3DEXPERIENCE World 2025 Recap

3DEXPERIENCE World 2025 has come to a close and what a week we had in Houston! Let’s recap some of the key messages and announcements we heard during this year’s event.

Day 1 Highlights

2025 is a significant year for SOLIDWORKS as it marks 30 years since its initial release. This milestone was a common theme throughout the week  – celebrating SOLIDWORKS for where it has brought us and being excited about the growth and future of the CAD tool we know and love.

As Manish Kumar, CEO of SOLIDWORKS put it, “SOLIDWORKS 95 helped make design more mainstream.” But to illustrate how far SOLIDWORKS has come, he showed us a design that he asked a young member on his team to try designing in both SOLIDWORKS and in the modern cloud-CAD tools. In SOLIDWORKS 95, the design took 30 minutes; in the modern cloud-CAD tools, it only took 93 seconds. That’s the power of steady growth and innovation.

• Suggested Article >> The History of SOLIDWORKS

Speaking of innovation, 3DEXPERIENCE World is always a place for us to celebrate innovation and this year was no different. We heard from several companies who have brought their designs to market, all because of SOLIDWORKS and 3D CAD. One innovation that stood out to me was an ice cream maker that could go from ingredients to a bowl of mint chocolate chip in under 3 minutes. The best part? No clean-up required!  

One of the driving forces of innovation in 2025 is the proliferation of artificial intelligence. Like last year, artificial intelligence took center stage at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2025. One of the most exciting announcements of the conference came early when Manish Kumar unveiled Aura. Aura is an AI design assistant, programmed with SOLIDWORKS best practices and designed to learn about your design practices.

Don’t worry, AI isn’t coming for your design job. Instead, it’s here to handle the tedious tasks you mindlessly work on every day. This means you’ll have more time to work on your designs without worrying about the best way to create your features.

Finally, Manish announced an upcoming release from Dassault Systèmes that he’s very excited about – a Platform CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) solution. While we didn’t receive significant details, Manish explained that the goal of this CPQ solution is to help manufacturers customize their products more quickly. Imagine a world where you can offer your customers nearly every configuration available without designing each one from scratch. That’s the vision for the new CPQ tool, which will launch this summer.

Watch the full recap

GoEngineer Customer Party

A tradition of 3DEXPERIENCE World Day 1 is the GoEngineer customer party. We had hundreds of you join us for a night downtown at The Rustic. It’s always a special night for the GoEngineer team, and it’s a treat to celebrate all of you. We can’t wait to see you again next year!

Day 2

On Day 2, we continued with the theme of innovation and how SOLIDWORKS powers the innovators of the past, present, and future. Manish began with a demonstration of Aura, the AI assistant. For the design, he had a file open that needed an ergonomic handle to grip. Instead of wrestling with the geometry, all Manish had to do was ask for the design modification that he wanted to see. This felt very futuristic, but it shows the potential of where SOLIDWORKS is going in the very near future.

Day 2 Customer Stories

The general session on day 2 always features customers who are using SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to change the world. We heard from a handful of customers, including Bio3DPrinting, who are using these tools to help them 3D print cells! Beyond that, Dolphin Labs and Southern Beam Builds both shared inspiring stories about how they’re tackling renewable energy solutions with the help of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE.

We also heard from customers about their journeys beyond just CAD. For example, Aniai is using ENOVIA and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to rethink the food service industry. They’ve developed a product called the Alpha Grill. Essentially, it grills 8 burger patties simultaneously and uses a grill on both sides, cooking the burgers faster than before. “We’re bringing automation to a traditionally service-based industry.” With a 5000-part assembly, Aniai relies heavily on ENOVIA and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for their data management, making it easier to share their designs and provide feedback to the engineers.

Finally, we heard from a few customers using DELMIA and DELMIAWorks. These two tools are very different, but both can create a profoundly positive effect on an organization that adopts them. DELMIA, for example, was adopted by MetalWorks to help with their shop floor robotics. By setting up their robots in DELMIA, they can quickly lay out the shop floor and test the robots virtually, ensuring everything will go smoothly ahead of time.

DELMIAWorks was the spotlight for Clarion Malaysia, who manufactures car stereos. Their challenges were driven by the global pandemic a few years ago. As a result of the pandemic, they needed to get all of their tools on a unified system and streamline communication. DELMIAWorks provided the solution to their ERP needs while maintaining their existing CAD and data management tools on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Watch the full recap

Day 3

The final day of 3DEXPERIENCE World is always bittersweet. It’s bitter because we have to end a fantastic week of learning, exploring, and networking. But the final day is also sweet because we can start looking forward to next year’s event. One of the highlights of the final day is the special recognition given to students and educators in attendance. This conference provides an excellent opportunity for young people to broaden their understanding of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE and it’s wonderful to see so many in attendance.

As part of the celebration of students and education, Suchit Jain, VP of Strategy & Business Development, announced the upcoming SOLIDWORKS Skillforce. This program will provide free SOLIDWORKS commercial licenses to students for the duration of their internships and placements. This is very exciting news for the next generation of engineers as they can get a leg up in their careers early on.

Next, Gian Paolo Bassi talked about the latest exciting announcement from Apple and Dassault Systèmes – a joint program where you will be able to use the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and HomeByMe on the Apple Vision Pro. This project will allow collaborators to “experience our designs more fully.”

We also heard from a handful of speakers working to make engineering and designing more accessible. One company, Field Ready, is a humanitarian organization that strives to design and fabricate locally, especially in places affected by natural disasters. They created a vehicle called the “Mobile Maker’s Space” outfitted with common items required for fabrication. We’re talking about 3D printers, a guttering machine, and hand tools to make fabrication possible in areas that need it the most.

Another fascinating story was from MassRobotics. MassRobotics is the largest independent robotics hub, and it’s dedicated to growing the robotics industry. What makes this story so inspiring and a perfect fit for day 3 of 3DEXPERIENCE World is that students are at the core of their mission. Many people who participate in the program will graduate high school already having earned their SOLIDWORKS certifications. This is a huge leg up in both the job market and when starting a university engineering program.

Watch the full recap

Beyond the Sessions

One of my favorite aspects of 3DEXPERIENCE World is the Partner Playground. This year, there was an entire section of the playground dedicated to the Maker’s community. In it, you could cast resin wings for a structure that was created using SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE. The result was a design unique to this community, complete with personal touches from users from all over the world.

We also spent a lot of time checking out the SOLIDWORKS 95 installation! Users could sit down at a retro 90s workspace and try their hand using the original SOLIDWORKS 95. I found it a bit challenging, but it was impressive to watch users who had learned SOLIDWORKS 95 sit down and remember it - just like riding a bike. While I don’t expect this to be an annual part of the Playground, it was a very nice homage to the tool that started it all.

30th Anniversary Sweatshirt

Want to party like it's 1995? Grab your own retro SolidWorks 95 crewneck sweatshirt from our online store and celebrate three decades of your favorite CAD tool. 

Wrap Up

So, that was 3DEXPERIENCE World 2025! The prevailing hero of the week was undoubtedly SOLIDWORKS. From the very outset of the conference, it was clear that everyone was there to celebrate the CAD tool that started it all 30 years ago. But hearing from SOLIDWORKS users from around the world and their inspiring stories energized me and I know it energized everyone around me. We can’t wait to see you next year, February 1st-4th in Houston!

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