At Dassault Systèmes’ annual user event, Solidworks celebrated three decades of software excellence by treating attendees to a glimpse of its next big thing – its AI tools, beginning with Aura. Stephen Holmes reports from Houston
Dassault Systèmes’ annual global event for its Solidworks software opened with one eye on the past and the other fixed very much on the future. Its achievements as a leading 3D CAD software vendor over the past 30 years are impressive. But it’s what comes next that has the potential to be truly remarkable.
“We’re ready to change the game – again!” proclaimed Gian Paolo Bassi, senior vice president of 3DExperience Works, addressing attendees gathered at the Houston, Texas-based event. The main sessions and exhibitor halls certainly had a lively feel, despite the in-person experience being somewhat pared back, while slick video production was hard at work to bring the event to absent members of the 8-million-strong global Solidworks customer base.
The key announcement was that the Solidworks platform is now moving into its ‘Gen 7’ phase, with a stream of Dassault Systèmes executives over the three days explaining the company’s vision to the crowd.
Much of the event was spent deciphering the latest branding slogans and marketing buzzwords. The virtual twin decade of the 2020s, it seems, looks set to be followed by the ‘Gen 7’, ‘3D UN+VERSES’ and ‘Metamorphosis’ era of the 2030. And the goal behind that shift? “Elevated human know-how.”
If customers are a little confused, it seems that Solidworks executives are also feeling a lack of clarity in all this. In a lengthy FAQ on the Solidworks website, the company attempts to clarify the situation, addressing a stack of questions: Is 3D Experience Solidworks the same as Solidworks 3D CAD? Is 3DExperience Solidworks the same as Solidworks Cloud?
That said, the 3DExperience World crowd – mostly made up of passionate, veteran Solidworks users with years of experience under their belts – know that Solidworks gets work done for them. The Suits at company HQ in Vélizy-Villacoublay may continue to tinker with products and product names, but the core tools on which these users remain functional, familiar, and reliable.
Sensing your Aura
The event’s general sessions were heavy with explanations of new AI features. “AI is not just an add-on to our platform. It’s at the core of how we’re transforming your workflow,” proclaimed Dassault Systèmes CEO Pascal Daloz, who spoke of forthcoming ‘generative experiences’ and ‘virtual companions’, the first of which, will appear in Solidworks this July, in the form of AI assistant Aura.
Trained on a variety of Solidworks training guides, best practice information and help docs, Aura will take the form of a chatbot embedded in the 3DSwym collaboration tool.
Solidworks CEO Manish Kumar explained that Aura will be available to web-connected Solidworks, and will learn from your data to provide AI responses specifically for your organisation. This learning and data will remain within your company’s 3DExperience platform and not be accessible by others, or be used by Dassault to train Aura for other 3DExperience platform users – a message that was constantly reinforced as Solidworks looks to reassure users about how their valuable intellectual property is protected.
Kumar went on to explain that the three primary tasks of Aura are learning from users, teaching users, and taking actions on behalf of users. But there are plans for it to offer much more.
The second day of 3DExperience World 2025 showcased potential enhancements for Aura, currently in development. These included some pretty low-hanging fruit (such as creating drawings using AI), but also some more ambitious uses of AI.
For example, Kumar demoed one such capability, Perform Task. Here, we saw Aura presented with the layout design for a new factory floor and asked to bring that layout up to standard with current safety protocols. In response, Aura, having consulted publicly available and company-specific standards and practices, introduced guard rails into the model where needed.
There were also teasers for mesh-to-CAD tools that can take a mesh file and make it an editable parametric model in Solidworks. “Whether you are working with 3D scan data, imported mesh files, or legacy CAD models, this feature – once fully developed, I must say – will provide a seamless way to transition from complex mesh geometry to native parametric features,” Kumar said.
Also shown was a clip of how Aura can be asked to quickly render a product visualisation of the model on screen from a simple prompt.
And the ability for Aura to build an assembly from parts – many of which are already in Solidworks Toolbox – was described by Kumar as representing the point where: “AI becomes incremental. You do something, and once you have achieved it, then you realise that it can. You can achieve even more.”
On watching the AI assemble component parts from a user’s files, and mating connectors and fasteners using intelligence rather than user-defined automation, you could see his point.
