4/20/23 - article updated to show SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE as different products.
The industry-leading MCAD company SOLIDWORKS has turned itself into two companies, each with a different product. One has the traditional desktop-based SOLIDWORKS program that most users are familiar with. The other has SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE, which when installed seems to turn into SOLIDWORKS Connected. Dassault Systèmes, owner of the SOLIDWORKS brand, might as well have called the two versions SOLIDWORKS Blue and SOLIDWORKS Red. One of them, Neo, has a future.
Dassault Systèmes is trying very hard to show the advantages of SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE. The traditional SOLIDWORKS division is led by Manish Kumar and the new SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE by Gian Paolo Bassi.
Think of it SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE as the same old SOLIDWORKS you know and love, says Jordan Tadić of the 3DEXPERIENCE camp in a demo, but with benefits.
Tadić plays the role of the wise one, the one with a future, the cloud savant. He is cajoling a somewhat skeptical buddy, Andy Barnes, toward the light.
The SOLIDWORKS of the future does indeed look like the old SOLIDWORKS—if you ignore a few things. Like two visitors, Megan Manager and Don Designer (their names are clues to their roles in this skit, if you haven’t guessed them already), who seem to have invited themselves to the proceedings.
Megan and Don are inserted to prove the ease of collaboration with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, of which this modern version of SOLIDWORKS, is part. They could be physically anywhere, but they are able to see what you are designing—and comment if they feel the need.
At this point, the demoing duo may be at the biggest risk of losing the very audience they are trying to reach and convert. How many engineers or designers appreciate working below a peanut gallery? Don’t you do your best work when you can concentrate and not be interrupted? Do you want your manager to be looking over your shoulder? How about if they just tell you what they need and you can see them once again to deliver it?
But hang on. We are in a collaborative world now, people. We have competition breathing down our necks, meaning shorter design cycles, and so we need to work in parallel. And we aren’t always able to be physically in one room to have design reviews, handoffs … have you learned nothing in the last couple of years?
The demonstrators cater to the crowd, feigning annoyance at Megan Manager, but also address the advantages that SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE offers the manager.
“She doesn’t even need to have SOLIDWORKS. She can see your design from a web browser. Or on her phone.”
We see a web-based view and instead of a complicated CAD interface, it has easy-to-use view commands that even a manager could use. So there, your manager, CAD challenged as they might be, can still see your design, whether it is ready to be seen or not, from all angles—and offer pearls of wisdom.
Oh, joy.
Ostensibly the design of a chop saw, the demo “fast forwards over all that CAD stuff.” That may sound as if it is reducing the significance of “CAD stuff” and being demeaning to those who take CAD stuff seriously, but that is not the case. Your SOLIDWORKS prowess is understood even if it is not acknowledged. This webinar is all about what is new and exciting.
Even if collaboration is hard to sell, there’s plenty of reasons to take the red pill.
For example, being on the cloud with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform offers these advantages:
- Easy access to design files and part libraries.
- Easy version control. Just like with Google Drive or Dropbox, you can access previous versions of a file.
- Security. The cloud is more secure thanks to your workstation or network.
- Every change to design is automatically saved. You don’t even have a Save function. You don’t need it. You may never again hear a “OH NO….” moan when the lights go out. That alone should be worth the price of admission.