Users of SOLIDWORKS, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and other Dassault Systèmes products flooded into Nashville, Tennessee’s Music City Center last week excited to explore the latest in design and simulation software at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023.
One of the highlights of the annual event is always the 3DEXPERIENCE Playground, featuring exhibitors showcasing their technologies, software and applications of 3DEXPERIENCE tools. This year was no exception, with booths sporting everything from new 3D visualization tools to artists creating biology-inspired fashion. While the event showcased a huge variety of technologies, many exhibits fell into three categories: manufacturing machines, design tools and applications of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Design Tools
Opportunities to improve and augment your design process were all over the 3DEXPERIENCE Playground. Lenovo and HP occupied large booths highlighting their newest mobile and desktop workstation options. Numerous providers of education and learning software offered their latest tools and model resources including Ultra Librarian which shared how to access their large printed circuit board CAD library. 3D scanning company Artec 3D showed off their 3D scanner options which integrate into your modeling workflow.
Multiple 3D modeling mouse companies showcased their products, including 3Dconnexion which demoed their two-mouse modeling solutions. Startup CADe also offered a new option for a CAD mouse: your tablet or phone. Their currently free-to-download app can sit opposite of your dominant mouse hand and offers an additional touchscreen navigation option and 3D modeling shortcuts. They are still in their testing phase and soliciting feedback. They were offering enterprise software options as well as individual downloads.
A user tests Sony’s Spatial Reality Display in the 3DEXPERIENCE Playground.
Sony brought along a tool for a different part of the modeling workflow: analyzing your models before physically creating them. Sony’s Spatial Reality Displays use eye-sensing technology to finely tune a three dimensional image without the use of any type of glasses. As we wrote last year, screens like these have never been better. While these spatial reality screens don’t solve a huge problem, they offer a unique new way for users to engage with 3D models without having to prototype them.
Manufacturing Machines
A cobot stacks coffees cups on the 3DEXPERIENCE World shop floor.
Now that your parts are designed using a suite of new tools, it is time to explore the technologies that can help bring them into reality. CNC machines and cobots were front and center on the shop floor portion of the conference.
A large 5-axis milling machine was putting SOLIDWORKS-designed, Nashville-themed details on belt buckles which were first 3D printed by Markforged. These belt buckles popped up a number of times throughout the conference worn by Dassault Systèmes representatives during the general sessions. Other CNC machines were engraving coffee cups, producing small metal boots and more.
CNC machines are typically thought of as tools only for use in a large-scale manufacturing environment, but there was special focus on their potential applications for makers and smaller-scale uses. Manufacturing company Tormach had their xsTECH CNC Routers available for testing and offered CNC 101 training sessions to get people started. These desktop CNCs serve as a hook, getting students and makers into manufacturing.
Close by the CNC machines were a small fleet of collaborative robots, or cobots. Doosan Robotics was demoing the ease of programming the cobot motion on the manufacturing floor, while also featuring the breadth of applications of their machines beyond the factory. DR. PRESSO the coffee-serving cobot was hard at work throughout the conference pumping out Americanos and espressos to caffeine-deprived attendees. DR. PRESSO is currently working in South Korea, but is working to gain traction within the United States as well.
3D printed chess set created on Nexa3D printers.
While there was a noticeably smaller presence from 3D printing companies than past years of the event, they definitely still had a footprint in the Playground. Nexa3D showcased their printers and products made with their printers, including a large 3D-printed chess set and guitar. Their major push at the event was highlighting the speed and ease of use of their smaller scale resin printers and large-scale manufacturing options which they emphasized in 3D printing demos and with a talk in the 3DEXPERIENCE Theater.
3D printing also made an appearance in the context of companies such as Athena 3D Manufacturing, which showcased their 3D printing and other manufacturing services with a focus on their variety of material options.
3DEXPERIENCE Created Products
Always standing out from the crowd at 3DEXPERIENCE World Playground are the incredible creations made using Dassault Systèmes products. From student vehicle design teams and research groups to artists and social media influencers, many of these people and products were showcased in the education and maker zones at the conference.
Exosapien Technology’s mech suit, Prosthesis.
Back at 3DEXPERIENCE World once again and drawing attendees from all over the conference was Exosapien Technology’s Prosthesis mech suit. Designed in SOLIDWORKS, the massive 4,000 kg electromechanical machine multiples human strength 50 times. During the first day’s general session, the suit’s creator Jonathan Tippett also discussed the improvements coming in the next version, which will be two-thirds the size, half the weight and twice the power of the original Prosthesis. He also announced Exosapien Technolgy’s upcoming application of this mech suit knowledge to the vehicle world in the form of the EXO-quad.
Not to be missed rolling around the education zone was the designed-in-SOLIDWORKS Star Wars robot, RX-Gil and his maker David Ferreira. Equipped with voice changing technology, speakers, powered wheels and numerous other movement capabilities, the little droid traveled around the conference floor filming videos and taking pictures with attendees.
Small scale mockups of wheelchairs created by nonprofit Magic Wheelchair.
Nonprofit organization Magic Wheelchair, which received a $30,000 donation during the final conference day’s general session, had a spot in the maker zone highlighting their work transforming children’s wheelchairs into spectacular works of personalized art. You can explore more of their projects in our story covering one of their Halloween creations from 2022.
Closeup on one of the pieces in Kate Reed’s Beyond Biomimicry fashion collection.
Nearby in the maker zone was Dassault Systèmes artist in residence Kate Reed, who explores the intersection of biology, fashion and technology. Reed exhibited her designs from the Beyond Biomimicry collection, which used parametric design to mirror natural growth that was then 3D printed into a fashion collection.