Day One of General Sessions at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023

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Today kicks off the official start to 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023, and we’re incredibly excited to have everyone together for the first time in three long years.

Today’s General Session kicked off with Gian Paolo Bassi, Senior VP of 3DEXPERIENCE Works, who spoke about how the past three years has made us all realize the importance of being able to work from anywhere, stay connected and always be up to date. He also discussed how the virtual world created by our platform gave everyone the freedom to imagine and create new solutions to respond to the pandemic quickly.

Quoting Albert Einstein, GP went on to say that imagination is more important than knowledge, because knowledge is limited to what we know, but imagination has no constraints. “This is why we have made the underlying theme of this year’s event is the power of imagination. We are here to be inspired, to push the limits of our own imagination.”

Our mission to expand the most successful design ecosystem in the world has seen progress. Our powerful innovation portfolio, 3DEXPERIENCE Works, is a true imagination engine. We have added machine learning and generative design capabilities to implore and experiment with even greater freedom. We have added advanced simulation applications of unmatched accuracy to virtually test all aspects of the real world, from structural analysis to fluid dynamics and electromagnetic field interaction.

We are also moving full speed into digital manufacturing for everything from CNC machining to 3D printing; everything you need for full factory automation, including robot programming, and virtual factory layout and plant design.

We have the manufacturing tools that can make a significant impact on many manufacturers of any size who are struggling with a lack of skilled talent and disrupted supply chains by helping them to automate where they can.

GP then introduced Fabio Pissato, the Chief of Entrepreneurs of e-novia who is working on amazing innovations, designed in SOLIDWORKS, to support sustainability. One such design, TouchDIVER from weart, is a haptic device worn on your hand that enables the user to actually “feel” the texture and softness of virtual objects. GP shared a story of trying the device himself in Milan and feeling actual burning sensation when touching a virtual flame. Attendees can try it out for themselves in the Playground.

Next up was Salvador Garcia, chief revenue officer at Ocean-Based Climate Solutions, who spoke of his company’s efforts to find a way to remove carbon dioxide by using energy of the waves to feed the phytoplankton. This oceanic process, called Ocean Upwelling, is when cold, deep seawaters rich in nutrients rise to the surface, fertilizing phytoplankton that feeds plankton and small fish and so on up the food chain. Amazing to see the way technology can be used to create a more sustainable future.

Gian Paolo also made the announcement that starting July 1st, every seat of SOLIDWORKS will include 3DEXPERIENCE cloud solutions, meaning that all our users will have the ability to share and mark up a model for 3D view, in any browser, with everyone safely—no license or installation needed. GP joked that it’s like “eDrawings on steroids,” which got the crowd very excited.

 

Bernard Charles, Chairman of the Board at Dassault Systemes, then took the stage providing an update on the Living Heart program and how it’s evolved from 2014 into real-world use by doctors today.

He discussed how anything that was ever engineered, whether a part of a whole system, should be actionable, but the reality is that it ends up being millions of files that are inconsistent, misclassified, misnamed, etc. Transforming these files into something that can be organized and classified is vital.

In the age of 3DEXPERIENCE, transforming the chaos of being able to quickly locate parts into order, which is now achievable on the cloud, thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI). A knowledge base on 60 million parts that Bernard compared to “the power of Google image recognizing faces, but applied to your 3D parts, issues, requirements, etc.

Manish Kumar, SOLIDWORKS CEO, was the next up on stage to discuss the importance of being able to work together. Manish told the crowd that he has spent the last year traveling the country and talking to SOLIDWORKS users, listening to users and then brought ideas back to his R&D team to help users face the problems of today and the future.

Startups are using SOLIDWORKS Cloud tools (3D Creator and 3D Sculptor) to design and collaborate, bring that “work from anywhere” promise to fruition. Manish assured the audience that 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers all the capabilities of desktop SOLIDWORKS but adds collaboration and removes data management needs.

With 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS, users can seamlessly manage all your licenses and users in one safe place—no more silos!

Next up was Suchit Jain, VP of Strategy & Community, Dassault Systemes, who spoke about our growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs that now numbers over 7 million, and their importance to our future. Innovation is key to driving progress and creating the new opportunities of tomorrow.

We also heard an update on the 3DEXPERIENCE Works for Startups Program. These startups are at the forefront of driving progress, developing electric vehicles, spacecraft, furniture, medical devices and more. We heard how these startups are using SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to drive innovation.

We also heard from Ilya Mirman from startup Verve Motion on the design of its exoskeleton that will be used to aid workers in avoiding injuries from heavy lifting. The design was machined and 3D printed directly from the SOLIDWORKS models on Nexa 3D printer. Check them out in the Playground.

Ilya also shared news of his “Generative Design Meets a Telecaster” project, about how he collaborated with folks around the world using SOLIDWORKS, partner apps and printing systems to design, print, and build some fun guitar designs.  We heard a rumor that he might be playing for folks in the Playground so check it out.

Next up was Titan Gilroy of the Titans of CNC was next up to discuss the importance of machinists to become experts in many areas in manufacturing, CNC machines, the spindle, the work holding, the coolant, millions of types of tooling and the programming of the machines. To be a great CNC machinist, you have to have the ability to take each of those variables to the highest level.”  But it all starts with parts. “We always teach you to design the part in SOLIDWORKS first,” says Gilroy. “So you can know that part intimately.”

We next heard from Dr. David Hoganson, assistant in the Department of Cardiac Surgery and Director of the Computational 3D Visualization Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. He discussed how they are using SOLIDWORKS CAD and SOLIDWORKS Simulation solutions to create a revolutionary way to do preoperational planning for pediatric heart surgeries.

Our keynote speaker, Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring, who focused on innovation and how we all have the power to use our minds to build a future only we can imagine. Jamie set off to innovate doorbells and is now the largest provider of home security in the world. Watch the replay to hear more of this amazing keynote.

That was a wrap for day one General Sessions at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023. In case you missed it, here is our video recap of Day 1.

We’ll be back to update you on day two tomorrow.  If you like what you just read, there’s still time to join the event virtually for free!

Barb Schmitz

Barb Schmitz

Senior Marketing Communications Manager at SolidWorks
Barb Schmitz is a Senior Manager in Marketing Communications with BA in Journalism and over 30 years of experience in the CAD software industry. She started her career as a journalist covering technology and served as an editor for several leading industry publications for over 20 years. Besides being a sleuth of tech, she is a loyal dog owner, travel bum, mom, lover of hoppy IPAs, red wine, and alternative music lover living in the great city of Chicago.