Solidworks features

I don't have experience with the FireGL, but I have a QuadroFX 1100. I've been very satisfied with it. I've heard the ATI drivers are not as good as NVidia, but that's 2nd hand info.

There are several new trim functions in SW05, dragging a fence is one of them.

I would think it a big advantage to have a plane of symmetry in the feature tree. But you're right that you can't define a new plane in the middle of another command.

Yeah, you can create your own bitmaps for textures or modify the existing ones.

What type of design are you doing? Certain applications may favor one software over the other.

matt

Sound like you got your two programs reversed here.

I don't know about SE, but with Solidworks, You can select all of the geometry and the plane before, during, or after you activate the "mirror feature" command. You can change all of you selections on the fly, add to, subtract from, change mirror plane, etc, etc,. Completely flexible no restrictions. Always been this way

Regards

Mark

Only if the reference already exists from what i have seen. you can't

Rich

I guess that is a good reason ;-) from the minimal comparison I have done, they are both very capable, similar products and either would be okay. I just think solidworks has more users out there and that alone makes it more favourable.....

Ah cool! I just read that elsewhere too. great.

Mat

It's primarily for audio equipment. this means sheet metal, wooden cabinet, assemblies, rendering etc.

Rich

OK,,,

By "define", I thought you meant "select".

Yea,, you can't do that, but in my eight years of using Solidworks, I've never wished it could. I guess it would all depend on your modeling habits. I tend to think several steps ahead of where I am.

Regards

Mark

What I have noticed is that SE does a poor job of importing IGES files. We received a large engine cradle assembly in IGES and imported using SE. The translation was almost useless; welds looked like spirals and hoops off into space and none of the spot weld points were visible. I brought the same IGES file home and imported using SW 2004/SP4.1 and the weld beads and spot weld points all came in correctly. I then exported the file to parasolid and returned to work hoping this format would open correctly in SE. The weld beads were OK but the spot weld points were still not visible. I also discovered how painfully slow SE is when opening and rotating models. The same model in SW opens much faster and rotates without hesitation. The computers are closely matched in performance and use the same graphics card Quad4 750XGL

I have watched the designers opening native assembly and drawing files in SE and now appreciate how much better the performance is with SW. I also find the SE interface takes more picks and the RMB isn't utilized to the extent it is in SW. I spent more time button clicking in SE than SW and don't particularly care for the user interface.

Kman

Thanks guys, I think I am going to recommend Solidworks 2005. (are there any service packs available yet? SP0's always seem flakey)

While I think about it,I know it is possible to set up a library of common parts, but can they be setup to include references so that they can be dragged into assemblies and snap into place automatically. or do i need to import the file into the assy and manually create the mates or use smart mate.

I am thinking specifically about a protective corner, that needs to snap using the three internal faces onto a cabinets three external faces.

SolidWorks has what they term SmartMates ("inference the geometry of existing components to create mates as you drop the new part into an assembly") and Mate References (pre-assign mates to components and assemblies)

Kman

All this user interface stuff is nice, but I have always run into the fact that performance was the biggest bottleneck in any software.

The ribbon bar is a definite plus in SE in that you can backup or create reference planes on the fly. I think this is also true in Pro/E although we always tended to think ahead on this and use predefined reference planes. Here is why. In SE when you create a reference plane on the fly (local plane) it is only available when in the feature. It is not available outside the feature. This means if the feature fails, the plane will likely have a problem. If you define a reference plane before creating the feature sketch then the worst thing that can happen is that the plane will lose its references (which can be reattached). The whole house of cards will not come down. Sometimes the quick productivity features can let you dig a hole quicker and make it that much harder to get out too.

The other thing about this is that you have to get into the feature to even see you have this plane or to edit the plane. Believe me, being able to go back and understand how a model has been built can be very important a day, week or year after you first build it.

If you are planning on using PhotoWorks a lot read through the posts on this newsgroup. You will need to consider your hardware requests and other special techniques to get good real world performance.