While some or all of these capabilities will eventually reach users, one thing was clear: the desire to keep users tied to the 3DExperience platform user interface and well away from the clutches of emerging start-ups. The message here is that customers don’t need to buy AI, because they already have AI at home.
However, getting its customers to use these tools will be the challenge for Dassault, something acknowledged by Daloz in a press conference. This gave some insight into the frustration felt by Dassault Systèmes executives over the market’s slow adoption of the cloud technology that these new AI tools will require to function.
“The cloud is already ready. I mean, if you look at our portfolio, we have more applications available on the cloud than we have on-premise,” said Daloz. Earlier that day, he said, he’d delivered that same message at a partner session.
“I said, ‘Guys, you are not yet embracing everything we do for you.’ And the problem is, I’m coming with a Gen 7 where, if you are not on the cloud yet, you will not get the benefit of it,” Daloz said.
“So why I’m saying this is because the vision is in place. Most of the technology and the products are already available, but we know [that] to transform the companies is taking time – and why? Because the most difficult part to change is really the human side.”
This longing for the existing Solidworks customer base to shift to the 3DExperience platform is understandable. That shift, after all, would enable customers to use a wider range of advanced tools from its stable and allows Dassault not only to consolidate a confusing product list but also stop developing tools on someone else’s geometry kernel.
So it must have been a punch to the guts for Solidworks executives when the biggest cheer from the crowd was elicited by functional updates extending how the escape key can be used to cancel out actions, rather than in response to shiny new generative AI tools.
Still, what we’ve been able to see of the ‘Gen 7’ Solidworks looks great, with pragmatic and functional solutions to speed up workflows and create a clear security cordon around intellectual property.
Key to the company’s success will be getting these capabilities to market quickly and ensuring that Aura becomes a tool that is used regularly by customers. That will put some pressure on Dassault’s software developers, but there were also mentions of acquisition activity later this year that may bring new expertise to the software development effort.
This was an event with a genuinely positive message, in contrast to predecessors of recent years, which often felt too weighed down by lengthy sales pitches for the 3DExperience platform that never seemed to hit their target.
More users are finally shuffling over to the platform now. So a bunch of new AI tools that promise to make their lives simpler and more productive, as well as the allure of Aura, might be the bait needed to get others into the saddle.
The event returns to Houston in 2026, a city that loves rodeo. By then, we’ll have a clearer view of how many Solidworks customers have taken up the 3DExperience reins and are blazing a trail with Aura.
See Solidworks CEO Manish Kumar at Develop3D Live
The excitement around new AI tools in Solidworks looks set to continue as CEO Manish Kumar heads to DEVELOP3D LIVE to give us some exclusive insights into what the future holds.
Kumar is returning once again to our free UK event aimed at product designers and engineers, where attendees can expect to find out more about the latest features in Solidworks as it moves to embrace Dassault Systèmes’ Gen 7 vision.
Top of the list of exciting new developments will be Solidworks’ new AI tool Aura. Kumar has already hinted at some future capabilities for Aura, including AI drawings, assemblies, mesh-to-CAD and visualisation. On 26 March, we hope to hear more about what will make it into the launch version of Aura, due in July, and what other features and functions might be confirmed before the end of 2025.
There’s also the chance to learn about the wider 3DExperience ecosystem and hear from an exciting Solidworks customer, speaking on stage alongside Kumar, who uses the software to design incredible new products.
Sign up online for your free event pass and join us at Warwick Arts Centre on 26 March 2025.
What else was new?
Solidworks CPQ, a new configure, price and quote solution, will integrate generative AI capabilities to enable businesses to accelerate order and delivery of customised products, and quickly produce precise quotes.
With SkillForce, Dassault Systèmes will provide Solidworks licences to students on internships and placements, helping the companies that host them by removing barriers to software access.
Dassault Systèmes 3DLive visionOS app will be available this summer, enabling users to view and interact with models in XR using Apple’s Vision Pro headset (pictured left).
Dassault Systèmes is to join Mosaixx, the cloud platform from robotics company Kuka, with a view to developing more efficient and adaptable solutions for virtual twins and simulations for robotic manufacturing and assembly (pictured right).
