SOLIDWORKS PARTNER PROGRAM. SOLIDWORKS 2018 Certified Gold Product Criteria Certification Handbook

Transcription

1 SOLIDWORKS PARTNER PROGRAM SOLIDWORKS 2018 Certified Gold Product Criteria Certification Handbook

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Chapter 1: Expectations for Certified Gold Products... 4 Chapter 2: The Certification Process... 5 Application... 5 Design Review... 5 Approval... 6 Ongoing Compatibility... 6 New Release Compatibility... 6 Chapter 3: Sales and Marketing Criteria... 8 Released and with References... 8 Sales and Marketing Requirements... 8 Sales and Marketing Recommendations... 9 Chapter 4: Quality Assurance and Support Criteria QA Requirements Support Requirements Chapter 5: Certified Gold Product Requirements Product Requirements Common Certification Test Failure Items Chapter 6: Certified Gold Product Recommendations Help PropertyManager FeatureManager Design Tree Appendix A: Gold Certification Readiness Checklist SOLIDWORKS 2018 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 2

3 Introduction Dassault Systèmes (DS) SolidWorks Corporation developed the SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product Program to help users easily identify products that are designed specifically for SOLIDWORKS. The SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product logo assures customers that your product has the following qualities: Fully integrated: Your product is single-window integrated and has achieved a Designed for SOLIDWORKS level of integration. Associative: Your product operates directly on SOLIDWORKS geometry. When changes are made to the geometry, the product either updates automatically or warns the user that additional changes are necessary. Tested and certified: Your product has passed the SOLIDWORKS design review and meets the requirements listed in the SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product criteria identified in this document. You also have technical support and QA processes in place to assure timely problem resolution for your customers and to ensure ongoing compatibility with future releases of SOLIDWORKS. Certified Gold Products represent the highest level of integration with SOLIDWORKS software. They also provide the highest value to the SOLIDWORKS end user. SOLIDWORKS 2018 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 3

4 Chapter 1: Expectations for Certified Gold Products In addition to the success they demonstrate in the SOLIDWORKS market, Certified Gold products present a seamless and familiar environment to the SOLIDWORKS user. Certified Gold Products must: Run on the same operating systems as the SOLIDWORKS software Use and support SOLIDWORKS file types and terminology Utilize the SOLIDWORKS graphics display area Provide edit definition capability Use the SOLIDWORKS standard for UI and Help in the tutorials and other relevant guides Gold Product certification requires an ongoing partnership with SOLIDWORKS to ensure that you: Keep up with and ensure compliance with new SOLIDWORKS functionality Test Gold Products with new SOLIDWORKS releases and fix bugs in a timely manner Stay current with SOLIDWORKS operating system requirements SOLIDWORKS looks forward to welcoming you to the SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product Program. A world of opportunity awaits you. SOLIDWORKS 2018 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 4

5 Chapter 2: The Certification Process Achieving and maintaining SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product status requires a serious commitment from your organization. To ensure consistent and repeatable testing, SOLIDWORKS has established the following steps in the certification process: 1. Application 2. Design Review 3. Approval 4. Ongoing Compatibility 5. New Release Compatibility 1. Application The first step in the certification process is to submit the Certified Gold Product application to SOLIDWORKS. The application is located in the Secure Partners desktop on the SOLIDWORKS website at All applications must provide detailed product and contact information and must include five reference customers who have purchased your product and are using it with SOLIDWORKS. The Partner team may contact these reference customers to ensure their satisfaction with your product, your company, and your ongoing support. Before submitting an application, you must meet all of the criteria outlined in this document, including the product requirements, sales requirements, and marketing requirements. When your application is ready to submit, provide the Partner team with a copy of the latest released version of your software product by download or by CD or DVD. 2. Design Review Two reviews are conducted as part of the Gold Certification process. The first is the Initial Design Review, which is conducted after your Gold Product application has been reviewed and accepted. The Initial Design Review identifies areas of the solution that must be addressed before the second and final review is scheduled. The Final Design Review is conducted by the full Gold Product committee, which determines whether your product meets the requirements to receive Gold Certification. The following sections provide additional information about the Initial Design Review and the Final Design Review. Initial Design Review The initial design review comprises two parts: an in-person or online web meeting and a hands-on evaluation. This review is intended to: Provide the SOLIDWORKS team with a high-level overview of your product Set proper expectations while ensuring that resources and processes are in place to achieve and maintain certification Determine if your product is ready for the Final Design Review During the hands-on evaluation the certification team will install and run your application. This evaluation will include reviewing your Getting Started tutorials or guides. Any or all of the Gold Product criteria will be verified during the review. Any deficiencies will be noted and shared with you upon completion of the Initial Design Review. The results of the review can lead to a number of outcomes at the discretion of the review team, including: If feedback is minimal, a Final Design Review can be scheduled. If significant product changes are required, the reviewer will share necessary feedback so that you can prepare for another Initial Design Review. If your product does not meet the Gold Product criteria and significant changes are required, your application may be rejected. You may then make the required changes and reapply for Gold Partner status after 6 months. The Final Design Review will be scheduled only after all issues from the Initial Design Review have been resolved. Contact the Partner Program team to schedule the Final Design Review. SOLIDWORKS 2018 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 5

6 Final Design Review While SOLIDWORKS would prefer to conduct the design review in a meeting at our corporate headquarters, we realize that travel to Waltham, Massachusetts may not always be feasible. In those cases, the design reviews may be conducted via online meeting via GoToMeeting or Skype. The purpose of the entire design review process is to ensure that appropriate levels of software integration and associativity have been met and to ensure that the Partner Company understands the DS SolidWorks Corporation requirements for Gold Products. Although the design review does not constitute a thorough evaluation of your product s functionality, SOLIDWORKS will be able to identify whether your product meets the Certified Gold Product criteria. The design review committee is made up of SOLIDWORKS employees who represent Product Management, Development, User Experience, and Product Design. Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate their product, describe their company, and explain how the company is positioned to continue to meet the requirements of a Gold Certified Product. 3. Approval When the design review committee is satisfied that your product meets the Certified Gold Product criteria, the committee will inform the SOLIDWORKS Partner Team. The Partner Team will notify your company that your product has achieved Certified Gold Product status and will list your product in the Gold Partners section of the SOLIDWORKS Partner website. SOLIDWORKS will send a signed copy of the license agreement to your organization. After receiving official notice of Certified Gold Product status, you will have access to an electronic copy of the Certified Gold Product logo in the Secure Partner desktop section of the SOLIDWORKS website. Pay special attention to the Logo Usage Guidelines, which are also available in the Secure Partner desktop. If your product does not pass the design review, detailed feedback will be provided with the reason(s) that the product did not attain Certified Gold Product status. You must address all of these items before the product can be reconsidered for Certified Gold Product status. You must wait 6 months before submitting a new Gold Product application. 4. Ongoing Compatibility Attaining Certified Gold Product status is a significant achievement. To maintain your Certified Gold Product status, SOLIDWORKS requires that you do the following: Test early versions of new SOLIDWORKS releases to ensure that your product runs properly. These versions include Alpha, Beta, Early Visibility, Production Release, and Service Packs. Communicate with our Partner Technical Manager to coordinate product plans and test plans along with release cycles. Continually forward software updates to SOLIDWORKS as requested. SOLIDWORKS has an aggressive development schedule. Your ongoing cooperation is required to maintain compatibility with major releases. You are responsible for maintaining compatibility with each new release of SOLIDWORKS software. In addition to compatibility with new major releases, SOLIDWORKS requires ongoing compatibility with all service pack releases of SOLIDWORKS. You are responsible for testing your product with each service pack release, and for quickly addressing any problems that are identified. Before the release of any production version (major or service pack), an Early Visibility candidate will be made available. This should also be tested. Upon request, you must submit a copy of your software to SOLIDWORKS. Failure to comply will result in immediate loss of Gold Partner certification. Your company may then be asked to participate in the recertification process. 5. New Release Compatibility The SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product logo is valid only for the version of SOLIDWORKS for which your product was certified. Because Certified Gold Product criteria may change significantly for each major release, you must meet all of the new criteria in order to maintain your certified status. SOLIDWORKS will make every effort to publish the new criteria in the Secure Partner section of the SOLIDWORKS website at least 6 months prior to the release of the new SOLIDWORKS version. SOLIDWORKS 2018 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 6

7 Certified Gold Products must be compliant within 1 month after the initial release date of Service Pack 0 of that new release of SOLIDWORKS. If your product is not compliant within this specified time, it will lose Gold Partner certification. Your product will automatically enter the recertification process. Until your product successfully completes the recertification process, all associated Certified Gold Product privileges will be revoked. SOLIDWORKS 2018 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 7

8 Chapter 3: Sales and Marketing Criteria This chapter describes the sales and marketing criteria that are required to achieve Certified Gold Product status. Once that status is achieved, your organization must continually adhere to these criteria in order to maintain Certified Gold Product status. Released and with References Your Product Must Be Released To be approved for the SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product Program, your product must be released and currently in the process of being shipped, marketed, sold, and supported on the latest released version of SOLIDWORKS software. Five Customer References New SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product applications must be accompanied by at least five customer references. These references must be current SOLIDWORKS customers who have purchased the released version of the proposed Certified Gold Product. These references should be commercial customers who have used the solution in the course of their business. Product Suites In order for a bundled package of products (commonly known as a suite ) to use the Certified Gold Product logo, each individual product in that suite must be tested and must pass the Certified Gold Product requirements. Sales and Marketing Requirements Product Marketing To ensure that Certified Gold Products are supported and maintained, SOLIDWORKS requires that you demonstrate that the Certified Gold Product is actively being marketed and sold by complying with the following: Certified Gold Products must be on your published product price list Marketing collateral, including a datasheet, must be available for the Certified Gold Product Your web page must include a description of the Certified Gold Product The SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product logo must be displayed on this web page Sales Contracts Sales contracts and relationships with resellers and affiliates who sell both SOLIDWORKS and the Certified Gold Products shall be nonexclusive. The following conditions apply: Products that are competing with the Certified Gold Product can be sold by the same reseller or affiliate that is selling the Certified Gold Product Other SOLIDWORKS resellers in a given region may be eligible to enter into a contract with you or your affiliate to sell the Certified Gold Product, provided that they meet your documented criteria for selling and supporting your product Conflict Resolution You must work with SOLIDWORKS to resolve any sales conflicts that arise between resellers and affiliates. The violation of the trust or contractual obligation of one reseller or affiliate by another must be dealt with seriously. The appropriate remedial action must be taken with respect to the offending reseller or affiliate. SOLIDWORKS 2018 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 8

9 Sales and Marketing Recommendations Localized Products SOLIDWORKS is localized and sold in 14 languages. SOLIDWORKS recommends that you localize your product and support these languages to maximize your global opportunities. In particular, SOLIDWORKS will be looking for multilingual support of Partner Products when approaching major accounts with a Partner solution. Because of the differences in core components of Microsoft Windows operating systems, you must test your product on any localized versions of Microsoft Windows that you intend to support. SOLIDWORKS 2013 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 9

10 Chapter 4: Quality Assurance and Support Criteria This chapter discusses the quality assurance (QA) and support processes and resources necessary to ensure Designed for SOLIDWORKS integration. Your organization must continuously adhere to these criteria in order to maintain Certified Gold Product status. QA Requirements Certified Gold Products must have adequate QA processes in place. Adequate QA consists of the following: Checking Partner QA policies against the Gold product QA criteria before initial submission. Testing the Partner product with early SOLIDWORKS releases and service packs to ensure ongoing compatibility. Issuing service packs to correct serious bugs such as crashes, hangs, and regressions. Reporting SOLIDWORKS bugs to and providing test models and insight into the scope and impact to the SOLIDWORKS user. Maintaining an automated test suite to exercise core interactions between SOLIDWORKS and your product. At least one QA engineer in your company must have completed a weeklong SOLIDWORKS Essentials training class at one of the worldwide SOLIDWORKS offices or at a local value-added reseller (VAR). This requirement may be waived if a QA engineer has achieved the CSWA certification (Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate). Support Requirements Certified Gold Products must be adequately supported in each sales region in which your products are distributed. Adequate technical support includes the following: A dedicated software support process, including telephone and channels staffed by support engineers At least one support engineer who has completed a weeklong SOLIDWORKS Essentials training class. (Note: A support engineer with CSWA certification may be utilized. This employee must be different from the QA engineer.) Minimum technical support coverage between the local hours of 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M., Monday through Friday Maintenance of a website with support information A maximum initial response time of 4 hours to all customer inquiries during the operating hours of the support center Software defect reporting for the current shipping version of the Certified Gold Product Relaying of all SOLIDWORKS software defects to SOLIDWORKS technical support via at apisupport@solidworks.com Ensuring that customers who report defects are informed when fixes are available (including patches for critical bugs) Documented procedures for support engineers to access SOLIDWORKS releases and SOLIDWORKS technical support SOLIDWORKS 2013 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 10

11 Chapter 5: Certified Gold Product Requirements This chapter specifies the product requirements for attaining Certified Gold Product Status, and provides a list of items that frequently result in failure during the certification testing. Product Requirements Designed for SOLIDWORKS All SOLIDWORKS documents, data, and references must be supported. Any limitations must be handled efficiently and be well documented with best practice information. All preprocessing and post processing must be done fully within the SOLIDWORKS user interface. Geometry selection must be done in the SOLIDWORKS window using SOLIDWORKS-style selection mechanisms. The product must not duplicate any viewing mechanisms, including zoom, pan, and rotate, that are already provided by SOLIDWORKS. The product must be added or removed by using the SOLIDWORKS Add-in Manager. The Add-in Manager actions must be effective and must not cause unexpected results, such as crashes or lost data. The product must allow SOLIDWORKS users to have multiple SOLIDWORKS documents open at the same time. The product must have long file-name support, ensuring that there is no mishandling of SOLIDWORKS files that contain up to 256 characters. If your application creates files for any reason, those file names must support up to 256 characters as well. The product must have no conflicting definitions with SOLIDWORKS terms and names. The product must run properly with all SOLIDWORKS Premium add-ins checked. The product must perform acceptably with a dataset that is appropriate to the solution and will not adversely affect the performance of SOLIDWORKS. The product must utilize the CommandManager. Help The product help must conform to the SOLIDWORKS Documentation Style Guide (contact the Partner Technical Manager if you do not have access to this document) The product help for all features must be available online and available from the SOLIDWORKS Help menu A Getting Started section or tutorial must be included to introduce your product s significant functions System requirements must be documented in the Help menu About <Product Name> must be on the main Help menu, and must indicate which version of the software is installed User Interface The product s user interface must conform to the SOLIDWORKS Gold Product User Interface Style Guide The product must be operable through keyboard shortcuts, including access keys for menu items and the ability to tab through dialogs Application-specific menu items must appear within the SOLIDWORKS Tools menu items All toolbar buttons must have tooltips The product must support mouse features such as wheel control for dialog slider bars, list dialog box horizontal/vertical scroll bars, and view pan in the graphics and FeatureManager design tree windows The product s toolbar must be accessible through the SOLIDWORKS View/Toolbars pull-down list If you choose to localize your product, it should be done completely with all text translated, including Installation and Help Translations must comply with a native language standard System Requirements Certified Gold Products must support the same operating systems as SOLIDWORKS. Well before its release date, SOLIDWORKS will announce to all Gold Product vendors its intention to support any additional systems. The most up-to-date system requirements for SOLIDWORKS are listed here: SOLIDWORKS 2013 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 11

12 Associativity When there is a change to SOLIDWORKS geometry that is associated to the application, one of the following behaviors will be required of the product: Automatically update the corresponding application data (preferred method), or Launch a message or dialog that guides the user through the steps for successfully adapting to the changed data Where appropriate, the What s Wrong exclamation point should be used in the FeatureManager design tree tab for the data/results. Screen prints/reports should include text that clearly shows that the data/results are not valid for the associated part or assembly. FeatureManager Behavior SOLIDWORKS recommends that the application have the ability to rename features in the design tree by the following methods: Double-clicking on the name Selecting rename from the right mouse button menu Selecting properties from the right mouse button menu Design Tree Behavior Your tab in the FeatureManager must be accessible to the design tree and must be capable of the following actions: Multiselect items in the design tree, using both CTRL+Select and SHIFT+Select Edit the definition of features and attributes through the right mouse button menu in the design tree Delete features by selecting them in the design tree and clicking the Delete key Expand and collapse the design tree Navigate through the design tree using the keyboard arrow keys Cut and paste items in the design tree (where appropriate) Handle SOLIDWORKS feature names that contain up to 256 characters. This includes duplication of items in your application-specific FeatureManager tab. Data and File Management Requirements The application must meet the following requirements for data and file management: Documented best practices for all SOLIDWORKS data, including Configurations, External Part and Assembly References, and standard components such as Toolbox documents. Full path support of Universal Naming Convention (UNC) for shared file access. (The application must not require that named drives be mapped.) Complex components, such as RDMS servers and user and permission managers, must be separately installable. The server or administrative component must include documentation that lists services, protocols, and other system objects that are required or added during the installation. The SOLIDWORKS add-in must be a standard Microsoft Windows desktop application that meets the install and uninstall requirements listed in the following Installation section. Support and best practices for SOLIDWORKS PDM must be documented. Installation The installation must meet the following requirements: The installation must detect the operating system and previously installed versions of the product Software must be provided on CDs or DVDs or through a download link If a CD or DVD is provided, auto-run must work on the CD or DVD install The installation must default to the Program Files directory, but must allow the user to browse for an alternate install location Uninstall must work from Add/Remove programs or from a custom uninstaller (provided with the program) All files and registry keys created by your install must be removed on uninstall All Start Program menu items and any desktop shortcut keys must be removed on uninstall The product must be removed from the SOLIDWORKS Add-in Manager after uninstall Programming Standards Your application must follow the guidelines in the SOLIDWORKS API Programming Guide. SOLIDWORKS 2013 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 12

13 Common Certification Test Failure Items Following is a list of items that often result in failure during the certification test: The product does not load/unload properly through the SOLIDWORKS Add-In menu The product does not follow the SOLIDWORKS UI Style Guide The product Help menu is not available from the SOLIDWORKS Help menu The product installation does not default to the Program Files directory The product tab is not available in each FeatureManager when the user splits the FeatureManager design tree The product does not properly recognize the change when a SOLIDWORKS model changes The product toolbars are not accessible through the SOLIDWORKS View/Toolbars menu Online help is not available for all features Uninstall does not delete all files, folders, and registry entries Objects cannot be deleted, renamed, or multiselected in the partners tab of the FeatureManager design tree The interface does not support high resolution mode and Microsoft Windows desktop scaling SOLIDWORKS 2013 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 13

14 Chapter 6: Certified Gold Product Recommendations This chapter provides recommendations for Help, PropertyManager, and the FeatureManager design tree. Help SOLIDWORKS recommends that your product employ context-sensitive help. PropertyManager SOLIDWORKS recommends that you use the PropertyManager Heads-Up user interface for interaction with SOLIDWORKS geometry. FeatureManager Design Tree SOLIDWORKS recommends that your application use its own tab in the SOLIDWORKS FeatureManager design tree to help the user manage your application-specific features and attributes. We also recommend that you enable the following capabilities: Drag and drop items in the design tree Reorder features in the design tree Roll-back features Use of the GoTo tree searching tool Use of the GoTo feature (in the design tree) when using the right mouse button menu over a feature or attribute Ability to select items in the design tree and have them highlight in the graphics window, and vice versa SOLIDWORKS 2013 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 14

15 Appendix A Gold Certification Readiness Checklist Before submitting an application for Gold Product Certification, please review the following checklist to ensure that your product is ready for certification. You should not submit an application if any of these areas are deficient. Please contact the Gold Product team with any questions or concerns. 1. Ensure that this Gold Criteria document has been reviewed. a. QA requirements have been met, including: i. Plans in place to test - Beta and Early Visibility releases ii. Automated test suite in place to test core interactions between product and SOLIDWORKS iii. Member of QA team has completed SOLIDWORKS Essentials training or CSWA b. Technical Support i. Technical support process in place ii. System for tracking bugs in place iii. Technical Support team member has completed SOLIDWORKS Essentials training or CSWA c. Product Requirements: Designed for SOLIDWORKS criteria have been met d. Help i. Help documentation exists ii. Help links within Property Manager are functional and link to the Help documentation 2. Ensure that the Gold Product User Interface Style Guide, (available from Secure Partner Desktop) has been reviewed. Noncompliance with any of these items can result in failure to qualify for Gold Product certification. SOLIDWORKS 2013 CERTIFIED GOLD PRODUCT CRITERIA - 15