I cannot help but feel a little melancholy when I realize that I will not be meeting all the wonderful users of SOLIDWORKS again until next year. This year was the first year that 3DEXPERIENCE World returned to the “original” form with everything in person, and no virtual sessions. Except for a few sessions, like the keynotes (see them here), everything was in person.

In other words, you had to be there.

I was worried that this might make for a smaller event, but it still attracted more than 4,000 people. Hopefully, this number will increase in time. While the virtual version of the event has been great, and the hybrid version worked to ease back into the “new normal,” it is now a good time to return to past glory.

 (Photo: Lennart Tinndahl.)

Getting there

Before I go into my impression of the event, I want to say a few words on how I got there.

With CO₂ emissions coming under scrutiny, I tried a new approach this year: First I took a plane to Boston, and from there I took a train to Chicago and on to Dallas. This 44-hour train ride saved one ton of CO₂, the amount of CO₂ used to produce electricity for two standard houses for a year.

It also gave me a chance to write my “Tips from the Train.” During the ride I created ten “Tinndahl’s Transatlantic Tips” and video journals on the way.

While it was fun to do, this was significantly more expensive than a plane ride. But if you like adventure, I highly recommend it.

The general sessions

Once again, the charming Manish Kumar, Gian Paolo Bassi, Bernard Charlès and Suchit Jain guided us through the general sessions.

When Bassi enters the stage in an electric sports car, the crowd goes wild. You cannot help getting caught up in the moment. What an entrance!

(Image: screenshot from SOLIDWORKS Live.)

SOLIDWORKS CEO Manish Kumar said in the first general session, “In my simplistic view, SOLIDWORKS only has two flavors of today: we come with the platform or we come on the platform.”

(Image: screenshot from SOLIDWORKS Live.)

This means that you can use your SOLIDWORKS with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform no matter what version you have, standard or connected, and take advantage of the many possibilities. On the platform are the cloud-based possibilities that you have: xShape, xDesign etc., where you can use SOLIDWORKS in your browser.

You may fear that the “with the platform” is temporary but Kumar assured us that “both these flavors are here to stay,” and ended with “we are moving forward with SOLIDWORKS,” which, of course, earned him great applause as this has been a great concern for many users.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects of the first general session was a sneak peek at the work with AI. We already have AI in SOLIDWORKS to some extent; for instance, with the Selection helper. But more is on the way: Image to sketch, command prediction and automatic drawing creation.

(Image: screenshot from SOLIDWORKS Live.)

As far as I could tell, these AI initiatives are meant for the products on the platform, as this was what they showed pictures from, but we will see.

My personal favorite of the general sessions is the skits that show what is new in the upcoming version of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE.

The tradition of introducing upcoming features goes back to 2005. It is much more fun than just listing the new features.

As always, it is clear that a lot has gone into the skit. This year’s skit was called “Splines Out,” a fun spoof of the movie “Knives Out,” featuring a mystery woven into the use of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE, complete with a detective with a southern accent.

(Image: screenshot from SOLIDWORKS Live.)

All the actors—and actors they were, not SOLIDWORKS users or Dassault Systèmes employees—on stage were wonderful. They ensured that you as a user would be looking forward to the next release.
I will not dive into the different upcoming news, as I have not tested the new features yet, but I am most excited about these:

• Option to use the round tool on multiple bodies in the same command.
• Using rollup in assembly visualization to isolate components.
• Copy cutlist properties to all configurations.
• Reload drawings (something that has been only for parts and assemblies so far).
• The ability to assign colors in an assembly visualization.

These features are, of course, not final and can be removed at any point in the development process.

Previously when releasing a new version of SOLIDWORKS, all the features were added, and service packs were issued to fix errors not caught by the development team. But ever since SOLIDWORKS 2024, new enhancements will be added to the different service packs. For instance, in 2024 SP1 a new import filter was added that allowed you to select which part of the files you want imported.

Of course, during the last session, we were all excited to find out where next year’s event will be held. And here it is:

Next year’s 3DEXPERIENCE World will be in Houston, Texas, from February 24 to 26, 2025.

The breakout sessions

After the general sessions came a myriad of breakout sessions to select from. Over 300 sessions took place over three days. Each of them with some unique input on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, SOLIDWORKS, PDM, Simulation, MBD etc.

Many of the presenters were well-known faces in regard to 3DEXPERIENCE World, and once again they did not disappoint, delivering top-notch information presented with their own special twist.

You could be sure to find a session of interest. If you want some great tips and tricks, there was “Jazzy Tips and Tricks” with Betty Baker, John Matrishon and Joe Lance, or “Tank’s Top Tips and Tricks” with Brad ‘Tank’ Meador. If you wanted to know something about importing geometry, Danute Nikolova-Petrova finished off nicely with her “SOLIDWORKS Mastery: Importing and Proficiently Working with STL files,” a great tutorial on how to work with imported files.

For a complete overview of my preferred sessions, see this article. All sessions will be made available on the platform on March 4^th.

The Playground

The Playground, AKA the exhibit floor, is the best places to spend your time between sessions. Start with Model Mania and check out the latest trends in hardware and software. You will not be disappointed. Everywhere you go, there is something to do or see. You will have to go back to be sure that you didn’t miss anything.

The Playground seemed a bit smaller this year, no doubt a result of people still getting back to the “in-person” participation. I hope to see a lot more people there next year.

Final impressions

This 25^th anniversary was, to me, a great success and I have high hopes for the next 25 years.

For me, the mission is to meet with old friends and maybe even make a few new ones. Again, the event fulfilled my mission.

But of course, the work-related part of the event is also important. I gained a lot of new knowledge as well as connected with people who can help me in the future. All there is left to say is: Houston? Not a problem.

The annual event attracts SOLIDWORKS users from around the world.

Last year’s 3DEXPERIENCE World was a hybrid event, which had both virtual sessions as well as live sessions. The year before, 3DEXPERIENCE World 2022, was initially planned as a hybrid event but eventually became an all-virtual event because of COVID.

This year it seems as if Dassault Systèmes has returned to form, making it an all-in-person event, which means that none of the sessions will be broadcast live. However, they will be recorded and available on demand later.

But what should you see while there? In this article, I will share some of the sessions that I am looking forward to seeing at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2024.

Currently there are 365+ sessions to choose from, and it can be very overwhelming to know where to start. This is especially true if this is your first time attending.

Monday, February 12^th

Most of the sessions that I am looking forward to are on Monday, the first day.

The best way to kick off 3DEXPERIENCE World is in the company of Joe Lance. Joe will give his tips on how you can have a great experience at this event.

Joe is a well-known face in the community and if you need some help in any way, he is your go-to guy.

At the time of this writing, space was still available to see Andrew Bonica and Umar Ahmed’s hands-on session “Hands-On Experience Personalizing Your 3D Dashboard for Maximum Productivity”—but you had better move fast!

I have been fortunate enough to be on some of Andrew’s sessions. They are always worth the time.

After lunch, I really don’t have any options. I have my own session, “3DEXPERIENCE Made Simple.”

It is not about how you use the platform but a different take on the concepts of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

And while I would love to see as many people as possible, it is very hard to compete with Betty Baker, Joe Lance and John Matrishon, who have joined forces in what can only be a truly epic tips and tricks session. I’ll be sure to catch it in reruns.

Do not miss Kevin McCleery’s session “Off-Label Weldment” if you are working with weldments. Knowing Kevin, I’m sure you will learn a lot from his session.

After my own session, I am hopping over to sit in on Daniel Deoreo’s and Sarah Idemoto’s hands-on session “SOLIDWORKS Connected and xShape Interoperability,” as this subject is something that I am very interested in.

If you are not into the platform, my recommendation is to attend Alin Vargatu’s session “Healing Imported Geometry Errors - The Ultimate Guide 2024 Edition.” Alin is well known to EngineersRule.com readers.

Alin is a legend when it comes to handling large assemblies and imported geometry. Take notes. I guarantee you will learn something from him.

For those curious about the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, I highly recommend “Beyond Data Management – What Can you Do with the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform” with Andy Rammer.

Andy has done a lot of presentations previously and you can always be sure to learn something from him.

And after all these sessions, be sure to take the rest of the day off enjoy what Dallas has to offer.

Tuesday, February 13^th

The second day of the event will be a day to learn and relax—my first presentation is over, and I don’t have another until Wednesday.

After the General session, I will be joining the session “101 Things Your Mother Never Told You About Mates.”

This sounds like an awesome opportunity to get under the hood with mates.

If you are more interested in the platform, there is still room at Jody Stiles’ “Lofty Aspirations: Hands-on with Loft in xDesign,” which will give you an introduction to loft in the xApps.

Jody’s experience will make for a very exciting presentation, I’m sure.

After lunch, I am very much looking forward to Brad ’Tank’ Meador’s “Tank’s Top Tips and Tricks.” He is a legend in the SOLIDWORKS community.

But if you’re into PDM—or curious about it—you will want to attend Jeremiah Davis’ “SOLIDWORKS PDM Tips and Tricks” instead.

Jeremiah has been training some of the best PDM people I know, so it will be exciting to see what he will be sharing.

And afterwards, I am really looking forward to spending some time in the company of Eric Beatty and his “Taming that Other Guy’s Model” which will show you capabilities of FeatureWorks that are not in the documentation.

I have attended this one before and I highly recommend it. You will learn how to repair a model using FeatureWorks—among other things.

The best way to finish off Tuesday will be to drop in on Alin Vargatu’s “Ultimate Import Geometry Optimization for Large Assemblies.”

Wednesday, February 14^th

The last day of the conference is always bittersweet. You’re so full of information, but you still don’t want the event to end because it will be a whole year before you see all these people again.

Better make the best of it.

For the first session, I am going to recommend Artem Taturevych’s session on custom properties.

Artem is very experienced and has a good understanding of the different custom properties.

Then it’s time for my second session, “Tinndahl’s Troubleshooting Techniques.”

I will give an overview of some of the techniques I use when I troubleshoot, as well as show some of the tools you can use when contacting support.

If you want to join a meetup session instead, I recommend joining Danute Petrova-Nikolova’s “Freelance - A World Without Borders for Design and Innovation.”

I have been in contact with Danute for the past three years and not only is she a very talented SOLIDWORKS and xApp user, she also has a lot of insight on how to become a successful freelancer.

Besides missing Danute’s session, I will also be missing Brad Meador’s “Motorcycle Mayhem.”

This session sounds like a good way to finetune your SOLIDWORKS workflow.

After lunch, it is time for the third general session. Tradition has it that they will announce where next year’s 3DEXPERIENCE World will be located.

After the general session, I will be hard pressed to make a decision. On one hand, I really want to go see Danute’s presentation on “SOLIDWORKS Mastery: Importing and Proficiently Working with STL Files.” She really knows her stuff.

On the other hand, there is John Matrishon presenting “Getting a GRIP on Surfacing,” which ought to be a real treat for those doing surfacing on SOLIDWORKS.

Oh, well. I can’t be two places at once. Thankfully, the sessions will be available on demand.

I hope that this article has provided some useful guidance. But no matter what, I am sure that you will be spending these three days learning new stuff, meeting new people and having a blast.

See you in Dallas!

Between the picture on the left and text on the right in Figure 1, which side catches your eyes first?

Figure 1. A page in the Kevin Robot datasheet.

Most of us would pick the image. Indeed, human cognition appreciates images and processes them much faster than text. Remember the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Let’s go deeper into this comparison to explore the specific advantages of images over text. After all, similar documents are frequently authored and consumed. Drowning in the flood of information, it is easy for the customer’s attention to wane.

Table 1. Cognitive comparisons between the picture and text in Figure 1.

Making use of these advantages, the Kevin Robot datasheet includes other intuitive illustrations, striking a sleek balance between images and text.

Figure 2. More straightforward illustrations in the Kevin Robot datasheet.

Thankfully, having 3D models in our hands has opened up an easy shortcut towards intuitive images, videos and 3D interactive experiences. Specifically, 3D models help us inform, inspire and interact with our audience.

What do I mean by inform?

In addition to the informative illustrations in Figure 2, 3D brings a plethora of options for insightful presentation, which would have been time-consuming and expensive to produce with physical goods—assuming it was feasible at all.

Figure 3. Illustration showing in-context height comparison.

Figure 4. In-context annotation.

Figure 5. In-context magnifier.

Apart from the cognitive appeal for the mind, there is always a longing for emotional connection that resonates with the viewers.

Now look at these stellar renderings in Figure 6. Don’t they inspire? Don’t you want to start touching and engaging with the robot?

Figure 6. 3D renderings of Kevin Robot.

I’d love to see this product in my lab!

3D models can also enable the augmented reality (AR) display on your mobile devices, so that you can see what the robot looks like at your facility right away.

“Creating digital marketing assets from design data allowed expediting Kevin’s development and garnering interest from the market before the design prototype robot was ever built,” says Tobias Brode, head of Business Unit Medical Engineering and Biotechnology at Kevin Robot.

“Traditionally, we would have had to either ship Kevin across the world, so that customers can see him in the flesh [so to speak] or bring customers to our lab. We don’t have to do that anymore. It’s a far more sustainable approach.”

Figure 7. Augmented reality of Kevin Robot.

In addition to consuming informative illustrations and inspiring visuals, our audience can now actively play with the product, upgrading one-way-push communications to bi-directional interactions.

On the 3D Kevin Robot webpage, we can rotate the robot at our discretion, examine from any perspective, and click on the yellow-circle hotspots to understand specific features as needed.

Again, it invites the audience to participate in this exploring journey together, at their pace, in a more engaging and empowering fashion.

Figure 8. 3D Kevin Robot webpage.

Is the model too heavy and slow to load on a webpage? How is the visual quality? These are common concerns.

First, the result speaks for itself. Please feel free to click on the link and scan the QR code at the top right corner, to try it out on your computer and smart phone. On my phone, the entire page with high quality renderings and 3D models takes only seconds to load.

