VISTAGY, Inc., a leading global provider of specialized engineering software, today announced an expanded technology partnership with ESI Group (ESIN FR0004110310), a world leader in virtual prototyping simulation. The partnership provides aerospace and automotive manufacturers with the most complete virtual 3D engineering environment for designing and analyzing products made of advanced composite materials. As a result of the agreement, composite product manufacturers will accelerate their development cycles while greatly reducing prototypes and ensuring product accuracy.  

The companies now offer data integration between VISTAGY's FiberSIM® software, which engineers use to design composite structures as well as store and share non-geometric definition data, and ESI Group's SYSPLY for analyzing and optimizing those structures. Detailed design information in FiberSIM, such as fiber orientation or material properties, can be automatically and efficiently shared with SYSPLY, delivering the most accurate and up-to-date set of design details to a structural analysis simulation. This complete design-to-manufacturing development process ensures that engineers can validate product performance and manufacture accurate final parts that comply with strict engineering specifications.  

VISTAGY and ESI Group originally partnered in 2002, resulting in tighter technology integration between VISTAGY's FiberSIM and ESI Group's PAM-RTM software for simulating resin transfer molding. Now, the companies have decided to provide integrated support to their world-wide customer base for a wider range of simulation methodologies such as thermo-mechanical analysis, forming, crash and optimization.  

"Our partnership with VISTAGY has provided mutual customers with improved functionality and support for many of their most critical product development processes, and, by further advancing our collaboration efforts, we have raised the bar and achieved the most complete set of design and manufacturing analysis capabilities for composites development," said Dr. Fouad el Khaldi, director of Marketing Virtual Performance and Virtual Manufacturing at ESI Group.  

"The integration of our FiberSIM software with SYSPLY empowers design engineers and structural analysts with a suite of best-in-class tools for developing composite products," said Dr. Olivier Guillermin, director of product and market strategy at VISTAGY, Inc. "With the onset of new design methods and manufacturing processes, it is especially important that simulation tools such as SYSPLY utilize detailed composite part definitions provided by FiberSIM in order to ensure accurate analysis results."   

About ESI Group  ESI Group is a world-leading supplier and pioneer of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes that take into account the physics of materials. ESI Group has developed an extensive suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product's behavior during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired product performance, and evaluate the environment's impact on product performance. ESI Group's products, which have a proven track record in manufacturing and have been combined in multi-trade value chains, represent a unique collaborative and open virtual engineering solution known as the Virtual Try-Out Space (VTOS), enabling virtual prototypes to be improved in a continuous and collaborative manner. The company generated sales of €66m in 2006, employs over 600 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is listed in Eurolist compartment C of Euronext Paris. For further information, visit www.esi-group.com.    

About VISTAGY, Inc.   VISTAGY, Inc. develops engineering software that provides specialized functionality to significantly improve product development processes, engineering efficiency and the value of commercial PLM systems. VISTAGY's specialized engineering environments enable engineers to capture and communicate complete digital product definitions within 3D CAD systems, thereby increasing productivity, improving the communication of product information throughout the product lifecycle, and allowing better-informed decision-making early in design. VISTAGY software is used throughout the world in the aerospace, automotive, marine, wind energy, medical, sporting goods, and transportation interiors industries. The company also offers training and consulting services. For more information, contact VISTAGY in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, at +1.781.250.6868 or visit www.vistagy.com.