Revealed: The Future of SolidWorks (Maybe)

A third-party seems to have figued out what is happening with SolidWorks. This narrative seems to fit the vague generalities issued by SW executives over the last year or so. The following is speculation but seems plausible to me.

SolidWorks will dump ParaSolid for CGM, the kernel used by Catia. The Spatial division in Colorado is working with the Catia division in France to make CGM work with SolidWorks. By moving to CGM, SolidWorks and Catia will be able to swap models effortlessly. In addition, SolidWorks takes advantage of the V6 technology employed by Catia -- direct modeling and editing.

The third-party said that DS management is vacellating between running future versions of SolidWorks locally (as it is now, installed on your computer) or off a server (the cloud vision described at yesterday's keynote).

The reason for the vague statements from SW executives is that they worry about the backlash from SolidWorks users, who are hostile enough to the time that DS and its CEO get at the keynotes. Even at the press dinner, I was fascinated by the reaction from the assemled media (some 100 or so) when SW ceo Jeff Ray remarked on Bernard Charles sharing the stage. The reaction to his "Wasn't that great?" was ...

...silence.  

Head office in Paris might think its embrace of SolidWorks is a great thing; the paying customers beg to differ.

Comments

[Cadmonkey Chris]

Move to a cloud based solution? I should think not.

When, and only when, I have access to a RELIABLE connection that isn't subject to my local provider's whims / screwups / incinerated kit will I give this any kind of consideration.

This would be a great way of losing revenue from SMBs in the uk, a number that can't be small...

[Kevin Quigley]

Ralph, as a SolidWorks user I would embrace a closer link to CATIA if that link meant a better modelling product. Solidworks already uses some CATIA functionality, and this helps it stand out from the crowd. I would not be so keen if the embrace meant higher running costs for the end user and/or if a working methodology was forced onto me by cost (I'm thinking about the speculation that the cloud stuff will be priced differently).

Let's see what happens..

[Rick Damiani]

Secure workstations aren't connected to the internet. That would make using a cloud-based Solidworks kinda difficult.