Which 3-D Cad Software is Best? 39

[DGP]

We are a packaging machine builder and are currently using AutoCad 14 (2D). We would like to move into a 3D software package and are looking at either "SolidWorks" or
"SolidEdge". However we have heard rumors that "SolidWorks" has problems with large part assemblies. Could this be a software issue or a hardware issue.
I would greaty appreciate any responses from software users who are familiar with both softwares. And why they would choose one over the other.

Thank You.....DGP [sig][/sig]

 

[jtcom]

We use AutoCAD R2000 for surface and solid modeling. We can generate .stl files and get model data from this package.
Easy to use, under $3,500 for this package.

 

[jiwankow]

Easy of Use and what the software actually does are two different issues and they seem to have been blurred together here... I find MS Notepad is easy to use, but it doesnt have the functionality of MS Word. People are discussing what they like to use, without regard to the task. Buy software that does the required tasks, and is upgradable, and has a decent support program in place. Eventually, you get used to using the applications...Anyone here remember being resistant to upgrading their O/S? You're used to it now arent you?

 

hello dgp,
well according to me the best software for any type of modelling as well as manufacturing operations is unigraphics, which i found nobody mentioned in all of above messages.i'm saying this not because i use it but have benchmarked it after using proe2000i2,visicamsurf5 and of course autocad.
i had the impression that modelling of proe is very strong but i was disappointed to see that the kind of work i've performed on UG is very hard to do with ease on proe, coz proe is very parameteric and u can't proceed without setting them which gives u hard time. and its time that matter the most.
UG has very good surface modelling, solid modelling capabilities, assymbly modelling capabilities can be estimated that rail coach factory here in india is using ug and one can imagine the size of assymbly in rail coach. above all its manufacturing is wonderful.
i've been using the ug for modelling the scaled models of cars and u can imagine the complexity of surfaces.
so, one word for ug is NICE.

 

Hi guys,

This is a very complicated question. I have used IDEAS, Pro/E, and some AutoCAD. The best thing for you to do is to look at the market and the kind of product that you are in . If you are receiving a lot of files from customers, try to find out what kind of software they are using in general and then narrow it down. It can save you a lot of time from creating new model. You can have the software company gives you a demo, do not make any quick decision (wait to review all of the one you have selected). If you are involved in 3D modeling and FEA simulation, you should look into Pro/E or IDEAS (they import pretty well in their own analysis software and others. Do not take my word for it, but take it into consideration.

Arden J.
ardenj@hotmail.com

 

hai all

solidworks is very easy to learn for beginners and also professionals compared to other softwares like pro_e and IDEAS, its advantage is windows based functionality and user friendly, so people can buy the solidworks software without fear.

from

kuls behalf of Ganesh babu

 

[dsi]

While that is true in most cases, you would not use a screwdriver to remove a nail. Analyzing your specific needs and weighing the benefits and limitations of the tools that are available is a necessity.

 

[Loverat]

Would suggest you try Mechanical Desktop R5. Mechanical Desktop is an Autodesk product which may be found at

http://www.autodesk.com.

All the best.

 

[david1]

I have experience with SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor. I would highly recommend SolidWorks as the best choice for 3D as it is easy to use (intuitive), powerful, and nicely priced with good support.
In my opinion, Inventor is more cumbersome, and demands more powerful hardware (more ram and better video cards). I have only used Inventor for 6 weeks but some things do not work (Viewer) well, and steps that should be relatively easy take many more commands to complete.

 

[mark20]

DGP,
I work for a massive Global organisation in mechanical engineering. We currently use 'Helix Design System' (Dont even bother looking it up). The point i am putting across is, We are so annoyed with using this system we decided to change it, (cut a long story short) the company on a Global basis decided to change to another CAD system so we started to research systems. Bearing in mind we are thinking of investing in more than 10,000 licences worldwide, and all of those will require training and possibly a new PC.
Anyway now I think I have expressed how much cash we are going to spend on this, We looked at a lot of the abouve mentioned software there is only a few that we did not look at from the above list, and the one which we found to be the best all round was Solid Edge. We chose this because it was basically just as good as the competition (maybe missing a few features) and its so easy to use.
I seriously consider that you go to thier site and use the demo copy.
I have previously used AutoCAD R14&2000, Pro Eng, 'Helix' Ha! and Ideas. They all took quite a while to get used to but with Solid Edge I followed one of thier tutorials and then I was away, I found it very easy. Minimum input maximum output.

