Catia versus Solidworks, Solid Edge and I-DEAs? 1

[Claireli]

We are looking at four 3D-CAD systems (Computer Aided Design) :
> * Ideas
> * Solid Edge
> * Solid Works
> * Catia V5
>
The CAD will be connected to the PDM (Product Data Management) system using PROFILE. PROFILE allows a connection with SAP.

We would like to specifically know about the following:
The life phase of the system - is it already above its highest peak? Is it mature or still being built up? (especially Catia V5, Solidworks and Solid Edge)
Future perspective? Safety of the investment? (especially Catia and Solid Works, that both belong to Daussalt): Will they continue to exist as individual systems in the future, or for example, will Solid works be replaced by Catia in the middle term?
Comparison between Solid Edge and Solid works
Where are the weaknesses of a mid range system e.g. Catia V5?
Core (The part of the operating system that controls the hardware): evaluation of the different used cores (performance and data exchange)
Distribution and the branch usage of the 4 systems.

I would appreciate some advice on this subject and some answers to my questions.
Thanks

 

[swertel]

You can view my response in the Mechanincal Engineers forum. It is a little long winded and I didn't proof it prior to submitting.

--Scott Wertel

 

[zilla74]

To be quite honest with you. The solution you should be looking at that with out a doubt, satisfies all of your concerns, is Unigraphics. Unigraphics is one of the longest stanging products in the industry and is still progressing as a product above and beyond the other solutions. Unigraphics (EDS) is the owner/developer of Parasolid with is the math engine behind most all of the products out there (including SolidWorks) CATIA is proprietary and closed to easy data communication. Unigraphics' little brother is SolidEdge so there is a truly scalable product solution (both run on the same parasolid kernel and interoperate. SolidWorks and CATIA run on differnt kernels and do not talk to each other). Unigraphics is by far more robust and reliable than CATIA V5. CATIA V5 has been developed for many years and is still not considered production ready by many of its customers.

Regards,

 

[ncprogrammer]

I completely agree with Zilla74, after using UG for
the last 10 years in advanced modeling thru drafting,
assemblies and full 5-axis cnc programming and now
using Catia V5 for the last year I can vouch that
UG is by far a superior system.

Catia V5 is not fully developed yet and the cost is
much more than UG.

A seat of UG with all advanced modeling (surfacing solids
etc) and assemblies, drafting, full manufacturing will
run you about $25,000. and it comes with it's own
postprocessing software. With Catia you have to go
to a third party for the postprocessing.