End-to-End Product Development on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS is an all-in-one product development platform that enables organizations to collaborate, design, and manage their data. This is the perfect solution for end-to-end product development. 3DEXPERIENCE offers a full set of tools and features in addition to the familiar SOLIDWORKS interface users already know.

The efficient collaboration capabilities and intuitive interface of the platform make sure users can maintain productivity while avoiding costly mistakes. All this data is on a secure cloud location which means users can access what they need, when they need it, from anywhere. Let’s look at a few applications from 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS to help explore what end to end development on the platform can look like:

Product development in your web browser

Imagine logging into one website and having all the information you need to get your job done effectively, that is exactly where we start in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Users have a dashboard within a web browser that is fully customizable and can show applications such as 3DSwym to keep team members connected with the latest information about projects.

Multiple applications can be added to a dashboard, so adding the 3DSearch and 3DPlay applications are a great way to be able to find files within a 3DSpace and preview them interactively. To enhance communication, users can create a 3D Markup, providing clarity and direct focus right to the part(s) of the document that need attention. These markups can then be shared to 3DSwym for all users within that community to see. If users want to be more direct, rather than posting in the 3DSwym community they can use Collaborative Tasks to assign duties to certain teams or team members. With a Collaborative Task, the team stays on track with detailed information and attachments for the task, this way users are spending less time searching for files and figuring out what their objective is. When a Collaborative Task is marked as complete, this notifies the person who assigned the task.

Collaborative task in 3DEXPERIENCE

Open 3DEXPERIENCE files directly in SOLIDWORKS

It’s easy to drag and drop files from the web browser into SOLIDWORKS to open them, just like from Windows Explorer, users can even browse for files on the platform right from within SOLIDWORKS. Working in SOLIDWORKS is the same intuitive interface users have always had. Using classic commands and features, users can design components and create drawings from them in no time. Something users may notice that is a bit different is the 3DEXPERIENCE tab in the task pane. This tab contains customizable columns to help notify users of all types of helpful information, such as the file’s maturity state, revision, and save status. Users will also want to check the lock status to make sure files are reserved when working on them.

Reserving a file locks it so that other users are not able to overwrite your work while you have the file open. Other users are only able to see the file in read-only if the file is not reserved/locked by them. Once a user is done making changes to a new or reserved file, the file can be saved to a 3DSpace on the platform.

Maintain your file references

One benefit of saving to 3DSpace is that this platform is actually designed for CAD files, the system recognizes and maintains file references between parts, assemblies, and drawings. This is something that local drives, network locations, OneDrive, Dropbox, and other cloud base storage systems can not do.

3DEXPERIENCE in SOLIDWORKS

Revision Control

If a file is in the released state, it makes sense for users to not be able to make changes to the documentation. Files that are already in use in a live production may need a new revision. It is easy to save files in a released maturity state to 3DEXPERIENCE Works in a bumped-up revision along with a comment on the changes. These changes are monitored by the platform to provide revision history control for the entire life of the file.

Revision change in 3DEXPERIENCE

Updates are published automatically

Any updates with the progress on the project can be published back to 3DSwym to share this work with the rest of the team. We’ve now seen a few parts of the platform to aid with end-to-end production. 3DSpace users don’t have to worry about browsing and finding files because of how easy it is to locate documents, especially with Bookmark Editor to help organize files in a folder structure users find convenient. These files are easily attached to a Collaborative Task to help ensure users are not wasting time searching for documents and figuring out how to get started.

The revision control and life cycle management tools make sure documents are accounted for throughout the entire process.