What is the secret? Actually, the 3D model is NOT our typical engineering data any more. It represents a special type of 3D, optimized for web presence: glTF, or put simply, “JPEG for 3D.” To make it easier to remember, I created an acronym, FUSE, to convey its key advantages. (Okay, I got a bit of help from ChatGPT.)

The first letter is F, which stands for Fast. You can create a glTF file in SOLIDWORKS’ Product Communicator in minutes, and load it on a webpage in seconds.

For example, the original data of this lawn mower assembly on the left takes over 80MB, while the glTF model on the right consumes only 4MB, a 20x compression, even smaller than certain images. That’s why it loads so fast.

Figure 9. 20x file size compression in a glTF.

As illustrated in Figure 10, Product Communicator is a role on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. You can see how it creates interactive 3D content to showcase your company’s products.

It brings two browser-based Apps: xStudio for quality rendering and xHighlight for 3D presentation. The design data comes from either your desktop SOLIDWORKS, CATIA, or from other design roles on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

You can scan the QR code in the image below to learn more about it.

Figure 10. Product Communicator structure.

The next letter in FUSE is U for Universal. Similar to JPEG for images, we can universally apply glTF for 3D over the internet, which entails a natural evolution of Internet content, from text, images, audio and video, to 3D.

The S in FUSE stands for Simple. It is super simple to export this format in Product Communicator, similar to publishing a rendering as shown below. Furthermore, businesses can present it easily, and online visitors can comprehend it intuitively, similar to images or videos on a webpage.

Figure 11. Export glTF from xStudio in Product Communicator.

The last letter is key: E for Engaging. Even after the mentioned compression, the visual appeal remains uncompromised, which ensures glTF to touch the audience emotionally, with accurate, attractive and interactive 3D content.

Beyond these four key words, FUSE also implies strategic connotations: join together 3D and the Internet, and ignite excitement for and prevalence of 3D.

Now to recap, after reviewing typical communication materials and human cognition preferences, we broke down the level-up strategy into “three I’s”: Inform, Inspire and Interact.

I hope you see how 3D-empowered content will spice up your company’s products on their website.

Figure 12. “Three I’s” to level up daily communications with Product Communicator.

Lastly, if you have any questions or are keen on exploring similar discussions, please feel free to join the Product and Technical Communication community, where users, reseller experts, partners and 3DS employees are inspiring each other and sharing tips and tricks.

Figure 13. Product and Technical Communication Community.

About the Author

Oboe Wu is a user advocacy manager with 20 years of experience in engineering, marketing and software. He advocates for 3D communication to accelerate human cognition and enhance the experiences.

Dassault Systèmes delivered as promised in July. What exactly does that mean to you, should you choose to purchase a new license of SOLIDWORKS? Let’s take a look.

CAD-Aware Cloud Storage

Your SOLIDWORKS models and assemblies can become quite complex (especially if you work with other designers). How much time do you waste recreating data, searching for information and incorporating changes? Imagine renaming a part and not having to do any extra work, such as relinking and updating assemblies and file paths.

Cloud Services provides you with online storage that understands the intricacies of CAD relationships and protects you from the common pitfalls of designing with others. And it is simple, because you save your data to the cloud right inside of SOLIDWORKS, as seen in figure 1.

Figure 1. Save to the cloud from inside of SOLIDWORKS.

 If you are working with other designers, simply lock your designs to ensure nobody can overwrite your hard work. SOLIDWORKS with Cloud Services means a single source of truth – no misplaced outdated duplicates. The icing on the cake? When you save your designs on the cloud, you can access them from anywhere. Work from home, the office or a white sandy beach – the choice is yours.

Cloud Services also makes managing revisions a piece of cake. No more need for complex file names. Just perform a Save and indicate a revision, as seen in figure 2. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform will keep track of revisioning for you. You can go home early -- with your mind at peace.

Figure 2. Creating revisions is easy with Cloud Services.

With Cloud Services, you’ll become so organized you’ll feel like the Marie Kondo of CAD.

Collaboration and Markup

A variety of great apps come with your Cloud Services that lend themselves to robust collaboration and mark-up. The 3D Markup App allows markups on the actual model (so you aren’t creating a duplicate) that you can share with your team, as seen in Figure 3. The end result is a full digital paper trail of markups and comments. No screenshots needed. No harm done to the model either.

Figure 3. 3D Markup comes with a robust set of tools.

The Collaborative Tasks app creates a handy online to-do list that is accessible directly in SOLIDWORKS, as seen in Figure 4. This will ensure that your team remains organized and on task. You can even attach the actual CAD model to the task by dragging and dropping it onto the task so there is no doubt about what needs to be done. When a task is completed, simply drag and drop it to the “completed” column.

Figure 4. Collaborative Tasks app keeps you on time and on track.

The Compare app can be used to verify if assigned changes were actually made (or made correctly). These are just a few of the powerful apps that come with Cloud Services. So many apps…so little time.

Share Your 3D Designs with Anyone

With SOLIDWORKS and Cloud Services, you can share your designs with anyone – even if they don’t have SOLIDWORKs – directly from within SOLIDWORKS. Now that sounds like some smooth collaboration going on. Getting real-time feedback from suppliers or outside consultants and iterating on your work is as easy as sharing links. No viewers to install, because everything happens in a web browser. All the stakeholder needs to do is set up a free 3DEXPERIENCE ID account to get the collaboration ball rolling.

And it isn’t just about viewing; there are some great markup capabilities as well. Check out this video to see Share and Mark-up in action.

The workflow is simple:

1. Click on “Share a File” from the “Lifecycle and Collaboration” toolbar in SOLIDWORKS.
2. Type in an email address and your message.
3. Click a button to share the file and the recipient gets an email with a link to view/mark-up your design. They can do this on any web browser on any device.
4. You get a notification inside of SOLIDWORKS when they provide feedback.
5. You can view their comments and markups and can communicate back and forth without ever leaving your comfy SOLIDWORKS environment. It doesn’t get much easier than this.

And your data is always secure. When you share your model, you get to assign access rights (and you can change those any time you like).

Be sure to check out the amazing Cloud Services that come with every new license of SOLIDWORKS. Feeling left out because you aren’t buying any new SOLIDWORKS licenses? Worry not – there is a pathway for you to add Cloud Services to your existing SOLIDWORKS license, as well. Just contact your reseller for more information.

SOLIDWORKS with Cloud Services is definitely going to make your everyday design life a little bit easier and a lot more organized. Try them out today.

“When dealing with the ocean, it's not a question of if it's going to fail. It’s just a question of when,” said Philip Fullam, chief engineer at Ocean-based Climate Solutions.

But the New Mexico-based company Ocean-based Engineering Solutions is no stranger to taking on daunting tasks.

Initially founded on the idea of finding a method to lessen the strength of hurricanes, the company is now attempting to create tools which use the ocean to pull carbon dioxide (CO₂) out of the atmosphere. The goal is to make a meaningful contribution to fighting climate change. To do this the team has created devices that float on the ocean and, as the company puts it on their website, “turn CO₂ into fish food” by artificially causing ocean upwelling.

One of Ocean-based Climate Solutions buoys deployed in the ocean. (Image: Ocean-based Climate Solutions.)

How It Works

Ocean upwelling is a process which causes nutrient-rich deep ocean water to rise to the sunlit surface. CO₂ then dissolves into this new water. Tiny organisms called phytoplankton use sunlight and dissolved CO₂ to undergo photosynthesis, taking in carbon dioxide. Since these phytoplankton are the base of the ocean food chain, more phytoplankton in the environment can support higher numbers of larger organisms, as well.

“Over time this results in marine snow, which is dead or eaten phytoplankton and all the marine life it feeds sinking to the deep ocean, which is a natural form of carbon sequestration,” said Salvador Garcia, chief revenue officer of Ocean-based Climate Solutions, when speaking at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023.

However, ocean upwelling only naturally occurs in specific places around the globe. 

“As you travel away from the coasts, there are virtually no phytoplankton. They’re ocean deserts. Blue oceans are beautiful, yes, but instead green water is thriving and a living ocean,” Garcia said.

The company’s device deploys a 400-meter fabric tube down from a hefty floating buoy into nutrient rich deep waters and pumps the water to the surface to artificially create an upwelling effect. The pump operates solely on ocean wave energy, while the other sensors, GPS and electronics are powered by solar energy. The pump could be deployed in these ocean deserts to create new areas rich with phytoplankton and sea life which could store carbon in this marine snow.

Improving the Design with SOLIDWORKS and Testing

A few of the CAD models during the pump production process. (Image: Ocean-based Climate Solutions.)

Although they aren’t yet in full-scale production mode, Fullam says the company has come a long way since their first small-scale models and computational fluid dynamics testing.

One of the key tools for their development process has been SOLIDWORKS.

“If you build your models intelligently and use the parametric modeling features [in SOLIDWORKS], you can make dramatic changes in your model without having to start from scratch,” Fullam said. “That allows you to easily scale things, which is a big benefit when you start with a scale model and then you have to move it up to full scale or vice versa.”

A three-quarters scaled version was tested about two years ago. From that, a second full-size iteration was designed. One full-size pump was deployed off the coast of California and another off the Canary Islands.

The company also used SOLIDWORKS for structural analysis and dynamic modeling. This was crucial as they analyzed part movement in an attempt to reduce their part count and create a simplified design with less risk of failure.

“That's the beauty of design. Anybody can come up with a complicated design. The art of design is simplified,” Fullam said. “We’re slimming it down to what is the absolute minimum number of parts necessary. That's what I think we've gotten pretty close to.”

Pack and go. The buoy in the factory is ready to be shipped. (Image: Ocean-based Climate Solutions.)

Testing so far has been too short to get a measure of phytoplankton increases or carbon dioxide removal caused by the pump, but Ocean-based Climate Solutions CEO Phil Kithil predicts up to 430 tons of carbon dioxide removal annually per pump.

The data they did gain from these tests was more focused on device function and failure modes.

“We know in the initial units we're going to put out, they're going to have a shorter lifespan than our final productions. Part of that is we're learning what breaks,” Fullam said.

This info has fed into the creation of a new version which weighs significantly less and was made with different construction techniques. However, it still has the same functionality.

“SOLIDWORKS allows us to optimize structure,” Fullam said. “The initial unit had a steel structure that weighed close to 2,000 pounds. That's just basically the buoy. The second generation we've got that down to about 800 pounds. That's a significant savings and, based upon our numbers, should have a longer life expectancy.”

The buoy pre-deployment loaded onto the ship. (Image: Ocean-based Climate Solutions.)

What’s Next?

The main improvements Ocean-based Climate Solutions is still looking to make lie in the manufacturing techniques and materials selection.

Although they are becoming lighter with each iteration, the devices are still heavy and large. With the company’s goal of removing carbon from the atmosphere, they don’t want to create more carbon emissions by shipping these machines around the globe. Instead, they are designing the devices to be manufactured near where they will be used. This means Fullam cannot lean on just any expensive, high-tech equipment in his manufacturing process.

“Instead of my half-million-dollar laser, could I do it with a $15,000 plasma cutter? The parts were designed based upon the low end, not the high end. That was a bit of a challenge,” Fullam said.

The other element of improvement comes down to selecting the right materials for long-term deployment in the ocean.

“Some of the materials we chose with our initial requirements were less than optimum as far as environmental considerations go,” Fullam said. “[They were] readily available, relatively inexpensive and functional. It showed us what worked, what didn't work. As we move forward, we'll end up choosing much more environmentally friendly materials.”

As for the next steps for testing and deployment, the company is currently applying for grants to support its next stages of development. They plan to use those grants to build three 400-meter ocean upwelling pumps and deploy them off the coast of Hawaii.

Looking further into the future, if they begin longer term deployments, the company hopes their customers will include high carbon-emitting companies wanting to convert their waste into phytoplankton. If they can validate their technology, Ocean-based Climate Solutions would be in a prime position to sell reliable and reputable carbon offsets to these large businesses.

“With the technology that's become available, with measuring devices and communication through satellites, we can measure, we can report and we can verify what's happening locally with our ops,” Fullam said. “So, as we get a few pumps out there and get the correlation between the measurements we're taking and field measurements, this is going to be a major step forward. Private industry is going to be much more interested.”

Square Robot specializes in the manufacturing of industrial inspection robots. Their technology inspects pipelines, storage tanks and other similar structures. These robots navigate complex environments all while collecting data, which is used to spot potential issues before they become major problems. 

(Image: Square Robot.)

In a recent customer spotlight at 3DEXPERIENCE World, Square Robot's chief mechanical engineer, Charles O’Connell, highlighted the common practice of inspecting above-ground storage tanks. These tanks are drained and cleaned so that a person can enter and inspect the tank. Not only is this time-consuming and costly, but it also leads to harmful waste disposal, unnecessary emissions and subjecting a person to work in confined spaces.

A traditional out-of-service inspection averages 700 high and low-risk man-hours. The down-time involved leads to a might-as-well-repair-it-now attitude: making those repairs that are not required now, but done in case they may be needed later.

Square Robot’s bots have autonomous hovering while submerged for oil and gas inspections. By using this robotic equipment, the in-service inspection time is reduced to 60 low-risk man-hours. And most importantly, nobody enters the tank.

(Image: Square Robot.)

“Quality data means quality decisions,” says O’Connell. To summarize, Square Robot focuses on innovative solutions helping companies find problems while minimizing downtime. Keeping equipment like tanks in service means the equipment continues to do its job. It earns income and creates value, uninterrupted.

(Image: Square Robot.)

The Start

Founded in 2016, when the cloud had become commonplace, Square Robot founders architected the business to run in the cloud. This was important as the company had many offices and teams were spread across multiple locations—and it keeps IT costs low. This means no local servers, only a collection of cloud-based tools. Square Robot used applications like Monday.com and Trello for project management, Slack for communication and Google Drive for data storage. 

