3DEXPERIENCE World 2022 – Reimagining the Future

Published on : Saturday 12-03-2022

The 2022 edition of the annual 3DEXPERIENCE World was held as an all-virtual event in early February.

It is one of the largest gatherings that brings together designers, engineers, entrepreneurs and business leaders and students to explore the technologies and trends that will transform their work and provide the freedom to create and imagine. For the second year in a row, the annual 3DEXPERIENCE World (formerly SolidWorks World, the event now in its 24th edition) extravaganza was held as an all-virtual event in early February. While the virtual is no match for a face-to-face event, the organizers did not leave anything to chance while mounting the virtual show for the benefit of a global audience, bringing alive all the sessions spread over three days. In addition, all the sessions were made available for On Demand viewing so those interested could watch them at leisure, missing none.
 
Day 1 began with the customary General Session addressed by SOLIDWORKS CEO Gian Paolo Bassi, but under a new designation as Executive Vice President of 3D EXPERIENCE Works, the change announced through a press release by Dassault Systèmes, the parent company. Manish Kumar, who has been heading SOLIDWORKS R&D since 2018, will now add CEO of SOLIDWORKS to his responsibilities, the release stated.
 
With the freedom provided by the virtual format, GP as Gian Paolo Bassi is known within the organization, went on an innovation quest around Boston beginning with the 3DExperience Lab where ‘people come to build their prototypes and unleash their imagination’. “What impresses me most about people at the 3DExperience Lab is their ability to build things that don’t even exist,” observed GP, whose next stop was the garage from where Rise Robotics – the company that has built the RISE™Cylinder, an electro-mechanical alternative to hydraulics. Arron Acosta, CEO, Rise Robotics, who had made a pitch earlier at the 2019 event at Dallas also raising the first investment as well as signing the first customer there, explained how the Rise cylinder is more efficient than the conventional hydraulic cylinder, which is making heavy machinery all-electric and affordable, also helping the cause of climate change. Another startup at the pitch in Dallas was SparkCharge, which has now launched the portable, modular and ultra-fast charger Roadie, making mobile charging accessible to EVs through an app. Then there is the ecosystem that facilitates the startups – The Engine – the disrupter that provides venture capital, knowledge and network connections to startups like Rise Robotics; and Greentown Labs – the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, where countless stratups are nurtured. GP’s final stop was at Mass Robotics – the non-profit for the robotics industry, supporting some 60 startups at the moment, including a company doing hydroponic growing and harvesting with the help of robots. What unites all these startups and facilitators is the products and services of Dassault Systèmes and its array of software across a dozen heads, all now available through the 3DExperience Platform.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge because knowledge is always limited to what we know, but imagination does not have such constraints,” said GP, quoting Einstein. “Imagination is the state between ideas and actions. When we have people collaborating to work on ideas together, innovation happens. We are passionate about innovation because we know innovation helps solve big problems. This is why he has put our determination and focus on 3DExperience Works, because we think it is the greatest innovation platform ever developed. There is no single path to innovation. This is why 3DExperience Works assembles the capabilities of 5 domains – Design, Simulation, Manufacturing, Marketing and Governance,” he added. GP then illustrated a few examples ranging from a waste recycling plant in France; an underground drilling equipment manufacturer in Peru; to a personal fitness equipment manufacturer in China, and how digital simulation is replacing costly prototyping for them with the use of the 3DExperience Platform. Summing up, GP announced the new offering, SOLIDWORKS Cloud – a new generation of cloud-based CAD that includes browser-based offerings like 3D Creator, 3D Sculptor, 3D Sheet Metal Creator, 3D Structure Creator, Manufacturing Definition Creator, and 3D Render.
 
Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman of the Board & CEO, Dassault Systèmes talked about creating a better and sustainable world. How the products are no longer products alone but experiences. How the experience economy triggers new expectations. How the 3DExperience platform can provide the complete life cycle of a product from manufacturing to repurposing – sustainability in action. And how the virtual twin technologies help achieve these goals. He reminded the audience of how the virtual world has been the playground for Dassault Systèmes for over 40 years and how several years ago how it created the virtual twin of a passenger aircraft – the legendary Boeing 777. Today every aircraft built has a digital twin, and so do cities like Singapore. 
 
How exactly these technologies help reimagine urban development to create ‘citizen experiences’ was brought out by Philippe Laufer, Executive Vice President, 3DS Global Brands, talking to Pierre Orefice, Founder and CEO of La Machine, the street theatre company now reimagining urban planning and architecture, and Marc Lairet, its CAD and Technical Manager. La Machine is known for its creations like Le Grand Elephant – a giant mechanical elephant and La Princesse, a 50-foot mechanical spider – a confluence of art, science and technology – is now working on its most ambitious project, The Heron Tree, to be completed in 2023. 
 
Another highlight of the General Session on Day 1 was a highly inspiring keynote by Dr Hakeem Oluseyi, Astrophysicist and Former Space Science Education Lead, NASA, who rose spectacularly from an underprivileged background and achieved academic excellence through unconventional means to ‘uncover the mysteries of the universe, including black holes, wormholes, and the possibility of life on other planets’. Dr Hakeem, a self-confessed nerd, acknowledged the help he received from many in his journey to success, the various instances of, ‘someone who reached out, someone who didn't have to’. “People came together to make me and here I am, doing my best to help others in similar situations like myself,” he summed up.
 
The General Session on Day 2 was helmed by Florence Hu, Executive Vice-President Research & Development, Dassault Systèmes, and Manish Kumar and the R&D team with several 3DEXPERIENCE Works users discussing their experiences with connected SOLIDWORKS tools. The session concluded with a lively panel discussion with designers from diverse fields sharing their experiences and creations.
 
The General Session on Day3 – From Connections to Relationships/Community – was conducted by Suchit Jain, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at DS SOLIDWORKS, and focused on the community of users. Suchit presented the statistics on the SOLIDWORKS user ecosystem – 6 million+ designers, engineers, students, entrepreneurs, makers – and presented various examples of futuristic technologies ranging from robots in kitchens to jet packs facilitating human flight.
 
The three-day event had over 250 different meetings including product briefings, breakout sessions, industry lectures, training sessions, and more. As mentioned, all the sessions are available for on demand viewing.