The SE Logs

That sort of thing usually means you can do a lot less with it.

Well..its up and running. I did disc clean up and defrag first (that took 8 hours).. loaded SE this AM..that took about 20 minutes (IV took hours, and so did Alibre... alibre took 4 hours as i recall...I did about half of its tutorial.. it had noticeable limitations... no array no pattering bolt hole features apparently.. you had to lay each hole out separately.).

The SE tutorials are absolutely world class. The screen comes up with a part to edit or draw and you edit it or draw it live as the tutorial and the various screen prompts guide you (in 'apprentice' mode)...iit is a fully interactive tutorial ... procedures less than a tenth as complex as IV..

I read the SE basics book friday before I loaded the program..that took about 8 hours.. as i had guessed. 1 hour was way optimistic for me, but Id guess an experienced SE or SW user could have done it an hour..

So far id estimate that SE plain vanilla operates much as SW in solid modeling,... it operates about a tenth as complex with assemblies as in IV..I dont know it compares with SW in that regard.

it loaded with no catch 22's or suprises.. I did have to reboot to get my web access working again.

Re inventor. from what I can tell is cobbled together from many other vendors cornels or whatever those are called.... the load time and the arcane operations are a result of having to stitch all that crap together.

I dont see any significant traces of that in SE. It seems to be a pretty much of a self integrated system.

I dont know what SE capabilities are yet, but Id estimate they are approx equal to IV and the others. If SE has a close rival Id guess it was SW at this point. SE synch should outstrip anything on the market by a wide margin if it lives up to even half of its promise....

truly I must *thank JB for the tip regardless what some see as other issues... we all have those you know. Perhaps i myself am more tolerant due to all the gun fights, nasty motorcycle and red headed babe issues...not to mention the fiasco with the US Dept of Energy.. (they absolutely HATE my guts you know)..

Implications for our business are extensive imo... CAD work so simple that anyone can learn it and do it..which means lower rates for cad operators..... and a much more competitive world market... not the best for segments of the US economy given china's mfg capability

My advice, get good at some essoteric very high end specialities and stay on the leading edge of those advances. Ive done that with my clients, moved them from grunt work type projects to more sophisticated projects... and into controls etc.. even that is being heavily invaded by the totally cloooless.. a mess. but thats how its going.

Advanced and easier techology is a two edged sword. Personally I saw some of this comming 15 years ago and began broadening my engineering and hands on skill sets (trade skills)... the combination is all thats keeping this ol philsie from getting really really thin..

I have 8 days to do the basic book and some tutorials.. my guess i will have them all done in that time frame. Then it appears that the first 4 day training class. ($1,495, but I got a package deal discount) will cover synchronous..I will be ready for it.

SE seems to run OK on the compaq...Id bet sycnhronous does as well.

Phil scott

You can hold me to the August ship date for Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology

As far as thanking me...that's what I'm here for and that's what my blog is all about. I like to help those who can think for themselves. That means I can't help most CADCAM users or machinists because most are brain dead idiots. In addition, most users of CADCAM products are product loyalists.

I'm a CADCAM w**re, Phil. If something comes along that's better I'll switch. By no means do I think that others can't come up with what Siemens/UGS has come up with. I just don't think it will be anytime soon. I also intent to remain loyal in one respect to Siemens/UGS... in giving them credit as the first to really spend the money and take a huge step toward ending the nonsense that has existed for far too long. It's too bad that SpaceClaim didn't go further. SpaceClaim didn't and still doesn't have a decent marketing plan and continues to rely on losers like Franco Folini / Novedge who add no value to a product. Mike Payne and company only have themselves to blame. Mike Payne is brilliant but he's not a very good listener and he doesn't understand what it takes to market CADCAM.

When you get your copy of Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology I'm counting on you to state whether you need the parametric-history based part of Solid Edge for anything. I feel many uses will never touch the other side of Solid Edge (the one you are using now) and it will eventually fade away. Is it bad to learn how to use it the parametric- history based side? No because it will just make you appreciate Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology all the more and give you a better appreciation for the effort Siemens / UGS has made with Synchronous Technology.

Count me out on the "anyone can learn to use it" bullshit. I feel that's hype. It's more like you no longer have to spend 8 hours a day behind a computer with SolidWorks and pretend to be an "expert". That would be an "expert" who often still can't get the job done in a timely manner.

I look forward to your posts on learning to use Synchronous Technology. I'm sure others do as well but they won't post and are too wimpy to say they have major problems with the way SolidWorks does things in many areas. I?m sure SolidWorks 2009 will be much better than the piece of shit SolidWorks 2008 is but it won?t be the kind of breakthrough Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology is.

SolidWorks Corp. can no longer be considered a technology leader. It?s more like SolidWorks 2009 will be an update of the same old shit (history based/parametric modeling) that doesn?t handle many real world problems and creates it?s own set of problems.

Jon Banquer San Diego, CA