Digital prototyping of seats is the purpose of Seat Design Environment (SDE) from VISTAGY, Inc. (www.vistagy.com; Waltham, MA). The application provides a complete digital model of the seat, and also provides manufacturing simulation capabilities. It captures and models elements including: the trim cover surface, sew lines, retainers and attachment, labels, tags, and sensor locations and descriptions. The software simulates how the cover will fit over the seat based on deformation properties of the chosen materials. Sew-ready flat patterns can be generated for cutting operations. SDE operates within CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER and NX CAD systems.