MSC.Software Corp. , the leading global provider of virtual product development (VPD) products including simulation software and services and INCAT today announced a partnership to provide SimDesigner 2005 r2 for CATIA V5 to North American manufacturers. Through this partnership, INCAT will market and sell SimDesigner to North American manufacturers and MSC.Software will provide training and support services. SimDesigner for CATIA V5 is a suite of CATIA V5-embedded simulation tools that allow CATIA users to streamline and automate the task of building and testing virtual prototypes by simulating stress, motion, heat transfer and other physical attributes of components and assemblies. "MSC.Software has a deep and broad portfolio of best-in-class products and we are going to work hard in the next year to improve our indirect channel and ensure that we have the broadest coverage possible, especially within the small and medium sized manufacturing market," said Raymond Gaynor, vice president, business development and customer support, MSC.Software. "The adoption of CAD-embedded VPD technologies is being driven by corporations who want to realize greater benefits from simulation earlier in the design cycle and small and medium-sized companies who want powerful simulation tools that work within a familiar environment. Our SimDesigner product line is an excellent growth opportunity for MSC.Software and we look forward to work with INCAT to meet customer demand for robust and easy to use CAD-embedded tools." "We are pleased to add SimDesigner 2005 r2 from MSC.Software to our portfolio of offerings," said INCAT CEO Ulrich Herter. "We recognize the competitive advantage that this product can deliver our clients and we look forward to this relationship." The SimDesigner product line allows components and systems to be tested before they are built, saving manufacturers time and money during the design, development, testing, and manufacturing process. The SimDesigner for CATIA V5 product family currently includes Generative products, which embed simulation capabilities directly into the CATIA V5 CAD environment and Gateway products, which provide smooth, direct access to VPD market leading tools such as MSC.Nastran, MSC.ADAMS, and LS-DYNA. The SimDesigner product line, formerly the MSC.Dynamic Designer and MSC.visualNastran V5i product lines, allows product development teams to test how mechanisms function before they are built, saving manufacturers time and money during the design and testing process. Through the Gold Software Partner Agreement between Dassault Systemes and MSC.Software and the open CAA V5 development architecture, the SimDesigner user interface is a seamless extension of CATIA V5. For more information on SimDesigner for CATIA V5 and other MSC.Software products, please visit http://simdesigner.mscsoftware.com/