Planning the future of PLM and 3-D virtual tools

The product-development revolution that began with CATIA is only beginning, says Dassault Systemes' CEO Bernard Charlès.

To watch Bernard Charlès work the stage in front of hundreds is to watch a multidimensional engineer in his element. The CEO of France-based Dassault Systèmes (DS) is a dynamo. He's engaging, on-point, and adept at translating the complex into the easily understood. This is particularly true when he talks about the future of the collaborative 3-D product-lifecycle management (PLM) solutions spawned from DS' original CATIA that are revolutionizing product development and manufacturing.

“The next step for the 3-D virtual world is creating real products based on capturing user experience and the full voice of the customer from within that virtual world,” Charlès (pronounced shar-less) told AEI in an interview during his company's North American conference last winter.