Solidworks vs UniGraphics 2

[PlasticFantastic]

For the last few years I have been banging my head in frustration. The multinational company that I work in we have two sets of engineers. One set uses UG (and has more influence) and another team uses Solidworks.

CAD files are given to both teams, but I love it when the Solidworks team is involved because I can hand over native files. When working with the UG team they have to reconstruct the parasolid that I hand over to them (which seems to me like a big waste)

This would not be much of an issue if UG wasnt so slow. From my point of view every feature seems to be nested and calling up top level assemblies seems to be a big problem. Changes in UG take about twice as long as changes in Solidworks

Apart from disparaging remarks like calling Solidworks a toy and "Saladworks", I have not heard any solid reasons that UG is better for our purposes (we design a range of products from GPS hand-held to large assembly heavy duty demolition products). If anything- the geometry from SWX we hand over tends to be cleaner! We have robust models that can be modified faster.

Has anyone here switched from Unigraphics. What did you get for the money that you paid. Perhaps UG needs power users to unlock its power. If anyone can give me good info I would appreciate it very much. Is there a particular threshold beyond which the power of UG is fully utilized?

 

[TheTick]

I worked in UG for 5 years. Some of it was very heavy-duty surface design for some then-famous blue computers. I now work in SolidWorks.

I like SW. It's a good product. It has matured nicely. Still, it is not nearly as capable as UG in many respects.

Is there a particular threshold beyond which the power of UG is fully utilized?

Absolutely. However, you will only find the need for such power in a small sliver of the CAD market.

Non-parametric modeling
We would get plastic shells via IGES from Alias from the industrial design group. It was our job to turn them into viable CAD models.

ID'ers don't give a rat's tush about your feature tree. They just want to see their changes implemented. The reasons for these changes can never be predicted. Keeping up a parametric model in such an environment was nearly impossible.

Some functions of UG made it well-suited for such an environment. Some examples:[ul]
[li]Ability to move or replace faces in non-featured models.[/li]
[li]Ability to make surfaces from point sets (poles or defining points), and manipulate single defining points or poles.[/li]
[li]Ability to change a surface's degree (up to 33rd). Most Alias surfaces we encountered were 5th degree in one irection and 3rd degree in the other.[/li]
[li]Far superior surface analysis tools.[/li]
[li]Perfect C2 continuity control[/li][/ul]

If your UG guys really had their game on, they would be wiping the floor with you if they were clued in beyond 20% of UG's capabilities. However, the tool does not make the craftsman. I doubt any of them are better designers by virtue of their underutilized system. Good design happens in the mind of the designer. CAD is only the third-from-last step in expresing that design.

I could be the world's greatest underachiever, if I could just learn to apply myself.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

-SolidWorks API VB programming help

 

[PlasticFantastic]

Yeah- I guess that is the frustration. My fellas are probably not up to speed with the program, because I cannot tell you how many times I have sat behind an engineers desk waiting 10 min modifications that take 30 seconds in Solidworks.

Typically I get the reply, "Well UG doesnt work that way. You cant drag a curve and expect model to JUST update!" (and this is towards the end of a feature tree)

Well then let me ask another question- where does Solidworks start to struggle downstream from geometry creation? Is PDM better with UG? Does UG play better with large teams of designers as opposed to 1 or 2 engineers? Is it smarter when dealing with configurations and fasteners?

 

[TheTick]

Is PDM better with UG?

I never worked with PDM in UG. Evenat said major computer company, we worked on the "honor system". Actualy, we improvied a controlled folder structure that served our needs well.

UG has a file naming stuctre that allows use of filenames for versioning. For instance, if there are two files, Part1-rev01 and Part1-rev02 in the same folder, UG assemblies will recognize Part1-rev02 as a later configuration and use it (if that's how UG is configured).

UG does a beter job of allowing users to work with read-only files in an assembly.

Does UG play better with large teams of designers as opposed to 1 or 2 engineers?

From what Ive seen, yes. Lke I said, I have worked on product design teams with over 10 people working on a single product with no PDM. UG's internal functionality had enough ability to allow us to buld PDM-type folder structure using UNIX.

Is it smarter when dealing with configurations and fasteners?

This is where SW is probably ahead of UG.

Typically I get the reply, "Well UG doesnt work that way. You cant drag a curve and expect model to JUST update!" (and this is towards the end of a feature tree)

That depends on how you model. UG has some rally good free-form drag-ad-change abiliy, but it doesn't reside in the sketcher.

Imagine just laying down curves in space without a sketch and just using them to build features! UG an do thi. Later, if you want to parameterize those curves, they can be added to a sketch.

Other UG features:[ul]
[li]UG allows building of Reference sets, which allow "partial loading" of parts. Similar to SW's "Lightweight components" but more powerful.[/li]
[li]A UG file can have it own solid geometry, bring in a component, and make a multi-sheet drawing all in the same file.[/li][/ul]

Disclaimer:
It's been 4 years since I have worked hands-on with UG. Still, from what I have heard and seen, it has only gotten better.

There is a company in Silicon Valley called SurfaceInk <

http://www.surfaceink.com>

that was formed by some of the guys I worked with. If you want to talk to current users doing this stuff, go to them. Tell Eric B. some guy from Wisconsin sent you.

I could be the world's greatest underachiever, if I could just learn to apply myself.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

-SolidWorks API VB programming help