3DEXPERIENCE Works & SOLIDWORKS Connected setup guide

Step 1: Accessing your ‘Tenant’ and assigning roles

• In the next 2 videos we will show you how to activate your 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and start using SOLIDWORKS Connected.
• In order to start working with SOLIDWORKS Connected, we need to first get your very own 3DEXPERIENCE Platform set up.
• You should have received an email which will allow you to start this process and it will look something like this.
• Click on the link and fill out the required information. Once complete, you will have registered your email to Administrate your 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. If you already have a SOLIDWORKS customer portal account you should just be able to log in.
• The next stage is to allocate your licenses. Once you have done this you can download SOLIDWORKS Connected and start designing. This is done through the allocation of ‘Roles’. Roles give access to groups of 3DEXPERIENCE apps, which offer different functionality.
• This is your 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. We don’t need to concentrate on all of the information and tools visible to us here. For now, select the menu to display the dashboards available to you.
• Select the Platform Management Dashboard.
• Go to Roles and select ‘Granted’. As you can see, here I have a list of members and the roles granted to them. For you, you may only see the log in you have just created as a single member.
• From here, we want to assign the role of 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Premium to yourself. To do this select the information Icon alongside your profile, view all roles and simply assign the role for 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Premium to yourself. If you want to assign the role to somebody else you must first invite them to the Tenant.
• To do this, select ‘Invite Member’ and fill out the details seen here, assign the relevant role, ‘3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Premium’. You also want to make sure that ‘Collaborative Business innovator’ and ‘Collaborative Industry Innovator’ are selected. Then click ‘Invite’.
• The user should then receive an email that looks something like this.
• Here they can follow the link to log into the platform. If they don’t already have an account they can easily create one following the link here. Once logged in the can download SOLIDWORKS Connected.

Video 2: Installing SOLIDWORKS Connected and Offline Mode

• In the previous video, we ran through how to start up your 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and how to assign a role.
• In this video we will run through the process of installing and some tips for using SOLIDWORKS connected.
• First, log into your 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. Setting a bookmark for this page will make accessing the platform much easier.
• Now select the Compass in the top left corner of the screen, from here, choose ‘3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS’. If this option isn’t available, the correct role probably hasn’t been allocated. Contact your 3DEXPERIENCE administrator who can assign you the correct roles. Or, watch the previous video if you have administrator rights.
• Only the roles you have access to will be displayed. If the role is there, clicking it will display any apps associated with this role.
• Select ‘SOLIDWORKS Connected’.
• Alternatively, you can find the ‘SOLIDWORKS Connected’ App the ‘My Apps’ tab. Drag it into my favourites to make it easier to access next time you log in.
• After selecting ‘SOLIDWORKS Connected, 3DEXPERIENCE will identify what you need to install. First, it will install the 3DExperience Launcher. This is the tool to use for downloading and launching applications for the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, including SOLIDWORKS Connected. Once complete, we can continue to install SOLIDWORKS Connected.
• Continue through the wizard and start the download. The Launcher will download and install required components automatically. Once complete, close the window.
• You will then be prompted to add a desktop shortcut to your PC. Keep in mind that you will need to do this before working in offline mode, as you will not be able to open the application from your internet browser
• Now, we can select the shortcut to launch the program. After installations and updates, you must launch the app from the browser.
• When you start designing in SOLIDWORKS Connected, there are 2 save location options. ‘Save’, and ‘Save to Local PC’. ‘Save to Local PC’ allows you to save directly to somewhere on your PC. ‘Save’ will save the file into the cloud into the data management system.
• So, you can now confidently start designing and saving files locally to your PC or backed up to the cloud.
• By default, SOLIDWORKS Connected must be connected to the internet to run due to licensing. However, you can choose to work in ‘Offline mode’. Whilst in Offline mode you will no longer be able to save files to the cloud and all data will saved to your local PC.
• Before using offline mode, make sure you add the 3DEXPERIENCE shortcut to your desktop.
• Offline mode will allow SOLIDWORKS Connected to be used without an internet connection for 30 days at a time.
• If you reconnect to your network before the 30 day cut-off, you will be able to switch back to offline mode and the 30 days allowance will be reset.
• For more information on saving into the cloud and collaborative spaces please get in touch with The Visiativ Solutions Technical Support team.