Introduction
Data migration is an important topic to discuss with any existing SOLIDWORKS customer adopting 3DEXPERIENCE. Migration of customer data to 3DEXPERIENCE should be treated as a separate activity to user onboarding, and must be planned and costed accordingly. In order to plan successfully, a thorough discussion must take place between partner and customer to ensure that the right strategy is put in place, and the right expectations set with both parties before any migration activities are started.
The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform is not an archiving solution. Attempting to move every SOLIDWORKS design going back years will only serve to use up a customer’s platform storage allowance. Instead, it’s recommended that where possible only required content should be moved to 3DEXPERIENCE, for example current projects and component libraries.
The capabilities available at 2023x FD03 for moving SOLIDWORKS content to 3DEXPERIENCE are designed to work with files located in a Windows folder structure. For customers that are intending to move from SOLIDWORKS PDM to 3DEXPERIENCE, a PDM Transition assistant utility will be available for both partners and customers in the second half of 2023.
The following sections provide guidance on what tools are available. For an in depth overview and detailed best practices please refer to the SolidPractices guide titled Moving SOLIDWORKS Files to the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.
Preparation and Planning
Before moving any pre-existing SOLIDWORKS content to 3DEXPERIENCE it’s important to ensure good data integrity. Using Windows File Explorer to Manage SOLIDWORKS CAD files is typically an unstructured, manual process, and the current quality of the file set may mean that it’s not yet ready for a move to the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. Common pitfalls of a file management-based system include:
- Inconsistent file naming conventions across different projects
- Duplicate files (including Toolbox components)
- Duplicate file locations and folders
- Non-native CAD files, imported into SOLIDWORKS, are linked to and missing
- Parts and assemblies have unused or outdated configurations
To prepare for a successful move to 3DEXPERIENCE, careful planning and preparation is required to ensure that all files are checked and any issues resolved ahead of saving. Several tools are available to customers prepare SOLIDWORKS files for a move to the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform:
- SOLIDWORKS File Utilities – Rename, replace, and move files
- Pack and Go – Gather and organize all related files
- File Preparation Assistant – Detect and fix issues
- Task Scheduler – Refresh the file set ready for upload
Data integrity checking and clean up time must be factored in to any migration project.
Moving SOLIDWORKS Files to 3DEXPERIENCE
Both the Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS roles provide a customer with two options for moving SOLIDWORKS content that resides in a Windows folder structure. It’s important that customers understand the capabilities of each, and utilize the one that best fits their requirements.
Interactive Save from SOLIDWORKS to 3DEXPERIENCE
The Save to 3DEXPERIENCE command is the regular save option available from both the SOLIDWORKS File menu and the MySession Task Pane. This is an interactive save command that securely uploads SOLIDWORKS files and creates corresponding SOLIDWORKS items in the chosen Collaborative Space.
Note: To increase performance when saving large datasets the interactive save can be configured to run asynchronously. When asynchronous save is enabled in MySession options, the save to 3DEXPERIENCE operation will run in the background enabling the user to continue working in their SOLIDWORKS session.
Interactive save from SOLIDWORKS is suited to uploading single file sets one at a time.
Batch Save to 3DEXPERIENCE
The Batch Save to 3DEXPERIENCE tool is available from the SOLIDWORKS Tools menu. This is an automated, asynchronous tool that has the same secure upload capability as the Save to 3DEXPERIENCE command. It provides the ability to save SOLIDWORKS files from multiple folders into various collaborative spaces and bookmarks in a single operation.
The Batch Save utility is suited to large datasets that contain multiple projects with a datasize <5GB. Once a Batch Save is underway, the tool will run asynchronously in the background enabling the user to continue working in their SOLIDWORKS session.
Summary
The majority, if not all existing SOLIDWORKS customers will have existing file sets that they want to move to 3DEXPERIENCE. Therefore, it is important to discuss this topic as part of any adoption planning to set the right expectations. Conduct proper planning, testing, and validation with the customer so that expectations are aligned for the duration of the activity.
Finally, the migration of customer data to 3DEXPERIENCE should be treated as a separate activity to user onboarding, and costed accordingly. For customers who are adopting 3DEXPERIENCE for formal governance of their design process, a migration project may need to take place before the wider design team is trained and ready to begin working on live projects.
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