SAN DIEGO, CA (SolidWorks World 2014) - If you've heard snippets about SAP and ERP float over the walls of your design cubby and thought you could safely ignore them, be forewarned that SAP may soon be invading your world. That is if CIDEON has its way.
SAP, enterprise software that ties together data (including CAD data), is typically in the dominion of IT, consultants and management. Known for it's power, it fails in ease of use, says Rolf Lisse, CIDEON's product manager and head of its developmen, so it has been the domain of the IT dudes and consultants. It's data driven It's interface nothing like CAD. It's safe to say CAD users would not appreciate it. But companies, mostly big ones, depend on it. They need business and logistical information that often resides in CAD files. You could be forced to learn SAP, I suppose. Learning how to do queries. Is that not a perennial New Year's resolution? I imagine boring classes and having to drink way too much coffee to pay attention. Or you could use CIDEON, which, at least under Rolf's able hands, looks like a breeze to to use. No queries. No weird syntax. Expanding dialog boxes, graphic previews, arrange your windows, different skins...you can even see your CAD parts. Now that's more like it. This is the stuff CAD users are used to but database programmers seem to have missed.
"We're modern," says Rolf.
Graphic previews of CAD models are light weight versions of the CAD model stored in CIDEON, but the program manages the associativity so if the CAD model changes, CIDEON's lightweight model changes soon enough.
On top of SAP connection, CIDEON has horsepower enough for data file, part management and version control. A SolidWorks user can do without PDMWorks, says Rolf.
A mysterious, blue-eyed snow leopard appears on CIDEON booth at SolidWorks World.
CIDEON is well positioned to play middle man between CAD and SAP, having achieved SolidWorks Gold Partner status and is also blessed by SAP with a "Special Expertise Partner" status.
How Much?
CIDEON sells for $1,050 per license. Compare that to the alternatives, database heavyweights Oracle for ERP and TeamCenter for PLM, and CIDEON will appear a bargain.
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