3DEXPERIENCE Usage and Features Discussion

Thank you Coralie
EDIT: It must be missing a bit, right?

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@OBI_WAN I'm disappointed that in question 3 of the poll you didn't ask to add a line

  • Loss of time due to spitting out the software :innocent:
    There I'm sure that many people will have ticked the box that goes well^^
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Indeed I think there must be a problem, I'm looking to put you a new video format!

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Hello Coralie,

It would be good because we are still a little hungry.

Stupid question: the 3D experience is only integrated into Solidworks from the 2021 version?
What do we do if we are in the 2020 version?

Another stupid question: the 3D Experience is integrated anyway as soon as you are under maintenance (SW standalone versions) right?

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Hi all

I give you the video of the replay:

Hi all

It's also my turn to make my contribution!
As a mechanical design provider, I have been using the 3DX platform for a year.
Verdict: In 2024 I stop this subscription and uninstall the software!

I have a pretty strong opinion on this tool but I'll try to be constructive anyway!
The undeniable advantage is the integrated PLM tool including all available collaboration functions. Of course, there are still all the constraints and rigidities that the system imposes in terms of working methods, but this disadvantage is intrinsic to all PLM systems.

Where I started to be resilient was when I bought the license. A license consists of several roles (e.g. Manager, Viewer, Designer...) each role will of course earn you an extra ticket! As a designer you have to count at least 4 roles, otherwise it doesn't work...

Then we are sold a magic tool that can do everything, or almost! On my platform I have no less than 50 applications! Honestly, is this really necessary? I must have used 8 at most over a year! There is a calculator application, a kind of "Paint", a kind of "OneNote", a web browser, a drive, all the chat and sharing functions such as "Teams" and so on. Each of its applications is much less intuitive and functional than the originals! We feel like we've gone back to the 2010s, when we added overlays and other jailbreaks to our phones to get an OS, certainly unique, but completely messy!

The updates are regular (maybe too much) but surely useful! and compatible with several Solidworks vintages. whew! On the other hand, I haven't tried to manage several projects with a different year from solidworks!

The concept of "Bookmarks" replacing that of "Dossiers" seems powerful but clearly under-exploited. The search tool is quite badly done, the results are not very readable and much too slow.

SLOWNESS is precisely what defines this platform! However, I am connected to fiber optic networks with a dedicated workstation and the latest updates installed. However, the slow opening of windows, loading times, refresh times, file openings, searches... Each "click of the mouse" makes you lose seconds which at the end of the day can be counted in minutes or even hours!

I have touched on the subject of confidentiality several times. Where is the data stored? On which servers? duplicated how many times? In which country? With what type of certification? I was always told not to worry about it, but I never got a real answer!

The integration with Solidworks needs to be completely reviewed! it works but it's LEEEeeeeeEEEnt! So much so that I activate the 3DX module in the morning, I load everything locally, then log out of the platform to work! I only reconnect in the evening to rebalance everything on the server. It's really DIY! For the Solidworks work environment, we all know our creation tree on the left, it is completed with some 3DX icons but above all we add a specific 3DX pane on the right of the screen in which we manage, searches, bookmarks, files... in short, everything! The display is so badly thought out that you have to stretch the shutter to hope to see anything in it! Creation tree on the left, with duplicate info with the disproportionate pane on the right, I let you imagine the workspace that remains in the middle! Knowing that the majority of designers have a double screen... It's a real shame not to have developed a specific window.

On Solidworks, everyone knows how to make a part, an assembly, a plan. We are only starting to get to the heart of the matter with: configurations, derived parts, parts inserted into another, virtual components, reference replacements, family tables, custom toolboxes, ... and so on! Guess what? with the 3DX the "technical support" advises you to forget all this because the platform manages it very badly...

We will also have to forget about the task scheduler, supposedly replaced by an application but never equalled! On an American forum I finally managed to find a trick to reactivate this good old planner and thus avoid generating export bundles one by one.

The management of CAD data and its revision is very good, but what about the management of all the files with which we really exchange and communicate? I'm talking about PDFs, STEP, edrawing and other DXF and DWG ... They are just as important, but not natively managed by the platform. You will have to find tricks to use a derived format converter, or a sharing folder. In short, tinkering for what seems to me to be the basis of data management!

For my subscriptions I voluntarily have my ass between 2 chairs, Solidworks at one distributor, 3DX at another. Suffice to say that the technical support of the 2 resellers is not, or not yet, trained or effective on the subject!
And as usual, we will try to sell you training in exchange for a technical solution!

In conclusion, 3DX will certainly soon be mandatory but, in my opinion, for the moment it is not up to scratch and is not usable in the industrial world! It is a tool that could be powerful if it focused on the CAD aspects. But if you want to do everything, you don't do anything right!
I think we always need more users to report bugs, to find tips, to propose modifications... in short, to optimize and stabilize the tool. For my part, it was done for a year, but today I throw in the towel!
Passionate about CAD, mechanics and everything that revolves around this universe, having to pay a subscription to participate in the development of a tool that is still counterproductive, is incompatible with my activity.

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Hello my dear @icome

Thank you for this detailed and quite objective opinion opinion.
What you say could be summarized by "who embraces too much, embraces badly" or the version of the century "Who embraces too much, misses the train".

This is what I also call the French fries cutter syndrome.
Consultants of all stripes presents you with a concept.
"You see this grill and well you put a potato, then you press the lever and miraculously you have fries at the exit"
"Well! Uh! With me it doesn't work because I have very big potatoes! »
The consultant or the software publisher "obviously if you put in the bad will because it also works with carrots and moreover you are the only one to tell us this"

Your opinion is important because it represents reality for people who are anchored in reality with all the constraints of an industrial environment.
Of course, we're not here to debug!