Two desktop applications, Matlab and SOLIDWORKS, were able to sneak in. These tools were familiar to the engineering team, and became the main design and engineering tools. But desktop applications store data locally, so the users manually stick-handled the data into Google Drive. How? By using pack-and-go, so the large datasets could be worked on by others. 

With SOLIDWORKS in many locations, data was manually managed by the users—and although Google Drive is capable of storing CAD data, it doesn’t do it intelligently (like maintaining the links between parent-child relationships). This became burdensome and dangerous as they were unintentionally overwriting and duplicating data.

Enter 3DEXPERIENCE

Square Robot used the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE to create, simulate, manage and share product designs. This let the teams work effectively together across multiple locations through a secure and scalable platform. 

As Square Robot’s team was spread across many locations and the amount of data was small at that time, they became the first member of the cloud-based “Lighthouse Program.” This led to Square Robot being early adopters of PLM Services (now 3DEXPERIENCE), and they now have seven SOLIDWORKS users on the platform through multiple collaborative workspaces.

Is 3DEXPERIENCE a product data management (PDM) system? ENOVIA, the PLM application by Dassault Systèmes, can do PDM. ENOVIAWORKS, the version used by Square Robot, allows users to manage files directly within SOLIDWORKS.

One person no longer needed to be the gatekeeper, and soon after starting to use the platform Square Robot saw a significant collaboration improvement. Like Google Drive, ENOVIAWORKS supplies a centralized location for data storage. However, users could now instantaneously upload parts and assemblies directly from SOLIDWORKS. Others were notified of the changes and could synchronize the changes with their local copies. 

Bookmarks as one of their “best friends” for the organization of parts. Although not as good as knowing what you are looking for, they tag each commercial part (like hardware) so that they can scroll through parts in a category.

The platform handles data organization and controls who has ownership. As a PDM tool, users reserve files for changes, locking them and making them read-only to others. You can iterate on the current design, bumping the revision. Or branch off into a new design, merging it back in later.

(Image: Square Robot.)

Reservations forced single-user edits and no longer did the last save win. Although users now had instant access to data, ENOVIAWORKS maintains the revision history, and users no longer needed to manually archive old revisions. 

Square Robot uses both the browser-based and the SOLIDWORKS add-in. No investment in hardware infrastructure was required.

ENOVIAWORKS provides a collaborative environment for cross-functional teams to work together. The platform’s tools allow non-CAD users to review and collaborate on models through the 3DPlay app with the assurance that they are looking at the most up-to-date versions. They have transitioned from paper-based redlining to 3D markups within ENOVIA.

(Image: Square Robot.)

The embedded project management allows users to track project progress. The included tools allow for managing compliance data as well as documenting compliance activities. 

Although most of Square Robot’s task management still occurs in Trello, the mechanical engineers are using collaborative tasks within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Why? The tasks are associated with SOLIDWORKS items, meaning direct navigation and no manual updates.

“Don't be scared of the immense capability of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform,” says Matthew Hall from SOLIDWORKS.

ENOVIAWORKS came “just in time” for Solid Robot as they started iterating on their SR-1 inspection robot. Although changes were occurring, they had access to the older revisions, as they were built, so they could review vehicles in-service. Additionally, they could push changes to the assemblies of their choice, including publishing changes to the entire fleet.

Because of the regulatory process, they must be diligent in the as-built conditions. The built-in controls facilitated locking down CAD data about new revisions and releasing the mature (good-to-go) states.  All parts are released using the ECO process, documenting the changes as they occur.

Solid Robot uses Collaborative Lifecycles to set the maturity of the product. In Work is the start where anyone can work on the design. However, a user can demote the component to Private in order to work on it solo, with no possible interactions from others. With the design complete the component transitions into Frozen, a temporary holding state while the design is reviewed and then into Released when it is ready for the field. 

What’s Next for Square Robot

Future initiatives for Square Robot are removing the redundancy of day-to-day activities. 

Dassault Systèmes developed ENOVIA as a cloud-based PLM solution for medium and large businesses. It offers data management, collaboration, project management and workflow automation functionalities.

Square Robot currently uses Fusion 360 (Manage) as their PLM. Fusion does the part number generation, and they currently use it for bills of material management, cost tracking, ECO’s (engineering change orders), non-conformances and serial number tracking. 

(Image: Square Robot.)

But Fusion does not integrate with SOLIDWORKS so users must bounce between the two systems. They use SOLIDWORKS to start the design, Fusion for the part numbering then its back to SOLIDWORKS to complete the design before returning to Fusion to complete the change order and build the BOM.

Is ENOVIA a product lifecycle management (PLM) system? Yes. ENOVIA offers end-to-end product lifecycle management capabilities, and allows users to manage the product from ideation to retirement. And not just the design, but also manufacturing, quality control and service.

So, one initiative for Square Robot is to integrate the PLM capabilities of ENOVIA, replacing Fusion.

Another is to broaden the usage of ENOVIA Planner including collaborative tasks, integrating related tasks and incorporating manufacturing processes. This will reduce (and hopefully eliminate) the reliance on Microsoft Project and Trello.

The future is now, and the feature is SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services.

What that means is beginning July 2023, all new licenses of SOLIDWORKS come with an upgraded subscription that comes with the stuff to connect it to the Cloud (3DEXPERIENCE). So, what does this mean for you? Keep reading for a complete breakdown of what this means for you and your SOLIDWORKS licenses and what we think about it. Spoiler alert: It’s awesome.

What is SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services?

In a way, it’s enhanced subscription. Cloud Services goes beyond the traditional SOLIDWORKS CAD to boost your productivity. When you think of traditional CAD, you’re thinking of what Dassault Systèmes now calls SOLIDWORKS Desktop. It’s the 15-gigabyte behemoth that gets installed on your Windows PC with a certified graphics card. The productivity boost is additional functionality powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform (“the cloud”) which users experience in three different ways:

1. Share and markup.
2. Store and revise.
3. Manage and control. 

What Changed in July 2023?

SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services is free for all new purchases of SOLIDWORKS Desktop licenses. Let’s unpack that. Any new license of SOLIDWORKS purchased now includes Cloud Services. It doesn’t matter if you are a new client purchasing your first license or an existing client since 1995 – every new desktop license you add comes with SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services as part of the subscription. This bonus is included for the following flavors of SOLIDWORKS Desktop CAD licenses:

• Perpetual*
• Term
• Standalone
• Network

(*A minimum of two years subscription is required for the perpetual licenses.)

Do I Have to Do This?

No. For those wanting to maintain the status quo for whatever reason, there is no obligation to change – from a license and services standpoint, everything can stay the way it was.

Can I Upgrade My Existing Licenses?

So far, we’ve only mentioned Cloud Services for new licenses. But the good news is, there’s an upgrade option/path available if you’ want to upgrade your existing licenses. What’s more is that you can upgrade as many licenses as you’d like. It isn’t an all or nothing situation, meaning you don’t have to upgrade all of your licenses to cloud services, or none of them.

Why Is It Worth It?

Is upgrading to Cloud Services worth it? Yes.

SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services takes the best features of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, the ones that are most useful for SOLIDWORKS CAD users, and packages them up into an easy-to-use tool embedded directly into SOLIDWORKS for these primary reasons:

1. Collaborate.
2. Store, manage and control.

Reason 1: Collaborate

You can instantly share and easily collaborate with anyone. There’s a new button added to SOLIDWORKS called “share a file.” You can use this to create a link to share with someone and they can view the design on any device, phone, tablet, or computer. No additional software or plugins required.

It goes beyond just sharing the model. The tools are incredibly powerful and easy to use with viewing, measuring, mark up and comment functionality available. I like to think of it as automating everything you’d normally do in design review meetings—but now it’s being done from a phone while on the go, no meetings slowing you down. Here’s a breakdown of everything you can do with the new share button powered by SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services.

• Viewing your designs and even change display style in a web browser.

• Interrogate assemblies and create exploded views in a web browser.

• Measure geometry in a web browser.

• Comment and mark up in a web browser.

• Review and act on comments within SOLIDWORKS. Remember these comments and markups were added using a web browser.

As you can see in the above videos, your web browser with SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services has become a design tool.

Reason 2: Store, Manage & Control

Cloud Services, provides you with online storage that is purpose-built for managing your CAD data. In other words, it’s CAD aware and understands the file relationships and how you (a SOLIDWORKS user) will want to save, share and use your data. This includes everything from basic data storage – storing and revising – to a full suite of data management tools for things like change actions and approvals.

• With Cloud Services, you can easily save your data to the cloud.

• 3D Drive is a CAD-aware storage to easily share designs from within SOLIDWORKS. This makes old-school Pack and Go easier than ever before.

• You can explore relations and references.

• You can collaborate with other designers and manage who can make changes.

• You can access your data anywhere…

• …and easily manage revisions.

There you have it: many uses of the two big reasons why I think this is a great addition for SOLIDWORKS users. SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services can supercharge your productivity and streamline your design process – and it’s all included with your subscription to SOLIDWORKS. 

If you look back, it’s been a long journey, but I think July 2023 will go down as a pivotal moment in the adoption of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform by SOLIDWORKS users. It all comes down to this packaging of the most powerful yet useful tools for SOLIDWORKS users as part of the new enhanced subscription called SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services. There’s something for everyone, which makes this a welcome addition for people looking to easily make the most of the power of 3DEXPERIENCE. And there are productivity gains for people looking to leverage new tools to work the same way (i.e. sharing Pack and Go’s using 3D Drive).

If you absolutely don’t want to deal with anything new, you can go ahead and ignore Cloud Services—but that would mean ignoring the future. Do that at your own risk.

Everyone else will be enjoying SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services.

The man’s name is Robert, an active, healthy 70-year-old—except for one previous heart attack. He was lucky. Unlike millions of people who suffer heart attacks, he survived.

This brief yet shocking incident was captured on a CCTV video and the video was played during a session at the 3DEXPERIENCE Conference by Boston Scientific, the company that made the medical device that saved Robert.

Surviving a heart attack is remarkable and miraculous in itself, but what is even more remarkable is how Robert was saved using new innovations.

The Prevalence of Heart Attacks and Cardiac Arrests

Innovations are always in demand for treating cardiovascular diseases; heart attacks and cardiac arrests have long been a serious public health problem in the U.S. and worldwide.

In 2020, there are more than 19.1 million cardiovascular deaths globally, and the prevalence of coronary heart disease is increasing. In the same year, about 697,000 people in the United States died from heart disease in 2020, which is 1 in every 5 deaths—more than from cancer, COVID and accidents.

More than half of cardiovascular deaths occur suddenly. Deaths related to heart disease occur when patients have a heart attack or cardiac arrest outside of the hospital (pre-hospital setting) or in a hospital (in-hospital setting). The pre-hospital survival rate is much lower than the in-hospital survival rate, likely due to lower availability of medical equipment and personnel. In addition, out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur more frequently than in-hospital ones, making their treatment even more challenging.

Due to the sudden nature of a cardiac arrest, its optimal treatment needs to happen within an hour after the onset of symptoms (also known as “the golden hour”). For example, the “door-to-balloon” time, which refers to the timeframe within which a procedure called angioplasty needs to be performed to stretch open a narrowed or blocked artery, is 90 minutes.

The patient needs to be discovered by somebody who can correctly diagnose his or her condition or recognize the severity of the situation. Then, first-aid such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or treatment with an automated external defibrillator (AED) needs to be administered. Next, the patient needs to be transported to a hospital promptly and treated by a doctor in the emergency room within an hour.

A delay in any or several of these steps will subtract from the golden hour.

While CPR improves the survival rate of patients undergoing out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, it works best for the first 20 minutes; beyond that window of opportunity it becomes much less effective. In addition, the frequency of bystanders performing CPR (10 – 65 percent) and resultant survival (3 – 22 percent) in the United States varies significantly due to socioeconomic and demographic factors, to the disadvantage of low-income and minority communities.

In addition, while AEDs are life-saving and can achieve a 95 percent success rate, they are hard for a person to carry around. Therefore, they are often set up at home or installed in public spaces. Occupational Health and Safety Administration estimated that 30 million are needed to cover 70 percent of the population, which lives in urbanized areas and another 10 million to cover the population living in non-urbanized areas. However, only about 4.5 million AEDs are in use. As a result, AEDs are rarely used by bystanders to treat cardiac arrests.

There are other technologies that can help reduce the occurrence of cardiac arrests. For example, pacemakers are small, implanted devices which can help prevent cardiovascular abnormalities by regulating heart rhythm with emitted electrical pulses.

Another example is telemetry, in which dedicated personnel collect and monitor measurements from patients and identify ones who are having issues. But telemetry is more applicable for patients who have cardiac arrests in a hospital.

Taken together, most preventive technologies cannot be used to treat cardiac arrest when it happens outside of a healthcare facility and there is a need for technologies that can address one or several of the bottlenecks in the process of identifying, triaging, transporting and treating patients who suffer heart attacks while out in the world.

How VIGILANT Works

VIGILANT, the device made by Boston Scientific that saved Robert’s life in the video, is an example of a class of disruptive devices called cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D), which can address several of these pain points.

A CRT-D is similar to an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), an electrical device that constantly monitors a patient’s heart rhythm to detect and stop irregular heartbeats. ICD shocks the heart if it senses a dangerous heart rhythm. However, CRT-D differs from ICDs in that it has an additional lead (ICDs have two leads) passed through a vein traveling behind the heart to pace the heart from the left-hand side, helping the heart’s lower chambers—the ventricles—work in tandem. As a result, CRT-Ds increase the effectiveness of a diseased heart and elevate blood flow, thus improving heart failure symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath and exercise intolerance, and reducing the patient’s risk of dying due to cardiac events.

