FaroArm Now Ships with Free Rhino 3.0

Lake Mary, Fla. – (Lake Mary, FL) August 18, 2003 – FARO Technologies, Inc., the market-share leader in the portable CMM field, announced a new software option for its customers. Through a strategic arrangement with CAD-program provider Robert McNeel & Associates, every new Platinum and Titanium FaroArm will ship with a free evaluation copy of Rhino 3.0.
"Rhino is the pre-eminent CAD package in the under-$2,000 category," said FARO Hardware Product Manager Shaun Mymudes. "Their newest release, Rhino 3.0, has performed flawlessly with the latest FaroArms."
The fully functional evaluation version of the software, which supports polygon meshes and point clouds, will enable Platinum, Titanium, Gold, Silver, and Bronze FaroArm users to create, edit, analyze, and translate NURBS curves, surfaces, and solids in Windows. Rhino also provides uninhibited free-form 3-D modeling tools like those found in products typically costing 20 to 50 times more.
"Rhino complements the FaroArm's CAM2 Measure 3.9 software," said FARO President and CEO Simon Raab said. "Our hardware's open architecture makes it easy to adapt our technology to a facility's working environment."
FARO will continue to review proposals from other third-party software companies in order to further broaden the digitizing options for its clients. In fact, today's announcement came only a few months after the Company's similar agreement with HighRES, another 3D CAD/CAM software provider that allows FaroArm users to import 3D data from stand-alone platforms such as SolidWorks, Autocad, Mechanical Desktop/Inventor, Mastercam and CADKEY.

Advantages of the Rhino Interface:

• Calibrate your FaroArm from inside Rhino.
  
• Stand-alone CAD package for reverse engineering
  
• All curve and surface modeling tools work directly with the FARO arms. Whenever Rhino asks for a point, you can enter it with the mouse, by typing coordinates, or by picking it with the FaroArm.
  
• Reverse engineer mechanical and complex, free-form parts such as auto bodies, airplanes, boat hulls, and ergonomic consumer products.
  
• Easy tools and documentation for leapfrogging to digitize large parts.
  
• Powerful tools for accurately comparing digitized points to surfaces.
  
• Fully shaded working mode including zebra analysis, curvature analysis, draft angle analysis, shaded, ghosted, and rendered displays. These tools are used to ensure parts are smooth, accurate, and manufacturable.
  
• Accurate NURBS modeling features allow you to manufacture directly from Rhino models.
  
• Compatible with all your other design, drafting, CAM, engineering, analysis, rendering, animation, and illustration software.
  
• Supports most CAD-file formats, including: DWG/DXF (AutoCAD 200x, 14, 13, and 12), SAT (ACIS), X_T (Parasolid), STL, STEP, VDA, SLC, and IGES (Alias, Ashlar Vellum, AutoFORM, AutoShip, Breault, CADCEUS, CAMSoft, CATIA, Cosmos, Delcam, EdgeCAM, FastSurf, FastSHIP, Integrity Ware, IronCAD, LUSAS, Maya, MAX 3.0, MasterCAM, ME30, Mechanical Desktop, Microstation, NuGraf, OptiCAD, Pro/E, SDRC I-DEAS, Softimage, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, SUM3D, SURFCAM, TeKSoft, Unigraphics, NASA GridTool, Yamaha ESPRi, Tebis.
  
• Accessible. So easy to learn and use that you can focus on design and visualization without being distracted by the software.
  
• Fast, even on an ordinary laptop computer. No special hardware is needed.
  Affordable. Ordinary hardware. Short learning curve. Priced like other Windows software. No maintenance fees.
  
• Available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Czech. Coming soon: Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Korean, Polish, and Portuguese.
  
• OpenGL hardware acceleration.
  
• Blocks and Worksessions make it easier to work with large models and assemblies.
  
• Hundreds of third-party products integrate with Rhino. Stand-alone CAD package for reverse engineering
  
• The evaluation version is fully functional, but will stop saving after 25 saves. It will continue to be able to operate FaroArm utilities

  About FARO
  FARO Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: FARO) and its international subsidiaries design, develop, and market software and portable, computerized measurement devices. The Company's products allow manufacturers to perform three-dimensional inspections of parts and assemblies on the shop floor. This helps eliminate manufacturing errors, and thereby increases productivity and profitability for a variety of industries in FARO's worldwide customer base. Principal products include the FARO Gageä, Platinum and Titanium FaroArms, Control Stationâ measurement system, the FARO Laser Trackerâ and a CAM2â family of advanced CAD-based measurement and reporting software. FARO Technologies is ISO 9001 certified and Guide 25 approved. Learn more at www.faro.com.

  About McNeel
  Robert McNeel & Associates, a privately-held, employee-owned corporation providing technical professionals with productive tools shaped from emerging technologies. For details, visit: www.rhino3d.com. Rhinoceros is a registered trademark of Robert McNeel & Associates.