The agreement follows the acquisition of Alias in October 2005 and will contribute to strenghten Autodesk's leading position as a supplier of software for automotive and product designers and manufacturers.

Volvo C70 rendering

Autodesk currently plans to continue the development of Opticore technology and supporting Opticore customers.

"Through the combination of Autodesk and Opticore expertise and technology, Autodesk will be able to deliver even more advanced visualization solutions by leveraging real-time ray tracing and a deep engineering knowledge base."

"The acquisition of Opticore technology is part of Autodesk's commitment to set the direction for Digital Prototyping and offer a complete solution across the Manufacturing industry," said Robert "Buzz" Kross, senior vice president, Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions.

"By adding Opticore products, Autodesk intends to offer the most complete design visualization solution in the market [...]"

About Opticore

Opticore is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Design Communication, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, that provides software for interactive and realistic 3D visualizations and presentations.

Opticore products leverage digital prototypes from computer-aided-design (CAD) and computer-aided-industrial-design (CAID) to reduce the need for physical prototypes, shorten development cycles and increase communication between designers, managers and customers.

The family of products includes the followings:

• Opticore Opus Realizer
  Opticore Realizer is a real-time visualization software that makes use of advanced technologies such as Advanced Material Simulation, HDRI Reflections and Environments, Image Based Lighting, Adaptive Real-time Shadows and to enable users to create photo-realistic presentations.
  It can export and publish the models in web format and enables to create materials and geometry variants, useful during design evaluations. Direct integration with Alias Studio is provided by a specific plugin.
• Opticore Arena
  Opticore Arena is a Design Management access and feedback solution that builds upon Opticore's family of Real-time Visualization applications.
• Opticore Studio
  Studio It is Opticore's most powerful software visualization tool, enabling to create interactive, photo-realistic, 3D presentations in real-time. Opus Studio is designed primarily for the more advanced user and for the creation of advanced presentations.
• Opticore Visualizer
  Opticore Visualizer is an engineering-oriented tool that helps management and project leaders to follow and keep control of the engineering process, through visualization of CAD-data.
  Visualizer allows visualization of full vehicle data sets with high performance, connecting to the most common types of CAD-data in the market.

Opticore customers include major automotive manufacturers in all continents as well as large manufacturers.

Above: renderings of the Hyundai HCD10 Hellion Concept, created with Opticore's software

Automotive clients include: AUDI AG, Ford Motor Company (with the brands Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover), Hyundai, KIA, FAW, Brilliance Auto, Tata Motor, Mahindra Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Honda and Nissan Mitsubishi.

above: Photorealistic visualizations (source: Opticore, Audi)

Consumer product and transportation customers include: Canon Inc, Philips Consumer, Nokia Mobile, Electrolux and Bombardier Trains.

For more information visit www.opticore.com.

(Source: Autodesk, Opticore)