I have used both, and currently use SolidWorks.

As with any of the smaller packages it will not do what the big "Work-Station" programs can do with modeling free form shapes. But with that said, I prefer soildWorks to Pro/E, as it is far more easy to use, and learn.

Unfortunately, many people who come to a new CAD program, whether it be up from ACAD, or down from a work-station bring their biases. Solidwoks, as with any CAD package, once you understand how it works, becomes bog simple to use.

I think the Drafting portion to be very easy to use, but as it is designed to fit within a mechanical engineering design package, it is not totally 2-D paper oriented as would be ACAD, for example. I find it very user friendly.

I am not sure what you mean by large assemblies. I design medical devices, mostly plastic molded parts, with some metal parts. Some of my handles have 100 components, including fasteners, springs, and such. It is quite easy to create a "Assembly Drawing" off the model, including a BOM.

I am also not sure what you mean by "robust", but if you mean does the program crash, or misbehave due to large files. I can't say I have had much problem. I did have a low powered computer that caused problems, but with my current machine (400mhz, 128MB) I have more problems with e-mail or the net than with SoildWorks.

I agree with( tmac) on the bias from Acad or Pro-E. I would like to add that the learning curve for new users is considerably smaller using SW as compared to Pro-E or Acad for that matter. I have been using SW for a litlle over a year and can accomplish almost any task presented. The tutorials provided cover a broad range of topics including design tables (family tree for the Pro-E users), lofting, sheet metal etc. I find SW to be a very easy to use, comprehensive program that works well with NT.

I deal with large (physical size) models that include between 50-150 components and Sub-Assemblies and have not had any major problems. I am running a Micron PIII 500Mz w/ 328MB ram and a 8mb FireGl 1000 Pro graphics card and this thing flys through rebuilds etc. and model manipulation is much faster than any Pro-E machine with comparable hardware.

The other benefit to using SW compared to Pro-E is that SW has incorporated a Pro-E file translator to ( import on;y) Pro-E files so you can make use of any Pro-E vendor, OEM files you obtain.

Another bonus is the 3rd Party software available for detailing fasteners FEA analysis, Animation etc. this was one of the reasons we chose SW over Pro-E.

The drafting package is a little lite for my taste but functional and it is getting better with each release.

Hope this helps

Why switch, if you know pro/e then stay with it.
We were burned when we needed to buy additional add ons like surfaceworks to create more complex geometry.

By the time i bought sw, surfaceworks,photo render, i could have bought pro/e with surface.
 I recently saw Pro/E 2001. say good by to the harder to use questions.

Trying to go back to Pro/e now

I am new to CAD, first starting with Autocad LT. As a Mech. Design Engineer of 40 years found it rather frustating getting into the use of Draughting and Design with the computer. However with experementing asking for help and leaving no stone unturned and investigating all the CAD programs I settled on SolidEdge Origan. This was first class  up to mid 2000 when by accident I stumbled on to SolidWorks 2000. The N.Z. agents forwarded a trial full copy for 30 days trial, from this trial I concluded that the only limitation any designer could have would be imagination, The ease of use and the learning is not unlike basic draughting. it is from this that I am now converting to SolidWorks.

Another thing that you may want to consider is the ability to automate the CAD software. SolidWorks has incorporated an API so that you can automate almost any task. Outside of developing several smaller utilities, I have also automated 70% of a company's product line using SolidWorks, turning 40 hour design projects into 3-4 hour tasks. I have also done the same with AutoCAD. This is obviously a tremendous benefit to the organization, not only reducing project lead times, but it also eliminates most of the errors encountered through manual design. I have not had any experience with Pro/E, so I can not comment on its programming ability.

Happy hunting!

The main thing that everyone need to realize is that Solidworks is owned by the same company which owns Catia. The companies strategy is to populate the low end market then switch everyon to Catia V. 5 when it is available. Catia is the worst learning curve of all. We can all look cheap and easy but lets be realistic the only packages that should be considered are Pro/E, Catia and UG. They are the only one actually making mony and they will be around years to come.

I've used most of the cad products out there. I tought myself SolidsWorks in week and was reasonably functional. It is constantly getting better. The add in programs are very good and easy to use. I have to say that I do not make large assemblies (engines) and have not tried it for that application. I have personally tought 4 people to use it within 2 weeks each.

  

I have recently purchased pro/e for our company. The reason that I purchased pro/e over solidworks was the power of foundation at the price. I only had a limited budget. Some of our shapes are very subtly complex (we make cast-iron products) and solidworks would need surfaces to model the shapes. With pro/e graphs and the trajpar equation expression all the shapes that we need to manufacture can be modelled in solids.

I have been a proe user for about 5 years and have just started a new job using Solidworks.

Solid works has a very simple and user freindly interface and, from my experience models can be created quicker.

BUT, beware of some quirky solidworks events.

We are using assemblies of 500 parts plus and it runs extremely slow,   but this can be overcome by making the parts lightweight.

The main problems that I am encountering are events that even the reseller cannot explain such as parts not rebuilding correctly after editing ( Requiring 3 or 4 forced rebuilds, Ctrl + Q) and also unexpected crashes for no reason whatsoever.

These have been increasingly frequent since upgrading to SW2001 SP0.

All in all Solid Works is a great 3D system to use but Proe seemed more stable.

If I had the choice it would be a split decision and would rest on which reseller offered the best support, and what your customers/suppliers are using.

Regards

G Robinson

Mr. cadpro_y2.001k,

I am not employed by any CAD software VAR, but I can say, with a very high degree of confidence, Dassault Systems has no plans of populating the low-end market and then force everyone into Catia.  That would be very poor business and would surly drive customers away.  Dassaults' position has always been to keep Catia and SolidWorks seperate, which is the complete opposite of UG and Solid Edge.

G. Robinson,

concerning the many rebuilds, I have found that if your assembly has MANY different circular references between various parts, it can take a couple of rebuilds to propagate the updates through the entire assembly.  Could this be your situation?

Regards