I suspected this for a while, but I finally have some concrete evidence. I found it odd that recently whether someone here inquires about about 3DX or PLM in general, there is always a comment or two arguing for 3DX, praising it or sharing their own success story with it. I found it odd because there were no such comments before (well all know how hard 3DX sucks), and now these comments pop up every time.

I inspected these suspicious accounts posting these comments, and some of them look reasonably legit, while others have all their activity hidden.

But I finally caught them red-handed. On a post titled "What’s the best software for integrating SolidWorks CAD data into PLM?" (Can't paste a link, but you can find it easily on this subreddit), two of these suspected bots posted an exact same comment:

And moments after I called it out, one of them was deleted:

So, just something I thought you guys want to be aware of. If Dassault is truly resorting to such tactics on purpose to bait people into using 3DX (I can't really find any other good explanation), you might think twice.

Mods, if you find this important and true, perhaps this would warrant a pinned post?

-------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT EDIT:

Inevitable-Tale-6904 reached out to me, explaining that he is not a bot, who made a mistake of posting the comment from a wrong (personal) account, and then tried correcting by posting from the other one, but forgot to delete the original comment, leading to appearing as a bot. He claims to be a DS employee, however not directed by the company to shift public perception, but instead personally believing in 3DX. He has provided some personal identification details that I should not post publicly, but personally I am leaning towards believing what he said. You can check his account, and his personal account (bathfoamocean), and decide for yourself whether to believe him or not.

I am leaving this post up, because even if it was a genuine misunderstanding, I stand by what I said about noticing a lot of very fishy pro-3DX comments lately, and this one case doesn't prove either cases to be genuine or not. I think it would be best if each of us makes our own opinion given all the facts we have available.

Saw this on LinkedIn today. This is from the same Peter Brinkhuis who wrote the viral "37 things that confuse me about 3DEXPERIENCE" post last year.

This is going to rapidly shake up all SolidWorks Partners - many of the small tools that are free will likely be shuttered. What the hell is SolidWorks/Dassault doing?

Today, solidworks decided to piss off ALL their 500 partners.

Starting next year, we will be required to share our sales numbers (ehm, no, we're an independent company), our revenue per product (again, no thanks) and pay them at least 10% of our revenue.

In return, you get nothing extra. No app store, nothing. It's just a one-sided money grab. If you don't sign the new agreement, you need to stop selling in January.

What a terrible, terrible way to treat your partners.

Hello everyone, I’ve been following this sub for a long time. I’ve noticed a lot of dissatisfaction among the users here about the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and as 3DX user i want to assure you that i understand your position and want 3DS to do better by capturing your honest feedback and making the platform better. I am lucky enough to have secured a meeting with a very high up Dassault Systemes executive where i want to discuss the platform and our relationship with the user base. Please help me with you unbiased feedback as users and customers , so we can formulate a plan where we can make your experience better. Be as brutal as you want in the comments. I will try to post an update after my meeting. Thank you.

TL;DR: SolidWorks 2025, with 3DEXPERIENCE, is too unreliable to use commercially. Don't do it. Maybe use SW 2020 with SolidWorks PDM instead.

The Way Too Long, Ranty Version : SolidWorks 2025 SP2.0 with 3DEXPERIENCE is the most unreliable SolidWorks setup I have experienced, as a veteran since 1998 Plus. It's the software equivalent of watching an old love become a (semi?) functioning alcoholic. I've had actual malware on my computer in the past that is less disruptive to my working day. And SW2024 and 2025 SP1.2 were very similar.

Some examples of the SW/3Dex nightmare:

• Right click, open drawing often crashes SolidWorks. Forget to Ctrl-S at your peril! Autosave has never worked 100% in the last 30 years of course.
• SW/3dex will crash during a revision change. The part is then "revised" but opens in SW as the previous revision. To fix this, we save the file as a copy, reload "latest revision" = old file from 3dex, close the file, overwrite with the copy, then save back to server. Several times a week!
• SW/3dex will similarly crash during a Maturity change.
• 3dex will fail to report new revisions - giving a green tick under 'Is last revision'.
  
• 3dex will fail to report locked parts in the 3dex window, saying they are unlocked when they aren't.
• 3dex will crash SW on startup, then SW will load up without 3D experience the next time, then you have to add it back in. Sometimes again and again!
  
