Two weeks ago at SolidWorks World 2011, we showed off SolidWorks n!Fuze, our newest data and file sharing application. If you couldn't make it to San Antonio, here are a few more details about the product.
SolidWorks n!Fuze is a new Web-based offering that lets you share and collaborate on files and ideas. It outperforms traditional approaches for sharing files, such as email and FTP sites, because it integrates with your design tools to facilitate the way you work, uses familiar social networking concepts to engage with others, and avoids costly IT infrastructure and administration. SolidWorks n!Fuze is quick and easy to get started with, simple to use, and accessible from anywhere.
Access anywhere, without costly infrastructure
SolidWorks n!Fuze gives you a home on the Internet for your designs and related materials that you need to collaborate on or work on from multiple locations. Every n!Fuze user gets 15GB of storage space, and an unlimited ability to create workspaces in which to share design materials with others.
Share with colleagues, customers and suppliers
SolidWorks n!Fuze offers a social approach to sharing your designs with colleagues, customers, suppliers – really anyone who you need to collaborate with. With n!Fuze, you create a network of people you want to work with, and invite them to join the SwYm social networking platform and the workspace(s) where you’ve loaded content you need their input on. You can have an unlimited number of other SolidWorks n!Fuze users in your network, and invite up to five guests at a time who are not n!Fuze subscribers.
Control your content
SolidWorks n!Fuze lets you decide how to share. You decide who is invited to a workspace, and what they can do there. Can they just read your files and comment on them? Can they upload their own work to your workspace? Can they edit the work you’ve put up there? You decide! There are many scenarios that make sense for collaborating on designs, and the flexibility built into SolidWorks n!Fuze means we have them covered. We even track versions of SolidWorks files, so that if changes from your group don’t work out the way you’d hoped, you can revert back.
Get and track feedback about your designs
SolidWorks n!Fuze has a great commenting feature, which allows collaborators to post comments about your designs. Rather than having comments lost in email, they’re directly associated with your work, right inside n!Fuze.
Work in a browser or inside SolidWorks
SolidWorks n!Fuze offers two ways to work. People who need to be able to work directly with CAD files can use an add-in to SolidWorks, and people who just need the ability to view your designs or post non-CAD files can use a Web client. Either way, they get access to the information you’ve shared, and can participate in the way you’ve envisioned.
Work from a PC or (soon) a mobile device
Advances in mobile platforms (iPhone and iPad, and the Android phones and tablets) have made mobile collaboration in design work a practical possibility. SolidWorks n!Fuze will support PCs initially, but we will be adding support for mobile devices soon.
Use independently, or complement your SolidWorks PDM solution
SolidWorks n!Fuze is designed to meet the needs of individuals who need to share and collaborate with others, but don’t necessarily need or want to invest in or administer a centrally-managed, network-based system for collaborating on designs. Its social approach means that each user administers their own list of contacts and their own workspaces, and invites others to collaborate on an as-needed basis.
If you have already invested in a PDM solution, SolidWorks n!Fuze can still be a great addition to your suite of SolidWorks data management products. Since SolidWorks n!Fuze is hosted on the Web, it offers a great way of collaborating with suppliers, clients and partners outside the walls of your organization. Customers of all sizes, both with and without PDM solutions can benefit from the simple and easy collaboration that SolidWorks n!Fuze can provide.
SolidWorks n!Fuze is a great way to share and collaborate online, in ways that are uniquely tailored to the needs of SolidWorks customers. We're excited to bring this new solution to you, and are looking forward to hearing how you use it, what you like about it, and what you'd like to see us add or change.
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