3DEXPERIENCE World 2020 – “The Platform” is Here

I spent the last three very busy days attending 3DEXPERIENCE World 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. It was my first time and I like the atmosphere of Tennessee center and Music Center where the 3DXW20 convention took place. You can feel the music at air immediately when step in Nashville International airport – Gibson guitars are everyone. And not only at the airport – guitars are everywhere.

Getting back to the business… Unless you lived under the rock for the last year, you should know that Dassault Systemes is transforming former Solidworks World event into a new conference and expanding it beyond SOLIDWORKS horizons. Check out my blog from Solidworks World 2019 to connect the stories  – Intro in 3DEXPERIENCE World, PLM, ENOVIAWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE World.

If you want to learn one thing about 3DEXPERIENCE, you should start with the word “The Platform”. This is a short name for 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which Dassault Systemes is placing in the center of innovation, new experience and the way to bring solutions to customers.

Bernard Charles, Vice-Chairman, and CEO of Dassault Systemes called it “a platform for knowledge and know-how”. It sounds like a good name, especially since it goes beyond old CAD / PLM names and sophisticated modern “digital” buzzwords. The value of knowledge is hard to question and therefore 3DEXPERIENCE Platform is focusing on “unlocking new sources of knowledge” branding can become a timeless piece of marketing.

Moving from high-level vision to the products and solutions, Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO of 3DEXPERIENCE Solidworks presented key elements of the platform. 3DEXPERIENCE platform core element is a unified data model and collection of roles. You can think about roles as collections of applications. The idea is not unique, but Dassault Systemes is taking it to the next level by converting an entire portfolio of their applications in a role-based portal, which is at the same time plays the role of licensing and subscription mechanism. Each subscription is connected to a specific set of roles, enabling a set of apps (task-oriented features).

A new portfolio – 3DEXPERIENCE Works is a collection of roles and applications. And the portfolio is expanded with all new and existing applications.

Also, you can learn that existing Solidworks packages are coming together with new roles and applications. It means that all existing Solidworks customers will be almost automatically exposed to The Platform and Apps. Among them, ENOVIAWORKS – an integrated set of roles to be connected with existing Solidworks applications on the desktop. It is important to see that all existing SOLIDWORKS products and new 3DEXPERIENCE Apps are included in the subscriptions.

What is my conclusion?

For the first time, I’ve seen a full scope of 3DEXPERIENCE platform presented and demonstrated with an end-to-end demo scenario including many phases of lifecycle – ideation, design, production planning and some elements of the market place. The scenario is still very high-level and sometimes you can see that elements of the platform are still under development. But to show the entire scope and make it available for all customers is a big step forward in the maturity of 3DEXPERIENCE platforms. I expect 3DEXPERIENCE WORKS will be welcomed by existing Solidworks customers as everything I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from customers during 3DEXPERIENCE World 2020. Conservative customers will be able to continue with Solidworks on the Desktop and Solidworks PDM products. At the same time, we will learn more when “the rubber will hit the road”. I expect it will be an interesting year for Solidworks customers. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud-based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups, and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.