What the big guys use?

[solidmecman]

I did a search in the forum and found a couple of threads from a few years ago talking about how Boeing using Catia, etc. I was wondering if any of this has changed with the latest versions of Solidworks. I was always curious as to what the big guys like Boeing, Airbus, all the big car companies, Nasa, our government, etc. uses for their engineering departments. I was watching a discover channel show about a month back where they were showing the building of the new Airbus A380 plane and there were some seens of the engineers working on their computers with a 3d model of the actual plane but I couldn't tell what software they were using, in any event, those have got to be some HUGE assembly files.

 

[solidmecman]

well Autocad is still much more widely used than solidworks isn't it? even though acad is 2d haven't most companies NOT switched to 3d yet? I would of thought that Inventor would be much more popular with all of the existing autocad users..

 

[GBor]

ACAD isn't 2D, but the solid modeling is primarily basic geometrics. Inventor is a fierce competitor to SW and works hard to lower its price to stay ahead in the market. It isn't entirely successful. While it does have more seats in the market, its annual sales, I believe, is losing ground to SW...at least, that's the rumors I 'hear'.

 

[wgchere]

Acad has a huge 3rd party market--the last I heard it was around 4,000 programs. When we were looking at Acad and Cadkey (in the 90's) we found out that Acad had 3,500 3rd party programs to Cadkey's 150, but that Cadkey had more 3rd party mechanical engineering programs than Acad! The mechanical users of Cadkey were better served because Acad was (and still is) primarily a Civil Engrg/Architectural 2D program. Inventor is Abase of 2D to 3D users who haven't switched. But they lost a lot of their mechanical engineering users to Sworks and other low-end parametric solids programs before they got their heads out of the ground and developed Inventor.

So, to answer the question:

Autocad is still much more widely used than solidworks isn't it?

Yes. But the wide base of Acad users can't switch to SolidWorks because it doesn't work so well in their disciplines.

 

[SBaugh]

Don't forget ACAD also give all it's Mechanical Desktop users and I think ACAD users free Inventor seats, but without Maintanance.

That brings their numbers up quite a bit... that's like cheating to me though. I honestly hate AutoCAD simply because they dropped the ball on their users for years. They would have been on top if they had not let their power ego trip confuse their path. That is obivous because when SW came out they struggled for years to come up with something that would work. MDT is a prime example of how hard they tried and it fell flat on it's face when it was released... IMO.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[wgchere]

We are having a training session on Acad2006 Machanical (what a joke). The trainer told us that each seat of Invento comes with a seat of Autocad and MDT! There are still some die hard users of MDT out there, and they're trying to woo them to Inventor.

 

[rfus]

I'm about 6'2", I don't know if that makes me a 'BIG GUY'

...but I use SolidWorks.

 

[smcadman]

I'm about 6'2", I don't know if that makes me a 'BIG GUY'

...but I use SolidWorks.

I agree that AutoDesk is "cheating" in the numbers game by giving Inventor away, they were doing that 5 years ago. I don't know if I am a "die hard" MDT user, but when it came to parametric modeling, MDT was better 5 years ago than SW is today. Their equations/variables were much easier to work with.

Flores
SW06 SP2.0

 

[Heckler]

Getting back to what the big guys use - back when I worked for Lockheed in Sunnyvale we had a dedicated onsite support engineer from SDRC to help with training and issues when converting legacy data. I once heard that LM bought 600 seats for the entire corporation. I know every engineer had a HP workstation on their desk for MCAD apps and a MAC for e-mails and such.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

 

[Heckler]

With all due respect I'm having a hard time believing you! I've used Inventor which according to A-Desk is their next generation above MDT and it sucked. SWx 98+ was better then Inventor 5.3......so I challenge you to find one person on this forum or any supporting data (links to articles) that supports your opinion.

I don't know if I am a "die hard" MDT user, but when it came to parametric modeling, MDT was better 5 years ago than SW is today. Their equations/variables were much easier to work with.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

 

[J-C]

I don't know if I am a "die hard" MDT user, but when it came to parametric modeling, MDT was better 5 years ago than SW is today. Their equations/variables were much easier to work with.

