New Solid Edge user!

[SSheldon]

Hi all!

I'm a new Solid Edge user. I used Unigraphics a few years back - it is the system I have had the most experience with (6+ years) but I have used many different systems. I most recently worked at a company that used CoCreate OneSpace Designer. What a crap piece of software. It is a completely boolean tool, it feels like Unigraphics V9 dumb solids. It is SUCH a great relief to be using a feature-based, parametric tool once again. I've only played with it for a few days now, but already I can tell I like it very much. It feels a lot to me like Pro/Engineer, but seems easier to use from what I remember of Pro.

One of my first tasks here will be to set up a PDM system to manage Solid Edge files. Last time I looked at Solid Edge, the PDM tool was free. Is this still the case? Is the software on the install CD for Solid Edge (I'm running V19)? Presently it looks like all the company data has been simply stored on a local file system outside of a PDM system.

I look forward to many interesting discussions with you all about this software.

Steve

 

[KENAT]

I learnt Pro E and SE at about the same time and I have to say I always found SE much simpler, and despite the hype never found major areas that it was inferior. The drawing especially allows more freedom that Pro E did.

We looked at insight at my current place and in fact set it up etc. but it didnt' go far and doesn't look like it's going to.

Although the software is "free" you typically need a consultant, in our case from UGS, to set it up and this costs around $20000 from what they did here.

You also need sequel server/share point as Insight is basically built on top of it. Again this costs $.

There are users on here more familiar with it than I, in fact I think 1 or 2 may be consultants. They may also be able to give you more success stories.

Check out the UGS user groups, If I recall correctly they have a dedicated forum.

Beware there is a chain of thought that says: They have now brought out Teamcenter Express which is in the 'velocity series' with SE. Effort/attention may go away from insight to Teamcenter express. Potentially they may stop, or virtually stop, support to Insight as there is less money in it.

Certainly when we called the helpline with insight queries they weren't very helpful This is especially surprising/concerning as the SE helpline is usually pretty good.

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[SLemin]

You can also look at Teamcenter Express - I've just rolled it out at my company, it's fully embedded into Edge and seems to do exactly what we want!

 

[SSheldon]

Is Teamcenter Express free or an extra-cost item?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[SLemin]

There's a cost!

I've just invested around £40k in software - licences for users etc. Plus additional outlay for servers, backups, disaster recovery etc.

Have a look at the UGS website, or contact your reseller - we use Cutting Edge Solutions - fantastic guys who'll be more than willing to help you out.

Simon

 

[swertel]

There are actually 2 PDM/PLM type systems for Solid Edge.

The first one is free. It is called Insight and is based off of Microsoft's Sharepoint. You pay for Sharepoint, but the connection to it, i.e. Insight, is built into Edge and is the free part. This is used as a departmental file management database.

The second one is Team Center Express (TCX). It costs for the server, clients, and all the other licensing. The Solid Edge Embedded Client comes with Solid Edge, but you do have to pay for a license to utilize it so you can open/save files directly through Solid Edge into the TCX database. TCX is for company wide control of documentation rather than just departmental.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro