Bild cloud PDM

[Brian-M]

This is interesting.
https://www.getbild.com/
Looks like they are on the right track for small teams using Solidworks.
Started in 2021.

[Brian-M]

I tested Bild. It seems promising. It is young and clearly missing some things, but lots of improvements planned for 2023. It reads properties from Solidworks very efficiently.

Generally fast both directions - around 9MB/s (not perfect, but better than other PDM systems on cloud or VPN).

It has a desktop app instead of a plugin for Solidworks, and I'm fine with that.

[jcapriotti]

Did you got with Bild or something else?

[Brian-M]

I didn't yet, but it's still a contender. They are rapidly making improvements based on customer feedback. Their crew doesn't seem to have deep real-world PDM and manufacturing experience - which means they sometimes reinvent the wheel in odd ways, but mostly the user interface is good.
I doubt it will ever be as industrial as something like Solidworks PDM (I wouldn't even want it to get bloated and do all the same stuff), but it could totally be a good solution for the right companies. It's clearly faster and easier to implement and use than Solidworks PDM Professional (and Enovia 3DExperience). In many cases it's easier than PDM Standard. The cloud access and no server hardware is a fabulous aspect. Bild is more practical than the best GrabCAD Workbench attained.

Where it doesn't measure up is things like:
• Cleaning up 100 or 1000 files. No Dispatch scripts.
• No FVUT (File Version Upgrade Tool).
Understandable why they don't have those things.
• Search tool (much improved in Q4 2024) could use more work. It's fine on the basics of finding items.

Bild is really good at reading Solidworks metadata - but could use some interface tweaks last I saw. I haven't fully tested writing both directions.

[jcapriotti]

Yeah....after researching them I figured that could be the case. Most all of their software development is done in India. I've worked with groups there and in other countries our company outsources software dev with, and the biggest problem is finding people who understand engineering and manufacturing and the lingo. They know how to code well and have good IT standards, but don't usually know why and how it should work. At least enough to ask the right questions.

[SPerman]

I'm not a fan of the data living on their servers.

[Brian-M]

The data security issue doesn't worry me more than other solutions, or only a little bit more. Data isn't on Bild's servers, but they would have some access (that's the part that worries me a bit). It's probably on Amazon like everything else. Bild can be ITAR Compliant, and they mention "Teams that have additional security requirements can leverage Bild hosted on AWS GovCloud".

[SPerman]

Data isn't on Bild's servers, but they would have some access (that's the part that worries me a bit).

They are charging for storage, which is what made me assume that was a requirement.

[jcapriotti]

They not doubt have access to your data. The question is how they protect and limit access to it internally.