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...

 

[onefjef]

I still need ACAD for quick projects but more involved designs require SE. Our company has a product line but is run like a job shop.

Jef
SE since v17
newly Windows Vista

 

[beachcomber]

Gemnoc,
Generaly I believe maintenance is worked out on normal purchase price.
20%/year if you buy it for 3 years, 25%/year if you only buy 1 year at a time.
Those figures were given to me a few years ago by a UK reseller, so could be different now.
Good luck with Edge, and welcome to the forum.

bc
PS if you've never used edge before do the tutorials and get on a training course, it will save you loads of money in the long run.

 

[KENAT]

Also, unlike some products I've found the SE Help is fairly good, it's worth a look when you're trying to do something.

Plus as you have maintenance use it, get an account on the UGS web site and use the phone help too. They’re pretty good.

Plus while it may not be quite as refined as AutoCAD you can still do 2D in Solid Edge fairly well. In fact I think they’ve made improvements in this area to try and attract more AutoCAD users.