Also, patients with ICD are at risk of electrical storm occurrences that are associated with mortality and poor quality of life. CRT-D minimizes the number of inappropriate ICD shocks, lowering the risk of electrical storms and the risk of mortality, and improving a patient’s quality of life. Moreover, CRT-Ds have a longer battery life than ICDs. For example, ICD batteries last around six years and the VIGILANT CRT-D’s battery lasts from 7 to 14.7 years. ICDs and CRT-Ds both require surgery to be implanted into patients, so a longer battery life will reduce the need and frequency for additional surgery and lower the cost of care.

In addition to longer battery life and improving heart failure symptoms, the VIGILANT device contains HeartLogic, a highly sensitive heart failure diagnostic technology that provides weeks of advanced notice and a low-alert burden for detecting early signs of worsening heart failure.

With the combined functionalities, the VIGILANT device circumvents the many bottlenecks in the process of treating patients having a heart attack. The patient no longer depends on being found and diagnosed by a passerby, whether the passerby knows how to administer CPR properly or can find an AED nearby and operate it, or call for an ambulance so the patient can reach the emergency room in time for treatment. The patient can be diagnosed by the HeartLogic function and administered appropriate electric pulses on the spot.

In Robert’s video, there were only ten seconds between his collapse and the activation of the VIGILANT device to deliver electrical pulses to his heart. The time of detection, diagnosis and treatment has shrunk from tens of minutes to ten seconds. Because the resuscitation happened so quickly, Robert was able to not only get up and walk off in no time but also feel fine afterward.

He recalled, “Honestly, if I hadn’t known that I’d collapsed, I never would have thought anything happened…I felt completely normal.” After double-checking his health in the hospital, he has gone on to live his usual, active lifestyle. The effects of delayed treatment on health and well-being, prevalent in many patients suffering from a heart attack and who unfortunately did not receive treatment promptly, are nearly impossible to detect in Robert.

VIGILANT’s Downside

CRT-Ds, such as the VIGILANT device, are not without a downside.

Aside from having risks similar to those associated with implanted ICDs, such as infection at the implant site, swelling or bleeding, blood vessel damage, bleeding around the heart, blood leakage, collapsed lung and shifting of the device, the main issue for CRT-D is cost. On average, CRT-Ds are significantly more expensive, at more than $36,000, compared to ICDs which cost around $23,000. In addition, CRT-Ds are suitable only for a specific section of the population of patients with cardiovascular issues.

Moreover, while many more lives could be saved if defibrillators were implanted prophylactically in patients at increased risk of sudden death, one can argue that the cost of implanting CRT-Ds in a certain number of patients can be used to cover a much bigger potential patient population in a longer timeframe.

Conclusion

However, if we stop looking at disease in terms of populations and statistics and instead look at each patient as a person, we can see each implanted device is worth it.

It certainly is to Robert. “The VIGILANT CRT-D gives me peace of mind,” he said, “I feel confident working, going to the gym and exercising, knowing that my device works. It is very comforting.”

Every life saved also means a great deal to the people who develop life-saving technologies. As Matt Sheldov, the Senior R & D Manager at Boston Scientific, puts it, knowing the impact of VIGILANT on patients like Robert is an “emotional paycheck.”

While driving into camp sites in a Mercedes Sprinter or a Ford Transit isn’t necessarily new to the world of RVers and campers, Storyteller Overland provides the ability to customize their units. The modular design elements provide customers with the ability to have their vehicle cater to their needs and develop different configurations for their adventures.

At the core of their success lies the innovative utilization of SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which has transformed their design process, streamlined collaboration with suppliers and connected their team throughout the entire product development journey.

Engineering for Adventure

Michael Asutell, VP of engineering at Storyteller Overland, was part of a keynote presentation during 3DEXPERIENCE World where he provided some insight into engineering and designing a vehicle for experiencing adventure.

“We are an upfitter that equips outdoor enthusiasts with the tools they need to live free, explore endlessly and tell better stories,” he told the audience. “We’re born out of a spirit of grand adventure and we’re pursuing and passionately equipping those who are pursuing meaningful experiences and discovery, living life out on the open road and beyond.”

He heads a geographically dispersed team of industrial designers and mechanical engineers. Their process begins with industrial designers crafting concepts that capture the spirit of adventure and exploration.

Storyteller Overland’s vehicles have an emphasis on flexibility and modularity, providing their customers with customization options for their adventures. (Image credit: Storyteller Overland.)

Think of these vehicles as less cumbersome than an RV, with more utility than camping in an SUV. Designing for comfortable living while also being transportable is the immediate challenge. Compact is generally not in the same category as comfortable, but Storyteller Overland is about making their vehicles livable.

These concepts are then handed over to the mechanical engineers, who turn them into tangible realities and refine the design. From there, Asutell’s team works with the company’s quality and shop floor teams, as well as outside vendors, to get their custom components manufactured and installed on the vehicles.

Seamless Collaboration via the Cloud

With a rapidly growing company and the need for remote work and travel—they are a company promoting the concept of hitting the road, after all—Storyteller Overland opted for the 3DEXPERIENCE platform instead of traditional on-premise methods.

The platform became the central hub for storing, organizing and managing their data, enabling the team to access and work with 3D data seamlessly. By leveraging the platform's built-in data and lifecycle management capabilities, Storyteller Overland ensures that every team member stays aligned, allowing for real-time feedback and preventing unintended edits or working with out-of-date content.

“We've enabled our production engineering team, as well as senior management, to have access to our 3D data and that introduces the ability to receive their feedback in real time.”

Because Asutell and his team work with a variety of vendors to create the best possible experience for their customers, they needed communication beyond just team members. This can be tricky with proprietary info and specs. Controlling intellectual property while collaborating with external suppliers has always been a priority for Storyteller Overland.

“We're big on controlling our IP and I like that we can selectively share our data with numerous suppliers while protecting that IP. We provide supplier-controlled access to our models while we preserve the complete design context, so it seamlessly integrates with the supplier generated parts and any modifications they might have made to our designs.”

The vehicles that Storyteller Overland designs are built for both comfort and ruggedness, all while keeping unique customization in mind. (Image credit: Storyteller Overland.)

By playing to each individual's (and partner organization’s) strengths, the platform fosters collaboration and maximizes efficiency throughout the organization. Final designs can be locked down and released securely, ensuring that the integrity of the work is preserved.

Storyteller Overland's commitment to delivering exceptional adventure experiences and equipping outdoor enthusiasts with the means to explore has been simplified thanks to their cloud-based approach to the technical side of their business.

The company has transformed their design process, streamlined collaboration with external suppliers and connected their entire team throughout the product development journey. An integration of technology, understanding the value of flexible design and a passion for adventure has positioned Storyteller Overland as a leading force in the adventure vehicle industry, ready to create more life-changing experiences for those who seek the thrill of the open road.

Buchli knows manufacturing from both sides, high-tech and otherwise. Born on a Nebraska farm, he spent years working in a machine shop and is a veteran SOLIDWORKS user. He now programs robots and promotes automation for Dassault Systèmes.

This is Part 2 of our interview with Buchli. Part 1 is available to read here.

What does automation look like in manufacturing?

Automation comes in all shapes and sizes. There are no two companies that are the same; even if they produce the same goods, they still are different. They all have different methodologies. Automation can be putting in a pick and place, or it could be a conveyer system to move bulky material.

We have one customer that does sheet metal forming where the part weighs 100 pounds. It takes two people to bend that part, and a full 8-hour day. Nobody wanted to do it because that's a lot of labor. We took that 100-pound part and put it in a robotic bending cell. This freed up the employees to bend the small parts.

Sometimes, automation is just work balancing. You don't have to do the bad things. Instead, we'll automate that part and allow you to continue to do the things that benefit from you doing them.

Can a factory be fully automated?

Everybody's on a different journey with a different starting point. Some companies are more fully automated than others. Other companies are doing point solutions. For example, they can't get anyone to weld anymore, so they put in a robotic welder.

How hard is it to get people to work in manufacturing these days?

To attract people into manufacturing, there must be jobs that they want to do. How do we get those people and solve this problem? We give them tools to allow them to be successful in something that they want to do. It may sound like we're caving to what everybody wants to do, but let’s face it: no one is going to work in a dirty environment. We have to change that environment.

The other thing is that manufacturing companies all end up on the same side of town. Go to a city and there will be an industrial area where all the manufacturing is done. All those companies will fight over the same employees, and there are a limited number of people who can get to that area. If you are in a rural area like where I am, there’s a shortage of people and some of these small towns cannot support an influx of new people.

That's where tools like manufacturing platforms can be useful. I can write a program to program the robots offline and send it to the small-town shop. Here in Lincoln, Nebraska, I can go find the best talent for my specific manufacturing need because I can connect them virtually to my facility without having them move to Nebraska.

Is the expense of robots a deterrent to automation?

A robot can cost $30,000 to $100,000. But look at the wages of a manufacturing employee compared to the cost of one robotic cell. Even in the middle of rural Nebraska, that is $25 to $30 an hour, plus health care, plus unemployment. Soon you’re up to $100,000 per employee—whether they're effective or not.

Robots on the shop floor. Picture from 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023.

If not the expense, then what is stopping automation?

I sit in on a lot of groups to hear why, and there’s one theme common to them all. They know they have to do something; we know we need to put in automation, but we don't know how to do it. We don't know how to make the right choices. A lot of companies don’t get started because they don't want to make the wrong choice. It's not a matter of people. It's because there is no one to guide them on their journey and ensure their success. A lot of companies don't buy a robot, or they put in a robot and don't know how to use it.

Is this a matter of lack of education?

No. All it takes is someone with the ability to learn technology. A lot of robot programming and factory simulation is like a video game. Anyone who can learn SOLIDWORKS can do it. It doesn't matter if they have a degree, because in 3D you can see it.  

Is the perception of the manufacturing environment changing?

Yes, that is one of the challenges. Manufacturing still has the perception of being a dirty, unsafe environment—not high-tech, which is what it really is. Think about what is on TV these days. Firefighting dramas, police dramas, doctor dramas… only certain professions. You’re not going to see a robot programmer nicely dressed in Grey’s Anatomy. No, it’s going to be a greased-up guy that got his finger cut off in the machine shop. The doctor will be the hero. You might get one episode of a show where they go to a manufacturing or automotive facility and it’s always dirty, dark and dingy. No wonder parents are telling their kids, “You need to be a doctor, a lawyer…”

People are missing that manufacturing is very high-tech and very clean. Most of it anyway. And the jobs are well-paid. You can make a good, sustainable life for yourself in manufacturing doing high-tech work.

How hard is it for women and minorities in manufacturing?

Again, it comes down to the perception of manufacturing. Because traditional manufacturing jobs require backbreaking labor, right? Pick up these heavy parts and put them in this machine. But it's becoming high-tech and clean, and you can work remotely because you can connect through platform applications. There’s not much awareness that these jobs are for everyone. We’re still positioning the manufacturing workforce as being one way, and so we're missing a lot of the workforce. Studies and stats have shown women are way more detail-oriented than men. That’s what robot programming is: detail oriented. And clean.

Read Part 1 of our interview with Mike Buchli for more about manufacturing automation.

As both an avid car enthusiast and an engineer, the chance to improve the aerodynamics of a heavily modified C5 Z06 Corvette had the engine in my brain racing at the redline in top gear.

I routinely attend my local Cars & Coffee on Saturday mornings, which is where I was introduced to Mike Gwyn, the owner of the C5 Z06. While talking over geeky car specs, he learned that I worked for TriMech, a SOLIDWORKS reseller in the area, and that I had years of experience with 3D design and scanning. Mike is also an engineer in the metals casting industry and has some familiarity with SOLIDWORKS. He challenged me on how we might improve his Corvette’s performance on the track by adding front wings, known as canards, and a large rear spoiler. These additions aim to improve downforce, consequently enhancing the car's handling and performance on the curves on both the track and through the winding mountain roads that he frequents.

I proposed a collaboration with my friend, “Flow Joe” Galliera, to conduct aerodynamic studies using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Needless to say, Mike was gung-ho for the project. 

Image 1. The Artec3D Ray LIDAR scanner on a tripod next to the C5 Z06 Corvette in a parking lot.

Before anything aerodynamic could be added to the car, a 3D digital representation of the exterior of the car was required. I was grateful for the access to an Artec3D Ray LIDAR scanner. The scanner sits high atop a tripod (see image 1) in the parking lot where I met Mike with his Corvette.

Since the laser would pass through the glass, a white powder spray was applied to the windshields, headlights and taillights to ensure they could be captured. The whole scanning process, moving the tripod to eight locations around the car, took a total of about one and a half hours.

Image 2. The post-processed polygon mesh of the scanned car in Artec Studio 17 Professional.

Just over a million polygons were gathered and post-processed in Artec Studio 17 Professional (see image 2). Because there’s too much data for other downstream processes, the data was first decimated before generating an STL (Standard Tessellation Language) file. The main advantage of the STL file format is its prevalent use, but it lacks small file size and is not computationally efficient for the smooth curved surfaces found on a streamlined sport car.

An observation about the STL format that Joe likes to recount from the COFES 2017 conference is: if the creator of the STL file format knew at the time how widely it would be used in the future, he would’ve spent more than a weekend developing it. Moreover, an STL mesh has very many faceted faces and while some CFD packages can work directly with STLs, our choice of CFD tools requires solid models.

Image 3. The smooth NURBS surfaces generated from the STL mesh in Geomagic Design X.

Fortunately, a common program in the 3D scanner’s toolbelt is Geomagic Design X which can very nicely auto-generate smooth NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) surfaces from the STL mesh (see image 3). This process works well for a car’s continuously smooth organic shapes. Beyond auto-surfacing, Design X can also automatically identify areas of poor geometry definition originating from the scanned data and repair those areas. Lastly, all the surfaces can be formed into a water-tight solid body. That solid could also now be brought into SOLIDWORKS as a dumb imported solid to get to the next step in the process of our Corvette getting its wings.