Sygenics wrote:

I have been a hardcore Solidworks user since 1997 (until recently). I have also used Solid Edge, Inventor, Cadkey, Mechanical Desktop, and Pro/Engineer. I just recently completed a large design in Solidworks 2004 and it was very painful. The assembly is only about 20,000 components, but it brought SW to a crawl. Sure you can turn on large assembly mode, load parts light weight, etc, but why should I have to if Pro/Engineer doesn't require it, and it still isn't as fast as Pro/E? Solidworks is very easy to learn and use, but it is just a 3D modeling package whereas Pro/Engineer is a true design package. Pro/E has so many standard features and tools for design analysis that it is impossible to learn everything at once. You can purchase 3rd party packages for SW but they are slow and expensive. With the release of Wildfire 2.0, Pro/Engineer now has the ease of use interface while still maintaining the power that it has always had.

I saw the latest release of Solidworks 2005 and it has some nice features, but it still cannot handle large assemblies. I think that Solidworks should focus more on the performance issues and less on new features. Most of the new features that they have added in the last few years are things that have been present in Pro/Engineer for years. I have recommended to management to drop Solidworks and upgrade our Pro/E 2001 seats to Wildfire 2.0 and they are in agreement. Can't wait until I get Wildfire....

"Kman" wrote in message news:BCs0d.16590$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...

I just completed a 30 day demo of Pro/E Wildfire 2.0 and I have to say that I really don't agree with 3/4 of your comments. I don't work on big assemblies so I can't comment on that but I can say that ease of use and Pro/e should not be used in the same sentence. In no way, shape or form did I find Wildfire user friendly. As far as power goes, I don't know I would say (comparing apples to apples) that SW is plenty powerful enough for %80 of the users out there. All I ever hear about is how great Pro/E is at surfacing. That may be true, it's hard to tell after only 30 days, but again the ease of use of the surfacing tools just isn't there. When I was working with Wildfire I couldn't help but feel like I was using software created 20 years ago. It was a constant barrage of mouse clicks, menus and confirmations, "are you sure you want Wildfire to do this?" I must have seen this message 100 times. Wildfire....thanks, but NO THANKS.

All comes down to what tools you need to get the job done. What is a seat of Pro/E going for these days (modeler, detailing, file translators, sheet metal, finite element, and surfacing)

How much does Pro/E charge for annual maintenance?

Does Pro/E require a high end computer and graphics card to achieve this performance?

I would agree that SW or any other mid-range modeler for that matter has a difficult time managing large assemblies. Why does Pro/E perform so well as compared to the other mid-range modelers. Maybe it automatically switches to something like large assembly mode, light weight parts as the assembly reaches a critical threshold and the user isn't aware or given the option. Don't know just asking

Kman

Running Pro/E and SW on the same computer but Pro performs far better (using hardware recommended by Solidworks). Wildfire is about $5000 and maintenance is $1500/year. The initial upfront cost has never been a concern, it is the TCO that really matters.

The base package of Pro includes modeler, detailing, translators, sheet metal, model check, mechanism, surfacing, analysis and many features not available in SW.

Try opening a 10,000 part assembly drawing in SW and then open the same drawing in Pro, there is no comparison. The modeling is slower in SW but it is even worse in detailing.

The other big plus as a engineer is that there are more jobs with higher pay for Pro/E engineers than there are for Solidworks.

Believe me, I know what Solidworks can do, and it is a great tool for small assemblies and single parts that do not require analysis. I was one of the biggest advocates of Solidworks until I started doing large assemblies in Pro/E 2001. Then I got my hands on Wildfire 2.0 and I finally saw the light. PTC is on the right track and it will only get better...

Geezus, you took the red pill, didn't you.

"Brooke" wrote in news:UFO0d.14258$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.texas.rr.com:

Brooke,

Are you sure about your pricing? I was under the assumption that maintenance on Pro was $1800 per year, and that the bace package was $5000-ish, but did NOT included everything you had listed there. To get all that, I thought it was more like $12000.

Mr. Pickles