The founders of SolidWorks sold it to Dassault only three or four years after launching the program. Its been owned by Dassault since 1997. Here’s a link to an article on Belmont Technologies.
Here’s some of the chatter on killing SolidWorks, or at least substantially changing it from a Parasolid program to a CATIA program.
Bernard Charles, CEO of Dassault, regarding SolidWorks: “We’re Going To Drop Parasolid.” (poll at the end) (most recent)
They do still pay SolidEdge (Siemens) for the kernel, correct? That’s how it was 6-7 years ago. In theory, Siemens could just say “ok we’re done with you” and that would be it for Solidworks. It makes sense to shift to a Catia style program knowing that.
Solidworks surfacing has come a long ways in the SW existence. From what I can tell customers purchase Solidworks because they are told it’s cheaper/easier to use etc. Then they realize that it doesn’t do g2 or approach g3 continuity with the control Alias or Rhino offers. (Tesla realized that problem after a few years) SW has some really cool new tools for surfacing tho yet could probably use add on modules like Catia and Creo do. But then SW would be in the High end modeler category for that is one definition of High end modeler… the software is sold moduarly. ISDX in creo is an extra 5k… advanced assembly is another 5k
Tesla purchased SW after asking the young engineers what they wanted to use. Later (several years later) Tesla had to purchase Catia because of the limitations they realized only after learning for years. Now Tesla is using two packages like many have to do. Solidworks & Catia. Burton moved from Pro/ENGINEER years ago. They quickly realized they can’'t manage the complex surfacing they require so they have to use Alias with Solidworks. Two packages again.
It’s really easy to name companies that insist on switching to a mid range modeler against the surfacing teams better judgement then the surfacing team has to learn alias / rhino and force others on the team to deal with import geometry.
To bring it back around to the original comment. … wow I thought this stuff would be better…
The SW development team has done quite a bit to enhance those tools. The problem now is that the SW Catia grouping under one roof now has politics. For example, Trek wants a freestyle modeler like the Freestyle in Creo … or similar in Catia but Autodesk purchased T-SPLINES. SW development will or already has discontinued the SW plugin for T-SPLINES. The SW team due to consumerism and product positioning will not want to build a SUB’D modeler inside of SW for fear users will not want to upgrade to Catia because SW has it. You don’t want to compete with yourself so SW remains in the mid range marketplace while Catia remains in the high end marketplace.
http://proetools.com/solidworks-intro-to-surfacing-solidworks-training/ < the solidworks 3day surfacing class or http://proetools.com/solidworksweek-long-surfacing-intensive-solidworks-training/ week long intensive I designed in 2007 The class has changed each year significantly but check it out. Could use some feedback
I’m not disagreeing with you, but did you check out the link I posted earlier, Power Surfacing - Industrial Design for SolidWorks® ?
It’s 3rd party but it is nonetheless SUBD inside of SW. It appears like a separate feature in the feature tree. Then you shell it, add you ribs etc etc… oh need to tweak the surface again? No problem, just go and edit that feature.
It can be applied to separate surfaces and faces, has symmetry tools etc, it’s overall pretty cool for 750$.
I haven’t had a chance to use it on anything “real” yet and still running the tryout period, and I’m also very new to SUBD approach. But once new projects trickle in after summer vacation I plan to look closer at it…
thanks for the link. I probably should have read the entire thread before posting. Sub’d is cool !!!
looking at the SW '14 beta, it seems likelythat they’re not going to make any major shifts for at least another 1.5 years…?
Please go check out SW 2014 Beta (available for free to subscription customers.) It has a new style spline type that we are eager to get your input on.
thanks
Mark
a new type of spline, really? that’s no reason to buy an upgrade.
Whenever V6 is ready for primetime - dosn’t obsolete everything done in the old SW and hammers the crap out of Photoview - then we can talk.
SW 2013 finally has a conic in sketcher. Ive been asking for that for 14 years. It even has the ro value. For you Rhino Alias folks this is the y=x^2 conic function that has been missing in SW. Next they will allow equation driving functions similar to Evalgraph in Creo. This is one reason SW can’t be used to develop wings in Aviation. I suppose they don’t want to compete with their Caita products. I was so delighted to see the conic sketch tool tho! WOW. It’s about freeken time SW!
And its improper to compare Creo 2.0 to SW 2013
SW is sold as a stand alone package. Creo has hundreds of modules you can purchase. Both start out at around 5k but as you realize you need more you can purchase more with Creo. Not with SW. you stuck to upgrade to CATIA as I tried to explain in a previous post in this thread.
Your probably used to the ISDX module of Creo. Those tools are very powerful and costs aprox 5k more than the base. The base package of Creo has similar tools but the ISDX is so fast and easy to lay down geometry. I teach that class 
and love turning designers onto it.
Solidworks pays Siemens or what was Unigraphics for the NX Kernel. It would be a paramount change to drop that link to the kernel of NX . We teach NX at design engine too. Simular stuff but the NX user interface is from the UNIX days. SW did a good job developing the User interface with NX assistance. The NX programmers could learn a thing or two from the SW user interface developers. For example there is no visual way to drop the red arrow from the model tree into insert mode. you have to do it using a menu. Silly and archaic yes. Powerful still yes. fun to use… maybe not.
go with Creo
The reason I was drawn to Solidworks in school (2006-2010) was the rapidly improving and vastly superior interface. Every year it got 100% better. Honestly, I could jump ship to a brand new program from DSS as long as it had a great interface and improved the existing features rather than trading them off.
the 3d curve esp the curve on surface can be finicky. I have made lists on other forums for suggesting enhancements to the that 3d curve tool. Big problem is the development teams may be limited to what enactments they can preform w/o fear of competing with their high end tools such as Catia.