I hope this helps.
Regards,
Mark

 

I was lucky to draw on similar experience to the message left by mark20. ( I have used Autocad 9-14, Cadkey 7, Anvil 1000, Euclid and SolidWorks 97-2001 ).The company that I used to work for ( very large world-wide custom automation designer/builder) also did a similar evaluation of many software and hardware combinations because their global investment was going to be significant and they already had a large archive of Autocad history. The bottom line was that they found SolidWorks to be the winner. Since then, I have been part of three other companys' implementations and continue to be impressed with the softwares capabilities.

As mentioned in other postings, SW slows down with large assemblies, but any of the packages slow down in relative terms. I work routinely with assemblies of several 100 and even multiple 1000's of parts ( complete assembly lines ) and found that although it was slower, it still was acceptable considering what you were asking the software to do ! Hardware is key; get all the horsepower you can get to run the software on ! The justification for this is simple. You run the software on a slow machine and use the Windows task manager to show how many hours a day your CPU is working on SW. We upgraded from PII 350Mhz to PIII 933Mhz and saw the CPU time drop by at least half. This meant in theory, we were spending less time waiting and more time designing. The payback time on new hardware iis relatively short and people running the latest hardware are more excited about what they are doing. They also feel that the company is investing in them.

Lastly, SW has been excellent in giving you new functionality with every release. Each major release has dozens of new functions or enhancements that ARE worth upgrading for. Even minor releases can be expected to show upgrades and any fixes for bugs that might have shown up. They are pro-active giving you extras before you think to ask for them !! (Autocad always felt like you were a Beta test site and that they would only fix stuff or add stuff if enough people complained).

Nothing is perfect but I love SW.

 

[midrangewebmaster]

Mark20,

If your company is in the process of purchasing 10,00 seats of anything, it would be very wise to look a little deeper than just Solid Edge. Form a superficial point of view, Solid Edge looks great. However, speaking from experience, Solid Edge has a lot of problems (bugs) and shortcomings (lacks functionality). Support is, and always has been slow to respond to customer requested enhancements, putting it far behind SolidWorks, Pro/E, and even Inventor.

If you have any say what so ever in your companies next CAD package, you better do your homework. A few of the different VAR's have scheduled "Test Drives". They are a great way to not only use the software, but also ask the AE's some tough questions.
Jim Smithie, Webmaster

http://www.midrangecad.com

 

[wroberts]

I just want to state that having used SolidWorks, Unigraphics and I-Deas, and having formerly run a CAD lab at a college, that your best bet is SolidWorks. It is the easiest program to learn, and is stable. I presently am stuck with I-Deas, it is the most unstable Cad program I've ever used. If you want to translate to 3D SolidWorks I think it is your best bet. It's missing some high end surfacing techniques, but will work great for all but the most complex 3D geometry. It also translates between software very well.

Will Roberts
Yazaki-na

 

[viperpurple]

SOLIDWORKS​

​

LOL

I have been using Solidworks for 6 Months now and have picked it up very quickly. It allows me to do eveything that I want and need to do very quickly and easily, unlike autocad it is a very user friendly program which relies heavly on GUI rather than raw data

One of the major advantages it has is the free upgrades and add ons avaqilable which allows you to make the program as powerful and expensive as you like or if your on a tight budget just use the basic package

P.S. I don't work for Solidworks or any of its resellers I am a genuine user and the text that you have just taken time out to read wasn't a sales pitch but an honest opinion

THANK YOU
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From ALL my friends
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[WAB]

8+ year Pro/E user. The current release is supposed to be windows based, tossing out the years of experience current users have built up but good news for new users. Strong surface capabilities, modifications to parts are easy depending if you're the creator or not. On the other hand, if I buy something new to use at home Solidworks is probably going to be it after struggling with Autocad 14 for awhile.

