Parametric releases Windchill PDM software

Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC, Waltham, MA) has unveiled a new line of product data management products with a Web-based architecture. The Windchill family includes an information framework, an enterprise document management (EDM) application with vaulting, workflow, and life-cycle management capabilities, an information modeling and develop environment, and Configuration Manager, which includes applications for product structure, alternate views, and change management. All products work with existing PTC CAD data management offerings like Pro/Intralink and Optegra. The new PDM products stem from PTC's 1998 acquisition of Windchill Technology's new technology, originally designed to serve as the basis for a new generation of Computervision's Optegra products. "The release of the Windchill product family provides PTC with a new and attractive technology to address enterprise PDM needs," commented CIMdata

(Ann Arbor, MI) president Ed Miller. "The Windchill products are uniquely qualified to solve product information management problems across an extended enterprise environment," added Peter Gadd, chairman of the Airbus Consortium's PDM implementation team. Dr. William Grossmann, CIO for Asea Brown Boveri (Germany), believes that the Windchill products will yield "much faster return on investment" leading to "a distributed, interactive, and collaborative engineering environment." Shipments of Windchill products are planned in June.