SolidWorks or ProE?

Solidworks

It is such a large business decision to move to either package, that I would say the $s are going to be significant.

The decision for even a smallish company might be well worth looking at a consultant to help you work through things.

In addition to what others have noted here, you also want to consider where new hires will come from. If your geographical area has a very large population of designers who work with ProE (for example), and all else is equal, you may be better able to get contract work or new hires from that pool of workers, or the other way around if it is SolidWorks.

Issues of document management with both packages will be critical, and so will be the training time and cost.

Then will likely come some conversion of legacy paper data for reuse, spares & repairs, etc, whether done in house or jobbed out to local guys on a contract basis.

Bo

CAD vs CAD/CAM? (from another reply)

No company would buy SolidWorks if you couldn't get the machine tools to work off the solids files. SolidWorks has 3rd party partners who supply such solutions, and there are variations to suit the customer needs

Bo

both have their merits. You should also look at SolidEdge, and possibly Alibre

Buy the design tool most suitable for your design work. Make vendors demonstrate software on your turf.

Buy the CAM software most suitable for your machining work. Use your own sample parts for demonstrations.

Don't worry about getting it all in one package. Get stuff that works for you. Don't pay for stuff that doesn't.

Put cost near the bottom of your priorities. Make sure you get tools that you will use. Cheap tools you can't use are infinitely more costly in terms of productivity lost than tools that work well.

Eric

I went through this process recently, and decided on Solidworks. Although I didn't look that closely at ProE, I did look at Solidedge and Alibre among others and SW was best for us. Smart components are amazing in SW.

Rich

You will probably find the SolidWorks interface more friendly and easier to learn and use. In general, Pro/E will probably be much faster (regen time) for large assemblies.

Machine design is probably one of the things SolidWorks focuses on, although it can do other things as well. If you are doing a lot of sheetmetal, SolidWorks would probably be the better choice.

In terms of the other software like Solid Edge, it may be roughly equivalent software, but SolidWorks has a much larger install base, which means there are more resources available (employees who already know it, contractors, user groups, etc). Alibre would be for pretty basic work. Doesn't have much of the real power of the others.

Cliff,

Solidworks with Camworks, or Solidcam, is as much a CAD/CAM system as Catia with NCL. Fully associative, fully integrated.

Mark

On 16 Sep 2005 06:11:14 -0700, "Bonobo"

tool

wh

custome

SW is NOT a CAD/CAM package. It is CAD only You lose a lot when you do translations, including associativit to the design model This may or may not matter NOW in your "business model" (i your or someone's opine) but it is indeed a total process cost

-- Cliff[/quote:610ffd69e1

Looks like Cliff is a Pro-E guy. It might be that you loose a lot i

translations from Pro-E, but no one NEEDED CAM software to translat to from Pro-E since its built in. As far as I know, CAM Package recommended by SW fit like a glove on a hand

Mark, you are replying to a person who has a mind being run by a tape on a loop.