SolidWorks is a mainstream solution where we try to cater to the needs of everyone
Published on : Monday 11-03-2024
Manish Kumar, CEO, SolidWorks, in conversation with Milton D’Silva, Associate Editor, Industrial Automation.
What happens when you launch new versions of SolidWorks every year? So how do the customers manage with the previous versions?
Very good question! If you look at the software world, almost everyone is going from a yearly release cycle to a constant release cycle. Whether it is Microsoft, you no longer get Microsoft Office version 10 or 11...it's a constant update kind of thing. So if you think of it, everyone is moving away from major releases to keep everyone up to date. Now the beauty of that is that everyone will be able to use all the latest features and functionalities. The CAD user base has been very traditional and one that I would say grew almost with Windows kind of mindset, where people are stuck from one major release to the next. To me that is a problem because what we want is for everyone to be on the latest release all the time, so you never have to worry about any compatibility issues and so on. So we are trying to encourage our users to keep on updating.
Now, knowing that there are people who are stuck in an enterprise kind of environment where they cannot keep on updating their software all the time, we are giving them a new functionality, a new feature which was implemented in 2024 where our users will be able to save their data on up to two previous versions of SolidWorks. So if you are on SolidWorks 2024, you will be able to save your SolidWorks 2024 model with the features on SolidWorks 2023 or SolidWorks 2022. So we did this in order to serve that particular need and the reason why we did it is because even in companies where they have a large installation, if part of the company wants to go ahead to the latest version now they can go because they do not really have to worry whether it will be backward compatible.
So how does the costing work when a new version is released, especially with companies where not all workstations upgrade to the new version?
At the bug stage and all there is no cost implication. When you are upgrading there is a cost of upgrade right? Do you charge them for the new version when you launch? No. If they are subscription paid customers they get the same. Yes, everyone gets all the upgrades, there is no separate cost involved when you upgrade to the 2024 version. It is purely a mindset because if you go around you will find a lot of companies which are still stuck with Windows 9, even though Windows 10 and Windows 11 was free. Why? This does not happen with Apple because when they release a new product they do not give you an option of remaining stuck on the previous version.
In your presentation there was a reference to Alan Mullally and the Boeing 777. What was that story?
It is a very interesting story. Alan Mullally was the chief engineer at Boeing in charge of the 777 around 1989. And Boeing 777 was the first plane that was designed totally in a digital environment. Later he joined Ford as the CEO at a time when the automaker was not making money and revamped the company to a point where in 2009 when all the other US automobile companies were going bankrupt, Ford was the only one still in profit. So this guy was a visionary, a revolutionary. And Dassault Systèmes played a role in both these developments. When Bernard Charlès, now Executive Chairman of Dassault Systèmes but at that time President of Strategy and R&D, and Alan Mullally were collaborating, everyone else was going to Boeing with a vision of making larger assemblies. Bernard's pitch was that ‘I am going to give you a digital twin of your plane. I'll deliver it whether it is design, simulation, or manufacturing. And if you ask me how he convinced Alan Mullally, it was this way. Nobody believed it was possible, because it was not done before. And in fact, Bernard was very clear with him that you know, it can be done; that it has not been done, doesn't mean that it cannot be done. It can be done. I have worked with a lot of CEOs, even internally in Dassault Systèmes and outside, but the way I see Bernard is that he defines his own sphere where he wants to work in. And then he makes that a reality. So this is the genius of him.
You mentioned a very interesting case of Bastian Krueckeberg and the wearable blood glucose monitor. How complex was that and what role did SolidWorks play in it?
Actually, I am not aware if this particular device was designed on SolidWorks, most of these products are designed in SolidWorks. Everything that I showed, they're all SolidWorks clients. And in the medical device industry, I would say roughly 60 to 70% of medical device companies are on SolidWorks. So we have a huge presence in the medical device industry, right from drug delivery devices to these smart devices, to literally simple injections to the pipes. All these are designed using SolidWorks. In fact, my own batchmate from IIT-Delhi who owns a medical device facility has been using SolidWorks since 2005. So almost any medical device company, they use SolidWorks and we play a huge role.
