Almost every CAD/CAD/CAE vendor is a Siemens PLM customer.

Siemens PLM Software today announced that sales of its Parasolid 3D geometric modeling kernel have topped 3.5 million. The list of software vendors that use Parasolid reads like a Who’s Who in CAD/CAM/CAE, with very few exceptions.

By comparison, Siemens PLM’s leading competitor in the 3D modeling kernel business is the Spatial division of Dassault Systèmes, which currently claims to have sold more than 2 million copies to its clients. But Spatial sells two kernels (ACIS and CGM) and a variety of other 3D visualization and conversion products and components.

Autodesk and PTC for the most part use proprietary 3D modeling kernels, except as noted below. Most products using Parasolid are on Windows, but Nemetschek Vectorworks and Siemens PLM NX are also on Mac OS X.

More than 150 independent software vendors are creating more than 350 applications with Parasolid as the 3D modeling kernel or for model translation.

By category, here are the leading users of Parasolid:

Manufacturing CAD: Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks; IronCAD; Missler Software; Top Systems; Vero Software; as well as Siemens PLM Software’s own Solid Edge software and NX software.

Simulation, Analysis, and Machining: Ansys; CD-Adapco; Planit Software; Delcam, Mentor Graphics; DP Technology; Gibbs and Associates; MSC.Software. In addition Parasolid is used by CNC Software in its Mastercam software and by Autodesk in its Moldflow software. Parasolid is also the geometric component modeler used as the foundation for the CAE and CAM modules of Siemens PLM Software’s NX solution.

Architectural CAD: Bentley Systems; Nemetschek Vectorworks.

Interoperability: Parasolid XT data is included in the software development toolkit that supports Siemens PLM Software’s JT Open Program, used by a variety of vendors.