Pro/E is first, SolidWorks is 6th

David Janes

A couple of years ago Autodesk bundled Inventor with MDT and gave it to all "subscription" contract holders as the Autodesk Inventor Series. Nobody in heaven or on earth knows how many seats are in full time use. What I found interesting was that MDT still ranks ahead of Inventor. Who knows......

Now then, was that really posted by Ten Links' editor? I don't think so.

: "Jeff Howard" wrote : : A couple of years ago Autodesk bundled Inventor with MDT and gave it to all : "subscription" contract holders as the Autodesk Inventor Series. Nobody in : heaven or on earth knows how many seats are in full time use. What I found : interesting was that MDT still ranks ahead of Inventor. Who knows...... : Knowing Autodesk, that's kinda what I figured. But I'm sure, just from the number of jobs available, that Inventor is way behind SW in actual, professional design use.

: Now then, was that really posted by Ten Links' editor? I don't think so. : Good question, why don't I ask Mr. Tara Roopinder himself. Or maybe just someone on the staff and see if they get back to me. If they do, and they don't post it here, I'll pass it along. In any case, stroking us with a study saying WE'RE NO.

1!!!! is probably good advertizing. I wouldn't be surprised to find it turning up on Proe Central or Engineering Tips forums.

David Janes

Monster.com:

Solidworks 585 positions Inventor 99 Pro-E 436 Mechanical Desktop 134

Tenlinks.... coo-coo

Bill

DJ

: > : Now then, was that really posted by Ten Links' editor? I don't think : so. : > : : > Good question, why don't I ask Mr. Tara Roopinder himself. Or maybe just : someone : > on the staff and see if they get back to me. If they do, and they don't : post it : > here, I'll pass it along. In any case, stroking us with a study saying : WE'RE NO. : > 1!!!! is probably good advertizing. I wouldn't be surprised to find it : turning up : > on Proe Central or Engineering Tips forums. : >

: > David Janes : >

: >

: :

----------------------------------- Careerbuilder for the last 30 days:

Pro/E 283 (several different searches, very consistent results) SolidWorks 221 (NOT including some unique results for "solid works") Catia 176 Unigraphics 103 Inventor 59 (including irrelevant results for inventors AND results for trainers which also included SolidWorks and other CAD software trainers) Mechanical Desktop 23 (including 3 unique engineering results for MDT) Solid Edge 25 (including results for "solidedge")

No doubt the number of licenses/seats reported by Wohlers is accurate, as far as available data can confirm. No doubt also that results of open jobs in the last 30 days doesn't tell the whole story either . . . there could be any number of variables involved, including just raw chance. But combined with Monster's results and knowing something about AutoDesk's bundling practices and educational licensing policies one can say FOR PRETTY CERTAIN that it's LAUGHABLE to think that Inventor and/or Mechanical Desktop (even together) are in greater actual use in the USA than is SolidWorks. AutoDesk's practices have basically "dumped" licenses on the US market, and anybody who can't see that is an idiot or just likes to kid themselves.

'Sporky'

Doesn't the US have copyright and trademark laws ? What's this crap with Autodesk calling anything related to 3D graphics "Inventor" ? Confuses the heck out of me every time I hear it .... Isn't that what trademark laws are supposed to _prevent_ ?

"Rocko" wrote ....

You apparently haven't been an Adesk M(ediocre)CAD customer in recent years.

It may not be the easiest thing around to use (does the square go in this hole or that one...) but it ain't bad.

"hamei" wrote.....

I don't know, but if there's anything that Autodesk IS good at; it's lawyer'n.

You're absolutely right, it is. Inventor is the name of a program by Silicon Graphics. There is Inventor and now Open Inventor. They are the precursor to VRML and the whole virtual reality schtick. Inventor is a three dimensional graphics format from SGI that's been around for *years.*

Look at the dropdown list in your Pro/E ... one of the formats is

*.iv. That'll create Inventor files, as in the SGI "Open Inventor" variety.

So where does AutoCrap come off using someone else's trademark ? For a product which is easily confused with a pre-existing product in the same field ? As someone else said, they're best at lawyerin' ?

: AutoDesk's practices have basically "dumped" : licenses on the US market, and anybody who can't see that is an idiot or : just likes to kid themselves. : : Seems like they are in the business of kidding the RP people. They're the ones the study is aimed at and the ones who use the figures for making decisions on capital expansion. 'Oh, yeah, guys, go out and buy that half million dollar Super SLA machine. Look at these numbers, there's a ton of work in the pipeline, judging by this jump in solid modelling licenses [points to chart with spike on it]. No, no, those machines won't be sitting idle for months at a time, sucking the life out of your bottom line. We're absolutely, positively almost certain of that, judging by the numbers.' Everyone loves optimistic predictions and when they don't come true, who remembers the ones that made big bucks selling you on the "next big thing".

On the validity of the job figures for judging installed base, consider a couple things. First, the numbers (50, 100, 300, whatever) represent a very, very small portion of licenses in use, like .02%. Even a small fluctuation in something like retention rate (job hopping, layoffs) can dramatically change the numbers, easily doubling or halving them. Second, comparing the numbers of jobs available assumes that one seat of brand x is the same as a seat of brand y. But what if licenses among SolidWorks users (or Inventor or Alibre) were mostly by individuals; what if the vast majority of Pro/e users worked for companies like Caterpillar with 3000 licenses. Which of these is going to turn up on Monster? Not the oneseys and twoseys. They don't show up on Monster or in the unemployment figures either. It also effects what proportion of licenses have been handed to agencies where the highest turnover is and where the bulk of jobs appearing on Monster, Yahoo Jobs, Net-temps come from. So, the numbers are probably skewed, but not in a way that favors Inventor over SW. They're probably skewed in a way that makes Pro/e look like it's more than it is.

DJ

Maybe the lawyers already settled this, 5-10 years ago. Maybe you're just a little behind the times and Autodesk already bought the right to use the name "Inventor". It's just intellectual property, just another commodity to be bought and sold, not some sacred SGI cult icon, eternal and inviolable.

David Janes

But maybe not. You didn't clear anything up here. Just practicing your typing?

: > Maybe the lawyers already settled this, 5-10 years ago. Maybe you're just : a little : > behind the times and Autodesk already bought the right to use the name : "Inventor". : > It's just intellectual property, just another commodity to be bought and : sold, not : > some sacred SGI cult icon, eternal and inviolable. : >

: > David Janes : : But maybe not. You didn't clear anything up here. Just practicing your : typing? : I'm not the one to "clear it up", am I. We're talking about fairly big boys who are not shy about litigation. If there were grounds for a trademark infringement dispute or whatever, it was had and done with years ago. All Hamei had to do was look up the history. If he doesn't know it and it doesn't ring a bell with anyone else (apparently not with you, either), then this isn't even old news. A red herring, perhaps? and way off the topic besides.

David Janes

Monster also had 633 items pertaining to Solid Edge (and solidedge).

professional

If you do a search for Solid Edge you're going to get a WHOLE lot of irrelevant results. You have to do a search for "Solid Edge" including the quotation marks. Do it THAT way and you get 49 results.

Mark 'Sporky' Stapleton Watermark Design, LLC