Solidworks plans major thrust in education

Easwar Nair

NEW ORLEANS: Solidworks announced a major thrust in the education sector in India this year.

To give added focus to its education efforts, the company has moved PM Ravikumar as the education manager this January. The company added 125,000 new users in 2006 taking its overall user base to over 600,000 users worldwide.

Nearly 50 per cent of its user base are in the education segment.

The Indian sales operations which began in 2002 claims to be the second largest CAD vendor in the country and seeks to educate the new generation of mechanical engineers and career seekers in mechanical designing with Solidworks skills as a way to seed the market for future growth.

Solidworks addresses the growing market for advanced 3D mechanical designing on the Wintel platform. It also includes new 3D users who cross over from 2D designing like those from Autocad, the Autodesk product, which has a large user base.

Over 3500 engineers attended Solidworks World 2007 at New Orleans, LA. Solidworks’ sweet spot is the mid-tier 3D CAD market comprising designers and manufacturers of finished products or sub-assemblies.

Speaking to CyberMedia News, Marie Planchard, who heads the worldwide education initiatives said, “There are not enough trained engineers with advanced 3D design and analytical skills. Our work in this segment is to create a pipeline of talent for the future”.

The education initiative involves work with students and the teachers, alliances with schools universities and product design contests. Educational institutes get multiple licenses of the software under special pricing. A one-year student version of the software is available at Rs. 3000 for individual use by students. A free 60-day trial design kit is also available for students.

According to Ravikumar, the goal for 2007 is to cover 1500 engineering colleges in India by enhancing its education-focused channel.

© CyberMedia News