Parametric Technology Corporation (
PTC) is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/
CAMA cam is a rotating or sliding piece in a mechanical linkage used especially in transforming rotary motion into linear motion or vice-versa. It is often a part of a rotating wheel or shaft that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path...
, engineering calculations, and
product lifecycle managementIn industry, product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal...
. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services, government and life sciences industries. PTC is listed in the
S&P Midcap 400The S&P 400 MidCap Index, more commonly known as the S&P 400, is a stock market index from Standard & Poor's.It covers roughly the mid-cap range of US stocks.-Investing:The following ETFs attempt to track this index and sub-indexes:*Index Fund: &...
. It is also in the
Russell 2000The Russell 2000 Index is a small-cap stock market index of the bottom 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index.The Russell 2000 is by far the most common benchmarkfor mutual funds that identify themselves as "small-cap",...
index. Its tagline is "The Product Development Company."
Portfolio
PTC has five core product families:
CreoCreo is a family or suite of design software supporting product design for discrete manufacturers and is developed by PTC. The suite consists of , each delivering a distinct set of capabilities for a user role within product development....
(comprising products formerly known as
Pro/ENGINEERCreo Elements/Pro, a product formerly known as Pro/ENGINEER is a parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution created by Parametric Technology Corporation . It was the first to market with parametric, feature-based, associative solid modeling software...
,
CoCreateCreo Elements/Direct is computer-aided design and product data management software.Creo Elements/Direct products, 2D CAD , 3D CAD, and PDM were first developed by the Hewlett-Packard Mechanical Design Division in the mid-80s and early-'90s...
, and
ProductViewCreo Elements/View, a product formerly known as ProductView is a suite of digital mockup and product visualization software applications from PTC.- History :...
), Windchill, Arbortext,
MathcadMathcad is computer software primarily intended for the verification, validation, documentation and re-use of engineering calculations. First introduced in 1986 on DOS, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computations...
, and
IntegrityMKS Integrity now a PTC product is a system and software lifecycle management and application lifecycle management platform developed by MKS Inc. and was first released in 2001. The software is client/server, with both desktop and web client interfaces...
.
Initially, PTC was company formed around achieving hardware independence for Pro/ENGINEER. From this, an ongoing commitment was formed to ensure interoperability and open standards in all PTC products. PTC has released a pure Internet architecture for product data management and collaboration, its Windchill software. Currently, PTC's core product families (above) are offered as one integrated suite, dubbed The Product Development System.
History
PTC was founded in 1985, by Samuel Peisakhovich Geisberg, who previously worked at
Prime ComputerPrime Computer, Inc. was a Natick, Massachusetts-based producer of minicomputers from 1972 until 1992. The alternative spellings "PR1ME" and "PR1ME Computer" were used as brand names or logos by the company.-Founders:...
,
ComputervisionComputervision, Inc. was an early pioneer in turnkey Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing . Computervision was founded in 1969 by Marty Allen and Philippe Villers, and headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. Its early products were built on a Data General Nova platform...
(CV) and
AppliconApplicon, Incorporated was one of the first vendors of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing systems. It was founded in 1969 in Bedford, Massachusetts. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the company had its headquarters and R&D facility in Burlington, MA, while their manufacturing facility was in...
.
Pro/ENGINEERCreo Elements/Pro, a product formerly known as Pro/ENGINEER is a parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution created by Parametric Technology Corporation . It was the first to market with parametric, feature-based, associative solid modeling software...
(a.k.a. Pro/E), the company's first product, shipped in 1988.
John DeereDeere & Company, usually known by its brand name John Deere , is an American corporation based in Moline, Illinois, and the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world. In 2010, it was listed as 107th in the Fortune 500 ranking...
became PTC's first customer.
Once an initial version of Pro/ENGINEER was developed, the company received venture capital funding from Charles River Associates and Steve Walske became the CEO.
Pro/ENGINEER was the first commercially successful parametric feature based
solid modelerSolid modeling is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three dimensional solids. Solid modeling is distinguished from related areas of Geometric modeling and Computer graphics by its emphasis on physical fidelity...
