SmarTeam, a PDM system that originated and was developed in Israel in the mid to late 90’s, was specially configured as an add-on PDM solution for SolidWorks, which at the time had only a limited PDM capability.

In about 1999, Dassault Systemes acquired a 75 percent interest in Smart Solutions, the Israeli company that developed and marketed SmarTeam. Dave Weisberg in his book entitled The Engineering Design Revolution noted that “This package was particularly well suited to users of SolidWorks although the two Dassault subsidiaries operated independently of each other. The SolidWorks version of SmarTeam was called SmartWorks.”

With the interest in and the growth in PDM (PLM), SmarTeam over the years migrated from an independent company with its own sales force, to one falling under the sales umbrella of SolidWorks, to a multi-CAD software organization, and finally, with DS’s multifarious PLM offerings, has now been submerged into Enovia.

From recent press announcements we infer that most development within Israel for the newest versions of SmarTeam has been eliminated. V6 development (the new technology) moved out of Israel to Paris and Boston. Israel continues V5 ENOVIA SmarTeam (the old version) development.

The ENOVIA SMB version, of which SmarTeam is a part, is called ENOVIA Express in V6 R2010, the most recent announcement.

Alas, SmarTeam suffered the fate of so many products. It became so popular that it became bloated trying to support higher and higher end accounts. Its simplicity was lost, and over time its technology became outdated.