SOLIDWORKS could have been used to make the swoopy shapes that represent the curvy aesthetics of the Corvette – given enough time and with considerable effort. Because SOLIDWORKS starts with a sketch, its strengths in 3D parametric mechanical CAD can become weaknesses when creating organic shapes. After some trial and error—perhaps using a Loft feature, or some other CAD wizardry—a suitable shape might be found. 

Having recently used Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE in my daily work, I had a feeling that the xShape app would be ideal for achieving my design intent for the canards. Based on sub-divisional (subD) modeling, organic shapes are native to xShape so creating our desired shape should be a breeze.

Image 4. The Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS connector to the 3DExperience platform.

To help with placement of the new wings being designed, the car geometry is brought into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform via the Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS connector (see image 4).

Image 5. The robot triad in the xShape app is used to move the rectangular surface body into place on the car body.

The basis of the canard is a rectangular surface body that can be easily spawned in xShape. Using the translational and rotational operators on the robot triad (see image 5), the surface is manipulated until it is located just aft of the front bumper and before the front tire wheel well. The whole of one edge of the surface is embedded into the car’s body, which will later be trimmed to exactly match the exterior for the attachment lip.

Image 6. The curved canard created in xShape by moving a vertex of the surface body.

Clicking a vertex of the surface activates the robot triad, allowing the point to be moved such that the oncoming airflow will be directed both away from the front tires and into the freestream towards the rear window and spoiler (see image 6). The two edges and adjacent sub-surfaces shared by that vertex become curved and remain continuous; this is the power of SubD modeling.

Placement of the point is based on both experience and judgement, considering various factors such as the vehicle's weight distribution, the airflow around the vehicle and the desired downforce. A determination for those won’t really be known until CFD simulations are run later. The surface can be thickened uniformly to create a solid body ready for CFD.

Image 7. The global origin indicated by the red arrow and orientation stays consistent throughout the design process.

From one software package to the next, the overall design intent drove the entire process by keeping the orientation and global origin consistent throughout; in this case, the Z-axis up and the origin placed at the front lower part of the bumper at center, indicated by the red arrow (see image 7). When the curved canard itself is transferred over into the SOLIDWORKS environment, for example, it comes over exactly where it was placed in xShape. The canard is mirrored using the opposite handed option to place the complementary pair on the other side of the car.

Image 8. The completed assembly with the canards and the spoiler ready for CFD simulations.

The rear wing, or spoiler, assembly comes from an aftermarket performance car supplier as a multi-body solid part including mounting brackets, so this additionally gets imported into SOLIDWORKS and placed at the rear of the car. The completed assembly (see image 8) is now composed of all components to be run in the CFD simulations: the scanned C5 Z06 Corvette body, the curved canards designed in xShape and the aftermarket spoiler.

In summary, the overall design process used here consisted of multiple design software tools to facilitate each step of the way based on what program was best suited for the task at hand. It’s similar to having various machines available in an engineering shop, like a saw, grinder, lathe, drill press and router, to bring an idea to life—though in this case, all the tools are digital.

The process started with digitizing the car exterior, post-processing the data to make a water-tight solid body ready for CFD, forming curvy organic shapes with subD modeling, importing an off-the-shelf third-party part and putting them all together for evaluating their combined aerodynamic performance to improve on the original high-performance vehicle. We expect that the aerodynamic modifications to the Corvette will further improve performance measures, such as enhanced handling, increased downforce and overall reduced drag.

In our next article, we will look at the fluid flow simulation of the C5 Z06 to determine just how well the aero parts will perform.

About the Authors

Christopher C. Duchaine is an Elite Application Engineer and has 10 years engineering experience using CAD to design mechanical and electromechanical systems in the industrial equipment industry. He has worked for over 10 years for SOLIDWORKS Value-Added Resellers at TriMech. 

Joe Galliera currently is reinventing the future of energy at SJK Energy Solutions. He acquired the nickname Flow Joe while working at SRAC and SOLIDWORKS for 18 years as a specialist in FEA and CFD simulations. He is the proud father of a very creative ten-year-old girl.

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.

This year, the third general session was scheduled for mid-afternoon on Wednesday, which meant that many attendees decided to stick around.

“The closing general session is your opportunity to up level your skills,” said emcee, Tracy B. Wilson in her opening welcome remarks. “It is also a celebration of a passionate community.”

SOLIDWORKS users are a passionate bunch. They love what they do. They love learning about new ways to improve their work. They love the software they use – whether it is SOLIDWORKS or 3DEXPERIENCEWorks. The people who attend 3DEXPERIENCE World prove their passion simply by being willing to take time off from their regular work and immerse themselves in this conference.

The first presenter of the day was Suchit Jain, VP of strategy and community at SOLIDWORKS. He played the role of host, introducing the guests to the stage and asking them questions.

There appeared to be a serious effort by SOLIDWORKS and Dassault Systèmes to diversify who they invited on-stage at the general sessions. There was a real mix of genders, ages and nationalities.

First up: Erin Winick Anthony, Senior Science Communications Specialist for the International Space Station for Barrios Technology, who uses SOLIDWORKS to create training curriculum for kids, has a TikTok space where she demonstrates maker projects. She has about 45,000 followers.

Vicki Wu Davis, YCities, entrepreneur and angel investor, runs an entrepreneurial boot camp. She uses the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to provide remote training. yCITIES (Creating Impact Through Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability) focuses on creating a strong and diverse pipeline of tomorrow’s founders and investors, while also creating spaces for today’s entrepreneurs who natively understand the problems they’re addressing. The curriculum is geared towards middle and high school students. They host regular bootcamps in the Boston area.

Three of her students were invited onto the stage. They had participated in one of her challenges and came up with the winning products. It would have been nice to learn what the winning designs were and what each student learned during the program but they didn’t even get their names on the big screen.

Fab In a Box was created through a partnership between Fabfoundation, Dassault Systèmes and the Center for Bits & Atoms at MIT. The Fab In a Box product contains an entire Fab Lab for teachers to unpack and set up, so their students can get right to work. A 3D printer, CNC machine and Chromebook loaded with 3DEXPERIENCE access are included. The packaging serves double duty to build the stools, desks, and lab carts. 

The idea is intriguing, but the actual website (hosted by MIT) appears to be under construction and it doesn’t look like they are quite ready for shipping to schools yet. As more and more schools look to install their own Fab Labs, this might be an excellent option for schools with limited budgets and not a lot of space.

In past conferences, Richard Doyle would present the stats on the SOLIDWORKS User Group community during one of the general sessions, and pass out awards. This was cut out of the general sessions a few conferences ago; understandable, since with limited time not everybody can get a turn on stage. However, the user groups continue to be an excellent resource for users to learn and network.

For this year’s conference, Dassault Systèmes came up with a worthy compromise. The majority of the awards were handed out during the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network (SWUGN) meeting that was held on Monday afternoon during the class periods. Three awards were held back to be announced during Wednesday’s general session.

Dan Wagner, who has replaced Richard Doyle as SOLIDWORKS User Group Liaison, and Matthew Clegg, SOLIDWORKS Community and User Advocacy Manager, were brought up on the stage to discuss SWUGN and SOLIDWORKS Champions.

The Wayne Tiffany User Group Leader of the Year award went to Mohammed Ezadeen in Sudan, an engineering student at Sudan University of Science and Technology. Ezadeen held over 40 virtual user group meetings in 2022. Most user group leaders put in a substantial amount of unpaid time organizing and managing their user group, with the majority of user group leaders being volunteers who work with SOLIDWORKS and simply want to share their passion and enthusiasm with other users.

The Michelle Pillers Community Award went to Jose Saldana from Fresno, California. Saldana meets the historical criteria for this award. He has been an active user group leader for many years, and he is an educator and a volunteer.

The 2022 SOLIDWORKS Champion of the Year Award went to Danute Nikolova from Germany. SOLIDWORKS Champions is a relatively new program within SOLIDWORKS. SOLIDWORKS wanted to recognize the users who are active in the user forums, answering questions, moderating content and essentially adding value to the forum community. Nikolova is a freelance designer who uses SOLIDWORKS and is quite active on the user forums. Her volunteer work helps make the user forums a valuable resource.

Magic Wheelchair has been a favorite charity of SOLIDWORKS for several years. This year, $30,000 was presented to the organization by Dassault Systèmes on the main stage.

The idea behind Magic Wheelchair is fairly simple. Many children feel self-conscious when they are out and about in their wheelchair. Other kids, and even adults, might stare at them. The foundation works with local build teams to create and build custom wheelchairs. Each wheelchair is a special request based on that child’s needs and interests. None of the children’s families are charged for the wheelchairs; the materials are paid for with donations and they are designed, fabricated and built by volunteers.

The foundation has opened a Magic Wheelchair maker space in Portland, Oregon in the past year.

Wednesday’s keynote speaker was Liv Boeree, a self-confessed nerd with a degree in astrophysics who is ranked the #1 poker player in the United States. She has won over 4 million dollars on the world poker circuit. She has created a foundation called “Raising for Effective Giving” which encourages poker players to donate a portion of their winnings to the foundation. The foundation then provides grants to several charities.

Boeree wanted to share some of her life lessons. She competed on game shows trying to earn money to pursue her graduate studies. One of the game shows required her to learn poker and she decided to postpone her studies and see if she could earn a living playing poker.

 “Poker is about navigating uncertainty,” she says.

Boeree noted that great poker players need to use both the left and right sides of their brains, as represented above.

Another thing poker and real life have in common is that there is a lot of randomness. There is a lot of luck in decision-making.

“Beware of the luck delusion,” says Boeree. “The decisions that we make only roughly result in the results we want due to luck.”

After winning big – a six-day tournament that garnered her $1.7 million she went on a losing streak.

“Our egos tend to want us to take credit for all our successes, so when we win, it’s because of our skill. But when we lose, it’s because of bad luck.”

After her big win and a series of losses, she started playing online poker and that gave her the ability to leverage data analysis tools to increase the odds of winning. Most of the current top-ranking players use these tools to better understand the game. Her lesson here is that in order to succeed, you need to be willing to use the latest tools at your disposal.

Poker players apply probability to everything—not just the game, but also how to make choices in their personal lives. You can use probability as a way to motivate yourself to achieve your goals.

“Poker is a zero-sum game. There can only be one winner. So, in order to create some balance in your life look for ways to achieve win-wins.”

She has retired from playing poker, and is now focused on her YouTube channel, making videos on how to have healthy competition.

In summary:

• Beware of the “luck delusion” – assess your wins and losses honestly.
• Quantify your beliefs – use probabilities to make your life choices.
• Look for the win-wins in life.

Following Boeree’s keynote speech, we finally got to see the final installment of “Platform Jones and The Lost Features.” Platform Jones manages to hack into his dad’s 3DEXPERIENCE account using a hexadecimal code. Is this yet another reference to boomers?

This allows the cast to preview some of the new features in SOLIDWORKS 2024. The demo went extremely quickly, and I doubt most attendees were able to process more than a couple of the new features. It would have been nice if they had slowed things down a bit and let you actually see what was happening. It also would have allowed the audience an opportunity to clap for their favorite improvements.

A few of the highlights include:

• One new feature allows you to save your model in different configurations to de-feature the model prior to sending it to a vendor.
• In 2024, you will be able to apply the width constraint without worrying about order of selection.
• You can fix all under-constrained assemblies with a simple right click and still have flexible sub-assemblies.
• You can now insert an assembly into a part. This allows you to easily create a jig or mold for the assembly.

Following the demo, the story resumes with the cast of Platform Jones standing before a selection of data storage devices.

The cast is asked to choose the device that contains “the well of new features.” The villain chooses wrong and is sent to a different plane. Platform Jones states that for there to be an unlimited number of new features they cannot be constrained to a single device – they would have to be hosted on the cloud.

Their guide intones, “The well of features spans many global data centers.”

The cast concludes, “We had access to the well of features all along in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.”

“The cloud enables more capabilities than ever,” exclaims Tracy B. Wells.

Gian Paolo Bassi, Executive VP of Experience Works, returned to the stage to close out the conference. He announced that the next 3DEXPERIENCE World will be held in Dallas, Texas February 11-14, 2024.

About the Author

Elise Moss has been a SOLIDWORKS user and instructor since 1998. She is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional (CSWP) and Certified SOLIDWORKS Educator (CSWE). She is one or two exams away from becoming a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (CSWE), but like most things has to figure out when she can make the time to sit for any exams. Elise is currently traveling through the United States on horseback.

Apparently, this year there was too much content to fit into a single general session, so Dassault Systèmes scheduled three general sessions on Tuesday: one on design, one on manufacturing and one on simulation. These sessions were sprinkled throughout the day; the design session was held at 10:00 AM, the simulation session at 11:45 AM and the manufacturing Session at 2:15 PM.  

Because the general session was divided into three segments and classes were being held at the same time, it was a much smaller crowd for the day two sessions.

Since my career focus has always been design, I attended the design session and skipped the other two.

While Tracy B. Wilson continued her role as emcee, Manish Kumar, SOLIDWORKS CEO, was on stage and acted as the interviewer and host for all the speakers. The theme of the session was “The Future of Design.”

The first three guests were Matt Shedlov from Boston Scientific, Ryan Okelberry from House of Design and Brandon Foster from Sealed Air. All three are SOLIDWORKS customers, and they were there to endorse the products they use.

Matt Shedlov, Senior R&D Engineer, kicked things off. Boston Scientific is a huge medical device company with offices worldwide and hundreds of design engineers. Shedlov explained that Boston Scientific regularly buys up other companies and 95 percent of the companies they have acquired are SOLIDWORKS customers. This has made integrating the new acquisitions easier.

As an engineer who has experienced the pain of having to integrate the CAD library of an acquired company and train a team of engineers in the processes of their new overlord, I hadn’t considered using the engineering software being used by a targeted acquisition as a part of the criteria—but this certainly would reduce a lot of the friction when assimilating new data and team members.