What is the average time frame, the call reduction of the product life cycle development cycle, which SolidWorks enables?
Oh, it's huge. As a ballpark figure, percentage wise, it reduces it by one third or half. I don't think I can make that claim, because it depends on where the company is, and where it wants to go. But I would tell you that the reason why a digital twin is important is because if you want to manufacture something, anything for that money, not just a device. If you create a virtual twin, you will be able to see it, you'll be able to simulate it, you'll be able to in fact, even run the manufacturing simulations on it to make sure that your tools will not break while you're trying to make it and so on. So you will not create a single prototype and you might be able to build the final thing. In fact, Boeing 777 is the perfect example. Because there was literally a virtual twin which was built and that became the plane without creating prototypes. So it was the first time, right? Yes. And this is the power of the whole CAD and simulation modeling and simulation where now AI is going to be, it's going to bring even more power.
Coming to the trending topic, we all know that AI/ML is not exactly new, so what is generative AI now bringing to the table?
If you look at SolidWorks or the entire Dassault Systèmes for that matter, the amount of data that we have created is huge – I shouldn't say we have created; our customers have created the data. So the first step is how do you consolidate that data in order to extract? Today, the reality is that this data is dispersed all over a given company, scattered everywhere. So our first step is that on our platform, companies now are able to consolidate their data, and we are building AI models with which we'll be able to extract the learning. So we will be able to learn from that data. And once we learn from the data, then only we'll be able to create artificial intelligence where we can give you deeper insights into things that you will not be able to gain otherwise. So far, these things have been happening. There's nothing new in that.
Now what will be the generation leap with generative AI? If I take the example of a bike, knowing how to construct a bike is nothing new. A company which has been generating bikes, they know how to do it. To know that there are multiple variations of bikes that I can possibly create, that is new. So generative data is going to give you multiple options or even deeper insights into things that you might not have thought about! And this is where you as a designer will start to think about creating a holistic environment for your design.
Coming to the 3DExperience Platform, how will SolidWorks integrate with it – as you mentioned, with the platform, on the platform?
Solidworks, our 30-year old product, is essentially in a silo today. Now, every version, every new license that we give to our users, we give that with a license of the 3DExperience platform. We give users an option; whether they want to use the platform or not, it's entirely up to them. Now, you don't really have an option because if it is running in the browser, the data has to go by default to the platform. And that's why I tried to differentiate that there is ‘with the platform, on the platform’. Now with the platform, you continue to work the way you have always worked, or you start to leverage the new paradigm. It's up to the company. I would say it's a matter of when, not if, as everyone will have to go there eventually, because if you are not, you are going to start to suffer, whether it is due to security, whether it is due to cost that you are going to incur on your own. So ultimately, people will have to. When that happens, it is the entire Dassault Systèmes bouquet of products – all verticals accessible to them at the same cost. You can use any other product from Dassault Systèmes, you'll just have to buy the product; don't have to buy the platform again. So the platform is a one-time investment. So whether you are using advanced simulation, advanced manufacturing, whatever, it will all plug in beautifully.
What about the process industries or the clean energy initiatives like the emerging hydrogen ecosystem?
One of the 12 leading brands of Dassault Systèmes is Geovia, which caters to the mining industry among others, so there is a lot of processing of everything right from materials, transportation, etc., that needs planning and simulation. As for the hydrogen ecosystem, most of the hydrogen charging stations and hydrogen storage units that are being constructed are using SolidWorks, and they're not just using SolidWorks, rather they are using our simulation products as well, whether it is SolidWorks simulation or Simulia. They are using simulation in order to minimise the risk of what is essentially a highly volatile element. Now if you ask me, did we create something unique for hydrogen? We did not. But our existing tools are quite capable of simulating; satisfy those needs that most of these new tech companies. So SolidWorks is a mainstream solution where we try to cater to the needs of everyone.
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