PROE vs Unigraphics vs Solidwoeks vs Catia 2

[OMERYOUNOS]

I m a Design Engineer.Our company wanted to buy a new Software so which one is better PROE or Unigraphics or Solid works or Catia.Currently we r using Mechanical Desktop , Pro E 2000 i.

 

[looslib]

A lot depends on what types of products your company designs. Also, you have included 3 top end systems and 1 mid-level system in your list. While SolidWorks and SolidEdge can do about 85% of what the other 3 can do, they are a lot cheaper to buy and easier to learn.
Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand
717-532-9181
ben_loosli@irco.com

 

I have used all four systems, and in my opinion Pro/E is by far the most powerful. It is also very easy to use.

 

[ivymike]

I've used Pro/E and UG, and I'd have to say that for surfacing (auto body panels, interior trim), UG is way better than Pro-E. For other tasks they both have strengths and weaknesses.

 

[midrangewebmaster]

Visit the General engineering computer programs discussion. There is a very lengthy forum there that may help you.
Jim Smithie, Webmaster

http://www.midrangecad.com

Free CAD evaluation kits and comparisons

 

[zilla74]

I am currently using Unigraphics, ProEngineer, Catia V4 and V5. In my opinion, Unigraphics is the best tool. It is the most robust, most stable and most flexible tool available. There is no other tool that can handle customer data easier than Unigraphics. As a design tool, Unigraphics is the most flexible. You can use solids, surfaces, wireframe all mixed together. You can use parametrics if you want but if it does not lend itself well to your work then you don't have to. You can use explicit modeling instead. What is most important is associativity (if a change is made, will all your other work update) Unigraphics is by far the most capable tool in this regard. It is also the easiest tool to trouble shoot if there are problems with your design.
ProEngineer is far to constricting of a tool. It is very common to design yourself into a corner using ProEngineer. This waists a lot of time and effort. ProEngineer is known for being too difficult to use. CATIA V5 is a good tool but it is far to unstable and not even close to the capability of Unigraphics. It has been developed for over four years and is still not production ready. You can ask many of the large companies using it that question. I know many companies reverting back to CATIA V4 (which is like working back in the stone ages) because CATIA V5 can not do their job. I have not used SolidWorks. I know many people who like it but I would tend to stay away from it because is does not scale at all to the growth of your company. In my honest opinion, Unigraphics is head over heals the best CAD solution available.

Best Regards,

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I know this is a little off track, but I would like to know Dr Pro Eng's reasons for saying this is the best, I asm very curious since you say you have used all four and for how long??

Thanks, looking forward to catching up. David Ponder
Senior Design Engineer
TWR Australia

 

[iraniii]

i have worked 7(sum) years on ug-mdt-solidworks and catia
1mm depth of ocean water(my info of each package), spacially in modeling.
I think high level softwares(ug-catia-peo_e) aresimilar to a very old and experienced man that consider any option for doing a job, so speed reduces and accuracy and abilities increse.
but midrange softwares such as mdt-solid edge and work and cadds are similar to a younhg man that with less options in consideration does its job.
this is in modeling(regardless of less modules such as sheetmetal, routing, ...).
A big company needs a high level software to do all designing, calculating, and manufacturing its product in only one software beacuse of associativities between objects and modules, ability, accuracy, not data transfering, least files(data jungle with less trees in design to manufacturing process) and ...

 

[AG62]

I am designin with SDRC I-deas and we are working with a costumer wich uses Pro-E. I noticed that all his designs (all plastic injection molded parts) do not have draft at 100% but 30-40%.Because we have to add draft on the surfaces in order to make it moldable we need to know where that paricular part goes in assembly. This is a very painful process because we have to do the work that he did not do and he do not consider that a work (he belive that the part is already finished in design by him).
So, I went to his office and explained him where the problems are since we have to do around 20 molds for him.
He explained that in Pro-E for adding draft in a surface you have to go after extrusion and add it on each surface. Than I understand why he do not add draft, adding draft in injection molded parts in Pro-E is a big pain when you dealt with parts that have 40-50 extrusions and each extrusion has at least 4 surfaces, can you imagine what a lost of time is for a designer of plastic molded parts to design in pro-e, even if there are slight advantages in other areas. Only for that reason we discarded the otipn to go to Pro-E since I-deas is going to desappear. I think the best in the market today are Catia V5 and UG NX.

