Dutch SOLIDWORKS Reseller and sister company to Innova Systems (as part of The Visiativ Group), Design Solutions, recently began implementation of the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform at Tata Steel Netherlands/UK, part of the global group making high-quality advanced steel products.
Tata Steel has been using SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software for many years, taking advantage of it’s inherent capabilities for developing very large steel structures. The company are currently using SOLIDWORKS 2017 and Workgroup PDM (now called SOLIDWORKS PDM) on Windows 7-based workstations, but by the end of this year, Tata Steel’s engineering department will have upgraded to Windows 10 and SOLIDWORKS 2020, bolstered by the new cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform from Dassault Systèmes.
Within the engineering department all SOLIDWORKS data, including communication, will be managed on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform set up for Tata Steel by Design Solutions’ technical consultants Berry Mulder and Winfred Rozeboom. Due to the current situation with COVID-19, Berry and Winfred weren’t able to work on location for this project and Tata Steel users received their training online. Despite these challenges, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform was up and running in a relatively short time, including all functions that are important to Tata Steel.
3DEXPERIENCE licenses (Roles) and setup at Tata Steel
Tata Steel acquired various 3DEXPERIENCE licenses, or “Roles”, including Collaborative Business Innovator (CBI) and Collaborative Industry Innovator (CII), each of which grant the user access to Role-specific apps and functionality as seen below. This includes a customer-specific 3DEXPERIENCE environment, a so-called “Tenant”, which is only accessible to Tata Steel.
While this is a standard predefined cloud environment, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can be customised for your workflow in a number of ways. A basic 3DEXPERIENCE implementation takes approximately four days, which is considerably shorter than implementing for instance a complex multi-site PDM system. This is because everything runs in the cloud “out of the box” without the need for extensive configuration efforts.
Benefits of switching to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform
By switching to a 3DEXPERIENCE platform solution, Tata Steel will benefit from lower maintenance and IT infrastructure costs. Secondly, all data is easily traceable because it’s managed in one place and each project can quickly be scaled up or down in terms of simulation options.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform makes the exchange of data, feedback and annotations easy and always links everything to the relevant 3D model in the right context. Ultimately all of this leads to shorter throughput times and increased cost efficiency.
What’s next for 3DEXPERIENCE at Tata Steel?
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform has been set up and the users have access, so the focus is now on onboarding the Tata Steel team. Design Solutions will work together with them to implement the 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation tools, among other things, and train them online. During this process Tata Steel will be thoroughly introduced to the best of the best in online data management, collaboration and virtual testing.
To find out more call us on 01223 200690, or send us a message below.
[This article was originally published by Design Solutions September 17th and has been translated for UK readers.]
