Solidworks vs. ProE

[dibbs_pbp]

Ihave recently been urged to change over from ProE (Wildfire 2.0) to Solidworks and having tried for about 4 months now I have to say Solidworks SUCKS!! (for engineering applications at least). It's sketching is awful, it's surfacing is awful, the graphics are rubbish, and as for the drawings - well, I've seen more pleasing things on an Etch-a-Sketch!! The ability to manipulate, place, and display dimensions is shocking!! I really can't believe that anyone at Solidworks has ever tried to create or read a technical drawing in their life. I think they have put too much emphasis on fancy rendering and the like, and forgotten about the basics of actually being able to create a production drawing from a model. Really guys, just download a freebie version of Wildfire 2.0 (from about 4 years ago) and a crack code and tell me your 2007 drawing creation even comes anywhere close. If you think it does, get your head examined!!! REALLY, if you are a professional (engineering) outfit and you want your drawings to look like you are a professional outfit spend the money and get ProEngineer (the clue really is in the title!!). If you've come from using2D systems such as AutoCAD for sure you will be wowed when the salesman showsyou fancy solid models and photo rendering and for sure you'll be amazed at how your models are linked to your drawings but, trust me, if you've got the money buy ProE (and if you haven't download a cracked version).

 

[design-engine]

I bitch a great deal going from Pro/E to SW too. People around me (consulting at various design firms... I did a bunch of the various barbie flashlights in sw) must have thought I had a bad attitude. I learned a great deal about SW and Pro/E while learning SW and I have to say ... i am embarrassed in hind site as to how much I complained but I just blame it on divorce.

I complain less now b Just realize SW is behind in some places by a couple years like intent manager and a head in some places like rendering.

Hey... if SW is slower then you actually get more money because it took me longer




Edited by: design-engine

 

[mgnt8]

SW is behind in some places by a couple years like intent manager and a head in some places like rendering.

pro/e vs sw, sw vs pro/e, sw sux, pro/e sux. Talking about beating a dead horse. All this angst won't mean much once Autodesk finally buys out PTC. I wonder when it will happen, maybe once the other shoe drops. Anyway, I've seen some Photoworks renderings lately & I'm wondering are they really that much better than photolux? I've been using the HDR lights in WF 4 & they look great but I need a supercomputer to keep up with my workload.

 

[design-engine]

I remember back in 1998 when learning sw.... I was thinking I love this stuff. It will take me longer to do what Im used to so.... i get more hours out of the deal.


It would be harder to compare Alias studio with Pro/E but I would be more interested in that comparison.



Edited by: design-engine

 

[cncwhiz]

Must we kick the same horse over and over again? These threads all become nothing more than what someone "thinks" about one software or the other. I have seen no one actually provide anything solid on this played out issue.

 

[JamesM]

All this angst won't mean much once Autodesk finally buys out PTC. I wonder when it will happen, maybe once the other shoe drops.

Is there really some talk of that happening? I hadn't heard this.

 

[shankar_me]

Autodesk finally buys out PTC.

Is it really, I too dont know this.

 

[carrieives]

I am using Solidworks 2007. I have used it for about 2-3 weeks now. I also use Wildfire 3.0 and have used it for about a year, Pro/E for almost 10 years. If you look at my list, obviously I currently lean towards Pro/E. Though there are lots of people who have used both that never want to go back to Pro/E.

Here are my opinions:
Solidworks wins:
Help files - tutorials, getting started, etc
Getting people started quickly - especially if you haven't used 3D CAD before
Measuring (mostly)
Allowing you to ignore failures until later - basically it just freezes the sketch that is missing references
Allowing you to partially constrain a sketch and come back later to tie it all the way down (should be fully constrained before too long because it won't change the way you expect things to later)
Sheetmetal closed corners


Pro/E wins:
Sketching (intent manager, locking dimensions, dragging your sketch fully dimensioned without changing the locked dimensions)
Rerouting/ replacing sketch entities (including dimensions)
Ease of feature renaming (I have a column in my model tree for this)
Assembling components (mostly)
Patterns (I have not been able to figure out how to change the size of my rectangle/hole/etc as it moves in Solidworks...could just be inexperience)
Axis creation
Creating planes
Showing dimensions on drawings
Incremental saves allow going back a save or two (After years of Pro/E using any other program where you only have one version of a file is a bit scary)
Quickly changing dimensions from one side of a datum plane to another (just make the dimension negative, or 0 if you want it on the plane, but with possibility of changing it)
Middle mouse button for done
Query select
Help - what's this - takes you to correct page in help about half the time
When modifying dimensions, the view of the sketch on the screen adjusts and gives you some idea what things will look like after you regen
You can change a dimension to a negative number to flip the side of the plane a feature is on. Also, features can be dimensioned to be 0 from things.


Things I haven't checked out in Solidworks yet:
Writing relations between dimensions
BOMs
Family tables
Macros


Edited by: carrieives

 

[flyerfly]

Our company just switched from SW to Pro/E. Wow what a relief!!

carrieives has alot of good points. Someday I could add alot to it but I need to get back to work. Another area where Pro/e shines is better FEA (for those who do that). I have the advanced mechanica and it can do much more then SW FEA can do. It can do more then advanced cosmos can do too.

I love WF4.0 too!

 

[phoxeoy]

I like Microsoft Paint. It does an awesome job with all my CAD needs. Its stable, has really cool features like paint bucket.

 

[mgnt8]

Pro/E wins:
Sketching (intent manager, locking dimensions, dragging your sketch fully dimensioned without changing the locked dimensions)

Never used Solidworks. How do you sketch? IMHO intent manager is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

[mgnt8]

Autodesk finally buys out PTC.

Is it really, I too dont know this.

Nah, just a bit of speculation on my part. At first glance it makes sense but for the fact that every six to 18 months or so PMTC pulls a rabbit out of its hat.

 

[Metoo]

dibbs_pbp wrote :


"have recently been urged to change over from ProE (Wildfire 2.0) to Solidworks and having tried for about 4 months now I have to say Solidworks SUCKS!! (for engineering applications at least). It's sketching is awful, it's surfacing is awful, the graphics are rubbish, and as for the drawings - well, I've seen more pleasing things on an Etch-a-Sketch!! The ability to manipulate, place, and display dimensions is shocking!! I really can't believe that anyone at Solidworks has ever tried to create or read a technical drawing in their life. I think they have put too much emphasis on fancy rendering and the like, and forgotten about the basics of actually being able to create a production drawing from a model. Really guys, just download a freebie version of Wildfire 2.0 (from about 4 years ago) and a crack code and tell me your 2007 drawing creation even comes anywhere close. If you think it does, get your head examined!!! REALLY, if you are a professional (engineering) outfit and you want your drawings to look like you are a professional outfit spend the money and get ProEngineer (the clue really is in the title!!). If you've come from using2D systems such as AutoCAD for sure you will be wowed when the salesman showsyou fancy solid models and photo rendering and for sure you'll be amazed at how your models are linked to your drawings but, trust me, if you've got the money buy ProE (and if you haven't download a cracked version)."


It would appear that the focus of your work is creating drawings. Pro-E is every-bit as good as any 3-d modeling software that I've used for such a task. But, 3-d modeling began as an effort to create a model from which and end product could be produced without interpreting a drawing. Having been in the business of 3-d (surface) modeling since the mid 1980's, I find SolidWorks to be a very good product for creating both surfaces and solid models - post 2000 versions. I used Pro-E extensively in the 1990s, and I don't miss it; it has grown a little old, and its CAM system has been left in the trash pile of old worn-out products by competitors, while products like SolidWorks and Solid Edge have surpassed it in model creation.


This might be a good forum for complaining, but the fact is Pro-E is yesterday's software; a relic of the past. The true problem here might be in the user, not the product. For half theprice of a seat of Pro-Eyour employer can purchase a seat of SolidWorks and a CAM system; both more capable than Pro-E at what 3-d modeling was intended for. You can use a 2-d AutoCad system to make drawings; it doesn't take a 3-d modeling software for that purpose.