Boston Scientific currently uses ePDM, which is the legacy PLM system offered by Dassault Systèmes. This is not a browser-based PLM. Basically, it uses a server owned and maintained by the customer. Users access the server using the company internal network and/or VPN, if they are working remotely. It requires an on-site CAD manager (typically, a senior engineer pulling double-duty) and someone from IT to help with server access. Ideally, you mirror your server to protect your data in the event of data corruption, and regularly back-up your data.

Boston Scientific is looking at switching to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which would mean they no longer have to manage a server or schedule automatic backups. They would still need to have one of their engineers acting as CAD Manager but the workload would be lightened considerably. This CAD Manager would still need to add and delete team members and control their access as well as organize the CAD library, but the maintenance and software update part of the workload would be eliminated.

The next guest speaker was Ryan Okelberry, co-Founder of House of Design. House of Design fabricates modular housing units as well as developing the assembly lines used to fabricate their products. Their goal is to create a “virtual twin” of their systems.

The term “virtual twin” was used several times during the general session and many attendees were confused by the use of this phrase. Most designers and engineers are familiar with the term “digital twin.” A digital twin, in the simplest sense, can be thought of a CAD model which is identical to an actual physical model.

Apparently, Dassault Systèmes has decided to use “virtual twin” for a CAD model that resides on the cloud.

Since House of Design’s goal is to create and use virtual twins, they rely on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform entirely to design and manage their CAD data. This gives them the greatest flexibility to access their files on any device from any location.

Brandon Foster, senior CAD administrator from Sealed Air, provided the next customer endorsement. Sealed Air manufactures bubble wrap and other packaging solutions. The company holds over 2,800 patents. They have about 200 seats of SOLIDWORKS but about 60 percent of their design is in 2D, using DraftSight. They would like to move everything over to 3D but, like many companies, all that legacy data is a heavy weight.

Bruce Holway, director of product R&D for SOLIDWORKS was invited on the stage to show off some of the latest improvements in SOLIDWORKS.

Highlights included using a filter on bill of materials in drawings and the ability to open a part directly from the bill of materials. Both of these are excellent enhancements that promise to boost productivity.

He also talked about the Top Ten List. The Top Ten List can be found on the 3DEXPERIENCE website in the user forums. Users submit their ideas on how to improve SOLIDWORKS, and other users can then comment and vote on the submissions.

In prior conferences, the Top Ten List was a part of the General Session. SOLIDWORKS employees would announce the winners from the submissions and demonstrate how the enhancements had been added to the next release of SOLIDWORKS. This has always been a popular presentation, so the Top Ten List has now been cut from the general session and instead is now a regular session of its own. You would have to know to look for it in the agenda and then decide if you want to attend that class or some other class.

Next up was Michael Austell, Director of Engineering at Storyteller Overland, A company that converts small vans to recreational vehicles suitable for camping.

Unlike traditional RVs, these campers are geared more towards boondocking. Boondocking means you park on public land, usually Bureau of Land Management (BLM) areas, and don’t have access to electricity, water, restrooms or cell service. Because most BLM land is accessed using unpaved dirt roads, a vehicle with 4WD and rugged suspension is preferred.

As someone who boondocks regularly with horses, I can tell you that it takes a special individual to want to spend time in these spaces. The upside is that boondocking is free; the downside is that you usually can’t spend more than one or two days at any given site because you will run out of water. Water is the limiting factor; you can only carry so much water and the closest place to get more is a significant distance away. So far away, in fact, that once you have driven down that bumpy unpaved road, covered your vehicle in dust and mud and refilled your water, you will likely have little or no interest in returning to the boondocking site and decide to just keep going.

Storyteller Overland is a small start-up with a talented team of engineers and designers. The team works remotely and from different locations. Austell said, “A lack of any interest in managing a server” contributed to their decision to opt to use the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. They use 3DEXPERIENCE exclusively, which prevents them from making any “unintentional edits, while allowing each member of the team to contribute in their own in unique and individual way.”

Austell also likes 3DEXPERIENCE’s ability to use controlled access when sharing CAD files with suppliers. You can protect your IP so that when suppliers download the models from 3DEXPERIENCE, they receive a dumb body. This is similar to saving your file as an *.stp file. The vendor can import the file into whatever software they use, and your IP is protected.

This was the perfect segue way for Manish Kumar to demonstrate how an admin invites a team member to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, who can launch SOLIDWORKS from inside the platform and how to get to work immediately.

He also exhibited how to publish a CAD file to the 3D Drive (a cloud-based server) and allow team members to view and markup the file on the cloud without requiring a seat of SOLIDWORKS.

Florian Fischer, CEO of X Custom Engineering, spoke next. They are a small start-up engineering services firm based in Germany. Fischer explained that he wanted his company to be “independent from hardware and location. I wanted to be device independent so that we would have access to the software and files from the cloud. This flexibility and mobility accelerate the design process.” X Custom Engineering is using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and is 100 percent invested in the cloud model.

Kumar then talked about some of the other positives of working 100 percent in the cloud on 3DEXPERIENCE. Because everyone is using the same browser-based software, everyone is using the same version. You don’t need to coordinate upgrades among team members, nor do you have to ask users to save up or save down a release. SOLIDWORKS is rolling out incremental updates every 8-12 weeks. These updates are automatic, and because they are only enhancing a few features at a time, users can adapt quickly and learn the new features easily.

Next up we heard from Amy Hamilton, a middle school teacher and Kirby Downey, a Maker Influencer who has a popular YouTube channel.

Manish Kumar introduced Hamilton, saying, “The most passionate segment of our users are teachers.” There are close to five million students learning SOLIDWORKS today.

Hamilton switched to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform during the pandemic because schools were shut down and she needed to continue supporting her students learning remotely. During the pandemic, she taught XDesign, XShape, XSketch and 3DStory. She liked the benefit of being able to review each student’s work remotely. Even if they didn’t formally submit it, she could see how they were progressing.

Now that she and the students have returned to the classroom, she finds that she is able to transition them into SOLIDWORKS easily because they are already familiar with the user interface.

Two of Hamilton’s students, Elif Gulhan and Kemal Cagin Gul, both 10 years old, are the youngest 3D Creator Certified Users in the world.

Kumar then did a quick demo of HomeByMe and MakeByMe. These are free websites developed by Dassault Systèmes. The HomeByMe website allows you to use a library of furnishings and materials to test-drive virtually.

The MakeByMe website allows you to design the furniture you want to place in your virtual home.

Both of these websites appeal to the DIYer, which was as good a lead-in as any to the next guest: DIY Maker Kirby Downey.

Downey likes to 3D print video game props. He is an influencer with a YouTube channel where he demonstrates how to design and print his models.

He has almost 200 models available for free download from this website. You can download his files and print them as they are or tweak them to make them your own unique design.

Downey uses SOLIDWORKS for Makers, which provides access to XDesign and XShape. You can create the conceptual model in XDesign and then export it for 3D printing.

Dassault Systèmes wants to unleash the creativity for everyone by slashing their prices for a limited time, allowing users to see for themselves how liberating cloud-based design can be.

Romain Perron, a VP from CATIA, came on stage and ran through several different CATIA software flavors from Simulia to Biovia. The demos were so fast, it was hard to see exactly what they were trying to show. Like a lot of reseller demos, the videos make the software look easy to use but I expect that it would take some time to become proficient in any of them.

Tracy B. Wilson returned to the stage to introduce the second installment of “Platform Jones and the Lost Features” saga. While the sketch was entertaining, there were no further peeks at future enhancements in the next release of SOLIDWORKS. We will have to wait for the third and final episode to see what’s in store for SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCEWorks. Thankfully, that will be tomorrow – the final day of the conference, so we won’t have to wait too long.

About the Author

Elise Moss has been a SOLIDWORKS user and instructor since 1998. She is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional (CSWP) and Certified SOLIDWORKS Educator (CSWE). She is one or two exams away from becoming a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (CSWE) but like most things has to figure out when she can make the time to sit for any exams. Elise is currently traveling through the United States on horseback.

The company is relatively small, with a team of less than a dozen mechanical engineers, along with a manufacturing team and field service team that operates the robots. The team of mechanical engineers are based in different locations. The chief mechanical engineer, Charles O’Connell, is based in New York. A few engineers are based at the headquarters in Massachusetts, and a couple other engineers are located in other cities across the Northeastern United States. Even before COVID, Square Robot was 100 percent committed to hiring talent that worked remotely because that provided them the flexibility to hire the best minds in the field.

The company was founded in 2016, and Charles O’Connell was one of their first hires, joining the team in 2017.  Like a lot of mechanical engineers, Charles found himself pulling double duty—designing Square Robot’s first-class robots and acting as the CAD Manager. Because the company is relatively small, they don’t have an IT department and they don’t use servers. Instead, they store all their company documents in the cloud. In 2017, when Charles came on board, they were using Google Docs to manage their engineering files. Design work is being done primarily in SOLIDWORKS . The robotic design required a lot of analysis, which was done using Matlab.

It didn’t take long for Charles and his team to get frustrated with Google Docs. Google Docs didn’t provide any notifications if a team member “checked out” a document, and revision control was almost a full-time job.

Charles reached out to Square Robot’s SOLIDWORKS reseller, Tri-Mech, to see if they had a suggestion for a PLM solution that wouldn’t require a major investment. They wanted to keep their documents in the cloud to facilitate collaboration between the engineering team and allow their employees to continue to work remotely. Additionally, having a cloud-based PLM solution meant that regardless of where their field technicians were sent, they had access to the latest information.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform turned out to be a perfect fit. It allowed the engineering team to continue working in SOLIDWORKS without having to do any messy conversions. The platform manages revision control, and team members are notified instantly when an updated component is uploaded into the cloud. They simply perform a “refresh” and can see what has changed in real time.

A benefit of being one of the early adopters of 3DEXPERIENCE was that Dassault listened to any changes or feature enhancements Charles and his team made. Because changes were made that were tailored to Square Robot’s workflow, they were able to be even more efficient in their design process. At this point, the Square Robot team considers the 3DEXPERIENCE platform a crucial part of their success as a company.

SOLIDWORKS remains their primary design tool while the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is used to manage their entire engineering database.

Government regulations require regular inspection of chemical storage tanks to ensure that the tanks are structurally sound, not leaking or outgassing any dangerous fumes.

Square Robot’s main product is an autonomous inspection robot. This robot is dropped into a petroleum tank and uses phased ultrasound to determine wall loss in the tank. Their product is unique in that they do not require the tank to be emptied, an operation which can cost up to $2 million dollars. A Square Robot field technician operates the robot from outside the tank and monitors its performance.

There are some serious design challenges. The robot is powered with lithium-ion batteries which can spark an explosion in a fuel tank if not designed and operated properly. Square Robot has designed a mechanical pressure sensor and switch that controls whether it is safe to tun on the power.

Additionally, there is often debris in the tank, such as rust, which can interfere with the robot’s transit. The robot is equipped with on-board sonar to detect debris and a brush system that allows the robot to clear debris from its path before it moves forward.

The engineering team has met and conquered the challenges using custom built SOLIDWORKS API macros that allow them to calculate mass properties, best operational velocity and more. The ability to write custom macros using the SOLIDWORKS API has helped the engineering team in a myriad of ways, from auto-generating engineering drawings to performing buoyancy calculations on models.

Post-COVID, many companies are struggling with hiring new talent and figuring out how to support remote or hybrid work models. Square Robot is ahead of the game having already established a work process and the tools—using SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE—to manage 100 percent cloud-based collaboration and protecting their intellectual property by using a cloud-based PLM system.

About the Author

Elise Moss is a senior mechanical engineer with a BSME from SJSJU. She is a regular contributor to engineersrule.com as well as a published author of CAD textbooks. Elise is currently traveling through the United States on horseback. You can read more about Elise here.

1. Was it a SOLIDWORKS or 3DEXPERIENCE Event?

The livestream event was titled “What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2023” and hosted by the SOLIDWORKS Live team, but if you were expecting exclusively SOLDWORKS content, you haven’t been paying attention. With more and more technology becoming available on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform—and the name change of our big user conference from SOLIDWORKS World to 3DEXPEIRENCE World—it would seem like the names “SOLIDWORKS Live” and “What’s New in SOLIDWORKS” are the last holdouts of a bygone era centered around SOLIDWORKS. I can’t tell you exactly when this transition started but I can tell you it has happened.

Let us enter the era of 3DEXPERIENCE.

It would make sense that the September 29, 2022 livestream event would open with Executive Vice President of 3DEXPERIENCE Works at Dassault Systèmes, Gian Paolo Bassi, aka GP. You will remember GP as the CEO of SOLIDWORKS.

GP begins with reshaping our perspective about product development. He challenges us to shift our perspective from beyond CAD data to all the product development information around us. Although this is a sales pitch for the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it does capture the way we work in 2022 and will work in the future.

2. The Proposed Agenda Masked the Real Agenda

The agenda for the event proposed ten topics and at first looked like seven of the ten would focus on traditional SOLIDWORKS content, not 3DEXPERIENCE.

But a 70/30 split in favor of SOLIDWORKS it was not. There was definitely more than 30 percent of the time discussing 3DEXPERIENCE topics. Some things that initially identified as SOLIDWORKS desktop tools had hints of 3DEXPERIENCE—not that there is anything wrong with that. Item #10 will explain why this is actually a great thing.

3. SOLIDWORKS 2023, Now With Free Performance Included With Every License*

One of best moments from the livestream came when user-favorite Mark Peterson was discussing the performance gains in SOLIDWORKS 2023. He joked that all the future users of SOLIDWORKS 2023 will “enjoy the free performance.” But this is no joke.

By upgrading to the latest version of SOLIDWORKS, you’ll have noticeable performance gains. You hear this claim every year, and it’s true. Just be sure to turn on the system option for “enhanced graphics performance” to enable the new render pipeline which powers the performance gains. You can see it in action below—and I can’t wait to use SOLIDWORKS 2023 and find out for myself.

