I've been a SolidWorks designer since '98. Almost a year ago I was forced to start using Pro/e. I hated it, cursed it, whined, cried, pissed and moaned about it the whole time.
I spent this whole last week back using SolidWorks for the first time in about six months.
I almost cried when I found myself thinking.... "I'd rather be doing this in Pro/e"
Funny how the grass is always greener, isn't it? Like the way the previous release of ProE was always better than the current one.
Must be metaphysics. Massless entities do have inertia. ;^)
Things that work better? Fewer crashes? Still learning in spite of the = curve? SW Corp created a monster with all their propaganda about how = much easier it was to use than anything else because it was true in a = very limited way: simple things are easier to do; but there are many = very difficult things you can do with SW and you just have to know how = to do them. All the BS about "intuitiveness" pretty much evaporates. The = rest of the story is how unreliable the software is and how the "ease of = use" argument is used to say users don't need training which, if that = were true, you wouldn't need knowledgeable VARs to do troubleshooting = and a very active informal support system, including a sister NG at = comp.cad.solidworks.
Well, I'm guessing that, because people are looking around, forgetting = "first loves" loyalties and checking out the solid modelling market, = they're finding out that Pro/E isn't as impossible as they'd been led to = believe and other software isn't as easy, either. What Pro/e lacks in = useability is more than made up for with added reliability and = capability.
David Janes
I tell you what, Pro/e is a lot more difficult to learn than SolidWorks. SW has that going for it, it is much faster to get started and pumping out drawings.
Part of it might be that I'm used to Pro/e now and clicking the wrong buttons gets old real quick. ie clicking the middle button instead of escape, ctrl and shift are opposite. sketch constraint creation is done in a different order.
However my biggest irritant was in Drawing creation. Pro/e is MUCH better/powerful when it comes to creating the manufactuing drawings.
Also, sheetmetal in SW sucks... hard.
As for reliability: Pro/e crashes a lot more often then SW ever did. Pro/e also never wakes up when my computer goes to sleep. Something about the network card powering down and the license server gets disconnected... Pro/e never wakes back up, I have to restart the computer. Tech support says, "dissable the sleep function" but I work off a laptop (mobile workstation) so that isn't an option.
Pro/e crashes when I'm in sketch mode and I double-click on a dimension. Just shuts itself down. So I have to use "modify dimension" to change any dims in a sketch. That pissed me off for a while but I'm used to it now.
They both have their upsides. But i think when my proficiency level in Pro/e gets to where I am in SW... I'll probably prefer Pro/e
Pro/E is weird like that if there is a hardware compatibility issue. I moved from a fairly powerful, but ageing white box running win2000 to a new PTC certified Dell running XP. Same build of Pro, the crashes went from several per week to once every few months. The computer makes a big difference. Your problem with crashing when you select a dimension could be as simple as needing to update your graphics driver.
Most of my crashes happen when doing something a little "far out" when modeling complex parts. I almost never get crashes doing the basic stuff.
I design some complex, often cosmetic plastic parts. I've had surface models get over 1000 features a couple times. I used to get crashes daily in R18, 2000, 2000i etc, but WF 2.0, and 3.0 have been very stable and reliable for me. I am quite pleased with Pro/ENGINEER, I think it has matured into a great CAD system.
What you have mentioned points toward a graphics card compatibility issue. (upgrade the graphics card or driver) Hmm,..there is no bios option to modify the "Wake Up LAN" or turn off hibernate or sleep? (maybe a limitation when using battery only?) And, for the license to get back on,.. maybe try a ptcflush and/or log- off/login-on?
=2E.
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