. Through a combination of innovative technology, and no-holds-barred sales tactics, PTC quickly became a major force in the CAD industry. Its strong ascent continued unabated until the mid-1990s, when the introduction of
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Windows NTWindows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
, and the availability of commercial
geometric modelingA geometric modeling kernel is a 3D solid modeling software component used in computer-aided design packages. Examples include Romulus, Parasolid, ACIS, ShapeManager and Open CASCADE....
libraries opened the door to a new generation of low-cost competitors and PTC's reputation for overly aggressive sales tactics alienated many of its customers. These competitors, symbolized by
SolidworksSolidWorks is a 3D mechanical CAD program that runs on Microsoft Windows and is being developed by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, S. A. . SolidWorks is currently used by over 1.3 million engineers and designers at more than 130,000 companies worldwide...
, squeezed PTC from the bottom, while more established companies like Unigraphics and IBM held the 'high ground' in automotive and aerospace industries. PTC's sales began a multi-year decline from which it took years to recover. It took a new CAD product (Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire) and an expanded product line, but PTC has been able to transform itself over the past 10 years into the third largest provider of
Product Lifecycle ManagementIn industry, product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal...
software.
On December 29, 2006
Standard & Poor'sStandard & Poor's is a United States-based financial services company. It is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds. It is well known for its stock-market indices, the US-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200, the Canadian...
bumped PTC off its
S&P 500The S&P 500 is a free-float capitalization-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The stocks included in the S&P 500 are those of large publicly held companies that trade on either of the two largest American stock...
Index, and replaced it instead with the newly spun off natural gas company
Spectra EnergySpectra Energy Corp is a S&P 500 company headquartered in Houston, Texas, that operates in three key areas of the natural gas industry: transmission and storage, distribution, and gathering and processing. Spectra was formed in late 2006 from the spin-off from Duke Energy...
Corp. . Parametric then bumped
Pier 1 ImportsPier 1 Imports Inc. is a Fort Worth, Texas based retailer specializing in imported home furnishings and decor, particularly furniture, table-top items, decorative accessories and seasonal decor. The chain operates over 1,000 stores under the name Pier 1 Imports in the United States, Canada, Mexico...
Inc. , a retailer of home furnishings, down one spot and off the bottom of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. In 2008, PTC once again achieved revenues of over $1 billion, something it had not been able to accomplish since 1999.
Companies acquired by PTC
- CDRS and 3DPaint from Evans & Sutherland on April 12, 1995 for $33,507,000.
- Rasna Corp., developers of MECHANICA design optimization and simulation software, in May 1995 for $180 million.
- Computervision
Computervision, Inc. was an early pioneer in turnkey Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing . Computervision was founded in 1969 by Marty Allen and Philippe Villers, and headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. Its early products were built on a Data General Nova platform...
, developers of CADDS, MEDUSAMEDUSA, is a CAD program used in the areas of mechanical and plant engineering by manufacturers and Engineering, Procurement and Construction companies...
and the MPDS Plant Design System in 1998
- Polyplan, Technologies acquired 2005 for Manufacturing Process Management
- Arbortext, developers of Arbortext, in 2005 for $190 million
- Aptavis Technology Corp, Windchill-based technology and expertise for retail, footwear and apparel, in June 2005
- Mathsoft
MathSoft was founded in 1984 by Allen Razdow and David Blohm to provide mathematical programs to students, teachers, and professionals. The company became most famous for its Mathcad software, a powerful application for solving and visualizing mathematical problems...
, developers of MathcadMathcad is computer software primarily intended for the verification, validation, documentation and re-use of engineering calculations. First introduced in 1986 on DOS, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computations...
, in April 2006 for $63 million.
- ITEDO Software GmbH in October 2006 for $17 million. ITEDO developed technical illustration software and had 34 employees mainly in Germany and the United States.
- NC Graphics
NC Graphics was founded by Arthur Flutter in Waterbeach, Cambridge, England, in 1977 after completing a PhD in Computer Aided Design at the CADCentre...
in May 2007 for an undisclosed sum.
- NetRegulus, Inc,an Enterprise Study and Quality management software for Medical Devices, in November 2007
- CoCreate
Creo Elements/Direct is computer-aided design and product data management software.Creo Elements/Direct products, 2D CAD , 3D CAD, and PDM were first developed by the Hewlett-Packard Mechanical Design Division in the mid-80s and early-'90s...
in December 2007 for $250 million.
- Synapsis Technology in December 2008 for an undisclosed sum.
- Relex Software in June 2009 for an undisclosed sum.
- Planet Metrics in January 2010 for an undisclosed sum.
- MKS Software makers of MKS Integrity - May, 2011
- 4CS Software Soutions Inc, a developer of warranty management and service lifecycle management software for an undisclosed sum