 

[carrieives]

Pro/E wins:
Sketching (intent manager, locking dimensions, dragging your sketch fully dimensioned without changing the locked dimensions)

Never used Solidworks. How do you sketch? IMHO intent manager is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

In Solidworks, you pick your plane, create the sketch and then constrain it. I've got so many years of intent manager that I keep wanting to pick my references first and that isn't how it's done. There are some constraints that it will snap to as you create them. So, it isn't really too different just the order you do things in. Also, Solidworks will let you create dimensions in your sketch to datum planes but not faces of the solid. I have been told that I should dimension back to the sketches that were used to create features rather than the edges. I have not done this though. Solidworks does not delete the sketch when you delete the feature - more like external sketches in Pro/E. You can get dimensions to attach to different things (kinda like replace in Pro/E) but I'm not exactly clear on what to do to make it happen all the time.

In Solidworks you have two options for sketches, dragging dimensioned items changes values or it doesn't allow it. I don't remember the exact name of the option. Most people have this option set so that dimensioned parts of sketches cannot be dragged to change the values. This option can be toggled and then you can drag the dimensioned entities to resize the sketch, the only problem is that it will drag everything. In Pro/E when I want to drag things, I will lock the dimensions that I do not want to have change while I drag. I think the way to get around this in Solidworks is to toggle the dimensions that you would like to drag geometry to change the values of to be driven dimensions, do the dragging then toggle them back to driving. Toggling dimensions from driving to driven is pretty easy to do in Solidworks.

Supposedly in Solidworks 2009 or so, there will be the option to change dimensions to 0 or negative. Right now, if you put your dimension on the wrong side of your datum plane (or whatever else you are measuring from) you can't just tell it to be negative and have it switch sides. You also can't set the value to zero - except for the datum plane offset. This has been driving me crazy this week.

Of course after being off Pro/E for a couple of weeks, we'll see how batty I go when I have to switch back.

Edited by: carrieives

 

[Guest]

My biggest complaint is that Soldworks, CATIA, etc. don't offer a personal edition of the software for evaluation purposes. The only other software I found besides ProE that does this is Autodesk Inventor.

 

[JamesM]

My biggest complaint is that Soldworks, CATIA, etc. don't offer a personal edition of the software for evaluation purposes. The only other software I found besides ProE that does this is Autodesk Inventor.

Are you sure that SolidWorks doesn't offer an evaluation version? A few weeks ago I received an invitation to go to a SolidWorks sales pitch, and they were offering a "personal edition" to anyone who attended.

 

[Guest]

I asked the reseller in my area about this, but the only thing they could offer was a 30 day evaluation version. For my purposes this is not what I'm looking for. I'm also aware that this may be due tothe fact that the customers I deal with in the area where I work don't use SolidWorks, so they don't offer it here. The versions I have seen have all been student versions, but the general puplic isn't eligible to purchase it. It also has a term limit on its use. With the ProE Personal Edition, the general public can purchase it and there is no term limit. It offers some additional modules such as behavioral modeling, advanced assembly, etc.. This perfect for what I'm looking for since it gives me most of what I use. I can't say what SolidWorks or other programs give you. If the other personal edition software offers similar features, this is what I'm looking for. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but so far I haven't found other personal edition software that allows me to purchase it to evaluate it with ProE except Autodesk Inventor. I haven't triedInventor yet so I don't know how it compares.

 

[mgnt8]

For half theprice of a seat of Pro-Eyour employer can purchase a seat of SolidWorks and a CAM system

Now I could be wrong about this, but I remember last year hearing about a SW offer for $4995, which is the same price as a seatof Foundation. I'm not sure what was included in the SW seat, so I can't speak definitively on this. It's just that this has been a common assertion over the years, and I just don't know if its true anymore. Can anybody help me out on this? Whether or not its better than Pro/E is perhaps up to subjective preference, but is Solidworks really so much cheaper?

 

[dr_gallup]

AFAIK, the pricing is the same unless there is a special promotion going on. Both companies do that all the time. Throw in some extra modules for free but make it back in maintenance fees.

 

[mgnt8]

Same
Edited by: mgnt8