DriveWorks has just announce that DriveWorks Solo is now officially a Certified Gold Product. I found this rather surprising because I assumed it already was -DriveWorks Pro has been a gold product since 2002. Turns out each new product needs its own certification.

When looking to buy a partner product, its certification status should be part of your decision making process.

Here is SolidWorks’ definition of a gold product:

Beyond demonstrating success in the SolidWorks market, Certified Gold applications present a seamless and familiar environment to the SolidWorks user. Certified Gold Products:

Run on the same operating systems as SolidWorks software, and have the same Windows® desktop application for ease of administration

• Use and support SolidWorks documents and terminology
• Utilize SolidWorks graphics display and selection
• Provide edit definition capability
• Use SolidWorks style UI and Help, including tutorials, etc.

Gold Product Certification requires an ongoing partnership with Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp to:

• Keep up with and ensure compliance with new SolidWorks functionality
• Test Gold Products with new SolidWorks releases builds and make timely corrections to any ‘bugs’ or glitches
• Stay current with SolidWorks operating system requirements