NX vs. Pro-E

[JPM73]

Hi NX'ers,

If a company is considering purchasing NX or Pro-E & knowing there's a significant coast difference, what would be your suggestions to highlight the benefits & disadvantages of using NX & Pro-E?

Thanks


Jason M.
Unigraphics NX Designer

 

[wmalan]

What's the industry?

 

[JPM73]

Using within Aerospace, primarily to design turbine blades


Working with turbine blades with freeform surfaces



Jason M.
Unigraphics NX Designer

 

[JPM73]

Hi John Baker & Others,

John - You seem to be the NX guru of this forum.

I work for a company that has some facilities that use NX only, while others use Pro-E only. Additionally, some use both CAD applications.

At the moment, the facility I'm at has only NX,but is likely to also get a seat of two of Pro-E.

The big "management" question is that Pro-E is considerably cheaper than NX from a cost point-of-view.
I'm told that floating Pro-E license costs approximately $5K, where as NX floating license, depending on module, ranges $15K - $25K.

At a glance & I'm not highly familiar with Pro-E, but the two CAD applications seem very similar in terms of its feature capabilities or functionalities.

If conducting a CAD Analysis, how would you highlight the similarities/differences or pros & cons of each CAD application?

Thanks




Jason M.
Unigraphics NX Designer

 

[wmalan]

I was in the turbine machining side for a couple years.

One thing to consider is your cad designs will make it to someone's cam program. For that reason, several of the turbine shops are now looking at NX's integrated turbine machining package. If their model is native NX, you'll get better pricing on the NRE.


--
Bill

 

[JohnRBaker]

Asking me for my opinion of Pro-E is ridiculous since whatever I say will obviously be biased, if not downright negative. I would rather let our current customers respond since in this case, their opinions are worth much more than anything I could say.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[wecurb]

Jason, A caveat, when the sales gurus present a demo to your management, pin them down on how many man hours it took to create it.

 

[JPM73]

Hi Wecurb & Others,

As you probably know, CAD jobs will vary by complexity. The company I work for specializes with making turbine blades.

These in itself, have a bit of complexity. If you had a choice to use Pro-E or NX to make a turbine blade - Let's say, semi-complex or any semi-complex product with freeform or wavey surfaces, which CAD system would you use & why?

Thanks

Jason M.
Unigraphics NX Designer

 

[looslib]

Having used and been/am a system administrator for UG/NX since 1989 and Pro/E since 2000i2, cost is not that much different. The PTC $5K is for a base seat of Wildfire; no surface design, no advanced assemblies, just basic design and drafting. By the time you get an equivelant bundle from PTC, it is very close to the price of the NX bundles.

Never did turbine machining, but know people and companies that do. Most of them are using NX. Also, if they do their own machining, NX has the modules to do blade machining that will make life easier for your NC programmers. When you look at Pratt & Whitney and GE, they both use NX for their engines.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[JohnRBaker]

When you look at Pratt & Whitney and GE, they both use NX for their engines.

As does Rolls Royce and Honeywell, to name a couple more turbine engine builders.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[JPM73]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. Having worked in the turbine industry for number of years, as well as working (contracting) for P & W & GE, I know they primarily use NX. However, at least with GE, are starting to use SolidWorks & I hear some may be using Pro-E as well & perhaps, Catia for a project or two.

Now, I'm trying to figure out what the Pro-E base package is & what the upgrade modules are to compare. Does anyone have a good reference to direct me to?

Thanks


Jason M.
Unigraphics NX Designer

 

[looslib]

Here is the link to the Pro/E data sheet pages.

http://www.ptc.com/products/proengineer/

Scroll down and the information is on the right.

My guess is you would need at least the Advanced XE package to compare to the Advanced Design bundle of NX.
I haven't seen an NX data sheet to give a better comparison.



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[JPM73]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the Pro-E info. I wasn't sure what the Pro-E modules are called. Hopefully, this will give a better comparison.



Jason M.
Unigraphics NX Designer

 

[iancopt]

We have used Pro/E for over 15 years and just bough NX. Though still new to NX the functionality seems similar to Pro/E though the modules are confusing. Pro/E is a floating licence by defualt which is not the case with NX. Also Pro/E does contain sufacing in the base package and can be used for blade design as we have done.
Also note that other companies use Pro/E for bladed design and manufacture, particularly in the power industry.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Note that NX can also be purchased using a 'floating license' scheme, but it's a lot less expensive to purchase 'bundles', which I suspect is what motivated your management to do what they have done. BTW, I understand the PTC is moving toward selling bundles as well, so this seems to be a sort of evolutionary thing.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[ewh]

I have worked with NX models of engine turbine blades (from several of the companies mentioned above), and have seen both elegant and monstrous models of similar parts. As usual, much depends on the approach taken. I found NX to be very competent (and forgiving) at creating and editing such geometries, but like John, I am biased, not having used ProE.
The last company I was with was ready to pull the trigger and purchase a seat of Catia in addition to the existing NX seats it had, only waiting for "that next big contract", but ProE was never considered.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[looslib]

PTC has sold bundles since at least 2002 when I first got involved with buying it. The bundles are cheaper than ala carte module buying for both NX and CREO/Pro.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[JPM73]

Hi Everyone,

What I've seen thus far, plus doing some other research, both Pro E & NX has its advantages & disadvantages and comparable in almost everything in terms of functionalities or capabilities. Thus far, at least in my research, there's not a single thing that highly stands out as being explicitly better or worse.

However, I'm still trying to figure out why there significant cost difference between ProE & NX. According to one source, I'm told that ProE cost approx. $5K & NX is upwards to $25K.
Thanks


Jason M.
Unigraphics NX Designer

 

[JohnRBaker]

I suggest that you make sure that you compare what you're actually getting for the money. Ask for a list of 'modules' included which each bundle that you're considering purchasing.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[looslib]

The $5K for Pro/E is only basic Pro/E, design, drafting and limited assembly. You will not be able to design and machine turbine blades with that package.
Try asking PTC sales for the price of the CREO/Pro Enterprise SE package and add 5-axis machining. You will see that it isn't $5K.
The NX package that I have seen in the $25K range is the advanced machining bundle.

Like John said, get a full module listing with each bundle and then do your comparison. My PTC bundle has about 20 modules in it, but the data sheets only highlight about 7.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli