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4 Reasons Why You Should Care About the New 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Offers

3DEXPERIENCE CAD

4 Reasons Why You Should Care About the New 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Offers

If you were fortunate enough to attend 3DEXPERIENCE World 2020, then you might remember SOLIDWORKS CEO Gian Paolo Bassi unveiling the three 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers that were promised to arrive in the summer. That seemed to create a buzz at the conference—but this buzz decreased as time went by and COVID-19 set in.

Thankfully, summer is here—and as promised, so are these buzz-worthy, game-changing offers.

This marks the first time that the SOLIDWORKS we all know and love has been fully integrated with the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform. To take it a step further, these offers are priced at nearly the same price-point as SOLIDWORKS desktop alone, but with much more added value. But what do these new offers actually mean to you, and why would you want to disrupt your happy SOLIDWORKS desktop world to take advantage of them? Is moving to the cloud all it’s cracked up to be for product design and development?

You might be thinking, “You can pry SOLIDWORKS from my cold, dead hands,” but you don’t need to worry. All three offers come with SOLIDWORKS desktop. With that established, we can take a look at four very good reasons to take advantage of the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers.

1. Eliminate Data Management Headaches

It can be annoyingly difficult to keep track of CAD data. Whether you store your data locally, on a server or both, you have no doubt wasted precious time searching for some elusive piece of CAD data at some point. Have you ever spent more time searching for a part than it would have taken to simply redraw it altogether? I know I have.

Do you use complicated naming conventions to manage your revisions? You have to really trust your team members to be on the ball at all times if this is your definition of version control. And, how do you really know you’re working on the latest version of a file? Have you ever had someone save on top of a part or assembly you’ve worked tirelessly on—only to wipe out all of these changes? With no real tracking in place, you have no way of knowing who made what changes to which file and when.

The pain is real. No matter how carefully you plan out your company’s data management standards, somebody will go rogue. Not you, of course. In addition, no matter how safe and secure you think your data is, it is only as secure as the USB drive on your computer.

Enter product data management on the cloud with ENOVIAworks.

When many of us think of Product Data Management (PDM), we think of monolithic applications, IT nightmares, expensive servers, long and complicated ramp-ups and big budgets. When you move your data to the cloud, you eliminate all your worst fears and expenses as data management is seamlessly integrated into your SOLIDWORKS product.

Revision control is automated, and searching is thorough, speedy and easy. You can find comfort in knowing you are always working on the most recent file, and you can roll back the history to view any changed parts or assemblies. There is very little ramp-up time required, with no additional hardware or IT costs.

Most importantly, your data is safe and secure, and easy to share, with anyone, anytime and on any device. That is the power of the cloud. The 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers include simple yet powerful PDM that is built right in; you would barely know it’s there, except that you’ll find yourself reaching for the Tylenol much less often.

2. Improve Your CAD Management Life

If you are a CAD Manager, you might have a love/hate relationship with SOLIDWORKS releases. You probably love having access to the cool new features, but hate the installation process, especially if you are responsible for multiple CAD stations. Do you have a hodgepodge of releases in your company? How frustrating is it to make sure your files are compatible as each department beats to their own SOLIDWORKS release adoption drum?

Then there’s license tracking; if you are the unfortunate one tasked with keeping track of who has what, it can be quite daunting. Ever have a CAD user want to use their SOLIDWORKS license at home, but forgot to borrow it before leaving the office?

The 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers are a CAD Manager’s best friend. After adopting one of the offers, you’ll see that updates are lighter weight and practically automatic—much like phone apps. You’ll receive various updates throughout the year, possibly with some great new feature, instead of one big heavy update. This also means that everyone on 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS will be on the same release.

Also, it is beyond simple to manage licenses, add and subtract where needed, at any point in a project. With Named Users, you can access your SOLIDWORKS license from anywhere since it is tied to the person and not to a network license. More Tylenol saved.

3. Improves Overall and Everyday Product Design and Development Process

Is your team high-functioning? Do you solve design problems and challenges in silos or as a fully collaborative team? When you get to work, do you go straight to your email? Does your entire team know where they are on the timeline, what milestones have been reached and what issues have occurred along the way? Would you like to engage in a visual conversation with your client to ensure you are delivering a product that meets their needs? 

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform can turn your team into master collaborators with very little effort. Rather than launching your email, launch the platform to find assigned project tasks, change orders and to check out the project timeline. You’ll be launching SOLIDWORKS from inside of the platform, so it is a logical place to start.

You can also engage your client on the platform, interacting with your SOLIDWORKS models for real-time feedback, ensuring greater customer satisfaction. Marketing can have transparent access to the model without bothering Engineering, and many functions can be performed concurrently rather than sequentially. Plus, your team will be unified and high-functioning without ever needing to be in the same office (if desired).

For more information on the value of collaboration in product design and development, check out my recent article. And, let me also say that while there are many different collaboration products out there, nobody understands the product design and development process like Dassault Systèmes; it’s what they’ve been focusing on for decades.

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4. Try Out Other Cool Stuff (You Might Just Get Attached)

The 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers also come with a great online CAD program with 3D Creator. Again, I know you love your SOLIDWORKS, but if you’ve ever wanted to model away from your desktop—perhaps on a tablet—then you should definitely check out this program. Built on the CATIA engine, it is powered yet easy to use. You’ll even find some similarities with your beloved SOLIDWORKS to ensure speedy ramp-up, and it’s there at no additional cost—so why not try it?

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Professional also comes with a friendly sub-D surface modeler called 3D Sculptor. This makes it easy to create those smooth industrial shapes which are not so easy in SOLIDWORKS. If this is something you do on a regular basis, you should definitely take a look.

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Premium comes with all of the above and includes powerful Simulation tools so you can truly test the integrity of your designs.

The three 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers all include great value; simply select the one that suits your needs. Imagine your life with less headaches and tedium and better decisions and products. Contact your local SOLIDWORKS reseller for a demo so you can see it in action for yourself or get more info here.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS in the whitepaper Design Through Analysis: Simulation-Driven Product Development Pays Business Dividends in Transition to Smart Manufacturing.

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