IMSI Ups the Ante for Home Design with New FloorPlan Plus 3D; Includes Garden Designer, 1001 Home Plans, HomeStyles Book & Exclusive Home-Design Internet Resource

Business Wire, May 14, 1996

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 14, 1996--IMSI (NASDAQ:IMSI), a leading developer and publisher of quality software for the home and small business markets, announced today that it will ship an upgrade to FloorPlan Plus 3D that includes a complete gardening reference and layout program called Garden Designer, 1001 HomeStyles home plans, and 500 pre-drawn symbols, all built into the program.

FloorPlan Plus 3D will be available from most major retailers on June 7, 1996, at a targeted street price of $39.95.

"With FloorPlan Plus 3D, we are redefining the standard for this category," said Martin Sacks, president and CEO. "Not only does FloorPlan Plus 3D produce the best 3D floor planning solution, it is the only product in the category to offer comprehensive garden planning, reference, and layout capability."

FloorPlan Plus 3D offers high-end space design and layout power. In addition to a 27 million square foot, 20 building level drawing capacity, which is the highest of any space planning product available, FloorPlan Plus 3D is one of the only programs of its kind that allows users to draw curved walls, insert spiral staircases, and customize doors, windows, and wall types.

Additionally, 101 of the sample floor plans enable the user to do a complete "virtual 3D walk-through" of the homes.

Additional new features include single button floor plan reverse option, hot keys, and improved 3D elements. The unique 3D roof editor supports dormers, chimneys, and skylights with settings at any eye level or direction for enhanced 3D viewing.

FloorPlan Plus 3D includes 1001 sample house plans from HomeStyles and a bonus book of the most popular floor plans in America. Many of the HomeStyles floor plans offer multimedia video tours, while others can be seen as beautiful color photographs.

IMSI has also added a significant number of CAD symbols, bringing the number included to over 500, most of which are both 2D and 3D. The symbol categories include Appliances & Fixtures, Furniture, Landscaping, and many others.

Other CAD features include on-the-fly switching between Metric and American drawing scales, the ability to instantly calculate areas and perimeters of rooms and reference point placing for precision drawing, dimensioning, and object placement.

Another element unique to FloorPlan Plus 3D is Internet access to an exclusive home improvement "on-line tool shed." This web site is an exclusive resource for FloorPlan Plus 3D users to access hints and tips for building and gardening, local retailers, tool and landscaping ideas, and a myriad of other on-line resources for building your design.

Also unique to this product category, FloorPlan Plus 3D includes Garden Designer, a complete planning, layout and planting guide for beginners or experienced gardeners.

Garden Designer allows users to plan everything from pond and structure placement to landscape design and plant selection. It includes 172 sample gardens. It also gives the opportunity to view any garden at night under custom placed lights.

Garden Designer's extensive plant encyclopedia has 1,500 different plant and tree species with over 2,000 full color plant and garden photos. The seasonal color diagram, which allows users to plan year-round color schemes for their garden, is unique to Garden Designer along with the comprehensive plant care calendar that provides full written and animated "how to" instructions.

Garden Designer also offers an advanced plant filter which helps users choose the right plants for their geographical area and aesthetic preference. A full color diagram will show the finished product for greater ease of planning.

FloorPlan Plus 3D is "CAD compatible/Architect ready" enabling users to export 2D and 3D drawings to .DXF and .WMF formats for use with TurboCAD 2D/3D, AutoCAD and most other quality CAD programs.

Founded in 1983, IMSI is a leader in developing and publishing quality consumer software for home and small business. The company offers a range of high quality, affordably priced products including TurboCAD 2D/3D, Masterclips 35,000 Premium Image Collection, EZ Language, and FormTool Gold.

IMSI is headquartered in San Rafael, with wholly owned subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia and South Africa. For more information, contact Victoria Rierdan at IMSI, 1895 Francisco Boulevard East, San Rafael, CA 94901-5506. Telephone: 415/257-3000, Fax: 415/257-3565, E-Mail: vrierdan@imsisoft.com. -0-

Note to Editors: IMSI, TurboCAD, Masterclips 35,000 Premium Image Collection, FormTool and EZ Language, are trademarks of IMSI. Other products and companies mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and may or may not be trademarks of their representative companies.

CONTACT: IMSI, San Rafael

Victoria Rierdan, 415/257-3000

E-Mail: vrierdan@imsisoft.com