SolidWorks Corp. is taking steps to protect the intellectual property of its CAD users, folding Enterprise Rights Management (ERM) technology into a new version of its software slated for release later this year.
SolidWorks 2008, due in the second quarter of 2007, will incorporate ERM technology from Liquid Machines, which marries security permissions with data — in this case, 3D models — so information is protected as its moves across different file types, between users and around the globe. Companies can assign various permission levels to different users, and the SolidWorks ERM capabilities will allow or disallow certain functions to be performed on the CAD models, depending on the permissions, as the information is shared across a global, dispersed design team.
Intellectual property (IP) security is a growing concern for companies working with extended design value chains, according to Ken Amann, director of research for CIMdata Inc., a market research firm in Ann Arbor, MI. “This is especially true for companies that either work with companies that compete with one another and who have suppliers that are also competitors,” he says. “It is important to be able to securely share IP without having competitors’ IP at the risk of accidentally or deliberately being compromised.”
While SolidWorks’ research shows users have growing interest in protecting their IP, there is another benefit to the ERM technology — one that SolidWorks believes might have more impact over time. Using the built-in ERM functionality, SolidWorks CAD users can get the benefits of version-control functionality without having to invest in a PDM (Product Data Management) system, says Rainer Gawlick, SolidWorks’ vice president of marketing.
“In our space, there are many small companies that don’t have the IT infrastructure to extend the capabilities of PDM version management well beyond the borders of their company to partners, suppliers and customers,” Gawlick says. “This is a way they can do that that is lightweight and doesn’t require a heavy investment in IT.”
While the forthcoming version of SolidWorks will have the built-in ERM capabilities, customers will still need to purchase a policy server, either Liquid Machines’ offering or the Rights Management Services policy server from Microsoft Corp. to get the requisite capabilities on the server side.
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 SolidWorks 2008 will include built-in rights management function, allowing CAD users to restrict access to certain models while facilitating better version control. |
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