Gent (Belgium), September 12, 2006 - Esko, the market leader in packaging pre-production solutions, today announced that it has entered into an Embedded Technology Distribution Agreement with SolidWorks Corporation of Concord, MA, USA. The agreement gives Esko access to SolidWorks technology as a data translator for the import and export of native SolidWorks files. In addition, the agreement supports the use of SolidWorks as a 3D modeling application. Packaging designers are now able to work more precisely and faster as product design and packaging design becomes an integrated process. "It is logical for the leading 3D CAD software for product development to work with the leading CAD application for structural package design. Both SolidWorks and Esko solutions focus on collaboration and getting consumer products to market quickly and easily. In fact, there is a lot of interaction between SolidWorks and ArtiosCAD product and packaging designers," notes Mark Driscoll, OEM business development manager, SolidWorks Corporation. "We know that the rich feature set within ArtiosCAD will take full advantage of SolidWorks 3D CAD modeling, allowing designers to quickly develop packaging that supports products developed with SolidWorks." SolidWorks provides intuitive and straightforward 3D CAD tools to help design teams develop better products. It offers the most timesaving capabilities of any product design software available, allowing product designers and manufacturers to get quality products to market faster at a lower cost. SolidWorks is used by over a half million product designers and engineers worldwide to create a wide variety of consumer products, as well as primary packaging elements like bottles, cans, tubes and blister packs across a broad range of industries, including industrial, medical, scientific, consumer, educational, technology, and transportation. Esko customers have expressed a desire to work directly with these SolidWorks models to efficiently and accurately create packaging, displays, and shipping containers associated with such products. ArtiosCAD is the world's market leading structural design software for packaging. With dedicated tools specifically targeted at packaging professionals for structural design, product development, virtual prototyping, and manufacturing, ArtiosCAD increases productivity throughout a company's packaging workflow. The design and drafting tools of ArtiosCAD include functions that structural designers require to get their jobs done accurately and efficiently. Complete 3D integration allows for quick prototyping of designs and presentations, eliminating communication errors and reducing design review cycles. ArtiosCAD 7.10, the upcoming October release of Esko's market leading structural design software, will draw on SolidWorks technology to import and export native SolidWorks files, creating a seamless workflow between SolidWorks and ArtiosCAD. To illustrate the workflow possibilities, consider a consumer product, like a mobile phone, that is created using SolidWorks. With the new version of ArtiosCAD, the SolidWorks 3D model of the phone can be imported directly into ArtiosCAD's 3D environment. In ArtiosCAD, users now can use a variety of tools to "automagically" create packaging that uniquely fits the product. Internal fitments, protection, and supports can be created using cross-sections of the phone model. And, that entire assembly can then be directly inserted into a folding carton that is automatically sized to fit. Interactive 3D viewing and interactive application of graphics elements can be executed with other Scope software tools. Operating directly with the 3D model not only dramatically speeds up the packaging development process, it also removes much of the manual trial-and-error process to get packaging to fit correctly. "SolidWorks is a widely used 3D CAD tool for both product and primary packaging development, and it is no surprise that many Esko users are also SolidWorks customers," comments Jan De Roeck, Director Product Marketing Software. "Therefore, implementing a direct communication link between these products is a valuable asset to both customer bases. With the upcoming release of ArtiosCAD 7.10, our users will have a bi-directional link between these leading products. This synergy will further streamline the package development process and provide decreased turnaround time and superior communication between all parties of the supply chain."