobalSpec has more than 1.8 million registered users with more than 14,000 new users registering every week.

“Our partnership with SolidWorks serves both of our customers in a very complementary way,” said Scott Virkler, vice president, business development at GlobalSpec. “It delivers the best of The Engineering Web and its exhaustively organized and indexed content, directly to the engineer's design environment, as well as delivering a highly-qualified buying audience to suppliers represented on GlobalSpec. Although we have different customer segments in the engineering market, SolidWorks and GlobalSpec are in exactly the same business: making life easier for engineers every day.”