Dassault Debuts Integrated 3DExperience Works Platform at Conference

In February, Dassault Systèmes held its 3DEXPERIENCE World 2020 conference (formerly SolidWorks World) in Nashville. The rebranded conference marked a continuation of the company’s efforts to consolidate its software offerings around the 3DEXPERIENCE Works brand.

The company launched the 3DEXPERIENCE Works offering, promoting it as  a way to create a fully connected experience for SolidWorks users. “We are all here together to dream and to turn our dreams into reality,” said SolidWorks CEO Gian Paolo Bassi, touting the benefits of 3DExperience Works and its compass-based navigation interface. “Everyone will discover and navigate the 3DEXPERIENCE universe using this compass to understand the past and navigate the future online.”

Prior to the event, Dassault Systèmes announced its strategic direction for the company, including the company’s goal to create a virtual twin experience of the human body and to focus heavily on the healthcare and life sciences sectors, as well as manufacturing and smart cities. 

The 3DEXPERIENCE Works rollout includes three varieties: standard, professional and premium. Each includes SolidWorks applications that are installed from, licensed from and updated in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. According to the company, SolidWorks users will have the same desktop applications they are used to, but can also benefit from the digital platform via improved collaboration, embedded data management, automatic software updates, and flexible access to all project data in a central location.

The solution also includes 3D Creator and 3D Sculptor. Users can also access other 3DEXPERIENCE applications in an on-demand environment as they need them.

“Customers want to do more than just design. They want to have a life-like experience of the products they make.  This requires better design, simulation, governance, management and manufacturing and, most importantly, collaboration with the entire value chain.  We want to provide customers with more options that make sense for their business, which is why we’ve made it easy for them to take advantage of and explore 3DEXPERIENCE Works,” said Bassi. “With our new commercial offers, SolidWorks users have access to the powerful desktop applications that they know and love, with huge additional value. On the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, everything and everyone involved in the concept, design, simulate, manufacture, sell, and service processes are connected and integrated in one continuous loop. Of course, our SolidWorks customers can continue to buy the standalone SolidWorks desktop version if they prefer, but our new customer-centric option will free up time to think, create, and get things done.  We are also planning similar offers for education and startups, to bring value to them too.”

Dassault has reconfigured its solutions in a roles-based framework, and the company has defined several hundred different roles, each with its own set of application capabilities. Eventually all of its applications will be web-enabled and available via subscription. However, the company has been touting this model for some time, even as traditional SolidWorks users have been hesitant to migrate in that direction.

That’s why the company was quick to demonstrate how traditional SolidWorks fits into the various flavors of 3DEXPERIENCE Works.

On day two of the conference, a panel of SolidWorks executives walked attendees through an imaginary use case for the integrated platform. The demo included using the 3DSwYm social application to share ideas, and the lifecycle management services inside SolidWorks to keep stakeholders up to date on project progress. 

Michael Mendonça of the Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation. Image courtesy of Dassault Systemes.

At the conference, Xometry and Dassault also announced that engineers using Dassault Systèmes’ SolidWorks and CATIA applications will have automatic and immediate access to Xometry price quotes on MAKE Marketplace for manufacturing parts, without leaving their design environment. Xometry is the first announced member of Dassault’s Prime Partner program.

Hackathon Lends a Helping Hand

The conference also included entrants in the company’s first 3DEXPERIENCE World Hackathon. Dassault invited five teams to use its software tools to improve the design and manufacturability of a prosthetic hand created by the Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation. The organization distributes free prosthetics around the globe for recipients that have been affected by forearm amputations. 

David Randle, Senior Strategy and Business Development Manager at SolidWorks, discovered the Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation through a team building exercise that involved assembling the hands. “The hand was originally designed decades ago,” Randle says. “We could deliver a better version of this hand; it’s what our portfolio was built for.”

The five teams in the hackathon included six members, including Dassault employees, students, and customers. “None of the members were co-located geographically,” Randle says. “They used the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to collaborate.”

Foundation founder Michael Mendonça was at the conference to announce Team 3 as the winner. The Foundation has distributed 55,000 hands.

In addition to the Hackathon, Dassault is supporting the organization via a pilot program with four FabLabs to help boost distribution efforts.

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