CAD Forum

Well this is a start to 2025 . We use Design Data Manager (DDM) as our PDM system since 2015. They are part of the SW partner program. Yesterday we received notification that SW is terminating CSI(the company that developed DDM) as a partner in Nov. 2026. Apparently Dassault are transitioning to a new partner program and CSI will not be part of it.
We use three seats of SW. At this point I am thinking, it might be easier to change to SolidEdge than change PDM system.
Is anyone else facing this situation?

That's too bad, used DDM at my previous job. Dassault always coming up with a new way upset the apple cart.

What's the new partner program entail? Must have require more £££ then CSI wanted to commit.

XHawkeye wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 11:04 am That's too bad, used DDM at my previous job. Dassault always coming up with a new way upset the apple cart.

What's the new partner program entail? Must have require more £££ then CSI wanted to commit.

This is the relevant sentence.
"We have been informed by DS SolidWorks that our current Partner Program Membership will be
terminated on 26th November 2026 (“Termination Date”). We have also been informed that we will not be
considered for the new Partner Program".

So I don't know if CSI was unwilling to commit.

Just a wild hunch, but isn't a big part of a "Platform" is that they get all your stuff in their domain? I don't see where third parties fit into that plan.

bnemec wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 12:50 pm Just a wild hunch, but isn't a big part of a "Platform" is that they get all your stuff in their domain? I don't see where third parties fit into that plan.

That's pretty much the principle of Cloud as a whole. "Give us all your knowledge, we'll keep it safe, we promise!"

It gets scary when you start seeing a bigger picture being drawn of what could be done/accomplished.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Is Dassault doing an across the board sweep on other partner products? For example SW PCB (which is basically Altium) was effectively retired a couple of years ago as it is no longer part of the network licensing. They we trying to push us to us it on line.
We now just use it on a standalone license.

Hmm, troubling. We also use a third-party PDM provider (Pulse PLM) so hopefully we won't have a similar problem.

Yes I had a customer on the phone today saying they had that letter - and they have 16 seats of SolidWorks and over 25 years of legacy data to deal with. I don't know the reasoning for this, but given that the lead time for ending support is 2 years, and that 3D Experience World is coming up I am thinking the worst - that they will finally annouce that SolidWorks is transitioning to the "platform" and all users have to use their cloud provision. If that is indeed the case (which I sincerely hope is not the case) then it's time to end our relationship with SolidWorks unless they can sort out their ridiculous charges for data storage on their cloud (£79 per 25GB per year per user - so if you are using legacy data with TBs of data that soon starts to get very expensive).

I mean let's see what happens, but I'm expecting the worst.

Ronan wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 7:22 am Well this is a start to 2025 . We use Design Data Manager (DDM) as our PDM system since 2015. They are part of the SW partner program. Yesterday we received notification that SW is terminating CSI(the company that developed DDM) as a partner in Nov. 2026. Apparently Dassault are transitioning to a new partner program and CSI will not be part of it.
We use three seats of SW. At this point I am thinking, it might be easier to change to SolidEdge than change PDM system.
Is anyone else facing this situation?

Hi, we have a similar situation. We were about to start using DDM in my new company when they notified us of this change. I really like DDM as a PDM solutions, as it offers a lot more flexibility than PDMworks, and it is significantly cheaper. In my experience, using PDMworks in the past always ends up in having to make some massive compromise on usability, or having to spend lots of time using third party scripts to work.

Now, because of this, as we are at the start of implementing CAD in my new company, I am faced with the decision of a) ditching DDM and using PDMworks (which was not my original intention), b) keeping DDM knowing that I will have to change it in 2 years time, or c) ditching Solidworks altogether and use a different CAD system that does not force you onto their own PDM solution and the cloud.

I am very tempted by option c)!

I don't even see DDM as a partner on the website currently, nor others I'm aware of.

We are moving to Windchill and it supports SolidWorks files with its Workgroup Manager (WGM) application. I can't imagine that Dassault would just cutoff all competing PDM integrations out there. If that were to happen, our company would drop SolidWorks before dropping Windchill, meaning we would likely end up on Creo. Maybe CSI didn't agree to the new terms whatever they were.

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 1:03 pm I don't even see DDM as a partner on the website currently, nor others I'm aware of.

DDM are on there but there are a bunch of others that aren't (including Windchill, Pulse, XPLM).

https://www.solidworks.com/partners/eng ... ?wockw=DDM

dave.laban wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 3:00 am DDM are on there but there are a bunch of others that aren't (including Windchill, Pulse, XPLM).

https://www.solidworks.com/partners/eng ... ?wockw=DDM

image.png

Ahh I see now.....I was using the Product Data Management filter and most aren't under there....go figure.
How do you like Pulse PLM? Does it have an integration into SolidWorks?

Not being a partner doesn't mean their software/script will stop working.
It more like Dassault doesn't support it, like video drivers

Lots of user use "non-partner" macro/addin anyway.

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 1:01 pm Not being a partner doesn't mean their software/script will stop working.
It more like Dassault doesn't support it, like video drivers

Lots of user use "non-partner" macro/addin anyway.

There is a license I believe to access the "SOLIDWORKS Document Manager API" so it can access and edit custom properties and file references without SolidWorks being installed or the files open. We use it internally and have to request a new license key for each version. Maybe DDM is losing access to something like this by not being in the partner program.

https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... grapi.html

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 6:06 pm There is a license I believe to access the "SOLIDWORKS Document Manager API" so it can access and edit custom properties and file references without SolidWorks being installed or the files open. We use it internally and have to request a new license key for each version. Maybe DDM is losing access to something like this by not being in the partner program.

https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... grapi.html

That is basically what is happening. They will not be able to integrate DDM into versions of SW after SW 2026.