The add-on problem in a Solid Edge office

Most Solid Edge teams need more than core CAD from time to time: a tube routing job, a normal modes analysis, PMI on a model going to inspection, a CATIA file from a customer. None of these happen every day, and a dedicated licence for each one, on each seat, is hard to justify.

Designcenter Solid Edge value-based licensing solves this with a shared pool of tokens. You subscribe to a pack of 10, 25 or 50 tokens per year. Each add-on takes a defined number of tokens while it is running and gives them back when it closes. Everyone on the team draws from the same pool. Here is what that looks like in practice.

1. One morning in a four-seat office

The Siemens example uses four Designcenter Solid Edge seats and a 25-token pack. At 9:00 nobody is using an add-on and all 25 tokens are available.

At 9:30 the first user starts tube routing with XpresRoute, which takes 6 tokens. 19 remain. At 10:00 a second user starts a normal modes analysis in Simulation Standard, 13 tokens. 6 remain. At 10:30 a third user adds PMI to a model with Advanced PMI, 5 tokens, leaving 1.

By 12:30 two of those sessions have finished and 20 tokens are back in the pool. At 1:00 the first user starts a generative design study, 15 tokens, with 5 still spare. Four people, four different add-ons, no dedicated licences bought.

2. What the pool covers

The token count per add-on is fixed, so you can plan around it. Routing and electrical: XpresRoute 6, Electrical Routing 8, PCB Collaboration 5, Piping Design 25, P&ID Design 16, Machinery Library 4, Piping Library 4. Analysis and optimisation: Simulation Standard 13, Simulation Advanced 20, Generative Design Pro 15.

Documentation and inspection: Advanced PMI 5, MBD 7, Automatic Drawings 15, Inspector Standard 6, Inspector Advanced 12, DSTV Export 7. Data exchange: CATIA V4 Translator 3, CATIA V5 Translator 21, Point Cloud Visualization 3. Configuration: Design Configurator Standard 10.

One add-on is specific to a delivery model: P&ID Design is available with the desktop subscription and not with Designcenter X Solid Edge. Everything else in the list works with both.

3. Simulation and generative design on demand

The two heaviest add-ons in the list are the ones most teams use least often, which is exactly why they suit a token pool. Simulation Standard at 13 tokens covers studies such as the normal modes analysis in the example above, run inside the Solid Edge model. Simulation Advanced at 20 adds the more demanding analysis types.

Generative Design Pro at 15 tokens lets a designer set the loads and constraints and have the software produce an optimised shape, which Siemens describes as fast and accurate design optimisation.

With a 25-token pack, one of these can run while a colleague uses routing or PMI. With a 50-token pack, two analysts can work in parallel with tokens to spare. The pool size decides the concurrency, not the number of people.

4. Documentation, inspection and data exchange

The smaller add-ons are where the pool earns its keep every day. Advanced PMI at 5 tokens puts dimensions and annotations on the 3D model, and MBD at 7 packages them for a model-based process. Automatic Drawings at 15 creates the 2D sheets from the model. Inspector Standard and Advanced, at 6 and 12, handle inspection documentation.

For anyone working with suppliers and customers on other systems, the CATIA V4 and V5 translators open native CATIA files, and Point Cloud Visualization brings scan data into the model. DSTV Export at 7 tokens handles structural steel output.

Because these are used for an hour here and there, five or six tokens cover a lot of ground across a team.

How to get it

Value-based licensing is an add-on subscription on top of your Designcenter Solid Edge seats, whether those seats are the desktop subscription or Designcenter X Solid Edge. Packs come in 10, 25 or 50 tokens per year, with the 10-pack reserved for Designcenter X Solid Edge. You can mix and match add-ons freely, and you can grow the pool at renewal if usage rises.

For learning the add-ons, Siemens Xcelerator Academy has self-paced online courses across the Solid Edge range, and NomuTech provides instructor-led training online or in person anywhere in the Middle East.

NomuTech supplies, implements and trains on Solid Edge across the Middle East. Send us a note on which add-ons you use and how often, and we will size a pack for you: talk to us.