OLE for Design and Modeling, or OLE for D&M, extends OLE technology to support design and modeling. One of the of the main advantages to OLE for D&M is that it provides cross-application integration. It gives you the freedom to integrate different software tools to meet your needs.
For example, you can use Solid Edge with other products for such tasks as model analysis without translating data. The Solid Edge Voyager Program unites Solid Edge with third party vendors of engineering and manufacturing software packages that complement Solid Edge's design automation tools. The Voyager Program includes vendors specializing in such things as analysis, product data management, hardware, and rapid prototyping.
In addition to cross-application integration, OLE for D&M also provides the following advantages over the earlier OLE 2.0 standard:
No Data Translation—OLE for D&M enables data access rather than data exchange, which means there is no loss of high-level data.
Associativity—OLE for D&M supports associativity which insures that the 3-D model in the downstream application is always kept current with design changes in the CAD model.
Flexibility—OLE for D&M allows a container to connect to any number of servers so that a collection of related geometry from different systems can be displayed in the container's window.
Best of Class Applications—OLE for D&M gives you the freedom to integrate best in class software tools to meet your engineering needs.