I am a young engineer and I am researching 3d packages. I have used Mechanical Desktop, AutoCAD2000, and IronCAD in the pas. Does anyone use IronCAD? And if they do how does it match up to other packages like ProE and Inventor??
I think a more appropriate question to ask is "What do you want to design with your new 3D package?"
While all these packages are good, they each handle different things better than others.
My experience is with Pro/E, SolidWorks, Inventor/MDT, and Think3. Personally, I didn't have anything that Pro/E couldn't handle (if you have the money), and SW is still better than Inventor, for what I do now...