Switching from Pro/E to SolidWorks -- is this wise?

[will421]

I'm looking into switching from Pro/E to SolidWorks. We have a large database of Pro/E parts and assemblies (25gig) that we use every day. My questions are:
1. If you made the switch, were you able to translate the parts and assemblies over to SolidWorks?
2. The majority of our design work are simple sheet metal parts (flanges, tabs and some forms) so which program is better?
3. Is there an improvement in productivity?

If you have any other comment, I would appreciate them.
Thanks

 

[APPENG]

Will,

I am a former Pro/E user, and let me start by saying this... The time that it would take me to design a part in Pro, was in this case about 2 hours I accomplished the exact same part in Solidworks in about 20 minutes.

Soldiworks is very easy to use, and extremely powerful software. If you are using sheetmetal there are a wide variety of tools that you can use to make your life easy.

The data from pro can be converted to Solidworks relatively easily as well, in fact SWX has Pro/E translators built-in and if you run into a version issue there are other methods that work well.

I would highly recommend that you check it out. I teach a lot of people in my day and every Pro/E guy i have ever had through my class is just in awe at the ease of use, and powerful tools...

Hope that convinces you to look at it


Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com

 

[TheTick]

There are some things that Pro/E sheetmetal does significantly better than SW shetmetal. I would benchmark thoroughly before switching.

"Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings."--C. D. Jackson

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[JNR]

Listen to both APPENG and TheTick. They are both right. SolidWorks is a whole lot easier to learn and use, and with normal parts, much quicker to use. It is also much easier to go back and edit parts. SolidWork is very powerful and I would say has caught up a lot on Pro-E. But Pro-E was pitched as a higher end system whereas SW was pitched as as mid-range system. There are things that Pro-E can do that SW can't. (And vice-versa to some extent, but the Pro-E pluses are more in the complex part creation area verses SW pluses more in user interface.)

The real issues are:
Is your current system meeting your needs?
Is it going to be there for you for the foreseable future?
Is support satisfactory?
Are there any overriding issues to cause you to NEED to change?

However much we folks like SW, don't just change for emotional reasons - not a good ecconomic decision all round. Pro-E is a good system. I would never buy it, but you already have it, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....
OK, OK, It's a reference to my holiday sig. "Be naughty - Save Santa a trip..."

 

[macPT]

I switched from Pro/E to SW, and it was not a question of being wise or being emotional attached to one system.

You must racionally search for objective reasons to support your decision. And you can decide for the "worst" system if the reasons point to that direction (don't drive a FERRARI in the center of the city).

I've worked with Pro/E until v17, in UNIX, and I don't agree that it was more difficult to use than SW. In fact I think that it was very userfriendly and very supportive, helping you in what you should do to hit your goal.

I liked Pro/E very much.

But one day we realised we needed a new CAD system (a new Pro/E version, specialy Windows based, or another system).

After some months of analysis and test we have decided for SW. The main reasons where:
- price
- support
- technical adequation to our needs
- compatibility with Pro/E files
- compatibility with Acad files
- Windows environment
- easy linkage to our management system

I don't complaint the switch. But you shouldn't swich if you don't have good objective reasons to do it.

Re

 

[RawheadRex]

ProEngineer is probably still the superior platform in terms of overall capability (i.e. it can do ANYTHING you want or need to do both practical and impractical). It has been sometime since I used it though so I'm not exactly up to speed on what's happened with that product over the past few years.

SolidWorks on the other hand has continued to improve and is most certainly far more comparable today than when I first transitioned to it about 6 years ago. It's overall capability is not all that far of a drop-off next to Pro Engineer (i.e. it can do ALMOST ANYTHING one would want to both practical as well as impractical by and large). In fact I would say that for a vast majority of applications it is indistinguishable from Pro Engineer if not superior in some instances in terms of functionality and capability.

User interface and ease of use isn't even close in my opinion, SolidWorks has it all over ProE.

One thing that SolidWorks continues to lag behind on though is the drafting module. Pro Engineer still gives far superior capability to SolidWorks. Be advised though that in fairness this has been a pet peeve of mine (and others as well - one guy I know actually compared it to doing manual drafting with an old wooden ruler and a box of crayola crayons - maybe that's a bit harsh but that's his opinion) for some time.

Definitely check out the translation facility for your legacy data though. I personally would be worried that everything comes over accurately and would urge you to beat hard on those guys before switching to be certain. Although my experience with the translator is extremely limited at best.

Hope this was useful feedback.

Good Luck!



Chris Gervais
Sr. Mechanical Designer
Lytron Corp.

 

[SBaugh]

RawHeadRex,

The New SW05 that was previewed at SW World looks like it might fit your needs in the drawing area. SW spent almost of it's time on drawings. The added some really nice features to parts and assemblies, but the drawing preview was awesome and it holds some promise in that release. If you get a chance to check it out you might want to take advantage of it.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[pdybeck]

Scott,

I was not at SW World. Could you be more specific about the drawing enhancements in 2005? I feel the area SW has been most lacking in has been the drawing department, so it would be interesting to hear what they are planning on doing.

Pete Yodis
Harold Beck and Sons

 

[ctopher]

see thread181-27567

 

[pdybeck]

????

 

[SBaugh]

ctopher meant this thread559-84815

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[pdybeck]

Thanks

 

[ctopher]

HUH?! Sorry, I don't know how I got that thread.
Thanks Scott, that's the one I wanted. (It's Friday)

 

[RawheadRex]

Scott,

I was at SW World and saw the demo. Yes, there appears to be improvemnt there but in all honesty it still doesn't go as far as Pro Engineer based on what I saw. Plus it's difficult to know what actually will see the light of day in SW05 when everything shakes out.



Chris Gervais
Sr. Mechanical Designer
Lytron Corp.

 

[J-C]

Just curious Chris, what does Pro/E do better regarding drawings? I've never really used Pro/E some just wondering.

Jason Capriotti
ThyssenKrupp Elevator

 

[alexsasdad]

Some quick points to take into consideration.

1. Do you use pro/program at all? If yes, sw does not have this functionality to offer. You can program sw just it is totally different. All programming would have to be created again.

2. The time to convert the models before you can use them.

3. SW is not feature based software, it is surface based. This will be a frustrating adjustment.

4. Another big adjustment is in assmbly modeling. The mates/constraints in SW are bi-directional. This means that if yoour first component isn't constrained when you put component 1000 in place it may actually change the position of component 1. Component 1 can actually be defined by the placement of component 1000. You also can't see only the mates that placed a component into the assembly. You get a list of all of the constraints for that component. When you list the mates for a component yoou may get a list of 30 constraints, and not listed in the order in which they were created.

5. I would suggest getting a demo copy and working with it for a while and see what all of your issues are.

Finally I would be interested in why you are thinking about changing software after you have used pro/e for so long.

 

[Cryo1]

Will421,

We went from a drawing board to SW 98 with the brief use of 2D software. Before you switch, you have to realize that your conversion of ProE files is not going to give you 100% of your model from ProE to SW. It may get you 99% of everything you want but there is still an issue of clean up and conversion time.

SW is great in many regards but here is one very big drawback to it: you cannot use it in a multi-user, multi-project environment without a PDM system behind it. If you want revision control then you must figure the $$$ for SW + PDM.

The drawing module is weak. It's a lot better but still the ugly step-child of the SolidWorks family. We push SW to its limits and it does have limits.