#3: Parametric Technology Corp.

PAST GLOBE 100 RANKING 1997: 4 1996: 4 1995: 3 1994: 3 1993: 2 1992: 5 1991: 4 1990: - 1989: -

arametric Technology chalked up another great year in 1997, continuing its eight-year string of top 5 rankings in the Globe 100 survey.

The Waltham-based firm, the leading provider of product design and manufacturing software, is the world's sixth-largest software company, with revenues of $848 million in 1997. Net profits were $232 million, up 50 percent.

Last year, Parametric came to the rescue of its debt-ridden rival, Computervision Corp. of Bedford, agreeing to buy the troubled firm for $495 million in stock and debt. Although Parametric inherited some of Computervision's financial problems when it closed the deal in January, it also gained access to Computervision's high-profile customers, such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Rolls-Royce Aerospace Group.

Parametric has zoomed to the forefront of the computer-aided design and manufacturing industry with new technology that eclipses the capabilities of early three-dimensional modeling software. An engineer designing a car, for instance, can tinker with one feature, and the software automatically recalculates the relative dimensions of the rest of the automobile.

''They get to think and design as an engineer rather than as a mathematician,'' said John Stuart, Parametric's vice president of corporate marketing. ''The machine does the thinking.''

Parametric's software is widely used by engineers to create computer models of everything from airplanes to washing machines.