CAD on Amazon Workspaces

[Ry-guy]

I was wondering if we had anyone who has had experience running CAD in an Amazon Workspace using the GPU bundle option. If so, can you please share your experiences?

[Ry-guy]

Wow....33 reads and no replies! Makes me think no one is actually doing this. Darn.

[bnemec]

Doesn't SW offer "online test drives" of new SW releases? I thought I heard that was SW desktop hosted on some hosting service.

[mattpeneguy]

Wow....33 reads and no replies! Makes me think no one is actually doing this. Darn.

I'm one of those 33 and I'm definitely interested in what people have to say on this. We are behind a firewall and can't use standalone licenses. I'd be curious if we could use our SNL on AWS...because I can navigate to Amazon here at work but they block *.solidworks.com ports that the standalone license uses...probably flagged as "work related" or something...

SW discontinued the home use license and it'd be nice if we could use it at home some kind of way, but we're stuck. Some of us still have it installed, and DS hasn't turned off the switch for those HULs...yet.

[jcapriotti]

SolidWorks uses Amazon Appstream (https://aws.amazon.com/appstream2) to host online trials and the beta testing if you don't want to download and test locally. I tried it two years back and was surprised how smooth it ran. Nothing large though, just some small models.

[jcapriotti]

I'm one of those 33 and I'm definitely interested in what people have to say on this. We are behind a firewall and can't use standalone licenses. I'd be curious if we could use our SNL on AWS...because I can navigate to Amazon here at work but they block *.solidworks.com ports that the standalone license uses...probably flagged as "work related" or something...

SW discontinued the home use license and it'd be nice if we could use it at home some kind of way, but we're stuck. Some of us still have it installed, and DS hasn't turned off the switch for those HULs...yet.

Your IT can add cloud servers to your domain so you could host the SNL server in the cloud. That's the direction we are going for our global SolidWorks licenses. From home your would need to VPN in to your network to access though as it's behind your firewall. You can also checkout licenses so you can run SolidWorks offline from your SNL.

[mattpeneguy]

Your IT can add cloud servers to your domain so you could host the SNL server in the cloud. That's the direction we are going for our global SolidWorks licenses. From home your would need to VPN in to your network to access though as it's behind your firewall. You can also checkout licenses so you can run SolidWorks offline from your SNL.

If I can't get them to whitelist *.solidworks.com, I doubt they'll add cloud servers.
I'm not sure how the checkout works if the SNL is behind the firewall.

[zwei]

Never really try CAD on cloud but I did try it on some "remote" workstation

My experience with these "cloud" or "remote" workstation is that the network play an important role in this...

And a lot of time our IT throttle our network so whatever cloud experience become 3DSWYMPexperience (but at least it is still usable)

[Ry-guy]

Your IT can add cloud servers to your domain so you could host the SNL server in the cloud. That's the direction we are going for our global SolidWorks licenses. From home your would need to VPN in to your network to access though as it's behind your firewall. You can also checkout licenses so you can run SolidWorks offline from your SNL.

You have to make sure that you standup your servers in the correct AWS regional zones or you will be violating your EULA!
Dassault does NOT like to assigne a single global licensing. My experience is that we had to have one for NA and a seperate for the rest of the world. We could combine all our EU businesses into a single EU licence but not both.

Be very careful!

[mattpeneguy]

You have to make sure that you standup your servers in the correct AWS regional zones or you will be violating your EULA!
Dassault does NOT like to assigne a single global licensing. My experience is that we had to have one for NA and a seperate for the rest of the world. We could combine all our EU businesses into a single EU licence but not both.

Be very careful!

Just have your EU people claim that they identify as American and your problem is solved, right?

[jcapriotti]

You have to make sure that you standup your servers in the correct AWS regional zones or you will be violating your EULA!
Dassault does NOT like to assigne a single global licensing. My experience is that we had to have one for NA and a seperate for the rest of the world. We could combine all our EU businesses into a single EU licence but not both.

Be very careful!

We will be transferring 50+ license to a global license hosted in azure in Europe. This license is regionless and can be accessed by any of our businesses in 7 different countries. You have to buy this directly from Dassault. We'll still have local licenses at each location due to cost.

[Ry-guy]

We will be transferring 50+ license to a global license hosted in azure in Europe. This license is regionless and can be accessed by any of our businesses in 7 different countries. You have to buy this directly from Dassault. We'll still have local licenses at each location due to cost.

Wow...they must have had some customer change really complain! I tried to get a single global license but Dassault wasn't willing to budge on EU vs NA. And our legal department was asking for other changes to the boiler plate agreement...so it all went to hell in basket. So we are stuck with sites that are literally across the street that can't share licenses...stupid...

[jcapriotti]

Wow...they must have had some customer change really complain! I tried to get a single global license but Dassault wasn't willing to budge on EU vs NA. And our legal department was asking for other changes to the boiler plate agreement...so it all went to hell in basket. So we are stuck with sites that are literally across the street that can't share licenses...stupid...

Don't know when you attempted it but we started this talk a while back, maybe 2 years originally. A global license essentially is double the cost. Not sure if you had to 'qualify' for it in some way but there as hasn't been much trouble getting it. Figuring out how many to transfer has been more of challenge.

The standard regional license comes in one of 3 regions (Americas, Europe/Africa, Asia/Australia), global is well......global. To me, if you don't have users in all 3 regions, it's not worth the cost and hassle.

[y.plessis]

Hello Guys

We developped a managed solution to run any CAD software on Amazon Wokspace with graphics acceleration :
https://ocws.orinox.com/en/services/workspaces
Feel free to visit the page and contact me if more information needed

Yannick

[AlexLachance]

Hello Guys

We developped a managed solution to run any CAD software on Amazon Wokspace with graphics acceleration :
https://ocws.orinox.com/en/services/workspaces
Feel free to visit the page and contact me if more information needed

Yannick

Hey Yannick, since this topic seems to have been "inactive" for a little bit, and doesn't seem so common around, I think you should expand on what it is and why people would want to look into it. Most people won't bother clicking the link, but if there's a paragraph or two explaining it, they'll often read it.

[mattpeneguy]

What I want to know is if you can run the 3DXP apps on the Amazon Workspace?

[mattpeneguy]

Hello Guys

We developped a managed solution to run any CAD software on Amazon Wokspace with graphics acceleration :
https://ocws.orinox.com/en/services/workspaces
Feel free to visit the page and contact me if more information needed

Yannick

Just to be clear, did you mean Workspace or Wokespace?

[wwright]

this is an old thread but we run Catia 3D experience on AWS appstreams. We run the stream.graphics.g4dn.2xlarge which is $1.58 an hour. We also use it for Solidworks. I think this is a bit overkill. The stream.graphics-design.xlarge wasn't powerful enough. Has anyone tried a different configuration for Solidworks?

[Ryan-3DS]

This is Ryan (aka Ry-Guy). I work for Dassault Systems, now. 30+ years of grape Kool-aid from Siemens products and I decided to switch flavors to cherry and am now at Dassault Systems.

At a previous job, in medical device manufacturing, we were working with global design teams using Amazon workspaces. You have to be a bit careful here due to your EULA agreements- using software in different "countries". But my experience is that it worked OK. If you are having to use a PDM tool it gets a bit more complicated but doable. It's not cheap either!
There are different "levels" of workspaces you can run. To be honest, Azure is probably your best route to go instead of AWS. If you go AWS you still need to provide licensing for your OS and MS Office licensing - or pay for it. I'm pretty sure that Microsofts virtual desktops include those costs.

So onto, 3EXP.
3DEXPERIENCE is its own platform (PaaS)- a true platform not the lift and shift cloud "strategy" that other systems are providing (grape Kool-aid).

3DEXP apps run on the platform- so no need to go to AWS to setup a workspace, pay Microsoft for your OS and Office tools and or Server OS, etc. There are a lot of hidden costs that people don't realize until too late. When looking at cloud-based and cloud-native tools you need to fully understand the total cost of ownership of your chosen solution. This is where the platform comes into play.

