Pro/E vs Solidworks & Mechanica vs Cosmos

[mecoman]

Hello,

Looking to move to 3D and FEA with CAM to follow. Presently using A-CAD. We manufacture using cnc mills/lathes. Mostly making round parts, no wierd surfaces to define.

Unsure of which design package to start using. I have a need to be able to proivde e-drawings as well as do modeling with the FEA. Assemblies contain 7 to 25 parts, not including nuts and bolts. Very limited interchangeability of parts between assemblies other than nuts and bolts. Also, we often build 1-2 assemblies at a time with occassional repeats.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Cheers,

Mecoman

 

[Heckler]

I use both SolidWorks and Pro/E 2001. I don't have any FEA with my SolidWorks but have Mechanica with my Pro/E seat. We use MasterCAM X for our code generation.

First, I would suggest getting a 30 day evaluation copies of all software packages you're considering. That's the only true way to determine how your needs will be met.

Second, evaluate your business practices with regards to CAM software. What I mean by this is who does your code generation? Because it may not be cost affective to have a CAM package that's integrated into either PRo/E or SolidWorks. The guy that generates our code has no business doing design work so an integrated CAD/CAM pacakge is useless for him.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2006 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
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