2025 Data Management Summit: PDM, 3DEXPERIENCE & a Room Full of Problem-Solvers

November 26, 2025 3DEXPERIENCE, PDM Like: 0

ByMarc Young, Managing Partner, xLM Solutions

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending (and presenting at) the 3rd Annual Data Management Summit – Friends-Giving 2025, hosted at the Dassault Systèmes U.S. headquarters in Waltham, MA. For anyone who hasn’t been: imagine a room full of PDM and 3DEXPERIENCE enthusiasts spending a day together talking shop, sharing ideas, learning new techniques, and enjoying a Thanksgiving-themed meal with people who genuinely love this stuff. It’s a uniquely warm, community-driven event — and it delivers real technical value. This year’s gathering brought together around 40 attendees across users, administrators, Dassault Systemès experts, partners, and long-time colleagues. Small enough to feel personal, big enough to spark meaningful discussions — in other words, the ideal user group setup.

Two Tracks, One Passion: PDM & 3DEXPERIENCE

The agenda was split into two parallel tracks, one for SOLIDWORKS PDM and another for ENOVIA/3DEXPERIENCE. I spent most of my day in the 3DEXPERIENCE room, but I popped into the PDM track as well. Both sides were packed with practical sessions, including topics like:

Managing Toolbox, Design Library & templates on 3DX
Extending business processes with ITEROP BPM
Troubleshooting PDM read-only issues
Maintaining PDM servers
Building effective PDM test vaults
Email & notification best practices

Each session was thoughtfully run, and the presenters brought real experience to the table. You could tell this was an event organized by people who live data management, not just talk about it.

My Session: A Ground-Up Look at 3DEXPERIENCE

I closed out the 3DEXPERIENCE track with a session focused on the fundamentals — a practical primer for anyone new to the platform. A lot of 3DEXPERIENCE sessions assume the audience already knows the data model, roles, maturity states, or even basic navigation. But many organizations are still early in their 3DX journey. My goal was to give attendees a clear and approachable tour of:

How the platform behaves
What administrators actually need to understand
The essentials of change, governance, maturity, and structure
How 3DX compares to more traditional PLM environments

Unable to join us in Waltham? xLM is hosting a webinar on 3DEXPERIENCE fundamentals on Thursday at 11:00AM ET. Secure your seat now to join us.

Learning Something New — Even After Decades in the Industry

One of the things I enjoy most about these gatherings is that I always pick up something new. This year, a few sessions caught my attention:

Simplified UI improvements coming to 3DX
Supplier collaboration enhancements
Dassault Systèmes’ new AI agent, AURA, which aims to simplify user interactions and streamline common workflows
Better approaches for managing Toolbox/Design Library in platform environments

And of course, Dassault’s ongoing push into AI continues to evolve. The team discussed AURA, their emerging AI agent for guided workflows and user support. Early days — but an interesting indicator of where the 3DX ecosystem is heading.

The Friends-Giving Part: Community, Colleagues & Conversation

Beyond the content, the best part of the day was simply the people. This community is filled with long-time colleagues, partners, and friends. We collaborate constantly — through LinkedIn groups, industry forums, or casual email threads — but seeing everyone in person changes the dynamic. Conversations flow differently. Ideas spark faster. And it’s always enjoyable to catch up with people who understand exactly why you care about revision schemes or process governance. Events like this remind me: our industry works because people share knowledge freely. This summit embodied that. The Dassault team also gave attendees a tour of the Waltham campus, including their U.S. 3DEXPERIENCE Lab and Customer Solution Center. It’s always good to see where the tools we use every day are being built and supported.

The R&D “Wish Wall” and Final Takeaways

During lunch, attendees were invited to add sticky notes to an “enhancement wall” — everything from UI wishes to full workflow improvements. Events like this remind me why our industry thrives: smart people, practical knowledge, and a genuine desire to help each other succeed. It was a fantastic day. And yes — I’ll absolutely be back next year.