Collaborating on SOLIDWORKS Cloud 3DSwym

3DSwym is the design team’s communication hub on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and comes included with SOLIDWORKS Cloud. The cloud-based collaborative tools keep team members in the loop through every stage of the design process. The 3DSwym app includes community posting, private messaging and a number of other features which will lead to more effective communication within the organization.

Watch the video to learn more and see 3DSwym in action.

Communities

In 3DSwym, users can create or be added to Communities. Communities allow you to form separate groups within 3DSwym. You may want to create multiple Communities based on separate projects or departments within your organization. Within a Community, different permissions can be granted to allow users to contribute posts, or to have read-only access. In the image below, I can see a list of the Communities to which I belong.

3DSwym Communities

Posts and Communication

Posts in a Community are displayed in the center of the screen as shown below. Underneath posts, you can see Likes and Comments. By default, the newest Posts are shown first, but they can also be sorted to show most recent comments first so that a new comment on an older post will bring it to the top of the page. Users can tag each other using the “@” symbol in posts and comments, as well as various other areas throughout the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

3DSwym posts and communication

Learn more about 3DEXPERIENCE >>

Types of Posts in 3DSwym

When creating a new post, a user can simply start typing in the “Add a Post” box to begin a generic post. However, sometimes a more specialized type of post may be needed.

In 3DSwym, users can create the 7 different types of posts listed below:

Types of posts in 3DSwym

• Post – this is a generic post. It is used to share text and attachments.
• Media – when creating a Media post, users can highlight an attachment such as a video or 3D CAD file, or create media on the fly using 3D Sketch, Whiteboard or 3DStory.
• WeDo – this type of post represents a task with a desired End Date. One or more users can be assigned to the WeDo and will receive a notification upon its creation.
• Idea – these posts are passed through the “Idea Pipeline”. They are first classified as a “New Idea” and can be moved to the next phases of “Concept” and “Project Plan”. The Idea Pipeline can be customized by adding additional phases and/or changing their names. This is obviously great for tracking design ideas, but it can also be used to track progress towards other goals like approval stages or sales goals.
• Question – after a question is posted and other users chime in with responses in the comment section, the person who asked the question selects the best answer which is highlighted and moved to the top.
• Survey – users can generate a survey which includes multiple questions with different answer types such as single choice, multiple selection or open-ended.
• Wiki Pages – these types of posts are added into a page where headings and subheadings are used to organize information. This type of post is best for sharing common knowledge such as how-to’s or project guidelines.

Because each of these types of posts each come with different capabilities, 3DSwym really is the one-stop shop for communicating with your team. Additionally, filters can be applied by type of post to quickly narrow down information rather than searching or scrolling through an endless feed of posts.

Conversations

In addition to the forum-style posts in Communities, users can also communicate privately using conversations. Conversations can be used to message one user directly or can be used to form a group chat.

3DSwym conversations

Top 5 apps included in 3DEXPERIENCE >>

Video Calling and Screen Sharing

3DSwym even includes its own integrated audio/video calling and screen sharing. Just hover over a user’s name in a Community or Conversation, then select either start audio call, video call or screen sharing. This opens a call which will stay active as you navigate throughout the rest of the platform.

3DSwym screen share

3DSwym has all of the communication tools your team needs to stay connected. Be sure to check out the other blogs in this series to find out more about what comes included with the SOLIDWORKS Cloud Offer.

Interested in the SOLIDWORKS Cloud Offer?

Visit our website to learn how the SOLIDWORKS® Cloud Offer brings nine powerful next-generation design solutions together running on the cloud based 3DEXPERIENCE® platform providing a complete product development solution.