Monday March 9, 2020 at 12:45pm
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is gathering momentum and with more and more customers making use of it in their day to day activities, enhancements are coming thick and fast as well. Being a cloud solution, the changes are deployed automatically to users so there is no need to do any software updates to your main dashboards* - See section 4 below for update instructions to the desktop connectors.
The release cycle is a little different to SOLIDWORKS. Each year an annual update is released, typically in November, with the current release R2020x. Then there are more regular FD (Functional Delivery Updates)- not too dissimilar to SOLIDWORKS Service Packs. Platform Admins are notified of these updates one week prior to them happening.
Over the weekend of February 28th, R2020x FD01 brought about some great additions and here are three of my highlights.
1. New Role - Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS
Previously the connection between SOLIDWORKS and the PLM Services on the Platform (EnoviaWorks) used a role called 3DComponent Designer. This includes a connector for both SOLIDWORKS and CATIA. Now we have a new SOLIDWORKS-specific role called Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS which should make it more attractive price-wise for customers.
2. New Type of Post – WeDo
This is a great addition to the entry level Collaborative Business Innovator role. Within your Communities, the WeDo post can act as a simple Task Assignment tool. You can assign the task to a Platform user (up to 10 assignees per WeDo), set its state and planned end date.
The three states allowed are ‘To Do’, ‘In Progress’ and ‘Done’ so quite simple, Sticky Note type tasks. WeDo tasks can be tracked using the Project Planner role.
3. New Layout for Dashboards
Previously Dashboards were accessed from the top blue bar, but there was no control over the order in the list. Also the more dashboards you were linked to, the more screen space this took up.
The new layout can be accessed using an icon just beneath the Compass, which reveals a panel on the left hand side.
Within the Dashboard pane, you can re-organise dashboards, promoting them into a Favourites section, as well as using all the previous controls such as managing and creating further Dashboards. For previously deleted Dashboards, there is now a recycle bin allowing you to restore items for up to 30 days.
4. *Updating plug-ins that connect to the Platform
As 3DEXPERIENCE has some plug in components connecting to desktop solutions, these should be checked and updated after a Platform update. Here is how updates can be deployed:
Using the West part of the Compass (3D), find the SOLIDWORKS icon. Select the > arrow and if there are updates available these will be revealed. Click the yellow download icon and the installation should begin.
Using the north part of the Compass (Social and Collaborative), access the 3DDrive App and if required you will see a button to allow the Windows installation to update. Clicking this starts the update process.
Keep a lookup for more updates relating to the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.
Adam Hartles
Solid Solutions Management - Customer Support Manager