At SolidWorks World 2013, we announced the launch of a new product slated for later this year called SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual.
SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual will be a new tool for conceptual mechanical creation complementary to the SolidWorks mechanical CAD product you know today. It lets you capture your ideas digitally, quickly create 3D models, get feedback from internal and external stakeholders, and easily manage multiple concepts before investing time in engineering. This is the first product we are launching on the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and we are pleased to make it available to select customers this summer with a general launch slated for Q4 of this year.
Since this announcement, we have received a few questions from our customers regarding SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual technology, and how it differs from the current SolidWorks Mechanical CAD product. There were also some questions about comments made last year by Dassault Systèmes CEO Bernard CHARLES, about the future use of the Siemens Parasolid kernel in SolidWorks, which has been used since the first version of SolidWorks in 1995.
SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual is the first in a list of planned add-on products that will be built on the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Products on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will use components developed in-house by Dassault Systèmes.
SolidWorks mechanical CAD, currently used by more than two million engineers and designers around the world, will continue to leverage the Parasolid core. There are no plans to modify the kernel. The complementary nature of SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual reinforces our commitment to SolidWorks Mechanical CAD. As previously stated, we will continue to develop and improve SolidWorks Mechanical CAD, and do not have a tool end-of-life plan that so many users depend on today.