SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services Capability

15 April 2025

Cloud Services is now included with your SOLIDWORKS subscription. It gives you the capability to connect to the cloud to store, manage and share your SOLIDWORKS CAD data easier than ever before.

SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services comes with a lot of capability, which for many users maybe too much in one go. But, as 3DEXPERIENCE is a scalable solution, each step of the process is tailored to you. Start today with Share and Markup or jump straight into Store and Revise. Then eventually, when you and your users are more familiar with the system, you can add more capabilities to meet your expanding data management needs.

Cloud Services Implementation Stages

So what capability does each stage of Cloud Services for SOLIDWORKS include?

Share & Markup

The first and easiest step to taking advantage of Cloud Services for SOLIDWORKS is ‘share & markup’. At first, you may only wish to use this simple tool to share your SOLIDWORKS designs. Ocassionally, you may need to collaborate with others, including non-3DEXPERIENCE users or even non-CAD users. For example, sharing SOLIDWORKS models with an external client with no SOLIDWORKS license of their own. When you receive a share, no licenses are required to access the URL. All you need is a free login to access the file before viewing it and creating a markup at zero cost. Equally, there are no additional downloads, implementations, or training sessions necessary.

  • Collaborate with other team members and external partners with no licenses, in a secure and managed way.
  • Annotate both 3D and 2D data.
  • Send, receive and record feedback on shared data through comments.

Watch: Our video guide to using Share & Markup

Store & Revise

The next stage is Store & Revise. This provides you with robust cloud data management for your SOLIDWORKS files. Your CAD data will enter a revision controlled workflow on save to 3DEXPERIENCE, all from within a familiar interface.

  • A secure, cloud-based service that stores and controls engineering data such as SOLIDWORKS CAD parts/assemblies/drawings.
  • Lock CAD files when working to avoid accidental overwrites.
  • Easily view which files other team members are currently working on.
  • Rename and move CAD files without file references being invalidated.
  • Electronically manage items using Alphabetic/Numeric schemes.
  • Retain and view previous revisions of items.
  • Automate the assignment of Part Numbers (simple sequential serial number generation only).
  • Store metadata and properties within items.
  • Set ‘Maturity’ states on items for the approval/release process of CAD documents.
  • Pass revision and approval information into CAD file properties.
  • Automate the creation of other file formats altogether, from CAD data when released.
  • Manage projects and teams with automatic Tasks.
  • Organise data with quick-access Bookmarks

Watch: Revision Management on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform

Manage & Control

If you have more complex requirements, such as formal approval processes, you can seamlessly progress to ‘manage and control’ and beyond, with full access to a suite of tools to help you manage your data, work with formal change actions, project tasks, and more.

  • View Product Structures and related 3D data in a web-based viewer without the need for any installation.
  • Search for CAD data using metadata/properties.
  • Search and View where a component is used in other assemblies and other related data.
  • Markup CAD and non-CAD data.
  • Log and track Issues and apply directly to CAD data.
  • Manage complex Changes and Approvals to extend your workflow.

Watch: The importance of Change Management at Bowhead

Share & Markup Store & Revise Manage & Control 3DEXPERIENCE Scaling Roles
3DEXPERIENCE Platform Capabilities
Web Access – Access to your data, anywhere on any device with an internet connection. Current information is immediately available across teams worldwide. ● ● ● ●
Secure Access – Protect your product design data with managed access for authorised users, without the need for VPN. ● ● ● ●
External File Sharing – Collaborate with stakeholders who don’t have 3DEXPERIENCE or SOLIDWORKS securely, in a managed way. Send a file for them to review, annotate and add comments before sending the information back for you to action. ● ● ● ●
Automatic Updates – Your software is always up to date with no costly downtime or upgrades. ● ● ● ●
Flexible – Flexible, named user licensing options to suit you. ● ● ● ●
Out of the Box – Can be used out of the box with no setup required. Easy to deploy, so fast to implement. ● ● ● ●
On-Cloud- A secure, cloud-based service, with no IT infrastructure required. ● ● ● ●
SOLIDWORKS Cloud Data Management Share & Markup Store & Revise Manage & Control 3DEXPERIENCE Scaling Roles
Revision Control – Quickly access a full audit trail of product development activities with complex histories for all file types. ● ● ●
Built for SOLIDWORKS Users – Simple Cloud Data Management for SOLIDWORKS files using a familiar interface.  But can handle and store other native file types. ● ● ●
Multi-Document Web Previews – Dynamically preview and edit commonly used file types in a browser, on any device. Stay connected wherever you are. ● ● ●
Automated Neutral File Creation – Automatically create neutral file types from SOLIDWORKS documents. ● ● ●
Serial number generation – Configure serial number generators to automatically assign item numbers to data. ● ● ●
Comprehensive Data Organisation – Find, organise and share complex data structures for all file types. Share these across relevant teams. ● ● ●
Tasks/Actions for Work Management – Use the Collaborative Tasks app to set activities and monitor progress to ensure your projects are completed on time. ● ● ●
Notifications – Receive web, email or notifications within SOLIDWORKS for a variety of different activities. Always keep up to date with your data. ● ● ●
Collaboration & Messaging – Streamline communication channels and eliminate external applications and emails. Keep information with the files it is relevant to or within specific communities. ● ● ●
Extend your SOLIDWORKS Data Management Workflow Share & Markup Store & Revise Manage & Control 3DEXPERIENCE Scaling Roles
Automated Approval Process – Utilise multiple managed processes and multi-stage approval workflows ● ●
3D Markup – A formal product review application that allows even non-CAD users to annotate files and raise potential design issues and Change Requests. ● ●
Explore your Products – Cloud based BOM tools. View product structures in BOM format and interrogate specifications and related file relationships. ● ●
Scalability – add additional functionally quickly and easily to grow as your organisation does Share & Markup Store & Revise Manage & Control 3DEXPERIENCE Scaling Roles
Supports Multiple CAD Systems – Central cloud storage location for all CAD data. Useful for SOLIDWORKS users with multiple legacy CAD systems ●
Project Management – Create a comprehensive project plan and connect your CAD data to it. ●
BOM Management – Define, compare, manage and update MBOMs from 3D design data. ●
Manage Product Definitions – Improve productivity by allowing engineering responsibility for non-CAD team members to reduce engineering lead times. Use complex filters to drive product re-use and part numbering adoption. ●
Cloud CAD – Utilise a range of cloud modelling tools on any device, with no installation required. ●
Manufacture – Advanced CAM tools combined with cloud-based 3D machine programming solutions to manufacture correctly the first time. ●
Design and Simulate – Industry leading simulation solutions that utilise cloud-computing. ●
Automatic file naming – Configure and automatically name SOLIDWORKS documents with a serial number on save to 3DEXPERIENCE. ●

Smart Properties
Automated data exchange – Automate information exchange between 3DEXPERIENCE and ERP. ●

3DEXPERIENCE Gateway

 

So, in summary, 3DEXPERIENCE and SOLIDWORKS Cloud Services offers a comprehensive range of tools that undoubtedly benefit many stages of your product workflow. And with Visiativ’s comprehensive range of Cloud Services Implementation options, you can make the most of the tools already available to you.

If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with us today.

 

About the author:

This guide was written by 3DEXPERIENCE Team Leader, Lucy Bryan.

Lucy is an Elite SOLIDWORKS Applications Engineer and has been with the Visiativ Technical Support Team since 2019.

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