How come SE is not more popular? 1

[Gemnoc]

Hello guys,

Newbie here says hello. I've been evaluating Solid Edge (V18 because we are still on Win2k, can you believe it) for the past two months, and comparing with Solidworks and Inventor.

I've come to the conclusion that in the two environments that most matter to us (frames and sheetmetal), SE is more efficient than SW and IV. With frames, the fact that you don't have to trim your profile ends manually like in SW and IV is a big plus. You can't save a sheetmetal flat pattern directly in dwg/dxf format in SW, which is IMHO an incredible oversight (IV does it). Generally workflow in SE seems faster, even though SW has a slightly more user-friendly UI.

Inventor has a ton of features and fonctionality, but I just can't get past those big dialog boxes that take valuable screen space. For example, the frames dialog box takes almost 1/4 of my 1280x1024 screen. I see that as a huge impediment to productivity. Or am I missing something?

At this time I'm sold to SE, and I'm trying to convince my boss who's an Autodesk aficionado to purchase it. But the fact SE's user base is so small worries me a little. This forum here is the only one I've found that's got any activity...

 

[SLemin]

According to MCAD, in terms of adverts recruiting users with particular CAD skills, SE is third:

SolidWorks 33%
Pro E 22%
SolidEdge 13%
Inventor 11%
Catia 10%
UG 9%
Others 2%


Simon

 

[zcp]

Workflow and productivity are much better for us in SE. Sheetmetal and drafting in particular. There is enough of a user base to put away your worries. I have also found it easier to get someone up to FULL productivity quicker in SE. They may model their first model a little quicker in SW, but total package will be completed quicker and more efficiently in SE.

ZCP

http://www.phoenix-engineer.com

 

[PatCouture]

One of the reasons why you don't find much help other than this site is because a major number of user go directly to the UGS website where you need to have a password to get into and the password comes with the SE maintenance.

Welcome to the SE world

Patrick

 

[EricatNordic]

After UG for 5+ years, SE seemed very simple.

I'm curious, are any of you maintenance customers? Do you use both user groups together? I was actually suprised how many SE companies are within a morning commute of my work. The UGS hosted users newsgroup also has ample traffic and seemed to bring quick answers to my questions.

The one complaint I have about SE is that the maintenance cost are a little higher and they penalize you with a very big reactivation fee if you don't maintain a license. It makes it hard to adapt staff size since you have to pay for the overhead of a seat whether its being used or not.

 

[PatCouture]

Eric

For your information I use both this website and the ugs user group! There are more experienced user on the newsgroup and also the techs from UGS are there too. But I really like this site so I find myself back here often.


Cheers

Pat

 

[HDS]

One of the reasons the user base is smaller is that EDS/UGS was much weaker on the sales front than Solidworks/Dassault.

The biggest weakness compared to Solidworks is in 3rd party support. There are dozens of add in applications for Solidworks and only a handful for SE.

 

[kjoiner]

Eric,

I'll second everthing that Pat has said. I've been using Solid Edge for 6 years and the technical support for Solid Edge is excellent. Like Pat said, UGS has a newsgroup for Solid Edge customers and I visit both the UGS site and this one.

As far as call in support, every time I call in, I get someone on the phone quickly and they can usually answer questions during the call. If not, I can send them a file and they'll take a look at it.

Kyle

 

[donyoung]

Hi,

[cite]
As far as call in support, every time I call in, I get someone on the phone quickly and they can usually answer questions during the call. If not, I can send them a file and they'll take a look at it.
[/cite]

that is possible in Northern America only. All others
have to channel this trough their resellers :-(

As already pointed out: SWX has a much more aggressive marketing
than UGS/SE

dy

 

[KENAT]

I've used SE since 1999 and learnt it about the same time as I learned Pro E.

I always found SE much easier to use, especially on drawing creation.

I've never used SW so can't say anything definitive but just from conversations I've had etc I believe they're broadly comparable.