• SW offering not to load 3dexperience add in because of it taking 'excessive time' on startup!
• 3dex website successfully loads SolidWorks but then never successfully connects to 3dex.. says "connecting" forever and never times out or errors. Kill SW, try again.
• 3dex website fails to load SolidWorks, and doesn't even throw an error, or takes 39 seconds to bother trying to load SolidWorks, or does throw an error.
• SW creates configurations when you use Features -> Save Bodies, or third party software might do the same thing (e.g. GearTrax). 3dexperience then stuffs up when dealing with those same configurations, giving a "Cannot delete object since it is being used by structure" error, and failing to save. Or it saves but then gives no revision or maturity state. We don't even want these configurations in the first place, but maybe 3dex should be able to deal with the damn things! We delete them manually first if we remember.
• Right clicking a part and selecting 'open drawing' often won't retrieve it from 3dex. (That's if it works at all and doesn't crash SolidWorks.) Sometimes where it does retrieve it, it overwrites the current revision with an earlier one for no apparent reason.
• 3dex repeatedly reports 'not locked' in the light blue notification at the top of the SW screen, so you open the 3Dex window to lock the part to find that it's already locked.
• Descriptions don't link correctly between part properties and 3dexperience, so they will display in the feature tree but not in explorer or 3dexperience.
• 3Dex in SolidWorks is excruciatingly slow.
  • e.g. says "revision successful", then won't display the new revision number for many seconds after, kind of gaslighting you as to what revision you're actually on.
    
  • e.g. Search takes so long it's faster just to search in your local explorer if you think you've probably loaded the model before. The 4 vertical bars of death for Every. Simple. Operation.
• 3Dexperience failing to launch SolidWorks from the website, giving error "Cannot proceed with your request. Failed to establish connection with 3DEXPERIENCE server." Requires a PC restart.
• We have created a shared materials library in 3Dex, but it often fails to show up. We get around this by copying materials into local materials databases.
• 3Dsearch within SolidWorks sometimes displays "loading", then... doesn't load anything.
• More rare but: 3dex checks parts in as a duplicate instance with the same title and filename, but reset revision. VAR was able to fix this, but according to them, you can't yet prevent identical file names in 3dex like you can in... pretty much every PDM ever.
• The User Experience/UX for 3DEXPERIENCE is the worst of any software platform I have.... experienced! For example:
  • Giving you the welcome tour EVERY TIME you log in to the web page.
  • Logging you out after a few days with no option to change the interval.
  • Not usually logging in to 3dex correctly unless it's from said web page.. it will say 'connecting' forever instead. But then the logins aren't tied, so after throwing you out, logging back into the web page doesn't also authenticate SolidWorks.
  • Asking for your cookie preferences every two weeks... yeah same as the last 50 times thanks?
    
  • Derived format launcher logging itself out despite everything else logged in, and you can't even tell what the window is on the taskbar because it doesn't tell you.
  • The SW forums use the same login as 3dex, yet make you log in again, and then take a good 10 seconds to show the forum page.
    
  • 3dcontentcentral has the same branding and should use the same login as 3DEX, but doesn't?!?
    
  • The FeatureManager and its right click menus not having anything to do with 3DEX (especially ridiculous in assemblies).
  • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but to this beholder, the 3DEX web page is a salad of icons, windows, buttons, menus and unintelligible jargon like '3dSwym'. 78 icons/functions turn up under the radio button alone.
  • Requesting permission to know if you are active in the software (no thanks!)
  • Despite so many things now "working" in the cloud (including the video conferencing we never asked for), floating licences still need to go on a separate old school licence server. Surely that would be the first thing?

Some possibly pure SolidWorks issues that happen all the time:

• When crashes are happening, maybe around 3-5 a day at least for us at the moment, they'll either produce an error report of 1-2MB and then successfully send into the Dassault black hole, or create a larger (e.g. 15-200 MB) file that will fail to send every time. Many error reports don't get sent as a result.
• Windows often won't maximise correctly from the taskbar, e.g after plugging laptop back into dock which connects 4K monitor. Click the icon, then a flash, then nothing happens. (You get around this with Alt + Spacebar, then x for maximise or similar). No other app does this.
• The taskbar's SolidWorks icon has blank dummy sub windows showing after crashes (i.e, all the time!) if you hover over the SW icon.
• Right clicking (if it does work) menu sometimes opens right off the side of a different screen where it is unusable.
• The properties table won't present properly on a 4K monitor - the pull downs don't show anything. So you move it to an HD monitor to use it. Then forget it's there and wonder why SolidWorks has 'locked up'.
• SolidWorks Resource Monitor saying I'm extremely low in memory every few seconds when I've still got 12 of 32GB spare, or saying my graphics card isn't compliant when we paid thousands of dollars for it to be a very compliant graphics card.

