Product Life Cycle Assessment for Autodesk Inventor Users with Sustainable Minds Release 1.0

CAMBRIDGE, Mass - Sustainable Minds, a greener product design software and information company, today announced that its flagship life cycle assessment product, Sustainable Minds Release 1.0, is streamlined for sharing data with Autodesk Inventor mechanical design software.

Sustainable Minds Release 1.0 is a comprehensive Web-based software and information service that enables users to apply ecodesign strategies to generate innovative and greener product concepts. Autodesk Inventor software takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping, enabling them to design, visualize and simulate products before they are built.

Interoperability between Sustainable Minds Release 1.0 and Autodesk Inventor software makes it easier than ever for manufacturers to measure the environmental impact of an entire product design, including assemblies, sub-assemblies, and parts.

Manufacturers can easily import bill of materials (BOM) data from Inventor software. Multiple features simplify the data sharing process for Inventor users:

* Inventor material names have been mapped to the Okala Impact Factor database to ensure accurate identification when imported
* Consistency between Inventor software and Sustainable Minds BOM attributes
* Automatic mass unit conversion

"Thousands of users rely on Inventor software to design, visualize and simulate digital prototypes before a part is ever cut," said Robert 'Buzz' Kross, senior vice president of the Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. "Now, through our close collaboration with Sustainable Minds, they can estimate the environmental and human health impacts of their design decisions. By having quantitative results early in the concept stage, engineers and designers can design greener products from the start, saving time, money and resources."

"Sustainable Minds Release 1.0 models impacts in all life cycle stages-from manufacturing and use, to end of life and transportation-making it the most comprehensive early-stage LCA software on the market," said Terry Swack, CEO and co-founder of Sustainable Minds. "By allowing Inventor users to take advantage of these capabilities so easily, we hope to make environmentally sustainable design a reality for every manufacturer."