PRO-E OR SW??

OUR COMPANY IS TRYING TO DECIDE WHICH ONE IS BETTER FOR OUR SYSTEM. WE ARE A SHEET METAL FABRICATOR COMPANY AND IT WILL VERY HELPFUL IS USER CAN GIVE US THEIR OPINIONS. ALSO IF IT IS TRUE THAT THE SAME GUY WHO CREATED PRO-E IS THE CREATOR OF SW? ... THAT IS WHAT THE SW SELLER IS TELLING ME..

THANKS IN ADVANCE,


MARTIN.

 

[Tick]

Martin, the story that I heard was that a few developers from PTC went off and developed Solidworks. Basically, the same CAD "urban legend" as what the Solidworks seller is telling you, and I suspect that there is some truth to it, although how much I can't be sure.

As far as the software is concerned, I am afraid that I haven't had too much experience with Solidworks. But from what I recall, if you are modelling sheetmetal within SW you pretty much have to model everything outright, and keep sure of thicknesses and bend radii and the like.

Pro/E on the other hand, does have a specific module to speed up the sheetmetal design process, and some of the new features added can make sheetmetal design a lot faster. Also, Pro/Sheetmetal has the ability to create flat patterns of sheetmetal parts very quickly.

It is obvious that I am a little biased to pro/e, but one thing that I can suggest is that you have a "bakeoff" with the SW and Pro/E guys. By which you give each software reseller a drawing of one or more of your previously existing sheetmetal parts to remodel within the respective software, and then each can demonstrate the power of the power of their software as it would be applied to your specific application.

A colleague of mine who used to work for a Pro/E reseller used to participate in these all the time.

Hope this helps (longwinded as it may be)

 

[Scoobystu]

Having recently moved from Pro/E to Solid works I have found that the sheetmetal facilities on Solid works are comparable to that of Pro/E.

They do however differ in the way that they work but I find that Solidworks is OK and very simple and intuitive to use.

For instance if you were to make an L shaped part.

Solid Works: You would draw the base and then extrude a 'flange' that would be the same thickness as the base (this is automaic) and you can enter an angle as you do it.

Pro/E: Draw the profile of the L shape and then give it a depth and enter a thickness of material.

Both methods get you the same results. There are a lot of other functions that both programs offer such as forming tools and various other handy things like that.

I do still prefer Pro/E though as other functions like the sketcher and assemblies have better functionality.

All the best.

 

[alexsasdad]

The Pro/E or SolidWorks question is a big one. One thing that you need to know about solidworks is that if you are going to need more than 1 seat, you must have a pdm package to go with it. SolidWorks is constantly updating part, dwg and assembly files even when you think that there are no changes.

Solidworks has some nice sheet metal features in its latest version that I would have like to had when I used pro/e sheet metal package. Are you going to want a sheet metal manufacturing package as well? If you want to use the software to do the manufacturing I would get a comparison of those pieces as well.

I used Pro/E for seven years and I have been using SolidWorks for the past six months. If I had to make a purchase decision today I would choose Pro/E. SolidWorks is geared to the 2-d CAD user and it is easy for a person to use. They allow tremendous freedom when creating models. But freedom is a double edge sword. The freedom prohibits the user from learing the real concepts of 3d parametric modeling. New users need structure and discipline not freedom. I use my current place of employment as a reference. I recieve many models ahere all of the feature sketches are completely undimensioned. We have users that have been using SolidWorks for four years and know very little about the basics of 3d parametric modeling.

The bottom line is that neither package is the best at everything and they each have their advantages. But SolidWorks is just not there yet and unless they change some basic philosophies I don't know that they will ever get there.

 

I have been a Cadkey user for 7 yrs, Solidedge for 1 yr. I think each package has some good points and not so good points. recently i purchased Pro-E and although daunting at the start is really is quite an amazing package.The depth of the software is rigidty constrainted and when you live to work within these contraints it will benifit you more and more as the design project gets more complex. Works and Edge are both very good from what i have used and seen by better users than myself. And being a bit of freelance designer with Edge and Cadkey it was nice to dive in and just go for it. But i can so easily see the benefits of having a very accountable package such as Pro-E. I maybe becoming one eyed the more i use it but i think it is way ahead of Works by a long shot. Having said that if you are only doing small one-off designs with no real complexity then maybe Edge or works would be a great choice. But there is no way i would change at this time. I use Edge quite a bit at work and purchased Pro-E for myself at home to do contract design and i have no regrets at all. I can tell you when you get to know the Pro-E it will save you quiet some amount of time whenever you have to modify serious design tasks.
Cheers Steven