AUTODESK PURCHASES KEY GIS TECHNOLOGY

New Product Family Positions Autodesk to Lead Market

SAN RAFAEL, California, August 14, 1995 -- Broadening its PC software
technology stronghold in the automated mapping and Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) marketplace, Autodesk, Inc. today acquired the assets of the
leading GIS provider in the Republic of South Africa, Automated Methods
(Pty) Ltd. Automated Methods, based near Johannesburg, is an innovative 10
year-old developer of desktop GIS systems. This acquisition of prime
technology and its talented developers will help Autodesk expand its
offerings of mapping and GIS products. Autodesk's GIS Market Group will
develop a complete family of mapping and GIS software products using this
new technology. These products will be introduced during the next year.
The terms of the purchase agreement were not disclosed.

"Figures for 1994 show that Autodesk holds the number one market position
in PC-based mapping and GIS solutions," commented James D'Arezzo,
Autodesk's vice president of corporate marketing and the GIS Market Group.
"With this powerful new technology, Autodesk is now poised to offer users
a full, robust line of new desktop mapping and GIS software. Most of these
customers already utilize AutoCAD in their design and mapping processes;
now they can benefit from the accuracy Autodesk will provide in its new
integrated mapping and GIS software product line. We are also making a
commitment to provide users with the capability to read and write common
industry-standard data formats."

"Autodesk is finally making a serious thrust into the GIS market. The
company has ranked among the top five in GIS for years because a lot of
users found CAD-based mapping was adequate for their needs; and AutoCAD is
the most used CAD product in the related fields of civil engineering and
surveying. With these formal GIS product offerings, Autodesk is bound to
gain market share in GIS," said Kathryn Hale, Senior Analyst at Dataquest
Incorporated.

Autodesk is the world's leading provider of desktop software solutions to
help design, construct and map buildings and highways, and electric, water
and other utility infrastructures. The company's world-standard AutoCAD
design software provides the file format in which most of the world's
architectural, engineering and construction data is created. The prominent
industries that use AutoCAD as their design standard include utilities,
oil and gas, telecommunications, government, and natural resources and
environment.

Professionals in these industries use AutoCAD-based maps and geographic
data in their jobs daily, making mapping and GIS technology one of their
primary concerns. The new family of Autodesk mapping and GIS products will
provide solutions to meet users needs ranging from the basic creation and
maintenance of maps to complex analysis, visualization and presentation of
spatial data sets on desktop platforms.

Market Growing Rapidly

According to Dataquest, the PC-based GIS software market grew 31.5% last
year worldwide and the total GIS software market is expected to exceed
$1.2 billion in 1999. This high growth rate can be attributed to the fact
that an important component of most business and government information is
a geographic location, whether it's a customer zip code or the location of
an underground cable. By combining the science of geography with the power
of computer software, engineers and executives are able to integrate this
data into their daily work processes to plan, manage and visualize
projects. By letting users view their information in new ways, GIS
implementations give firms a competitive advantage within their
industries, especially in formerly regulated environments such as
utilities and telecommunications.

"Autodesk intends to provide the full range of PC desktop software for map
creation, maintenance, visualization and analysis. With the right
integrated tools, training and support from our Autodesk Virtual
Corporation, customers can fully realize the potential of their geographic
information," stated Joe Nicholson, Autodesk's GIS Market Group Manager.
"This integrated solution has often been lacking in the GIS industry."

Technology Used in South Africa Redistricting

Autodesk's newly acquired technology, the leading GIS software in the
Republic of South Africa, has been widely used by the present government.
The product played a key role in the first free elections in 1994, when
Nelson Mandela was elected president. This powerful software solution
provided the means to capture census and demographic data for the entire
country. The data was then spatially analyzed to determine democratic
voting districts. The maps created were used to brief the government and
the Independent Electoral Commission, and to present the information to
the public via television.

Another application of this GIS technology was to create topographical maps
to identify mountains and water features, as well as the infrastructures
of power, water and sewer lines. The technology is also being used to
fairly assign parcels of good land to compensate the entitled descendants
of landowners whose property was confiscated approximately 80 years ago.

Autodesk products are available through Authorized Autodesk Dealers,
Distributors and Autodesk Systems Centers worldwide. For more information,
please contact any Authorized Autodesk Dealer, call Autodesk at
800-964-6432, or fax requests for information to 415-507-5100. Outside of
North America, please fax requests for information to 415-507-6110 (Latin
America), 415-507-6117 (Asia Pacific), or +41-22-788-21-44 (Europe). For
more information on Autodesk, please call 415-507-5000, type GO ADESK on
CompuServe, or log in with a World Wide Web browser at
http://www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk is the world's leading supplier of PC and UNIX-based design
software and PC multimedia tools. The company's 2D and 3D products and
data management tools are used in many industries for architectural
design, mechanical design, film-making, videography and geographic
information systems. The fourth largest PC software company in the world,
Autodesk has three million customers in 118 countries.
 
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