CATIA V5 brings competitive benefits to Formula One team

Paris, France, April 6, 2006 — Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that Toyota Motorsport GmbH will integrate the advantages of 3D XML into its design process to boost its usage of the CATIA V5 design solution. 

“We are in no doubt that 3D XML will improve our fast-paced design process, allowing us to rapidly communicate design development to our mechanics on the track, and bringing far more accurate transfer of information,” notes Magnus Lidström, VPM Parts Manager for Toyota Motorsport GmbH. “We predict it will greatly aid our long-term goal of being a race-winning team.”

“The proven advantages of 3D XML will revolutionize the way the Toyota F1 team modifies its racing cars,” says Denis Senpéré, general manager, PLM North Europe, Dassault Systèmes. “Being able to share information in 3D will bring tremendous advantages over using traditional 2D data. Dassault Systèmes’ powerful industry leading CATIA V5 software makes this possible.”  

In tests, Toyota Motorsport found that 3D XML helped improve its approval process on technical changes, and plans to implement it throughout design development. With engineers sending one 3D representation instead of multiple 2D images, all aspects of a part can be visualized quickly and easily by the mechanical team. This will not only save time, but with the many different players on the team being able to access the data simultaneously on laptops right at the track, makes it also a more reliable way of ensuring everyone has the required data at the same time. 

The evolution to CATIA V5 with 3D XML fits well with the Toyota Motorsport philosophy of breaking down barriers to create total integration across departments, known as its ‘one-roof concept.’ The company has already seen many benefits from gathering the production of the racing cars in one location ─ something only a handful of Formula 1 teams are able to do ─ and 3D XML will allow the teams to work in closer collaboration than ever before. 

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