Solidworks equations do blow, but configurations almost completely make up for it. MDT better than SWX? I think not. I'm glad I left that garbage behind. If was better, how come they developed Inventor?


Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP1.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[solidmecman]

since many of you have worked for large companies as mechanical engineers using programs such as solidworks, etc. can you comment on what the pay scales are like in this field of work? I am just using Solidworks for my own business endevor.

 

[ctopher]

Varies on the company and area of the country.

Chris
Systems Analyst
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[SBaugh]

I'm about 6'2", I don't know if that makes me a 'BIG GUY'

That's it just 6'2"... hehe I got you beat... I'm 6'7"

Cheers,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[GregLocock]

In automotive, as a rough guide:

DCX use CATIA. GM uses UG. Ford use IDEAS but are moving to CATIA.

I think you guys are focussing far too much on ease of use at the desktop level. The real cost in a large company is database maintenance and version control. Bunging lines on screens is just the fun part.

Round here a top end 3d designer with some supervisory responsibility will be on a scale up to about 85k US (ie the same as an engineer), but our cost of living is pretty low. Straight out of uni it's more like 40k.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[looslib]

Jack0841 said: "Plus I know for sure Pratt & Whitney is using CATIA." But that is only P&W-Canada.

Pratt&Whitney-USA and GE Engines both use UG.
GE Locomotive uses UG.


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

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

 

[solidmecman]

Well it's been nice to hear about everybodies opinions, does anybody in this thread work for a good size engineering company as a 3d mech designer?

 

[jeremyregnerus]

Nice thread. I work in the MCAD industry, as it stands now 32 out of the 38 major autmobile manufactures do use Catia, as well as a lot of the aerospace industry. This is primarily due to the class A surfacing that is required in this industry. As SolidWorks continues to develop over the years, we will be seeing this capability grow as well.

Having worked with several company's using SDRC Ideas, it is painful to watch their day to day process. More and more of these companies are starting to put aside their notion that their software is "superior", and in fact been neglected from years of automotive tier demand. As the US marked moves further and further away from Automotive dependancy, and the notion that if Chrystler is using Catia I have to use Catia, you will see much more of the MCAD market (SolidWorks, Inventor, Solid Edge, ProE) grow to fill these voids. I have worked with many of these tools and found their "Advanced" capabilied to be way overshadowed by their bulkiness, slow performance and cost of ownership.

 

[smcadman]

Heckler, Gildashard
I never said that MDT is bettern than SW: re-read my post. Do you just start drawing lines and circles and let the chips fall where they may, or do you think ahead of what may be modified and build your parts with design intent? For example,

http://multiterra.mooload.com/file.php?file=files/1134572711/Stairs_and_Handrail.pdf

is and old drawing in MDT 6 with Power Pack. After doing this for awhile, you know that "in-field" measurements are hardly ever on the mark to pre-production drawings. I knew that the height, length, etc. of the stairs would change. I put the numbers in design variables, and after in-field measurement of the site, I changed a few variables, and everything from the steps to the hand-rails and guard-rails updated.
Double-click a dimension and you can easily enter design-variables by picking them from a list.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1225/dimdoubleclick6ty.jpg

Not until 2005 did SW include global variables, and once made, they cannot be renamed on the fly. You can't just double-click a dim for modification, you have to pick the text.
I can't comment on Inventor because I never used it.
Uh-oh, did I just open Pandora's Box?

Flores
SW06 SP2.0

 

[Heckler]

Greg

Round here a top end 3d designer with some supervisory responsibility will be on a scale up to about 85k US (ie the same as an engineer), but our cost of living is pretty low. Straight out of uni it's more like 40k.

What's the employment outlook like in the UK? I've often thought about moving back to the UK. That salary for a MCAD designer is a lot better then what I've seen here in the USA.

Ben,

When did you leave IR?


Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I never said that MDT is bettern than SW

but when it came to parametric modeling, MDT was better 5 years ago than SW is today

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