4. Reliability: What’s Important to Design Professionals

Performance is great, but without reliability it’s not worth much to professionals. SOLIDWORKS R&D had the spotlight for the first segment of the livestream, and they shared their commitment to quality. And they brought the receipts.

This chart shows the number of software bugs in the backlog over time. In 2021, the team has been able to reduce the backlog by 90 percent. They shared the goal of achieving zero crash bugs (the worst bugs) in the backlog. This is a big win for stability.

5. Term Licensing: Great News for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, Startups and Company Projects

Some big news for licensing was announced on the livestream: that term licensing has been extended to all the SOLIDWORKS products. For those one-off projects or short-term jobs, you can rent whatever SOLIDWROKS product you need for as few as 90 days.

6. Comments: The Can’t-Miss Feature of 2023

One draw-dropping moment came when we saw the additions to comments. Comments have been around for longer than I can remember. Now in version 2023 of SOLIDWORKS, they’ve gone from a feature I can’t remember to one I can’t live without. Comments in 2023 are great thanks to the addition of five new functionalities:

1. You have control over the text formatting.
2. You can add external images to the comment.
3. You can instantly save a screenshot of your design to the comment.
4. You can add background colors and custom labels to comments.
5. There’s a check box to show the comments in the view all comments dialog box when you reopen the file.

7. Auto Repair Mates: The Magic Button to Save Time

The second jaw-dropping moment for me came when the team introduced this magic button for mates. When it comes to assemblies, there is widespread consensus that repairing countless mate references is the worst, most tedious process. Thankfully, in SOLIDWORKS 2023 this is automatically taken care of using the Auto Repair function for mates. What can we say here, except that this is a magic button?

8. Pattern Connections: Structure Systems are Now Even Better

Structure systems have been around for a few years, and it’s been a game-changer since day one for creating weldment structures, especially larger more complicated structures. With SOLIDWORKS 2023, there’s a new option to instantly add components to similar corners automatically using the new Pattern Connection Element function. It works by automatically identifying similar corners in your model—just visually inspect the instances and pick the correct places to add the elements. It’s a really streamlined way to add components like gussets to corners of large weldment systems in SOLIDWORKS 2023.

9. Filter BOM Tables: Familiar Functionality Finally Comes to BOM Tables

BOM tables got some familiar functionality with the addition of filters. You can now add filters to your bills of materials so you can focus on what you need to see. The functionality you are used to in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets is now in your BOM. Just click in the top of a column and use the filter capability to get clarity in your BOMs.

10. The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform: What’s New in 2023? What’s Amazing in 2023!

The guiding principles of SOLIDWORKS in 2023 are: Working smarter, faster and together. It’s clear the CAD tool is fundamentally the same but the 3DEXPERIENCE platform extends the capabilities with so many new features that you truly can work smarter, faster and together. This is important because a lot has changed over the years we have seen SOLIDWORKS What’s New events.

It’s not just the What’s New content, but also what’s new in the way we work. In 2012, “working smarter, faster and together” meant something different than it does now, ten years later.  

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform clicked for me today as I listened to Gian Paolo speak at the livestream event.

“Think back to 2012. So much has changed over the last ten years, hasn’t it? Over the last ten years what changes have you experienced? I bet the ways that you connect to your job and accomplish your work are most certainly different. Progress must be part of your purpose. To make great designs successful, you must also master the business of product innovation,” he said.

“Where we used to think of CAD data as the main source of truth, actually product development information is all around us in every conversation, idea and interaction. As smoothly as your design team works together, what about your extended value map? For 2023 the SOLIDWORKS R&D team, as usual, has delivered an amazing lineup of enhancements to help you work smarter, faster and together. Not just together as a team but also connected to your data and your tools. But to truly accelerate your innovation you need to make all product information available for your entire enterprise to access and act on in real time throughout the day wherever they are.” 

“As you look to 2023, how will you continue to improve your productivity and expand creativity? How will you inspire those around you? In 2023, look to improve your productivity and optimize your CAD. Let’s make 2023 the most innovative and successful year yet.”

Thanks, GP. I could not say it any better myself.

Here’s everything you need to know about 3D Pattern Shape Creator.

What Can You Do With It?

Here are some examples of geometry created using 3D Pattern Shape Creator. You will clearly notice the common themes of intricacy and complexity. The results will leave even the most experienced SOLIDWORKS Experts speechless. Even a veteran Elite Application Engineer will be absolutely blown away by not just the geometry but the ease of use. What would otherwise take several painfully tedious days—or even weeks—can be easily done in a matter of minutes.

What’s It All About?

3D Pattern Shape Creator is a tool that enables you to explore and create next level patterns and shapes. But let’s go beyond the official marketing terminology to explore what that really means. To find the answer, we’ll break down both those words to take a deeper look at how you can explore and create amazing shapes with 3D Pattern Shape Creator.

1. Explore

In terms of 3D Pattern Shape Creator, when we say “explore” we are referring to its functionality, which enables you to easily play with the shapes in a way that has more of a free-form or experimental feel. 3D Pattern Shape Creators offers an environment where you can be free from the constraints, limitations and inhibition of parameters you are probably used to dealing with when it comes to traditional parametric modeling applications such as SOLIDWORKS.

In this environment, you don’t have to define shapes directly. In 3D Pattern Shape Creator, you have the flexibility (read: the ability) to define shapes indirectly in various ways. This means you can quickly create some incredibly complex shapes—which brings us to the second term: create.

2. Create

With 3D Pattern Shape Creator, the impossible becomes possible. This isn’t hyperbole. Shapes that are impossible to create using traditional modeling practices with a tool like SOLIWDORKS are easy to create with 3D Pattern Shape Creator.

3D Pattern Shape Creator not only offers additional features and functions, it also offers a completely different method for geometry creation. There’s a lot of familiar terms and tools, such as split, thicken or extrude but you can also extend the functionality to some new tools like Voronoi and user operators, all within a completely different interface.

As you can see in the image above, on one hand there is the traditional graphical user interface such as you are accustomed to with SOLIDWORKS or other 3DEXPERIENCE applications. But on the other hand, there is an additional graphical interface, like a block diagram, for visual scripting. This graphical interface is the engine that drives all the magic. The best way to work is with a combination of the two—using both the graphical and scripting interfaces.

How Does it Work?

Using the graphical visual scripting interface, you can easily explore and create these complex shapes and patterns. It is simple to drag and drop commands to the interface and connect them, creating a web of elegance but not complexity. Everything you do in the scripting interface instantly generates in the graphical modeling interface, in real time. This gives you the ability to play with the geometry and continually tweak it to get exactly what you want.

What Is a Voronoi Diagram?

Any article about 3D Pattern Shape Creator must explain Voronoi diagrams. Named after Russian mathematician Georgy Voronoy, the Voronoi diagram it is the keystone of the 2D Pattern Shape Creator. It is a most useful feature and enables the ease of use.

When we said that using 3D Pattern Shape Creator enables you to create things that are perhaps impossible or just extremely painful or tedious, we said it with the Voronoi function in mind. The Voronoi function allows you to easily break up the shape and define the instances for the pattern. Easily breaking up the geometry in an algorithmic or organic way in this manner is just not practical or possible in an application like SOLIDWORKS.

What Is 3D Pattern Shape Creator and How Do I Get It?

3D Pattern Shape Creator is a piece of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. It seems that nowadays, all roads of exciting new technology from Dassault Systèmes lead to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. If you haven’t already, I recommend you do yourself a favor and look at all the amazing technology available there.

How best to get this functionality? Since it’s on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, we need to explain roles. With the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, you will need to shift your mindset to roles rather than applications. 3D Pattern Shape Creator is a role that gives you access to the application to generate complex variable patterns.

What App Do I Need?

The app needed to create these shapes is xGenerative Design, affectionately known by its trigram XGG. This is actually the only app that comes with the 3D Pattern Shape Creator role. For the purposes of this article and when talking to a reseller, you can use these names interchangeably for they mean pretty much the same thing.

Introducing xGenerative Desisgn (XGG)

When it comes to creating these amazing shapes, xGenerative Design is what you want. To get it, you need to have the 3D Pattern Shape Creator role on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. All the images in this article were taken using xGenerative Design. The “X” in the name means it is browser based. Because it’s not installed on the local computer, it also means that you can use it on your phone or tablet. It works on any modern browser, such as Chrome or Edge.

It’s a little mind-blowing. Imagine easily creating all these crazy shapes while comfortably sitting on the beach or flying on a plane—not tethered to your workstation. That’s the true power of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform: design anything, on any device.

For Complex Shapes and Patterns, What Options are There?

When you want to create complex shapes, you have a few choices available in the Dassault Systèmes portfolio, so let’s recap these options:

1. SOLIDWORKS Desktop - SOLIDWORKS Surfacing: B-rep modeling

Nothing new here. Of course, you can continue to use surface modeling just like we’ve done since 1995 and still model complex shapes with SOLIDWORKS Surfacing.

2. 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, xShape: sub-d modeling

Introduced a few years ago on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, with x-Shape you can leverage sub-divisional modeling. Think of it like working with clay. You can push or pull to form the shape you want.

3. xGenerative Design from 3D Pattern Shape Creator

Above are three choices for creating complex shapes and patterns. The last one is truly amazing and offers a mind-blowing combination of power and ease—not just making the impossible possible but also making the impractical, practical.

Don’t believe it? Take a look at the perforated sheet metal plate in the image below.

This is a model created in SOLIDWORKS which has over 40,000 holes cut in it. Each hole is positioned to match a pixel from an image to create the shape. The gradient was created by varying the size of the holes. Try as you might, you will not be able to do this with SOLIDWORKS. But with xGenerative Design, it’s not just possible, it’s easy!

Learn more about 3DEXPERIENCE with the ebook Developing Better Products in the Cloud.

Let’s go on a journey through levels of sophistication of data management to demonstrate why the most modern methods are the easiest and most reliable.

Flat Files

Let’s say that the year is 1985. Each part or assembly you design is represented by a single drawing. Each individual file uses the part number as the file name. That is all pretty straightforward, and typical of legacy 2D documentation practice.

Now you need to do revisions, so you just add a revision level to the file name. For example, you might have 123456A.dwg where 123456 is the part number. This gives you an automatic archiving method, as long as you remember to follow the rules for new revisions correctly. The rules are simple and easy to follow.

Associative Files – External References

The year is now 2000, and you are using SOLIDWORKS. One complication as far as file management goes is that drawings and assemblies use external references—meaning they pull data from other files. In order to pull that data, the referenced file name and path must be the same as the file name and path stored in the referencing file. This means that you can no longer change names or locations of files referenced by other files (parts and assemblies)—which means that you can’t put the revisions in the file name.

The SOLIDWORKS Help file actually publishes a list of locations where the software looks for files. You should read this help file. You will likely find some of the places it looks for referenced files surprising. The next-to-last place it looks is the place where it was last saved, which is where most people would assume the software would start looking. This help file should be required reading for all users, and especially CAD administrators.

Unique File Names and Search Paths

The Windows operating system does not allow files in the same folder to have the same name. This leads to the first rule of SOLIDWORKS file management: Use unique file names for every document. It sounds like a simple reality that technical SOLIDWORKS users would just accept, but many people try to ignore it or work around it.

One way to handle the growing list of rules, so that all the correct files stay in the correct location with the correct file name, is to keep the latest revision as just the file name/part number while all the old revisions have the revision after the file name. The current revision would be 123456.sldprt (let’s say this is revision C) and the old revision file would be 123456B.sldprt. This works, and guarantees the latest version is easy to spot. Again, it relies on consistently following the rules.

Alternatively, you could have separate folders where the folder name has the revision in the folder name, but the file name for the SOLIDWORKS document itself doesn’t change. This second method tempts fate somewhat because, as you saw from the help file, SOLIDWORKS looks in a lot of unexpected places for the file name. Leaving the file name of a different revision the same means the old versions can easily be substituted, but it also means that old versions of assemblies which use old versions of parts can be very difficult to put back together with all of the right versions.

These are all reasons why CAD admins often enforce the “unique file names” rule even when manually managing files. It is just too easy to come up with the wrong version when several versions are named using the same file name.

It’s Just Too Dangerous to Not Follow the Rules

Because of the rules mentioned, it is possible for all of this to work manually. You must have a thorough functional understanding of the rules that the software plays by, and you must execute those rules perfectly every time.

But following a list of complex rules exactly every time is not something that users are very good at. It is, however, what software and computers are good at. The correct file management procedure can be programmed into software and essentially enforced to ensure all of the links remain the same throughout revision changes.

To further complicate an already complex issue, multiple people working on individual files can run into read/write permission problems. Figuring all of this out in real time while following a complex set of rules is now beyond the capabilities of manual file management.

All of this has been laid out here not to teach you all the technical details of file management in a program with complex external references, nor is it to point out how monstrously tedious manual file management is. This explanation of how SOLIDWORKS finds referenced files is mentioned to convince you of the need for automation to do it correctly without spending more time managing files than doing design, modeling and documentation work.

PDM Automates Following the Rules

Following the rules correctly every time is what your traditional file management or PDM software is all about. If you are using SOLIDWORKS or any 3D modeler without automated file management, your process is one accident away from destroying your projects’ design data.

To some, PDM seems like an unnecessary over-complication of the CAD process, but to those who understand how complicated the process already is, PDM frees up the user’s time and mental resources to focus on the design rather than wrangling files.

Enter the Database World

PDM untangles the mess of files created by CAD.

But what if the tangle of files was never created in the first place? What if all of the data for CAD files were saved as fields in a database instead of files?

Databases have a lot of advantages. The data is segmented into small pieces to make it faster to work on, find and access. The smaller data chunks are easier to reuse. Databases can also be worked on simultaneously by multiple users and large amounts of data can be searched quickly. Databases are inherently good at linking things and linked data is what is happening all day long in parts, assemblies and drawings.

