Asynchronous Save in the Background for 3DEXPERIENCE FD02

The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform recently upgraded to version 2023 FD02 which means we just got heaps of great new features added to our favorite platform tools. My favorite enhancement in this release, asynchronous save, is the ability to Save files to the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform in the background and continue working inside of SOLIDWORKS. Not only is this a great quality-of-life change for larger assemblies but also saves a ton of time by cutting out a lot of “do nothing” time. This incredible change is not turned on by default so keep reading to see how it can be implemented into your workflow!

Turning it On

As mentioned above, the Asynchronous Save is not on by default with the 2023 FD02 release of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. Fortunately for us, the setting is “sticky” meaning once it is tuned on it stays on until we turn it off. In the action bar of our 3DEXPERIENCE Add-In we need to navigate to the Tools tab and then the Options button (the gear icon). Inside the options window there will be a new check box for “Enable Asynchronous saving” and checking the box will allow us to save in the background.

What does asynchronous save do?

With a normal save from SOLIDWORKS, the 3DEXPERIENCE Connector does a couple of things. First files are copied into the local cache if they weren’t already there and then saved locally. After, file information is extracted, both derived outputs and 3D previews are generated, and the file is finally saved to the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform’s collaborative space. All while this is going on a status window appears to give updates but most importantly, it locks you out of SOLIDWORKS.

With that setting turned on, we now have the ability to save files to our collaborative spaces in the background (with a few caveats). The first caveat is that this setting only takes effect when the assembly being saved has 25 or more new objects (think parts) contained in it. The other caveat is that we need to make sure that 3D Preview generation is using the 3DEXPERIENCE Converter. With both of those verified, background saving can occur. Now when doing a large save, the Batch Save to 3DEXPERIENCE utility will launch and can be minimized.

SOLIDWORKS can be used in the background to open and save files to the Platform, modify existing documents, or even create new files. However, you cannot modify the file being saved at the moment. Once complete, a message will appear at the bottom right of the screen notifying the completion. Additionally a report can be viewed to see the status of the uploaded files and if they failed to upload.

Like the idea of asynchronous save feature in 3DEXPERIENCE 2023 FD02 and want to learn more? Reach out to us today!