Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
(OP)
Hi CAD Users,
I'm trying to figure out the current CAD or job trends between Unigraphics NX and SolidWorks, such as, but not limited to:
1) Job Comparison of companies seeking candidates with UG
or SolidWorks experience
2) Average cost differeences between the 2 CAD applications
3) Any current CAD trends
It would be nice to see this graphically & broken down regionally, but whatever data can be provided would be great.
Does anyone have this or can direct me to it?
Thanks
I'm trying to figure out the current CAD or job trends between Unigraphics NX and SolidWorks, such as, but not limited to:
1) Job Comparison of companies seeking candidates with UG
or SolidWorks experience
2) Average cost differeences between the 2 CAD applications
3) Any current CAD trends
It would be nice to see this graphically & broken down regionally, but whatever data can be provided would be great.
Does anyone have this or can direct me to it?
Thanks
Jason M.
Unigraphics NX & SolidWorks Designer






RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
That's good tip & there's some validity to your statement, but I am going to need more valid data than this.
What I am really seeking is some graphical data that presents current CAD trends between various CAD packages, but most particularly between UG & SW, such as job trends, costs, etc.
Does this type info. or metrics exist? If so, where?
Thanks
Jason M.
Unigraphics NX & SolidWorks Designer
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
There are tools in the UG toolbox that make it possible to manage such things without the need for parametric modelling. The ability to move, delete, resize, and replace faces was good enough to handle most of the changes.
Surface definitions could be changed by the defining points. Users had full access to knot points and poles. B-surface degree definition could be changed in both u- and v-directions. This was essential, as most of the input surfaces were 5th degree in one direction and 3rd degree in the other, and we HAD to match.
UG could handle cutting and pasting swatches of large models and still recognize organic faces as the same, so boolean operations would knit with no patches.
UG allowed access to the tolerance parameters of the parasolid kernel. This made it possible to work on very large models that had very small details without unravelling. 12 years ago, this was a big deal.
More???
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com-SolidWorks API VB programming help
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
2) I would guess SW is cheaper, but don't really know.
3) We recruit @ RPI which recently (for political/sponsorship reasons) started teaching their students UG instead of SW. It's a giant disservice. As far as I can see, SW is more popular, Pro|e next, and some Inventor.
Pro|e is still best for know though... :)
Chris Loughnane - Product Design
http://www.pdnotebook.com
http://www.twitter.com/DesignNotebook
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
That sounds just like my brief interaction with Apple. The ID drove everything, even if it made no sense.
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
Thanks for the feedback thus far. As for UG, which I am a long time UG user myself, it does seem to be fading away. This is due to a number of factors, but some of the common factors seems to be the following:
* Costs - Compared to SolidWorks, it's estimated that it's 1/2 to 1/4 of the costs - Due to this, SW is increasingly becoming more popular amongsts small to mid-size companies.
* SW is giving UG & other major CAD appicatinos, such as Catia & Pro-E a run for its money. Depending on companies needs, most CAD features are similar between the various CAD applications & some instances, may be more powerful. Of course in other instances, not as powerful either.
It's a toss up between teh cost-benefit analysis.
At least these are a couple CAD trends that I see between UG & SW. I was hoping to find more factural statistics, metrics or graphical data, but I guess there is none.
Thanks....
Jason M.
Unigraphics NX & SolidWorks Designer
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
I don't have much for cost information on NX vs SW but Indeed is a great place to find job trending data. If you haven't used Indeed.com before it's a meta-job search engine, meaning, it scrapes all the jobs sites out there and compiles them into one searchable area.
Here is a link to the 'trends' portion of the website where you can key in a couple of keywords and see the history of postings.
Examples:
http://
http:/
Tony Greising-Murschel
Windows XP SP3 x86 (Don't ask)
Core i7 870 - 4GB
Nvidia Quadro FX 580
SolidWorks 2010 SP2.0
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
We were in the same place, I'll bet we worked for many of the same people. I was there 1998 & 99. iMac, 17" & 21" monitors, G3 powerbook, Cinema Display. Went back to Midwest to raise kids far away from CA schools.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com-SolidWorks API VB programming help
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
Thanks for the info. That's the type of info. that I'm looking for. I was hoping to find more specifics though, but it doesn't appear to be any, after doing a bit of research.
But, this is a good start.
Jason M.
Unigraphics NX & SolidWorks Designer
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
Catia, UG/NX and Pro/E tend to be the big companies that have tens or hundreds of seats, such as the major Aerospace and Automotive companies. I can't see those companies using Sold Works, Inventor or Solid Edge because they just wouldn't handle that amount of data.
In the UK Rolls Royce Aero use NX, Bombardier (Rail) use Catia.
I work at a small company that does small rail projects and we use Solid Edge. Another similar company uses Solid Works.
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
Where would we be without sat-nav?
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
In my area (Massachusetts) Solidworks is now the most used software by companies that are actually hiring. It has become the standard at the biomedical device makers, and is also used, as noted, by most smaller firms. Pro/E is still used by the larger firms that got into CAD in the '90s. NX is used by Bose and other firms in this area that interact with the automototive sector.
My own personal experience includes 14 years of Pro/E thru Wildfire 4, 3 years with NX thru version 6, and 1 year with SolidWorks. The companies I have worked for create complex prismatic parts (castings and injection moulded parts mostly), so I personally don't have much experience with surfacing technology.
Again, speaking only from my own experience, NX and Pro/E have many tools available to help deal with very large assemblies. SolidWorks, on the other hand, has not impressed me with its large assembly performance. I regularly worked with assemblies with thousands of components on a 2 GB Win32 box with NX and Pro, but SW chokes unless you go to Win64 and 8 GB or more of memory. Even with that, my Quad-core Dell system performs very sluggishly with large SW models.
Having said that, SW is very very easy to learn, especially coming from Pro/E. I'm not sure the same is true in the other direction.
Sorry for getting off track, but it's my opinion that you need to know SW if you want to work around here. Small companies are usually the growth engine during periods of ecomonic recovery, and they tend to be going with SW.
Echoing what Tick said, NX has introduced some very powerful direct-face modeling that could usher in a major shift in how we think about CAD. PTC is following suit with its acquisition of CoCreate (who have been doing direct modeling for 15 years). SW is definitely lagging in this area. I think this technology is not going to replace feature-based design for a while, but it is certainly intriguing.
Ed
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
That said, if you don't need the power that The Tick refers to (even better now with Synchronous Technology), go SW.
"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
Preaching to the choir here. I have yet to see something that matches Pro|e's Behavioral Modeling eXtension capability.
It's the best way I've seen to produce dead on geometry.
Just try making a sin curve in solidworks.
Chris Loughnane - Product Design
http://www.pdnotebook.com
http://www.twitter.com/DesignNotebook
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
Ed
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
RE: Unigraphics NX vs. SolidWorks
You might also be interested in the Cyon Research white papers titled:
"The Value-Proposition of High-End Mechanical CAD" 2003
and
"A Fresh Look at the Value Proposition of High-End Mechincal CAD" 2007
The 2nd paper listed has pricing information (at the time). Keep in mind however that many customers of the "Specialized CAD" (NX, Catia) get bundled deals and pay significantly less per seat than the list prices. The same could apply to the Mainstream CAD.
As far as NX vs SW. They are both great. I would hope that NX is not going away (consider where the SW modeling kernel is licensed from). And I like the fact that SW and the other mainstream CAD is driving the specialized CAD vendors to try and stay ahead in product functionality and reduced pricing.