What SOLIDWORKS CEO Manish Kumar is Most Excited for in SOLIDWORKS 2024 and Why You’ll Love It

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Coming out in November, SOLIDWORKS 2024 is packed with user-driven enhancements, that will help you work smarter, faster, and together.

With so many new enhancements, we decided to ask SOLIDWORKS CEO Manish Kumar what he thinks you will be most happy about and what he is most excited about in the SOLIDWORKS 2024 release.

Q: What will customers love most about SOLIDWORKS 2024?

A: Performance! There are many enhancements customers will be happy to see in SOLIDWORKS, but I’d bet performance is on the top of their list. Every year we put a lot of work into improving performance, but this year even more so, particularly in the area of large assemblies and working with mates.

We also worked on improving entire workflows, to make them faster. For instance, when customers have to use various commands in a sequence, like Show Component, Hide Component, and so on. Or when making selections in the graphic area to highlight components in the Feature Tree and vice versa.

We took a very comprehensive approach in order to deliver many improvements, and customers will feel the impact as soon as they start using SOLIDWORKS 2024.

Q: What other features will have the biggest impact and what specific customer requests were delivered?

A: Previous Release Compatibility is one that I think will impact users the most. It gives users the ability to save their data as a previous release so they can collaborate with other users who don’t have the same version of SOLIDWORKS. Why is this important? Every year we do massive updates to SOLIDWORKS, but not all users get the latest version that same year. Especially when companies have many users, it is often impractical or difficult for all users to upgrade at the same time.

Previous Release Compatibility enables users to save parts, assemblies, and drawings as an older SOLIDWORKS version that is up to two years prior to the latest release.

Previous Release Compatibility provides a more collaborative environment by breaking the barrier between different software versions. It allows users – whether internal teams or external partners– to upgrade their software when they are ready, while enabling them to continue to work together on the same models and projects without delay. Users that are ready to upgrade can do so.

But I would say, don’t wait too long, I highly recommend all users get the latest version as soon as possible so the entire team can take advantage of all the many enhancements that will improve their daily workflows and time to market, enabling them to work smarter, faster, together. They don’t want to miss out on all that SOLIDWORKS 2024 has to offer, and there is A LOT!

Previous Release Compatibility is not only my favorite feature in SOLIDWORKS 2024 but also one that was widely requested by customers. This goes to show that we really listen to our customers and act on their feedback, and I look forward to seeing the big impact it will have on them.

Collinear Dimension Enhancement is another enhancement requested by our customers, that demonstrates our dedication to improving the customer experience, dedication that is at the heart of the SOLIDWORKS DNA.

Last October, when I visited a customer in Korea, they pointed out that dimensions don’t align when using the Collinear Dimension command. A few days later the SOLIDWORKS team was already working on the Collinear Dimension enhancement.

Now, you can be sure that your chain dimensions remain collinear, even with limited space, and when dimension text and arrowheads overlap, you can select options for the best fit. You can avoid overcrowding of dimensions by following ISO/ANSI dimensioning standards.

While this might not be a huge enhancement, it shows that we care about removing every pain point from our customers’ lives. It is listening to our customers that defines SOLIDWORKS and is what we have always done and will continue to do.

 

Q: What other ways can SOLIDWORKS users improve their workflow?

A: To get the most value out of their SOLIDWORKS data I recommend customers put their data on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform so they can take advantage of the solutions available in the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio, such as such as 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS or Cloud Services that enable them to connect their data to the platform. As our customers know we announced access to Cloud Services available to new SOLIDWORKS licenses and existing licenses as of July 1.

Once they are on the platform, they can leverage the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s data management and collaboration capabilities and tap into other solutions in the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio, such as simulation, manufacturing, and lifecycle solutions.

I see the 3DEXPERIENCE platform as a powerful engine driving innovation and growth for our customers. I am proud that access to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is now available with every new SOLIDWORKS license on subscription. This means unparalleled structured collaboration and data management at your fingertips and the ability to manage every aspect of your product development efforts from a central place.

With new Share and Markup capabilities included in Cloud Services, you can share with anyone right from SOLIDWORKS—even if they don’t have the platform or SOLIDWORKS. Sharing models without sending physical files is smart as it allows you to revoke access at any time, as needed. Storing your data securely to the cloud right from SOLIDWORKS enables you to lock designs to ensure no one overwrites your work, easily manage revisions, and create detailed markups with redline, measurements, and annotations. Managing design changes and approvals systematically helps you deliver the high-quality product you strive for.

Stay focused on the work you love, design — not data management, by deploying the convenient, out-of-the box collaboration tools of Cloud Services, such as Share and Markup.

A new tool I want to call out is the 3DEXPERIENCE Transition Assistant, which helps customers securely bring their data from SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Whether they are a large organization with a ton of data or a small-to-medium business (SMB), this tool will help them bring their SOLIDWORKS data safely to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Q: What does the future of SOLIDWORKS look like?

A: We are committed to delivering an authentic design experience rooted in innovation and ease of use. We will never stop providing the best possible 3D design tools to help our customers innovate. We will never stop adding more power to these tools and making them even easier to use. We will never stop listening to our users and amazing them with enhancements driven by their input and needs. This is our promise to our customers.

We are also on a mission to deliver new enhancements more frequently. Going forward, you will receive more enhancements throughout the year as our service packs will include new functionality in addition to reliability, compatibility, performance, and security improvements. Similar to the SOLIDWORKS roles in the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio, which get updated every eight to 12 weeks, you will receive more value from our service pack updates to SOLIDWORKS.

We are going to continue investing in the SOLIDWORKS roles in the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio to help meet customer demand for next-generation design and engineering solutions. A lot of customers are already using the browser-based roles to create virtual twins in the cloud, enjoying the freedom to design from anywhere on any device.

Another key area of focus is to continue evolving the artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in the SOLIDWORKS browser-based roles.

And, of course, we will continue to work on customer requests so keep your ideas and requests coming. In this release in particular we have added more customer-requested enhancements than any other year.

This is just a glimpse of what’s new this year to help you work smarter, faster, together. Readers, what are you excited about?

To learn more about what’s new in SOLIDWORKS 2024 visit: https://www.solidworks.com/product/whats-new then tell us what you’re looking forward to in the Comments section.

As Manish mentioned we’re always listening and want to hear from you!

SOLIDWORKS

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Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. offers complete 3D software tools that let you create, simulate, publish, and manage your data. SolidWorks products are easy to learn and use, and work together to help you design products better, faster, and more cost-effectively. The SolidWorks focus on ease-of-use allows more engineers, designers and other technology professionals than ever before to take advantage of 3D in bringing their designs to life.
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