PLANO, Texas - UGS Corp., a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, announced that its D-Cubed Collision Detection Manager (CDM) software component has been integrated into its NX? computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) application to enable fast and accurate gouge checking during tool path generation.? The CDM is openly licensed and used throughout the CAD/CAM application development industry and is now an integral part of the leading CAM solution from the world's number one CAM supplier.

NX CAM is the integrated digital manufacturing and numerical control machining application family within NX, UGS' comprehensive digital product development solution.? In a recently released report, industry analyst CIMdata, Inc. named UGS as the leading vendor in the CAM software market for the fifth consecutive year based on vendor revenue.? By integrating D-Cubed's CDM into its NX CAM solution, UGS has further extended the position of the CDM as a major solution for interactive collision detection and clearance measurement.

Tool path validation typically requires a collision detection algorithm to be called many times. Completing a verification in a reasonable time requires high collision calculation speeds. Although such speeds can be attained by approximating the geometric model with facets, such inexact geometry may result in minor collisions being missed, or reported in error.? Blending the CDM's accurate collision analysis with NX CAM's existing high speed collision detection will provide all NX CAM users with a solution of superior performance and quality.

"Gouge free tool paths are a must for a reliable CAM system," said Andreas Saar, vice president of Component Manufacturing Solutions, UGS.? "With CDM we have enhanced NX CAM's gouge detection functionality with an module utilized especially for 5-axis tool paths, where undercut situations are likely but difficult to visually detect."

The CDM is a lightweight, modeler-independent software component for collision detection and clearance measurement.? Part of the open suite of UGS' PLM Components, the CDM is integrated into various UGS applications and also licensed to independent software vendors under UGS' open business model.? Its functions are commonly used to eliminate interpenetrations in assemblies and mechanisms.? NX CAM takes advantage of the CDM's precise computations to enable that all tool path collisions, no matter how subtle, are eliminated during the off-line tool path validation process without compromising performance. As a result, potentially expensive work piece gouges may be averted prior to actual manufacture.

"NX CAM users have come to expect the highest standards of quality from UGS and the CDM is engineered to meet those expectations," said Bruce Feldt, vice president of Open Tools at UGS.? "Adoption of the CDM by NX CAM is further evidence of UGS' strategy to use the same high quality PLM Components in our own world-class software solutions that we make available to third parties under our open business model."

About PLM Components and D-Cubed

UGS' PLM Components are open software tools designed to promote industry standardization and interoperability within the product lifecycle management (PLM) market. Many of the world's leading CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM vendors have adopted the widely respected solutions from PLM Components for integration into their applications. D Cubed, a wholly owned subsidiary of UGS, develops a range of PLM Components and provides consultancy based software integration services in support of UGS' PLM Open vision. For more information, please visit www.ugs.com/products/open/.

About UGS

UGS is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with nearly 4 million licensed seats and 46,000 customers worldwide.? Headquartered in Plano, Texas, UGS' vision is to enable a world where organizations and their partners collaborate through global innovation networks to deliver world-class products and services while leveraging UGS' open enterprise solutions, fulfilling the mission of enabling them to transform their process of innovation.? For more information on UGS products and services, visit www.ugs.com.