Setting the record straight on the future of SolidWorks Mechanical CAD

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At SolidWorks World 2013, we announced that we planned to bring a new product, called SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, to market later this year. SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual will be a new tool for conceptual mechanical design that is complementary to the SolidWorks Mechanical CAD product you use today. It allows you to capture ideas digitally, quickly create 3D concept models, get feedback from internal and external stakeholders, and easily manage multiple concepts before committing engineering time to build. It is the first product we are launching on the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, and we are excited to get it in the hands of select customers in summer and general launch in Q4 of this year.

Since that announcement, we have received a few questions from SolidWorks customers regarding SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual’s underlying technology, and how it might differ from the current SolidWorks Mechanical CAD product. There have also been some questions about comments made last year by Dassault Systèmes CEO Bernard Charles about SolidWorks’ continued use of the Siemens Parasolid kernel, which has been used since the first release of SolidWorks in 1995.

SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual is the first of many planned complementary products that will be built on the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Products on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will use components developed internally by Dassault Systèmes.

SolidWorks Mechanical CAD, currently used by over two million engineers and designers around the world, will continue to leverage the Parasolid kernel. There is no plan to change the kernel. The complementary nature of SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual reinforces our commitment to SolidWorks Mechanical CAD. As we have stated previously, we will continue to develop and improve SolidWorks Mechanical CAD, and have no end-of-life plan for the tool that so many of our customers use and depend on today.

Bertrand Sicot

Bertrand Sicot

CEO at Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
Bertrand Sicot is CEO of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp.
Bertrand Sicot

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