 

[demco]

And you can get UG for free... and have a clear path to bring your current designs into the new software, without needing to use STeP or IGS... It seems to me that it would be a no brainer.

-Derek
DL Engineering Services

specializing in CAD Design Consultation Services

http://www.dl-engineering.com

 

[looslib]

AG62,

Your Pro/E guy doesn't know how to use Pro/E if he says draft has to be applied to individual surfaces. Pro/E Wildfire can take a non-planer parting line and apply draft in both directions.


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

Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand

 

[Xwheelguy]

Ben,

Could he have meant draft has to be applied as an individual feature, unlike in UG where it is part of the extrusion?

Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.

http://www.enkei.com

 

[looslib]

Tim,

The draft is applied as a feature after the basic part is modeled. But it can be applied to the whole model. Since I don't do plastic injection molds, maybe I am missing something when it comes to applying draft to the model. I would think that you would apply the same draft angle to all perpendicular surfaces to the parting line.


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

Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand

 

[AG62]

Ben,
In injected molded parts draft is not the same in all the surfaces. Where you have shoot-offs you nedd more draft than in a surface that do not have shoot-offs.
But I think even during design process you have to be carefull because your part is design in a assambly envoirement, so you need to keep the relations(clereances) from the other parts.
Another problem is within the part itself. Lef assume that you extrude a square 1"x1" in .500" height, than you scetch on the top face and draw a circle .25" diameter which you constaint with a dimension .300" from one edge and .400" from the other edge and than you extrude it by.500". Since you do not have draft on the first square extrusion you need to add it after, my question is what happend with the round protrusion when draft of 3 degrre is added on the base extrusion, I think that the position of the round protrusion is changed since that is constrained to the top edge of the base extrusion.
Probably I am thinking having in maind how it works in I-deas but we have two other costumers that uses Peo-E aswell and they confirmed the same thing that "The only way to have draft for injection molded parts (there is not only one draft value) is to go after the extrusion/protrusion and add it". Again I do not work with Pro-e and probably I am missing somethig, but one thing I know for sure that all designs coming from Pro-E have missing drafts, all 100%. And this I think is only because the designers do not want to spent time with this "unimportant" feature for them.

 

[looslib]

Your last line is probably the closest to the truth, the designers don't want to add waht they see as a non-valued added task. Draft is required by the molder, not the designer. We have the same arguement with our sheetmetal parts and the flat patterns. Engineering says they don't do anything for them so why should they create them.

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

Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand

 

[AG62]

Ben,
So you are saying that the designer is "BS"-ing me. do you think there is a easy way to ad different drafts in the same part and not spending to much time.
If this is true I will talk to his boss and show him that there is a fast and easy way to do that, because to tell you the truth it is very painful to add draft on an existing model, without calculating the mistakes that we can make not knowing what the parts does and how that is assemblied.
Thank you

 

[ccman]

Hi everybody.
I have used SolidWorks,Catia and Unigraphics. in my opinion UG number one.
SolidWorks is very good (For Mechanical Design) but for surfaces design insufficient,if catia very expensive and heavy a program (For CAM a little bit bad )
But UG in every respect very good...

 

[cilogistics]

i am agree with Dr pro/E.As pro-e is most powerfull & versatile software.with its advance option you can generate any part which you can not do with other software.

shil26774

 

[Berserk]

cilogistics
What kind of part can Pro/E do that UGNX2 can't?

 

[looslib]

When it comes to modeling there is very little difference in what Wildfire and NX 2 can do. UG has some different tools, like direct modeling, that work slick.
Drafting is a different ballgame. UG wins hands down.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
"Fixed in the next release" should replace "Product First" as the PTC slogan.

Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand