As the world remains in pseudo-lockdown due to COVID-19, we find ourselves becoming more siloed than ever. Working remotely may have had its upside to begin with—after all, who doesn’t mind avoiding that morning commute, working with your trusty dog by your side or lounging around in sweats! But let’s face it, the collaboration and camaraderie we enjoyed in the office have certainly suffered.

If you are still storing your SOLIDWORKS data locally, or even on a server with no proper data management solution, you’ve probably experienced some level of chaos while trying to work remotely with your colleagues.

What if you could have the SOLIDWORKS you know and love, and connect it to the cloud with a low-stress, out-of-the-box data management program? No IT headaches, no expensive servers and no pricey customizations—literally just plug and play. What if this option also made it easy for you to collaborate with your team, share your models, ask for help with design flaws and check the status of projects?

Enter 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS, which will let you connect your SOLIDWORKS data seamlessly to the cloud, allow for simple check-in and check-out (so that nobody steps on anyone else’s toes), and provide access to collaboration tools within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. These solutions were developed by the same company that owns SOLIDWORKS, so I expect they understand what you want and need to be successful in product design and manufacturing.

While it can’t provide you with the face-to-face watercooler conversations, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can certainly make it easy to engage in conversations à la Facebook. Instead of posting your favorite dog picture, you’ll be posting your model (which is easy to grab)—complete with mark-ups, if desired. You post to a community, which could be made up of a few team members, your entire company or perhaps even your client. You will find the back and forth dialog can lead to better designs as well as some very creative design solutions. I like to think of it as an online team brainstorm.

(Side Note: Just to be clear, if you want to post a picture of your dog…that is still an option!)

Don’t get me started on the project planning, either. I feel like our teams have all become a little more disorganized as a result of the pandemic. Conversely, my closet became ridiculously organized. With everyone dispersed, it can be tricky managing complex projects, or even simple ones, effectively. The project planning tools that come with the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers are fantastic, and crafted specifically for product design. 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS understands things such as “issue management,” revisions—even requirements traceability matrix (RTM)—and more. That being said, there’s nothing to stop you from using 3DEXPERIENCE for all types of projects. We even use it at SOLIDWORKS—every one of our departments uses the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for project planning.

Imagine if everyone on the team had a glimpse into the project timeline and could see where they currently stand, was fully aware of their individual tasks and deadlines and how those affect other tasks. How about an app that provided friendly reminders along the way to help nudge you along and keep everyone on task? What if your day didn’t start with reading your endless emails? (I know; crazy talk!) What if you started your workday with coffee by your side while launching the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and had immediate access to all your relevant notifications and tasks. No nonsense, nothing extra—simply everything you need to know to get your day rolling.

What will you do with all that extra time?

More Bonuses

So, you’ve saved some time and have improved your ability to collaborate—what else can 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offer during our ongoing days of COVID? As I mentioned earlier, now you can store your valuable CAD data on the cloud safely and securely, which provides plenty of great benefits.

First, you can access your data from anywhere. If you’ve ever left your model on your work computer and then tried to work from home (or vice versa), you understand the advantage of saving your CAD data on the cloud. That data can be accessed from anywhere, as long as there is an Internet connection.

Storing your CAD data on the cloud also means that others can access those files. Maybe you don’t like to share. But what if sharing helps you get your job done faster? Would that make sharing sound better? The data management tools that come with 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS make the data available to others while maintaining the proper hierarchy and connections in the assemblies. This means that multiple people can work on a product at the same time—let’s-get-this-product-done-and-out-the-door-ASAP kind of time. Your clients will love you all the more.

If you are grabbing multiple files across mapped or shared drives, I hope you get paid by the hour. Opening a large assembly will give you plenty of time to take the dog outside, grab a bite and heat up your coffee. Grabbing your CAD data from the cloud? Fido may not go outside nearly as often.

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS knows you by name. That should help you feel less isolated. You can access SOLIDWORKS from home and office without any special protocols. Plus, rather than get that big annual upgrade to your SOLIDWORKS, you’ll receive several updates to your SOLIDWORKS software throughout the year—with less bother.  You will be the first to get access to new features and tools. If you happen to be the CAD Manager responsible for upgrading a team of CAD users, the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers will save you a ton of time.

One more bonus is that all of the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers come with access to a full cloud-based CAD solution called 3D Creator. Use this to do some 3D modeling on the go, on any device, at any time. It’s like using SOLIDWORKS on a tablet. 3D Creator is similar to taking a giant step into the CAD future, and I highly recommend giving it a go. It comes with the offers at no extra charge.

While some of us have been slowed down by COVID-19, others may discover new ways to work faster. That’s the aim of the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers.

To learn more about 3DEXPERIENCE and SOLIDWORKS, check out the whitepaper Developing Better Products in the Cloud.