 |
| 3Dconnexion Motion Controllers Power Industrial Design Applications LOS GATOS, CA - Nov. 20, 2003 - 3Dconnexion®, a Logitech® company (SWX: LOGN) (NASDAQ:LOGI), announced today that its award-winning line of motion controllers now offer support for leading industrial design applications including StudioTools® and Maya® from Alias, Photoshop® from Adobe, 3ds max™ from Discreet, Presenter 3D™ from Digital Immersion, and Rhino from Rhinoceros®. 3Dconnexion motion controllers are already in use by 300,000 3D CAD designers at leading manufacturing companies worldwide. With support for the new applications, the industrial design departments at these companies can now benefit from a two-handed work style with a 3D motion controller in one hand used together with a standard mouse in the other hand. "Announcing support for users doing product conceptualization and final industrial design is a natural extension for us given the widespread use for our products in the CAD, CAM and CAE departments", said Wolfgang Hausen, chief executive officer of 3Dconnexion. Designing and visualizing industrial design objects requires frequent interaction with the menu- and button-rich user interfaces that are standard in today's powerful 3D software. To modify and visualize a 3D object, the designer uses a mouse and keyboard to switch between navigation and edit modes, then selects and activates several menu choices. In contrast, in a two-handed work style, a motion controller takes over the navigation functions - pan, zoom and rotate - which can account for as much as half of the mouse movements. There is no need to switch modes because the other hand on the mouse is free to be used for editing. Thus, working simultaneously with both hands and reducing the number of mouse movements helps completes projects faster with greater comfort. "The beauty of using the SpaceBall 5000 is that I can now switch seamlessly between Alias StudioTools, Pro/ENGINEER, and Rhino without having to remember three different keyboard/mouse-button inputs; I use the same motion on the SpaceBall to rotate, pan and zoom from application to application, without losing track of the design flow," said Tom Flanagan, Industrial Designer, Thermo King Corporation. "I find the SpaceBall 5000 more comfortable and keeps me free to focus on spontaneous and creative designs." "The combination of 3Dconnexion's motion controllers and Rhino provides the industrial designer powerful tools for creating new product concepts and taking them all the way through visualization, engineering and manufacturing with much improved productivity and comfort" said Robert McNeel, President of Robert McNeel & Associates, the company that develops the Rhino application. "We are excited to offer Rhino customers the benefit of a 3Dconnexion's two- handed work style." About 3Dconnexion 3Dconnexion, a Logitech Company (SWX:LOGN) (NASDAQ:LOGI), is the leading provider of 3D input devices that enhance the user interface for professional 3D applications in markets such as product design (CAD/CAM/CAE), modeling and animation (digital content creation). More than 350,000 designers, animators, and artists use 3Dconnexion's award-winning line of motion controllers, including SpacePilot ™, SpaceBall®, SpaceMouse® and SpaceTraveler™. 3Dconnexion is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, with offices in Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, London, Milan, Munich, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Wroclaw. For more information, visit http://www.3Dconnexion.com © 2005 3Dconnexion. All rights reserved. 3Dconnexion, the 3Dconnexion logo, and other 3Dconnexion marks are owned by 3Dconnexion and may be registered. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
 |