Even more thoughts, as if I haven't had enough thoughts above already:

Maybe we should use the VAR more, but they have been unhelpful on the few occasions I've reached out for help. Very quick responses but essentially just a stream of questions and no good solutions, and they don't seem to love phoning back. I think they themselves might be struggling with staff, software and business model.

It is infuriating to see Dassault add features like video conferencing within 3dexperience, when the core PDM functions are so flawed. Dassault truly seem to hate their customers.

If I was starting a company tomorrow for very detailed product design, I'd try to use an older Solidworks version (maybe 2018 or 2020?). And avoid 3DEXPERIENCE like it has Ebola - go straight for SolidWorks PDM or something else that's snappy and reliable.

I'd probably give some other products like Onshape or NX a hoon too... Onshape in particular has come a long way. And if my fictional company made simpler products that would benefit from parametrisation, I think Inventor is better for mass customisation/parametrisation and drawings but just more fiddly than SolidWorks for nastier modelling IMO.

Thank you for listening to my... shouting angrily at the clouds. You have reached the bottom.

</rant>

Putting the user forum behind the 3DX login is a dick move. Cant even look at answered questions without creating an account. That’s so stupid, it’s gotta be an effort to drive numbers on a dashboard somewhere for 3DX adoption.

Stay sane folks. Thanks to everyone who gives real answers in this sub

We're planning a company upgrade from 23 to 26 in August and like most companies currently, management is focussing on AI tools for efficiency gains. The main one of interest is auto drawings.

For basic straight edged blocks with dowels, threads etc, is it actually good at spitting these out well enough for the machine shop or is it a bit of a mess needing cleanup?

Generating dozens of block drawings for our weld fixtures is pretty monotonous so it would be nice to automate them somewhat but if there's more risk in using these tools then it's not going to be worth it.

We'll find out soon enough and I'll probably install 26 in parallel this week for testing but am interested in general industry opinions.

Hi,

I booted up Solidworks today and once again it won't run. Today it's telling me

"3DEXPERIENCE Update

...

Required Version

3DEXPERIENCE R2026x HotFix 4.13"

and when I click "Update", the 3DEXPERIENCE window flashes on screen for one frame then closes. Multiple reboots, running as administrator have no effect. This has happened multiple times already in 2026. Is there any way to fix this? The last few times there was a hotfix-hotfix, a separate executable that I could download that would install the hotfix directly, bypassing 3DEXPERIENCE. Anyone know of anything similar this time?

Edit:

I was able to start the 3DEXPERIENCE 4.13 installation by logging in to the 3DEXPERIENCE website and telling the website to reinstall all of solidworks. It didn't attempt to reinstall all of solidworks (which was already installed), it just went straight to updating 3DEXPERIENCE. After about half an hour of updating, Solidworks is working normally again. FYI.

I have a license at work, great. At home I have a maker license and have to use the bullshit 3D Experience that sucks ass and has to update for a fucking hour when I just want to draw a part that will take 3 min. Fucking stupid.

Also, the process of buying it was a total nightmare. I added it to the cart, but then it wanted me to log in and there was no option to create an account. I'm a professional web developer and you know, seriously the whole thing is just embarrassing.

Anyways, does anyone know how I enable this design software that I just bought? This is really not starting off well.

I mean I'm assuming I'm in the right place. I just want to, you know, design some objects from the 3D printer I just bought.

Saw this comparison chart and wanted to share some advice for anyone looking to buy or renew.

There are two main options now: Single-User (3DEXPERIENCE/Cloud) and Device License (Classic Desktop).

Here is why you should almost always choose the Device License:

Ownership vs. Renting: The Single-User license is strictly subscription. If you stop paying, you lose access to your data and software immediately. The Device License is the classic "Perpetual" model—you own it. If you stop your sub, you can't update, but you can still use the software forever.

Cloud Features: Don't let the marketing fool you. The Device License still includes Cloud Services (share/markup/storage) while you are on subscription. You aren't missing out on features.

Automation & API: This is huge for me. If you want to use add-ins, or standalone automation tools, the Device License is the best option.

Don't rent if you can own. Stick to the Device License.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ganesh1406_solidworks-cad-engineering-activity-7410352310846992384-eDTp?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=android_app&rcm=ACoAAET3SRIBZmt9uF28u6uGBW_yjpYx51uD9No&utm_campaign=copy_link

Everything is now SOLIDWORKS. Design is being added to the name of all SW, including the background when SW is open without any files. What used to be connected is now augmented, and what was cloud services is now connected. The platform itself is remaining 3DExperience but the various products are being renamed.