Yours truly!

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Hello

Thank you for this informative feedback.
To use EPDM, it seems surprising that some file types are not or poorly managed in the 3Dexperience while EPDM can manage versions of any type of computer file. Are you sure you haven't missed any customizations of settings? On EPDM we manage the versions of our pdfs/dwgs...
Something you've noticed is the cumbersomeness/complexity of setting up computer file management solutions: it's not because it's online that it's easier (I'd even say that it will eventually be the opposite because the 3dexperience may be weighed down with specific features requested by some very large customers. On EPDM, this kind of thing more often had to end up in specific development than in product improvements).
And in terms of heaviness, you've only scratched the surface because you seem to be working alone (the management of group/user rights can quickly turn into a nightmare on EPDM if it's not simplified to the extreme: rights management by 2 to 5 groups max and no management at the user level).
Having used EPDM via a VPN during the pandemic, it worked both from home (with fiber) and on-site. The archiving times were probably a bit longer but nothing prohibitive.

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Thank you @icome for your opinion and feedback (or rather from 3Dexperience if I dare)
If other opinions, even contradictory, we are takers.0
I had had a feedback from a person, 1 or 2 years ago which was also negative, I was hoping for some (naïve?) improvements since this period bringing stability and more speed.
What scares me is for cases like us with 28 licenses if 28 cloud-based licenses what would be the impact on the bandwidth of our internet connection (Fiber certainly, but not infinite).
Currently no PDM and like any new license = 3Dexperience, we are gradually learning about our future...
Edit: during the online test on the show in Nantes, it seemed rather smooth (connection via wifi from the host hotel, probably via fiber but shared in any case)

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Hello;

Following @icome's feedback, wouldn't this be an opportunity for Visiativ and/or Solidworks representatives to be heard here? Just to have a little counter-expertise, without any wooden language.

It is true that when you walk on the forums dedicated to Solidworks in general and to 3Dexp in particular, this type of feedback is mostly negative on:

  • The costs of the different roles.
  • The tools associated with these roles are not necessarily relevant forcing you to buy another Role.
  • The overall ergonomics need to be reviewed. (a shame because Solidworks is still well placed in this field).
  • There is a lack of official "Tutorials" on the entire 3DX platform.
  • The endless and almost daily updates.
  • Multilingual translations seem to be done with an old Google Translate module.
  • But what seems to come up most frequently is the overall slowness of 3DX.

Kind regards.

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@froussel,
I have my own platform but I am also invited to join customer project teams with their own platform. And indeed, rights management is a real headache!
In fact the menus are not clear enough, there are clickable icons everywhere, positioned without any real logic. As a result, you never know where the option you're looking for is hidden...

VPN and 3DX, I don't even dare to imagine the carnage!
The problem of "everything online" is always the same, when you're on the move it always ends up sharing a connection with a mobile phone that has difficulty receiving 3G and you're the one who looks like a puppet in front of your customers!

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It's really interesting what is said here.
For my part, I'm thinking about 3DExperience or SolidWorks EPDM.

I have a lot of data (and I don't really want to sort through !!)


but I guess more than 300 GB on #Dassault servers it can't be free ...

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What they said is limited memory to 25GB. Then you take out the checkbook...
On the other hand, online the weight would be less. (not tested but information heard during the MyCAD.)
It seems that only one customer in Europe has requested an extension due place.
Either it's really much lighter online, or the customers have recently started on the 3Dexperience, hence the little giga needed.

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[HS Troll Mode ON]

The big @flegendre is back among us! Alleluia!

I really thought you had forgotten about us, that's what it's like when you become a chef.

Kind regards

[HS Troll Mode OFF]

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We, for our part, have made an approach to take an interest in it and see if we take the plunge.
after X meetings it came out that frankly it didn't seem to be perfect. Too theoretical, not suitable for us in any case. He offers us 15GB there I bug how to do all our projects with 15 GB I have to be explained.
In my opinion, either he abandons this product or he develops it and offers it to us in 10 years lol.
As for the price, then a real subject for us, it offers an absolutely crazy amount of money in 3 figures.

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Three figures for 3Dexperience + Solidworks per license or max 999€ I take!
At worst I don't use the 3Dexperience. :grinning:

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:wink: yes good 6 then

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hello @OBI_WAN

All the more surprising the 15 GB that a 10 Tera HDD is worth less than 210 € that you only pay once :innocent:.

Kind regards

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Good evening
I don't see how the files would be less heavy online vs. local of a CAD workstation.
A SW file is still a SW file and some files can be hundreds of MB without any problems (drawing in general which is absolutely not optimized).
In addition, since it's a system like EPDM, if I take ours that we've been deploying for more than 10 years now, we've gone from about 300GB to more than a TB of data (there's probably some sorting to be done but before activating archiving with version replacement and users confusing recording and archiving it can quickly climb).
If the behavior of 3DExperience is similar to OneDrive with the Office suite, the slightest small file modification is saved and creates a version.

To come back to the development side of the platform, that's the problem. 3DExperience is made for Catia and has been running with it for a few years (3DExperience was created in 2012), for SW it's more recent and therefore necessarily the users will be the beta testers.
Unfortunately it takes a lot for the platform to improve (a bit like SW's SP0) but it's true that in an industrial environment, playing beta testers is not too much in the habits. We are generally looking for stability and efficiency so there is no time to have fun being blocked by a software that would have blocking bugs.

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No, I promise, I hadn't forgotten you!! :crazy_face:

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