The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is designed to unite all departments in your organization, effectively de-silo and enable smooth collaboration on the cloud. It is your all-in-one, secure solution for product design, communication as well as data and project management.
Work effectively wherever you are and whenever you want with easy access to 3D CAD, communication and project management tools, your data and much more. Reduce IT costs and eliminate overwritten files once and for all. Keep reading to learn which role suits your needs.
Roles in 3DEXPERIENCE
There is an array of different roles in 3DEXPERIENCE. A role is essentially a collection of different tools. Depending on the tasks you are responsible for, you will need access to different roles that contain the specific tools you need. Here we cover the most common roles with a detailed description to help you find the right one.
With 3DEXPERIENCE you have access to more than 100 apps!
In 3DEXPERIENCE, applications give you access to the platform’s functionalities. Based on your role, you’ll get various apps to provide all the tools you need.
Access to the platform and a suitable role can be purchased, rented, or added to your existing setup.
The 4 most common roles
Let’s look at the 4 most common roles on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and what functionality you gain access to with them.
- Collaborative Business Innovator
- Collaborative Industry Innovator
- Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS
- 3D Creator
Collaborative Business Innovator
Collaborative Business Innovator is the primary role on the platform. All resources in your organization with access to 3DEXPERIENCE need this role.
The purpose of this role is to unify internal resources, suppliers, partners and customers, allowing you to innovate sustainably. With this role, you’ll gain access to all the apps mentioned below and you can connect all users through communities, where you can share, collaborate and innovate.
Innovate with a higher degree of trust by engaging your customers early on in your product development and get easy access to vital feedback from stakeholders and enable faster time-to-market.
Make informed choices in your product development and build synergistic relationships with your most important stakeholders. With 3DEXPERIENCE, you’ll always remain up to speed with the most recent and relevant data.
With Collaborative Business Innovator you’ll have access to the following apps (among others):
- 3D Dashboards
- 3D Swym
- 3D Play
- 3D Drive
- 3D Search
- User groups
- Web Page Reader
3D Dashboards – A dashboard of all the most important information and communication on the projects you are involved in. This is easily personalized with various tools for smooth communication, information, notifications and tasks, keeping you updated on your projects at a glance.
3D Swym is the core of collaboration in 3DEXPERIENCE. 3DSwym enables you and your colleagues to ask questions, discuss ideas and notify one another with updates.
3DPlay is for accessing SOLIDWORKS-files on the cloud. Review tools enable you to measure, comment and share. Furthermore, you can demonstrate simulation results.
3DDrive delivers safe cloud-based data storage and handling, giving you access to the most recent versions of your files. You decide who is allowed to access your files and thereby make sure they remain safely stored. In addition, you have access to and can restore older versions of a file. In this way, you can effectively manage versions in 3DEXPERIENCE. Extended file management tools such as review processes require the role of Collaborative Industry Innovator, which is covered in the next section.
3D Search enables you to search the platform for a specific dashboard or set up filters for searches within individual apps.
User groups – this app allows you to administer user groups. You can create new ones as well as assign users rights for dashboards.
Web Page Reader makes it possible to integrate web locations into 3DEXPERIENCE, providing access to essential third-party data.
The Collaborative Business Innovator role includes:

Collaborative Industry Innovator
Collaborative Industry Innovator is a basic, yet powerful role for the engineer or designer.
This role empowers the engineering team with access to a vital set of apps, enabling collaboration in real-time. However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. This role also facilitates safe and organized collaborative work on product files. Collaborative Industry Innovator is designed as a scalable online environment for product design and planning of manufacturing processes. All these functionalities in a solution with complete traceability and flexibility. The role also supports compliance with standard business processes (change, project, quality etc.), as well as extensions if new roles are added. The value chain is effectively connected.
With Collaborative Industry Innovator you’ll have access to the following apps (among others):
- Bookmark Editor
- Change Action
- Collaborative Lifecycle
- Collaborative Tasks
- Compare
- IP Classify & Reuse
- Route Management
Bookmark Editor allows you to organize and administer your CAD and non-CAD files with bookmarks, which can be shared across your team. Thereby your colleagues and partners will gain access to all your logically organized data.
Change Action is a vital tool for managing changes and making sure they are implemented and documented.
Collaborative Lifecycle controls the product lifecycle from beginning to end. Effectively manage changes, revisions, duplicates and much more. With this app, you also control who can access your file in different design stages as well as their editing rights.
Collaborative Tasks – Easily and intuitively manage your own and your team’s tasks. When clicking on any task all information will appear e.g. descriptions, comments and other vital information about that specific task. Deliveries, related tasks and projects can be added directly to tasks with the Collaborative Tasks app.
Compare – Here you can compare files and identify different structures, metadata and 3D geometry.
IP Classify & Reuse is used for classifying and structuring your files and objects in a more comprehensive way. If you collaborate with stakeholders such as entrepreneurs or third parties, you use IP Classify and Reuse to assign the right access level to them. Thereby you maintain control over who has access to your files and which rights the individual users have.
Route Management lets you define a workflow for tasks, which can be assigned to one or more team members. Create task templates and streamline your reoccurring tasks, with effective planning tools.
The Collaborative Industry Innovator role includes:

Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS
The third role to highlight is Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS. This role is for you who already have SOLIDWORKS in a desktop version. What advantages can I expect? Keep reading.
Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS connects desktop CAD-users to 3DEXPERIENCE. This allows product design and data to be managed directly from SOLIDWORKS on your desktop. Furthermore, the users can take advantage of the platform’s web-based apps to control, review and visualize designs anytime, anywhere and from all devices.
- Connect desktop CAD users to 3DEXPERIENCE
- Manage your product’s entire lifecycle incl. versions, revisions and releases
- Effortlessly navigate in product structures to visualize designs and changes
- Search, explore and select the relevant design context from web browsers
- View and mark-up complex 3D-product designs online
- Gain access to FT&A design information directly in your browser
- Take advantage of file-based CAD data with 3DEXPERIENCE’s design, simulation, and project management capabilities
Included in this role you get the app Derived Format Converter and connectors to SOLIDWORKS:
Derived Format Converter is a format converter for SOLIDWORKS. Here you can generate derived formats, for example STEP or PDF, from SOLIDWORKS files.
You also get the connectors for SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS Visualize, hence enabling you to connect both of them to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
The Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS role includes:

3D Creator
The final role we will cover in this article is 3D Creator.
This role means innovation, collaboration and beautiful designs – anytime and anywhere!
The role combines a user-friendly interface with effective design tools and collaboration on cloud, all from one browser window. This role is for you, who don’t have SOLIDWORKS in a desktop version nor an integrated SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE solution.
Here are the apps you’ll have access to with the role as 3D Creator:
- XDesign
- Derived Format Converter
XDesign enables you quickly and easily create 3D models directly in your web browser.
Derived Format Converter is a format converter for SOLIDWORKS. Here you can generate derived formats, for example STEP or PDF, from SOLIDWORKS files.
Here are the included app’s:

Innovate within one single, cloud-based design environment. No software to install, configure and maintain and you’ll always have the latest version.
You can even use PartSupply to search, gain access and retrieve 3D components delivered from various suppliers and manufacturers. Read more about PartSupply.
We hope this article gave valuable insights into the extensive capabilities of 3DEXPERIENCE and what options you have with the different roles.
A company that has reaped all the platform’s benefits is Lifeline Robotics.
Interested? Don’t hesitate to contact us now!