I am curious, how many are now using cloud apps or looking at options like 3DEXPERIENCE, Siemens "value-based licensing"- they call XaaS or any other options? Doubly curious because Siemens AG is pushing hard to get as many customers off of perpetual licensing and onto subscriptions.

Ryan McVay
3DS Employee-
You can take a look at my profile and find my LinkedIn

[jcapriotti]

3DEXP apps run on the platform- so no need to go to AWS to setup a workspace, pay Microsoft for your OS and Office tools and or Server OS, etc. There are a lot of hidden costs that people don't realize until too late. When looking at cloud-based and cloud-native tools you need to fully understand the total cost of ownership of your chosen solution. This is where the platform comes into play.

I am curious, how many are now using cloud apps or looking at options like 3DEXPERIENCE, Siemens "value-based licensing"- they call XaaS or any other options? Doubly curious because Siemens AG is pushing hard to get as many customers off of perpetual licensing and onto subscriptions.

We just went to Windchill so this is not an option for our SolidWorks application. If Dassault pushes to replace DesktopWorks with Cloudworks, they will lose nearly a 1000 seats of SolidWorks. The company will likely switch us to Creo, they aren't going to drop Windchill.

[bnemec]

This is Ryan (aka Ry-Guy). I work for Dassault Systems, now. 30+ years of grape Kool-aid from Siemens products and I decided to switch flavors to cherry and am now at Dassault Systems.

At a previous job, in medical device manufacturing, we were working with global design teams using Amazon workspaces. You have to be a bit careful here due to your EULA agreements- using software in different "countries". But my experience is that it worked OK. If you are having to use a PDM tool it gets a bit more complicated but doable. It's not cheap either!
There are different "levels" of workspaces you can run. To be honest, Azure is probably your best route to go instead of AWS. If you go AWS you still need to provide licensing for your OS and MS Office licensing - or pay for it. I'm pretty sure that Microsofts virtual desktops include those costs.

So onto, 3EXP.
3DEXPERIENCE is its own platform (PaaS)- a true platform not the lift and shift cloud "strategy" that other systems are providing (grape Kool-aid).

3DEXP apps run on the platform- so no need to go to AWS to setup a workspace, pay Microsoft for your OS and Office tools and or Server OS, etc. There are a lot of hidden costs that people don't realize until too late. When looking at cloud-based and cloud-native tools you need to fully understand the total cost of ownership of your chosen solution. This is where the platform comes into play.

I am curious, how many are now using cloud apps or looking at options like 3DEXPERIENCE, Siemens "value-based licensing"- they call XaaS or any other options? Doubly curious because Siemens AG is pushing hard to get as many customers off of perpetual licensing and onto subscriptions.

Ryan McVay
3DS Employee-
You can take a look at my profile and find my LinkedIn

Hi Ryan. Been a while since I've seen your posts, last time was a couple years ago in SE user forums. Remember the wailing over there when Siemens moved the forum to a different system? LOL

Anyway, concerning moving to platform. Yeah, only way I see that happening is as a directive from the very top down because the users don't want it. It's clear to see that's the angle marketing has been using for several years. I've made clear that if they want to switch CAD or file management system again, they will need to find someone else to do it. Even if there's an ultimatum and it means getting my resume updated, I'm not going through that again, not worth the pay.

[Ryan-3DS]

We just went to Windchill so this is not an option for our SolidWorks application. If Dassault pushes to replace DesktopWorks with Cloudworks, they will lose nearly a 1000 seats of SolidWorks. The company will likely switch us to Creo, they aren't going to drop Windchill.

LOL. Windchill is truly on its way to being replaced. Just listen to the COE. Do a quick search for Windchill+ this is the only future for PTC at this time. Any cloud capabilities of the legacy system is what is called "lift and shift". https://www.ptc.com/en/products/windchill-plus

[jcapriotti]

LOL. Windchill is truly on its way to being replaced. Just listen to the COE. Do a quick search for Windchill+ this is the only future for PTC at this time. Any cloud capabilities of the legacy system is what is called "lift and shift". https://www.ptc.com/en/products/windchill-plus

Probably true but I imagine we are years away from that. We are on year 5 and still aren't production yet....supposedly this year.