How to Organise your Files with 3DEXPERIENCE Collaborative Spaces

When saving data to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, your files are stored in a Collaborative Space. 3DEXPERIENCE Collaborative Spaces are cloud storage destinations similar to network drives. Collaborative Spaces are managed through the 3DSpace app. They allow us to ensure the correct user groups have access to the correct files on the platform.

Multiple Collaborative Spaces can be used when working on different projects or isolating data between work groups in your company. It is important to know which Collaborative Space you’re working in at any time.

3DEXPERIENCE Collaborative Spaces

You can use the MySession window to switch between Collaborative Spaces, and the title bar if you’re using SOLIDWORKS Connected. When you save a file to 3DEXPERIENCE, it will become visible in the Collaborative Space it was saved in, which in turn is visible from the 3DSpace app on the platform.

3DEXPERIENCE Collaborative Space Selection

Searching within SOLIDWORKS

When it comes to opening our files in SOLIDWORKS, we want to be able to find these files quickly. To do this, we’ll first use a search. We can search directly from the SOLIDWORKS File Open window. Using tags, we can isolate parts depending on what 3DEXPERIENCE Collaborative Space they reside in, who their author is, when they were last modified, etc. tags, strings, the file type, and so much more can be used to filter search results. We can also use the file window quick link to see files we have locked for ourselves.

Searching in the ‘Open’ Window

Search scenarios

Searches can be favourited for quick access going forward or a 3DSearch app can be added to a dashboard. For example, if you are asked by your manager to go through any unreleased parts for the bench assembly and confirm if they’re finished by changing the maturity states.

You can search for the project number, and filter on unreleased items, the results then become a to do list. A quality control member of the team could similarly set up a search filter only to show released items. Another method to find files quickly is by using Bookmarks.

Organising with Bookmarks

If Collaborative Spaces are your cloud storage ‘drives’ then Bookmarks are your cloud storage ‘folders’.

Viewing Bookmarks from the ‘Save’ Window

Bookmarks allow you to create a folder structure and browse for content. The ‘Save with Options’ command allows you to assign a bookmark to files being saved. We can also create and manage our bookmarks from here or with the Bookmark Editor app on the platform.

Files can be added from a Collaborative Space to a Bookmark by dragging between apps.

The File Open window in SOLIDWORKS allows us to navigate to the bookmarks for our files, much like we’re used to doing in Windows Explorer. Recently visited bookmarks are saved to the home screen for quick access.

Recent Bookmarks In ‘Open’ Window

Further reading

If you would like to learn more about Collaborative Spaces and other data management advice then please check out our previous posts on Managing CAD Data on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform – Part 1: Terminology and saving – Part 2: Organizing data in a collaborative space.