The Hindu Business Line : 3DLive: Collaborative tools get new dimension

An engineer working on a product can search for details on it right from a toolbar on his desktop. Where previously, data or textual searches would be done, which were not intuitive and consumed precious time, this is contextual, user-friendly and throws up all details related to the product along with a 3D diagram of it!

One can also navigate through parts — inspect, rotate, zoom and animate its subsystems while it slowly swivels on a turntable. It also allows discussions while viewing the product, using chat mode. With its patented Compass tool, one can see the product in action and obtain contact information of the designer. Passive participants who want to track the product development can use instant dashboard feature.

"Intellectual property today resides in different parts of the world. With India increasingly becoming a hub for technology development, this helps users to connect to their counterparts in other centres," added Mr Andy Kalambi, VP & GM - Asia, ENOVIA, Dassault Systemes.

Drawing a parallel to map portals that have sprung up on the Web (such as Google Earth and Wikimapia), he said that just as netizens can view satellite imagery of their towns and homes without needing to be a GIS (geographical information systems) expert, 3DLive would let users without technical knowledge to obtain information of granular level. "Resources are expensive, and availability of talented engineers is an issue. This product offers the advantage of being simple and so there is less talent needed to contribute to product development," said Mr Suman Bose, Country Director, Dassault Systemes India.

Ten per cent of Dassault's few million customers worldwide will choose to be early adopters of this software. In India, the firm has over 500 customers. The firm has 25 per cent market share globally.

All other products by the company — such as CATIA for virtual product design, DELMIA for virtual production and ENOVIA for product lifecycle management — blend into 3DLive. In the future, it will cut across competitive PLM applications and will cover all formats used by the 11 verticals, including consumer electronics, retail, apparel, financial services etc. By making it available online, Dassault expects SMEs to adopt it. "We have also lowered the total cost of expenditure by making it an online product," said Mr Bose.

3DLive will be available by late June, through IBM, its global distributor. The product is a 14MB download.