A decade ago, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform was launched as a collaborative environment for not only individual businesses, but also to enable collaboration with other organizations.
When SOLIDWORKS users first get started with the platform, it can be overwhelming and many of the terms can be unfamiliar. If I am being honest, this was my experience. This is why I wanted to find a way to simplify the process and make it easier to comprehend.
Before I go any further, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, there is nothing simple about the platform, it is an ever-evolving space, with new updates and ideas implemented continuously.
Second, a disclaimer: I cannot guarantee that the terms I am using in this article are officially recognized by Dassault Systèmes either now or in the future. While I use a term like “tenant” today, this might change to something else tomorrow.
And finally, if you are reading this article series to learn about how to set up your platform and use its administrative segments, then you will be disappointed. This article deals with concepts surrounding the platform — not the ins and outs of its usage.
With those points in mind, let’s explore how SOLIDWORKS users can begin to grasp the concepts of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
What is the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform?
As stated above, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a collaborative space for your company and its partners. If you consider your company today, it likely has different departments with different employees at different locations working on different tools to get their jobs done.
Sometimes, the skills of an employee can be used in other departments; for instance, a designer can help the marketing department create a rendering of a product.
When it comes to data, I have often seen how many companies use separate sets of data for each department. They just copy whatever data is needed from one department to another.
In most companies, each department has its own set of employees, tools and datasets.
On the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, things look a little different. First instead of departments, you have “roles.” Also, each employee will need a 3DEXPERIENCE platform login to gain access to the company’s tools and data. The tools you need to get your job done are often called “apps.” When it comes to data, instead of having multiple silos with data that is copied to multiple locations you have one set of data which is used by everyone in the company. This is more commonly known as “big data,” or a “data lake.” Finally, instead of having a business location or a series of locations, where your platform resides is called a tenant.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform houses a company’s tools and data in one location, so everyone is on the same page.
Since everyone is sourcing data from the same source, it will reduce the number of errors due to using an old data copy with the wrong revisions. This can save you a lot of time and money.
This was a quick overview of the platform. Next, let’s investigate how to login to the platform.
Getting started: SOLIDWORKS on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform
To get started, you will need a 3DEXPERIENCE ID (previously known as a SOLIDWORKS ID). If you already have one of those, then it should be compatible and able to give you basic access to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. If you do not have a 3DEXPERIENCE ID, go to this creation page.
What previously was known as a SOLIDWORKS ID can give you 3DEXPERIENCE platform access.
Not only will the ID help you gain access to your company’ tenant, but it will also allow you to access Dassault Systèmes’ say what you mean (SWYM) communities where you can ask questions and get more information on the apps within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This is also where you will find the SOLIDWORKS forum, which has more than a decade’s worth of questions and solutions for SOLIDWORKS, PDM and more.
Once you have access to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, you still need access to your company’s tenant.
Once you have the license, you can start the process to enter your company’s tenant. First, get the role “3D Swymer.” This is the basic role which allows you to access the tenant. Now you need to find your “department,” which means you need to be assigned some roles.
What are Roles?
To explain roles, I am going to explore the origin of the word. During theatre’s infancy actors would only get their own lines — not the lines of their fellow players. This was done for two reasons:
- To avoid plays from being copied by a rivaling playhouse, as an entire script could not be sold, only one actor’s lines.
- All plays were written by hand, and to write maybe 10 plays would not only be time consuming but also very expensive.
For an actor the lines in a play can be considered his tools for the part. When the actor got their lines, they got them on a roll of paper, and later this became getting a “role.” On the 3DXPERIENCE platform, it is pretty much the same:
- The user (or actor) gets their role, which contains the apps to get the job done.
- Each role contains a unique combination of apps, much like each part in a play contains a unique combination of lines.
In Shakespeare’s time, giving an actor a role meant handing them a roll of paper, or the tools they need to act the part. In the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it works much the same way.
Of course, some roles may contain the same apps, just as some actors might say the same lines, but the list of apps each role gains is never the exact same as another role would have access to. The number of combinations is numerous which is also why there are currently over 800 roles — each tailored to a specific task in a specific industry.
While you will never need all roles on the platform, you will find that some of them will become invaluable to you and your work. As a user, you will be given multiple roles by your administrator, depending on your current tasks. If need be, a Role can be assigned and unassigned to you depending on the job at hand.
One thing to note is that some of the roles have a time constraint, in which it is locked to the user for a specific time after being used for the first time.
As stated earlier, two roles can share multiple apps. For instance, the 3D Creator role may contain CAD and xDesign apps. Meanwhile the 3D Sculptor role may also contain CAD apps, but trades out the xDesign apps for xShape apps.
Looking at these roles, you see they do seem very similar. But each are different in what skills you need to use them.
As you will notice throughout the platform, when roles are referenced, they might appear to have the same logo but in different colors. This is because each role is part of a brand on the platform.
What are brands? That, dear players, is for another article where I also will dive deeper into apps, dashboards and a few things more. Stay tuned.