The more you look at this scheme of storing CAD data in databases, the more attractive it becomes. Links between features that we used to avoid, such as in-context relationships, suddenly become intuitive and easy as pie. The links are all internal to items in the database which don’t move around or change names the way files on a hard drive or on a network do, so they don’t have any of the problems associated with in-context links.

Above all, with CAD data in a database, the entire PDM issue becomes far less complex. The database keeps track of everything and the links between things. PDM becomes an inherent part of the CAD model.

In essence, the database approach brings us much closer to the “single source of truth” holy grail that all data managers seek. There are never document ownership conflicts and the model is always up to date.

Databases Used in Many Applications

Databases are used to manage all types of data for many different applications such as blogs, websites, customer management, tech support, sales information, marketing data and more. It is not as though pushing CAD into a database is an unnatural application. There is a lot of cumulative database experience out there beyond CAD and applying it to CAD simplifies a great number of things.

Implementation of a database is more complex than the implementation of a Windows file folder system, but luckily, most of the complexity is handled behind the scenes. Databases are most efficient when used at scale, so they are at their best in centralized installations.

Of course, this strongly suggests CAD on the cloud or a SaaS situation. When your data is installed on a cloud server, the most efficient place to run your application is also going to be a cloud server, so the application and the data are in some proximity to one another to avoid latency. It is a very efficient concept.

To further increase the efficiency, this system would be developed as an entire platform with CAD, engineering and other product development applications to ensure compatibility and homogeneity. Such a platform would also make training easier.

The Future Has Arrived

How long before we can have a cloud-based product design platform and make our file management a thing of the past? These solutions exist right now. Dassault Systèmes offers the 3DEXPERIENCE platform of applications, which have been developed to work together using a common interface. PTC’s Onshape also makes use of similar concepts. The infrastructure for the platform is offered as a service, and you have access to as much of the platform as you need at any time. These platforms solve many of the infrastructure and organizational challenges that have been imposed on CAD users since the 1990s.

If you have been wondering what’s next in the development of CAD, the future is already here. We can remove the most challenging infrastructure barriers. And with cloud-based applications available individually and through subscription, the smallest engineering and design organizations can take advantage of the same tools that previously only the biggest enterprises, with their unlimited IT budget, had access to.

Learn more about 3DEXPERIENCE with the ebook Developing Better Products in the Cloud.

Best In Class

During this phase of the development of engineering technology, companies bought individual products. There was little to no integration. The marketing line on this was that companies were able to buy and use the “best in class” software in each field where solutions were needed.

The first level of improvement on this process was that CAD developers started partnering with certain third-party analysis product developers to make data sharing easier. You might even have a button for analysis show up in your CAD tool to automate the data transfer. Further integration allowed some third-party developers to run their software inside the CAD environment. The software packages were developed by different companies but they had learned to cooperate to some extent.

This arrangement worked—most of the time. Multiple software packages by different development teams in different companies were using the same data. However, you would have more software crashes than with either package individually.

Consolidation

Follow the business world long enough and you will notice that industries tend to consolidate. A new industry that initially has a lot of small companies will, over time, tend towards merging into fewer, larger companies. The CAD and engineering technology industry has seen a lot of consolidation since the 1990s. With the introduction of 3D CAD on the PC, there was an explosion of small companies producing engineering software. Many of those companies started around individual software packages and, over time, those companies merged, pulling the products together under a single, increasingly larger roof.

The Cosmos Example

Cosmos was an analysis product owned by SRAC (Structural Research and Analysis Company), founded in 1982 and sold by SOLIDWORKS dealers early in SOLIDWORKS’ history (1995 – 2001). SRAC also had more advanced software: Cosmos/M was for traditional simulation by analysts, while CosmosWorks was a simpler package intended for use directly by SOLIDWORKS users in conjunction with the SOLIDWORKS software.

SOLIDWORKS initiated their partner program in which third-party software was certified to work with SOLIDWORKS software. Cosmos was an early adoptee into the partner program. Eventually SOLIDWORKS introduced Gold Partner status where third-party software ran inside SOLIDWORKS from a toolbar in the SOLIDWORKS interface.

Reshuffling the Workload

Merging analysis with CAD brought analysis from the level of the analysis specialist to that of the designers and engineers who were designing the products and machinery. It allowed for faster development iteration of products and more up-front testing but there was always some question of whether taking the analysis out of the hands of the specialists was the right thing to do. This was not just true of stress analysis but of each application that ran inside the CAD application.

The added efficiency was certainly a good thing, but it required the people involved in the design to learn new skills. Misinterpreting analysis results is arguably worse than not doing the analysis at all. In the end, adding skills to the designer/engineer toolbox was a good thing for they were able to add value to the product development process. Analysis specialists were still called in for more complex and critical analysis jobs.

Gold Partners

In 2001, SRAC became one of the first SOLIDWORKS gold partners to be purchased by Dassault. The company and the product were integrated directly into SOLIDWORKS. Cosmos products that still exist today have been re-branded as SOLIDWORKS Simulation, making the integration complete. If you have SOLIDWORKS installed on your computer and do a search, you will find folder names of former Cosmos products such as CosmosWorks, CosmosMotion and Cosmos/M.

The same sort of evolution has happened with products and companies such as Toolbox/Cimlogic, PDMWorks/Design Source, SmarTeam, Conisio and others. The point here is that mature products developed by dedicated teams have been integrated into the software in use today and these products are now woven into the fabric of CAD.

What started out as a simple 3D CAD program in 1995 has developed into a suite or platform that includes just about anything you could want to do with your 3D CAD data. Because all of the products have been upgraded for years by the same team working on the main software, the likelihood of compatibility issues has faded significantly.

As the engineering technology industry moves forward, it becomes increasingly sophisticated and integrates more of the software around it. Software developers will continue to consolidate the smaller players into one of a few ecosystems. The industry continues moving toward a philosophy that companies that design, simulate and manufacture should do it all on a single complete PLM platform.

The best-in-class mantra used in the early days has been replaced by concepts such as economy of scale, buying all your software from a single vendor, getting a suite of software that is intended to be used together with a single integrated interface, a single data format and a single point of contact for support and sales.

Enter the Platform

Current PLM developers offering platforms of applications include Dassault Systèmes with 3DEXPERIENCE, as well as Siemens Digital Industries, PTC and Autodesk. Altair is another company perhaps less often mentioned but also offers a wide range of tools for engineering and product development.

Portions of the industry are also moving toward cloud delivery. Cloud applications almost require a platform approach, as platform and cloud go hand in hand. Since there are multiple cloud services available, software would have to be integrated across cloud boundaries—a formidable task. Therefore, it might be unrealistic to expect to have a cloud-based platform and still support best-in-class applications by different vendors for what platform applications can’t do, or can’t do as well.

The platform approach makes sense for certain companies in some of the ways mentioned above, but it also presents some additional challenges. When buying into a platform, it is much more important to evaluate the vendor relationship and test as much of the software suite as is practical, even if you don’t have a current need for all of the applications. It is important to talk to other customers and understand the costs and limitations involved, as well as the process for upgrading, retrieving your data, getting support, training, consulting services, license management and other common support concerns. You might also inquire what it would take if, one day, you were to decide to move to a different platform or move back to a best-in-class application.

Weigh the Advantages

Most of these platform offerings are marketed toward large, multi-divisional organizations. The traditional old school small installations stand to benefit less from these consolidated platforms than groups with hundreds of users. If you get involved or get pressure to be involved, make sure your organization stands to actually benefit from what is being offered.

With every convenience added, there is generally something sacrificed. If you think about cloud delivery and storage as part of the PLM platform being offered, there can be several convenience advantages:

• Access from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Access from any device with a network connection.
• Simultaneous access from multiple users to the same data.
• Software version upgrades become automatic and the responsibility of the vendor.
• Data version ratcheting problems become a thing of the past.
• File management integrated into the CAD functionality.
• Security becomes the responsibility of the vendor.
• Many of the IT concerns for servers and high-end workstations can be offloaded to the vendor.
• Data backup becomes the responsibility of the vendor.
• Crashing of local machines or software becomes less of an issue.
• Benefits can be greater for larger organizations.

But along with these conveniences come some sacrifices:

• Lack of local control over potentially sensitive data.
• Data locked up by the PLM vendor and you have to “pay to play.”
• Risk of failure of the platform vendor would leave your data and process stranded.
• Costs may not represent an actual savings over a locally controlled process and may, in fact, be much higher.

Summary

The platform model now in use by modern engineering design and product development companies has evolved over the past couple of decades. The benefits to companies can be significant, especially in the line of organizational technical infrastructure. Companies need to do their due diligence to make sure they understand the risks, costs and other sacrifices that are involved. In addition, the scale of the benefits that can be enjoyed by a company buying in to a platform is proportional to the buy-in.

Make sure that the idealized or standard buy-in scenario is feasible for your company and your engineering and product development processes. You should also go into any transition with a realization that to get the most from the change in tools, you may have to be flexible with your current process. Many implementation failures can be attributed to simple stubbornness on the part of companies or departments that hold on to the past regardless of the benefits of the future.

Part 1: A Crash Course in Pitching a Product or Idea

“If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.”

If you want to get something in your hands quickly, all it takes is a 3D model in SOLIDWORKS and a 3D printer. In a few hours, you have made your concept into reality—but only to yourself. That’s where it will end if you don’t inspire others with your concept.

Start With the Why, Not the What

You have the “what”—the idea—now you need to convey the “why.” That is the hard part when pitching your idea. The “what” is easy—it’s your idea. You get it. The “why” takes your idea from concept and can help make it real to everyone else. People imagine their reality with it. This shared reality is what makes ideas happen.

How to Start with Why

Don’t tell them about the features and functions. Instead, tell them why or how it will change their life. Listing the features and functions, or speeds and feeds is easy, but it’s not impactful. You can start with the details, but don’t stop there. Take it one step further and explain how it will help them achieve their goals. Don’t focus on the details, focus on the outcome.

Let’s look at a shovel, for example. A homeowner doesn’t buy a shovel because of the features it has. They may not want a shovel at all. What they want is what the shovel enables them to have—shade from a tree they can plant, or privacy and security from a fence they can build.

Don’t Just Inform—Inspire

When it comes time to pitch your product, think about your intention. You want to inspire rather than inform. Have customers imagine their life with your product. You want to inspire your colleagues to work with you to get your project to the finish line. This process will, of course, require some sharing of information, but the intention should be to inspire.  

What’s the Difference?

Pitching your product is an art more than a science. There is nuance in the methodology that enables you get more people on board with your idea and more buy-in from key stakeholders. Again, you will need to consider your intention. There are two categories for this—inspiring or informing. The difference lies in your end goal, but a good way to think about the differences is in the way you share the content.

The means by which you share the content is critical. Think of PDF handouts versus a conference keynote. If the content could be shared via email attachment and have the same effect, then it is probably informational content that has the intention of informing.

The flip side of this is inspiring, which is usually done in presentation format delivered live at a conference keynote or through a reusable asset such as a recorded video or even your website homepage. There is a time and a place for informing and a time and a place for inspiring. Think about what role you want to play and be deliberate with it. When you are pitching your product, a handout or data sheet will inform—but you as a product developer will need to inspire.

Part 2: Creating Content that Inspires

Starting with SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE Tools

Once you have created the mindset for pitching your product, you can create the content and collateral necessary to support you in inspiring your audience. There is a typical five-step process for product design that looks something like this: idea, napkin sketch, 3D model, prototype and final product. This being 2022, most of that can be done in SOLIDWORKS CAD and the cloud-enabled 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

You can get started with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, including SOLIDWORKS desktop CAD, for only $10 per month thanks to the SOLIDWORKS for Makers license. This may be the best deal in engineering, and I love to tell the community about it. To learn more about it you can check out our article here. If you are ready to get started, click the link here. If you want to see how it can be used to help you pitch your product, then keep reading.

Why 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers?

This is not just another sales pitch for the newest SOLIDWORKS tools. I’m a product design consultant in the business of helping people bring their products to market, and the 3DEXPERIENCE tools are my go-to recommendations and truly what I believe are the best in the industry.

You don’t just get the SOLIDWORKS CAD program, you get a complete suite of product development tools that help you go from concept to reality faster and easier than ever before. At the time of this writing, you get 66 applications including:

• SOLIDWORKS Connected: Desktop SOLIDWORKS CAD basically indistinguishable from the commercial application.
• x-Design: Cloud based CAD modeling applications.
• x-Shape: Cloud Based sculpting, surfacing and freeform modeling.
• 3DSketch: Ideation tools combining free form sketching with CAD modeling.
• 3D Markup: View, redline and notate edits on your drawings in the cloud.
• Project Gantt: Manage your team and project with powerful project management tools.

How 3DEXPERIENCE Can Inspire

When we say cloud-based, we mean that it works on any web-enabled device. I use the tools on my iPad and in a pinch, I have even used them on my phone. When you need it, this functionality could be a life-saver for your business.

Imagine this: you are on a flight from your hometown to San Francisco to pitch your design to potential investors. You get settled in your seat and you connect with your seat mate while each of you shares niceties about the weather and spends a few minutes talking about the upcoming trip. You find out that they are a legendary angel investor in products just like yours, and could offer capital and expertise to help you make your vision a reality. Once the plane lands, you may not have their attention again. But for now, they have to hear your pitch.

But you packed your computer into your checked bag because you didn’t want to bother with it during your flight. No problem. Even with the painfully slow satellite connection in flight, you can log into your 3DEXPERIENCE drive on your phone and show off your concept.

They love it! They connected with it on a personal level, and they are inspired by how people’s lives can be different using your product. They are on board and now your life will never be the same—all because you inspired them. It wasn’t the information, but rather the inspiration and the shared vision that makes product concepts become reality.

Tools like SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform helped support you, but your inspirational message is what can truly take your product and make it a reality.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS with the eBook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.