Best way to work with both Solidworks and Pro engineer on one Project 1

[waynethepain]

Hello

I use Solidworks a customer I work with uses Pro E we both want to work on the project together. There is no chance of either of us swapping platforms.

Does anyone have any tips/experiences for the best way to do this?

Is it best that one has the master model with all the history and then the other mods a step file give it back to other, who then adds the new features to the master? Obviously this would cause duplicate work, but if we both work on a step and mods were needed all the history would be lost.

Cheers,
Wayne.

 

[PatCouture]

It all depends on what kind of collaboration you are doing. If it's on the same part it may be very difficult. On the same assembly it depends on what type of relations there are between the parts.

We don't work accross different platform but when we divide a project between different designers we use references planes to position sub-assemblys related to one another. So when we update, every relations stay connected. Each designer is responsible for his own sub-assembly so others won't do modifications to it, instead they will ask the owner of the sub-asy to make them.

Hope it helps

Patrick

 

[rstupplebeen]

If it's simple geometry without freeform surfacing I would model in both software packages so that you are not waiting for the master model to be updated. If it is not simple one will need to be the master and the other one perform modifications on the dumb solid. I hope this helps.

Rob Stupplebeen

http://www.optimaldevice.com

 

[drawoh]

waynethepain,

Can you send IGES or STEP files back and forth. How much collaboration do you need to do?

--
JHG

 

[ajack1]

That sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

 

[ctopher]

It can be a headache. We normally use STEP files.

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
SolidWorks Legion

 

[davidinindy]

Definately no good way... Especially if you're going back and forth.
More detail about how you are collaborating may be helpful.

David
Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn.

http://lnkd.in/fY7-QK

 

[TheTick]

I contracted for a large company that needed a lot of top tier CAD talent. There simply was not enough talent to go around for them to commit to either Pro/E or UG. They ran both, with any given project being on one or the other.

At that time, most of the ID work was done on Alias, and that work was used as a template to make engineering CAD. Sometimes work was generated in another CAD platform and imported and then redone/refined as necessary.

Similarly, you will need to pick one platform to be the master. One organization needs ultimate responsibility for design documentation. Work done in any other platform should only go as far as necessary to document concepts, and then finished in the master platform.

 

[SShashi]

use "Save As" command and save the file in "ProE/Creo(*.prt)" in solidworks. Try sending this file to the person working in ProE to work on. Not sure of the solution, but found that we can save as a Proe file in solidworks. hope this helps.

Good luck.
Shashi

 

[Updraft]

Shashi's solution is only another way to transfer dumb solids as that technique does not translate the parametric feature data. There really is no good way to transfer between systems such as Pro\E and SWX that includes the parametric information.

Since you are in a dumb-file communication mode then your best bet is to establish which system will be the master and put all parametric features there, as Patrick indicated. For any development work performed in the secondary system then you will have to work out what works best for your styles of communication. It could be as "simple" as saving the dumb solids with a version or date code in the filename and running comparisons of the master to the new dumb solid and then making changes in the master to get them to match. Of course, the person making the changes in the secondary system could keep a log of their changes, perhaps using screen shots or even avi files, to help communicate the changes and design intent.

- - -Updraft