The perceived weak sales effort is an oft heard complaint, if you don't believe me check out the UGS site posts from a few months back.

I use both the UGS site and this one. I use this one more just because I'm often on here checking other forums. Plus a lot of the posters here are a bit more 'engineering' minded, not just CAD operators and it tends to show in some of the responses.

 

[Gemnoc]

Wow, many responses. Thanks guys.

As already pointed out: SWX has a much more aggressive marketing than UGS/SE

The local SE reseller told me the same thing. He says UGS prefers to spend the budgets on R&D. Sales talk? Anyway, couldn't get my boss to sit down today to discuss...

 

[KENAT]

Interesting point. At my last place when they first looked at 3d cad (around 1997 or 1998) they considered both SE & SW.

Technically the thought both were equal but they picked SE for one main reason.

The SE sales guy when he came in concentrated on demonstrating the software.

The SW guy when he came in apparantly spent the whole time demeaning SE and saying how inferior it was in comparison to SW without really backing this up.

Based on this experience my place didn't like the attitude of SW and picked SE.

I wonder if this is general practice for SW and a lot of customers fall for it.

 

[donyoung]

Hi,

salesman's wisdom:

"The own product won't get any better by running
the competion's product down"

;-)

dy

 

[PatCouture]

Kenat

I had exactly the same experience when I evaluated SW and SE back in 2003. The salesman from SW where only chatting about what SW does that the others don't, that really bothered me. Then I spent some time with the SE guys and they were really showing me what SE was able to do for what I needed it to. That made all the difference.

Patrick

 

[looslib]

I think a lot of the SW salesrats used to work for PTC. They have the same technique.

What's the difference in a car salesman and a CAD salesman?



The car salesman knows when he is lying!




"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

 

[moldcore]

Solid Edge doesn’t sell as well because the market is saturated with SW. I build molds around customer furnished solid models. I quote 6-12 molds a week and have never seen a solid model from SE. Most are native SW files (60% to 70%) and the rest are IGES, STEP, or x_t.

I had both SE and SW salesmen demo within a week about 4 or 5 years ago. They both bad mouthed the competition to a point it was ridiculous.

I purchased Solid Edge only because it was a little cheaper at that time. I’ve recently dropped Solid Edge when their maintenance went through the roof and went back to KeyCreator ($700 a year vs. $1600 for SE). I don’t miss SE because KeyCreator can do everything I expected from SE at a much cheaper cost. Plus I don’t have to deal with the parametric model structure anymore.

 

[donyoung]

Hi,

[cite]
Plus I don’t have to deal with the parametric model structure anymore.
[/cite]

commonly known as non-history modeling. This approach is
taken by CoCreate and IronCad as well the former is strong
in Europe the latter China if I remeber it correct.

dy

 

[J-C]

The bad mouthing just depends on the individual salesman you get, although PTC seemed to train in that technique. When we evaluated SE & SW around 98, the SE salesman tried to use the "Dassault just bought Solidworks, they'll kill it" line.

Personally, I think UGS has held SE back. Not devleopment wise but definetely saleswise. They would rather sell you UG NX for 3x the price. Dassault lets Solidworks operate like its a separate company.....and now it outsells Catia even.

Ive' noticed lately that SE marketing has pciked up. They have demo disks that say something like "see why SE is better than Sw and Inventor". I think they had a few webcasts with same theme as well.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
UG NX4.01.0 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.2 on WinXP SP2

 

[donyoung]

Hi,

every CAD has its weak an strong points so there is no a real
bad CAD around. You may, hoewever, end up with a CAD that
doesn't suit your needs well when you believe that the sun
is shining all day long from an always blue sky ...

dy

 

[Gemnoc]

I've received approval for the purchase of 2 seats of Solid Edge.

The SE reseller was really helpful during my evaluation and never badmouthed SW, in fact he encouraged me to compare his software with the competition.

We'll pay for one year maintenance and I guess we'll see after that. I have a 5-year old quote from another SE reseller and the maintenance has not changed here.