Celebrating 30 Years of Innovation: Highlights from the SOLIDWORKS 30th Anniversary Competition

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For 30 years, SOLIDWORKS has empowered engineers, designers, students and makers worldwide to bring ideas to life. To mark this milestone, the SOLIDWORKS 30th Anniversary Competition invited the global community to showcase their creativity, technical expertise and storytelling skills — directly on LinkedIn.

The result was a vibrant celebration of design excellence and community engagement.

A Global Celebration of Design and Engineering

Participants from across the world shared their best SOLIDWORKS designs, combining strong modeling skills with compelling stories behind their concepts. From professional engineers to students and makers, the competition brought together a diverse range of voices — all connected by a shared passion for innovation.

Beyond technical performance, the competition highlighted something essential to modern design: the ability to communicate ideas and inspire others.

 

How the Competition Worked

The competition unfolded in two distinct phases, combining community engagement and expert evaluation.

Phase 1: Community-Driven Selection

All eligible entries were published on LinkedIn, where the LinkedIn algorithm played a key role in identifying the most engaging projects.
Based on likes, shares and comments, the platform surfaced the designs that generated the strongest interaction and visibility.

From this first phase, 30 finalists were selected — reflecting not only design quality, but also the ability to connect with and engage the wider community.

Recognizing the 30 Finalists

Each of the 30 finalists received an official SOLIDWORKS 30th Anniversary Certificate, acknowledging their outstanding work and the impact their projects had within the community.

The finalist designs covered a wide range of ideas, industries and creative approaches, showcasing the versatility of SOLIDWORKS and the diversity of its users worldwide.

Phase 2: Jury Evaluation

In the second phase, an expert jury reviewed the 30 finalist projects in detail. The evaluation was centered on:

  • Modeling quality
  • Originality and creativity
  • Clarity of presentation and design intent

This step ensured that the final winners were selected through a rigorous and professional assessment process.

 

Announcing the three Grand Prize Winners

After careful deliberation, the jury selected three grand prize winners, whose projects stood out for their exceptional creativity and technical mastery:

Their work exemplifies the balance between engineering precision, innovative thinking, and clear storytelling.

 

 

A Trip to 3DEXPERIENCE World 2026

Each grand prize winner is awarded an exclusive trip to 3DEXPERIENCE World 2026 in Houston, the flagship event for the SOLIDWORKS community.

This experience connects individual achievement with the broader ecosystem — offering inspiration, learning and direct engagement with the future of design and engineering.

A Truly Global Community

From the initial submissions to the final winners, the competition highlighted the global reach of SOLIDWORKS. Designers from multiple regions and backgrounds came together, proving that innovation knows no borders.

Thank You to the Community

A heartfelt thank you goes to:

  • Everyone who participated and shared their designs
  • The 30 finalists for their outstanding engagement and creativity
  • The jury members for their expertise and commitment:

Together, you made this competition a meaningful celebration of 30 years of SOLIDWORKS innovation — and a powerful look toward the future.

Full competition rules in ENG: https://discover.solidworks.com/solidworks-30th-anniversary-competition

Full competition rules in FR: https://discover.solidworks.com/fr/solidworks-30th-anniversary-competition

 

SOLIDWORKS

SOLIDWORKS

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.
SOLIDWORKS

@SOLIDWORKS