Granite One Integration, Windows CE port and IA-64 compatibility highlights
of latest graphics component release

Oakland, CA - April 30, 2002 - Tech Soft America (TSA), the leading provider
of graphics components to the engineering software industry, continues its
technology leadership with the announcement of HOOPS 3D Application
Framework (HOOPS/3dAF) v7.0. This latest release includes significant new
graphics performance, functionality enhancements and major component
integrations driven by TSA’s 150+ OEM customers, including SolidWorks, PTC,
EDS-PLM Solutions, Fluent, Mechanical Dynamics, CADKEY, COADE, Infrasoft,
Spatial, ITI/Transcendata, Minitab, SPSS, Surpac, Mintec, and Caterpillar.

HOOPS/3dAF is an extensible, high-level framework that dramatically
simplifies the design, development and maintenance of high-performance,
interactive 2D/3D applications. Applications based on HOOPS/3dAF range from
lightweight, browser-based viewers to high-end CAD and CAE applications
running on Windows, UNIX, LINUX, and Windows CE based handheld devices.

In addition to numerous customer-driven performance and functionality
enhancements, highlights of the HOOPS/3dAF v7.0 include:

· New Primitive Support: Trimmed NURBS Surfaces and Cylinders have been
added to HOOPS/3dAF’s extensive list of geometric primitives. Cylinder
support will be of particular use for applications which render datasets
containing large piping systems.

· Performance Improvements:  Significant effort has further optimized the
OpenGL pipeline. On Pentium III (and higher) based systems HOOPS/3dAF now
takes advantage of specific chipset instructions to do culling in software
thus minimizing the amount of data moved across the system bus during
rendering.

· Level-of-Detail (LOD) Enhancements:  A new LOD-generation algorithm option
has been added which provides an order of magnitude speed gain over the
previous algorithm, giving developers even more flexibility and control over
their LOD generation. Both options are available, allowing developers to
choose a LOD generation optimized for either speed or visual accuracy. In
addition, a LOD for a shell can consist of any piece of HOOPS geometry
including an image, mesh or polyline.

· Stereo Viewing: Developers now have the ability to use the OpenGL stereo
capabilities available on their graphics card.

· Granite One Modeler Integration:  Developers using PTC’s Granite One
modeling and interoperability kernel will now enjoy a tight integration with
HOOPS/3dAF. This latest integration complements existing geometric modeler
bridges for both the Parasolid kernel from EDS – PLM Solutions and the 3D
ACIS Modeler from Spatial.

· Windows CE port:  Developers seeking to implement applications for Windows
CE-based handheld devices may now use TSA’s sample application for Windows
CE as a source-code level reference point.

· Behaviors and Timer Events:  The HOOPS/MVO module of HOOPS/3dAF now
supports timer events, which enables the implementation of animations of
objects and simulations within scenes.

· Broad Image Support: Over 60 raster formats may now be directly imported
and exported from HOOPS/3dAF through an integration with the Lead Tools
Raster Image Pro Toolkit.

· New Platform Support: Windows XP and HPUX-64 are now fully supported.

"With HOOPS 7.0, TSA has continued to impress us with more performance
enhancements and several new customer-driven features. Our CAESAR II
application has been significantly enhanced through using the HOOPS 3D
Application Framework and we look forward to incorporating the features of
this latest HOOPS release," stated David Little the Principal Technical
Strategist of COADE.

Added Gavin Bridgeman, Co-Founder and Member of Technical Staff  for TSA,
“With HOOPS 7.0 TSA continues to set the standard for providing robust
graphics development tools. As a virtual extension to our customer’s
development teams we remain dedicated to our torrid pace of innovation,
enabling our customers to ship competitive, high-performance applications.”

About Tech Soft America
Tech Soft America (TSA) provides premier customer driven development tools,
consulting and support services enabling their partners to rapidly deliver
world-class technical software. TSA develops the HOOPS 3D Application
Framework, HOOPS Stream Toolkit and HOOPS Net Server, which dramatically
simplify the design, development and maintenance of high-performance,
interactive 2D and 3D applications built for desktop or browser-based
applications running, Windows, Unix and Linux, Windows CE-based handheld
devices.

HOOPS 3D technology has been incorporated into over 125 commercial software
applications, from such leaders as PTC, SolidWorks, EDS-PLM Solutions,
CADKEY, Fluent, Mechanical Dynamics, Informative Graphics, Infrasoft, COADE,
ITI/Transcendata, Minitab, SPSS, Landmark Graphics, Surpac and Mintec.

The company maintains corporate headquarters in Oakland, California and can
be reached at http://www.hoops3d.com.

Contact:

Melle Amade-Vice
Tech Soft America
510.434.7630  ext.214
melle@techsoftamerica.com




HOOPS is a registered trademark of Tech Soft America.