SOLIDWORKS Introduces New Software and Services at SWW18

A lot happened at SOLIDWORKS World this week. Partnerships were announced with Rize and Nano Dimension; HP introduced a new full-color 3D printing system and Stratasys announced a collaboration centered around 3D printed prosthetics. Additional SOLIDWORKS partnerships involved 3D Systems and Desktop Metal. But for all of the announcements involving collaborations between SOLIDWORKS and other companies, there was plenty of news just relating to SOLIDWORKS itself – it was, after all, SOLIDWORKS World.

On the first day of the conference, SOLIDWORKS and parent company Dassault Systèmes announced five new products:

3DEXPERIENCE is already a collaborative platform, but Dassault Systèmes has now added some new Social Collaboration Services, meant to provide an opportunity for social media-style brainstorming in a collaborative and secure environment. These services are intended for team members to use especially in the chaotic early stages of an engineering project, when ideas are flying from every direction. With these tools, those working on a project can work together in an organized setting to get the most out of the early planning stages.

Product lifecycle management, or PLM, was developed as a system to make product development easier, but it’s a lot to learn in itself. SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE PLM Services was created to “demystify” PLM, according to SOLIDWORKS. It’s meant to shorten the process from idea to finished product, offering cloud-based design, engineering and business process services. The solution requires a minimum amount of work to get started, is an affordable system regardless of company size, and does not require investment in or hosting on your own hardware infrastructure. You can learn more about SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE PLM Services here.

SOLIDWORKS Product Designer is a new product design suite that was developed natively on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The service offers a full suite of product design capabilities, including parts, assemblies, sheet metal, motion simulation and drawings.

SOLIDWORKS xDesign was also built on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. It’s a modeling application that runs in any browser and on any device, and allows users to author, edit and collaborate with each other when building their 3D CAD models, with no need for powerful workstations. xDesign shares its data model with other apps on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and is instantly accessible, with no installation required. It’s easy to use, secure and scalable, and everything is stored and managed in the cloud. About 20 users are working with xDesign at the moment, but the goal is to raise that number to 7,000 by the end of 2018. You can learn more about SOLIDWORKS xDesign here.

The 3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace was introduced a few days before SOLIDWORKS World started, as a means of allowing professionals to work with qualified industry experts throughout the product development process. Marketplace Make is one facet of the service, which was highlighted at SOLIDWORKS World along with the other new product announcements. It connects designers and engineers with industrial service providers to turn designs into fully manufactured products. You can learn more about – and try for yourself – 3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace Make here.

“We are drastically widening our ambition, and our services that we want to make available to each of you,” said SOLIDWORKS CEO Gian Paolo Bassi. “Yes, we want to be the Amazon of engineers.”

That’s a statement that promises more to come, as SOLIDWORKS continues to expand, develop and innovate.

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[Images: SOLIDWORKS unless otherwise noted]