 

[ksume]

Anyone considering buying into a new 3D CAD package should look into Autodesk's Inventor. I have used AutoCAD base solids, Mechanical Desktop, SolidWorks, Pro-Engineer, and a few other packages that are no longer supported by their programing companies (example: ComputerVision Personal Designer). For mechanical engineers and designers that are looking into buying a new 3D parametric solids creation software, Inventor seems to blow them all away in terms of ease of model creation (My opinion). AutoCAD is not really a fair comparision, it's a general CAD package, good for a lot of people, it's not specialized... Just remember that, I see alot of people above this comment that are complaining about it, by comparing it to software that is specialized in &quot;Mechanical Solids creation&quot;. For auguement sake, lets see you create a wiring or hydraulic schematic in PRO-E, SolidWorks, or maybe Solid Edge, tough to do huh? Not a fair comparision. My two cents.

KSU Mechanical Engineer

 

[jtcom]

DGP-
We use AutoCAD R2000 for 2D and 3D Solids and Surface modeling.
We generate all our views from our model, and the editing features in R2000 for modeling are a great improvement.
I have worked at other companies who use high end modeling packages, but the truth is alot of modeling can be completed using AutoCAD and mid range software packages.
The .stl files alone that AutoCAD started having in earleyer versions is wonderful for prototype.
Take a good look at what your using and see if you allready have the tool you need.
Let me know.
t.c.

 

Check out the latest version of Autodesk Inventor... They are doing some awesome things with this piece of software. Assemblies are the fastest of any of the mid-ranged packages. Autodesk even found a way to show threads on a shaft without taking up gobs of space on your hard disk. It's strickly a visualization method, what an awesome idea.
I'm not a Autodesk representative, I'm just amazed at what they are doing.

Food for Thought
mrm1018

 

My two cents worth, i have been a Cadkey man for 6 years and not that long ago i bought Pro-E for myself to operate at home doing contract work and then bought Solidedge for at work the work choice was not mine. So far these two packages are awsome. I can tell you the extra cost of both packages compared to cadkey is not an issue once you get to use all the advantages these two packages offer. Infact staying with Cadkey was costing heaps in lost productive time. I really find it hard to belive the guys still talking up in praise of Inventor i think it is so far behind even the two i mentioned i would never consider it at all. There are plenty of good packages around other than the two i mentioned. But the likes of Cadkey and inventor are so far behind its not funny. UG the owners of Solidegde are pouring heaps of innovations into Edge to let it fall behind and at the moment i find it a dream to use. My own Pro-E ....now thats a challenge but can see how in time that will be my choice i feel but at the moment Edge is a doddle to use effeciently. I design machines up around the 5k part size so there not small, in Cadkey terms thats around 38meg. It was way past the capability of cadkey to cope.
Cheers Steven........ hope this helps confuse the issue...lol

 

[JayAndrews]

Hi,
I consider myself an Autocad expert, and use it for complex 3d assemblies and details alot. It is very good if you know a few simple commands/techniques. Don't be scared out of it by people that don't know how to use it telling you autocad is no good for 3d, I've been using r14 3d for years now, and have done some real nice work, including even hoses/wiring!! As far as large assemblies giving problems I figure that is the nature of the beast, no matter how powerful your software/hardware is, there will always be a complexity ceiling, just work smart.
Good luck!!
Jay Andrews

 

[jdsewell]

the debate rages. my two cents. i can't count the number of times i've had problems with autocad/mechanical desktop and comlex geometry. i apologize to all those i am about to offend, but if you think that autodesk's products are capable of handling complex fillets and the like, then you are not trully dealing with complex geometry. if all you are doing is simple shapes and you don't need the high expense/learning curve of the high end software packages, then yes autodesk is for you. if you are doing anything in aerospace, you need the power. yes i am biased. i have run mechanical desktop (versions 3 and 4) for years. the programs foundation is simply not designed for complexity. the software started out as simply 2d and has been trying to catch up ever since. i am currently running pro/e 2000i and i am pleased. the biggest problems i have encountered have been with the transition from unix to windows. when it comes to solid modeling, pro eats anything autodesk can throw at it. if there is one advantage autodesk has, its user interface. i'll be giving solidworks a test run soon and would like to try out catia and ug, so i can be a little more impartial.
p.s. how big can this thread get?