Innovative 3D Uses for AEC/BIM and supporting Advanced Workflows for Additive Manufacturing — Take-Aways from COE 2016

The COE 2016 Annual PLM Experience and TechniFair was held last week in San Antonio. This was my first year attending the event for users of Dassault Systèmes software solutions.  As it turns out there was a lot I did not really understand about this show that I had heard so much about over the years.  In years past when I heard COE referenced, I erroneously thought it was a Dassault Systèmes event. But COE is a well-organized user group, bringing industry professionals together.

Sharing Your Passions for 3D Solutions

If you have never attended a user group, or UG as it is often called, I highly recommend it. What is interesting about a UG is that it is basically a bunch of people that get together to discuss something they are passionate about or just generally involved with. There are UGs for basically everything, especially if it is even remotely technical in nature.  You can be passionate about something for many different reasons but whatever your reason, attending a UG gives you the chance to gain perspectives from others as well as to share your experiences. The prospect of attending COE suddenly became more interesting because it was going to be a lot of people coming together to discuss Dassault Systèmes technologies. Being from Spatial, it would be a great chance to learn more about what others have to say about Dassault Systèmes and the technology we create. It would also give me a chance to talk a little about Spatial and our role within the Dassault Systèmes organization.

Learning more about the 3DEXPERIENCE

COE is a big enough event where you have to do some planning.  What sessions will you attend? What tracks are important to you?  What kind of contacts do you need to make? During most of the day many different sessions are being delivered concurrently so you really have to think about what you want to get out of the day. I mostly wanted to learn more about the 3DEXPERIENCE. I wanted to know what people were doing with it, how far it has come, what was coming next, and mostly just curious to hear from people actually using it what they thought of it. 

So I made sure to attend mostly sessions around the 3DEXPERIENCE, and what I learned was that users are generally excited to use the 3DEXPERIENCE. They want to learn how to use it better than they are today. They want to know about what’s on the roadmap for this year and next.  They want to learn more about what others are doing or what can be done with the various technologies. The last bit was one of the most eye opening aspects for me — to see what new ways users were applying the 3DEXPERIENCE. From innovative uses in Building Information Modeling (BIM)/Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), to new ideas in aircraft technology and supporting advanced workflows for additive manufacturing, there is seemingly something for everyone within the 3DEXPERIENCE. I am sure that is no accident.

Spatial and the 3D Software Industry

As you may know, Spatial sells software development toolkits, also known as libraries or SDKs, from which you can make your own 3D-enabled software without having to write certain components that can take tens to hundreds of man years to create. When representatives from Spatial attend shows or user groups, we always have our eye on what impact Spatial can have on the industry, and while attending COE I certainly had this on my mind. 

So you may be wondering, when attending a show like COE that is largely based around how people are using end user products, where are the opportunities for Spatial technology to help? The first is to learn about potential uses of our technology within other Dassault Systèmes products.  Another is gain insight into the workflows downstream from the 3DEXPERIENCE where other software consumes the data created within the 3DEXPERIENCE. The eventual translation of data is another obvious area where Spatial can help those software products quickly consume and reuse that data to accomplish its task. 

I hope this has offered a bit of insight into Spatial’s role within the 3DExperience. What are you using the 3DEXPERIENCE for? To learn more about COE, visit www.coe.org.