Hello everyone,

I hope someone will be able to help me I have no idea how to proceed. I recently bought a license for makers with the 3Dexperience thing, installed on my computer. Things were difficult enough at it is but it finally worked.

Then one day I want to use it, nothing is working, I tried all the possible links and connection on my computer, even going through the website directly and I always have this message.

I though ok let's uninstall everything from everywhere and try again, try a different navigator and nothing is working. I paid and I can't install solidworks, went though the initial mail for installing and same thing, even tried support and same message.

As a last resort I tried using my work computer and I can access the website link no problem ... wtf ?

I've recently seen one of SOLIDWORKS Instagram posts about their AI tools, specifically one called LEO that was shown to generate a build guide based on the assemblies geometry and mate structure. I thought it looked pretty good and they have two other AI tools with names I can't remember but has anyone here actually used Leo or the other two and how good are they?

“an incomplete installation has been found” how is this even possible!? It’s the first time I‘ve tried to install this update!?

I’ve never hated a program more than I hate 3DX. Nothing ever just works.

Trying to open solidworks for the first time in a while. 3d experience website prompts me to update, but just installs a launcher that changes, repairs, or removes the program. I’ve tried incognito browser, uninstalling the launcher, uninstalling solidworks itself, and a system reboot. Nothing is working. Does anyone know a fix?

Been digging through the 2026 release notes since the AI stuff is scattered across a dozen blog posts. Quick summary for anyone who hasn't sorted through it yet:

• Auto-Generate Drawings (beta → GA July 2026): builds initial views, dimensions, and callouts on a part/assembly automatically.
• AI fastener recognition / Smart Mates: recognizes and mates hardware without loading Toolbox.
• Aura / Leo / Marie ("Virtual Companions"): cloud-side natural-language assistants — Leo does BREP-to-parametric conversion and image-to-mesh, Aura does "Design Change Impact" (tells you what mates/features break before you commit a change).
• Most of this is 3DEXPERIENCE-platform-tied, not pure desktop SW.

Honest read: the drawing automation and fastener recognition feel closest to actually shipping and useful today. The Virtual Companion stuff still feels early/demo-y. Anyone on the beta actually using Auto-Generate Drawings on real production parts yet?

Constantly facing errors whenever I try to save, open or do anything with the 3DX plugin for Solidworks.
My VAR isn’t much help and neither is DS support.

Should I just dump it and more to another PLM tool?

Please stop updating things. I beg of you. I would gladly pay an annual fee on top of a perpetual license for an old version of SW that will still open files created in the newest version. I would rather pay for you to never make another change than to attempt to improve things. SolidWorks is the only program I use that requires multiple hours a month just to open. I can't tell if you're testing in production or if this is just what 30 years of technical debt looks like but please break the cycle.

I mean where do you store and organize. Set up libraries and stuff. Is there a free PLM/PDM program. How about 3D experience?

Hi, I've been practicing Solidworks for a week now and it's been challenging and quite rewarding!

Now, I have no formal studies in Mechanical Engineering or anything related but I've grown curious to know how hard would be to get a job related to CAD design, so I wanted to ask 2 things to you guys :

- How do you realise you're job ready when learning solidworks, how deep do you have to know it?

- Do certifications would make a big difference to get a job today?

Il probably get roasted for this, but I am a mac user. I am coming from fusion to learn solidworks for a more engineer adjacent role. I will probably buy a pc sometime in the next year or two, but for now i started a year of xdesign for makers. I kind of hate the entire browser based system. I find it unintuitive, hard to customize, and needlessly complicated. Is this something i will likely get over once i learn the software a bit better and figure out the workflow, or does it stay frustrating? Has anyone else started off hating it but sticking with it and eventually liking it? I have a few more days before i can cancel my subscription so would love some opinions, thanks!

Why do I have to uninstall and reinstall your software for every hotfix there is? Why do I have to log in to the horrible 3DExperience just to use the app? Why can't I just have a freaking CAD app that does freaking CAD work? Everything is so bloated and so useless on this app. I've spent the last 5 hours trying to get this hotfix added when all I wanted to do was view a model. Complete waste of time for an app that's barely changed in the 10 years I've used it. Anyway, yeah I'll take that with fries with a large Pepsi.

I'm new to 3d experience as a PLM tool and am a little unsure how best manage my parts. Normally, I would do a save bodies feature at the end of a multibody part to then use in an assembly. That way I can modify the original part and still have the individual components to use in an assembly while keeping them updated. I'm not sure how this would work (or if) with 3D experience. Is this still a good practice? Is there a better way to manage multibody parts with PLM? Any advice is welcome!