SW Parametric?

Since you picked Pro/E, no, not entirely.

Charles Manoras wrote:

ey? You can set up parameters in Solidworks and change those dimensions to drive geometry. Isnt that parametric?

Is this the parametric vs. relational debate revived or an honest question? If it's an honest question you won't understand the answers.

Read my response closely. We are comparing to Pro/E. Pro/E is truly parametric in that you can generate parametric geometry, for example, an involute curve for a gear tooth by driving a generated curve parametricly by distance along a curve. The only way to do this in SW is to import points and fit a spline or build an approximate construction. Imagine a sweep in SW where a profile dimension was driven by the distance along the sweep curve.

The debate over whether SW is parametric has been thrashed on the NG ad nauseum. Comparing to Pro/E's abilities hasn't been discussed much.

And, with the purchase of MathSoft, PTC pretty much rubbed SW Corps nose in the ground.

Is that the the defining criteria or does it just say that Pro/E has a curve by equation function and SW doesn't? But I digress because

Would there be a point to doing so?

My response to Charles stands. Asking the question indicates he probably wouldn't have the background necessary to comprehend the answers. He's free to refute that and it would best be prefaced with a definition of what parametric means in the context of his curiosity.

"TOP" wrote in news:1159550108.121614.18190 @e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com:

Is it fair to characterize Pro/E as "truly" parametric? It is a parametric solid modeler (BREP faces driven by parameters) that can use a class of equations called parametric to create some types of geometry. This seems to me to be two different kinds of parametric.

I agree with your larger point, though. SW is less capable in that it cannot create geometry based on parametric equations.

ProE is a lot more general.

Tell you what, generate a true involute profile in a SW sketch that can be resized as to the number of teeth and pitch by a simple parameter change withing SW without resorting to API programming.

Then generate a sweep section with a dimension driven by a sinusoidal function of distance along a spline directrix (sweep curve) such that it will always have a parameter defined number of peaks and amplitude.

Then try a sweep of a hyperbolic surface.

SW is parametric up to a point, but they kind of stopped or limited some of the higher end parametric functionality.

What a ridiculous statement. I've heard everything now.

I think Charles wants to know if you change a dimension does the part / assembly / drawing update based on rules or equations - well of course the answer is YES!!!

Did Charles say he wanted to make an involute from an equation NO he did not - and how many people in the world want to do that anyway (apart from gear manufacturers).

Charles - I used proe for 9 years and SW for 3 and SW is as good if not better than Proe.

What a ridiculous statement. I've heard it all before.

I'm sure Charles, as ignorant as he may be about mechanical design software, knows he won't figure out what is better than what by addressing an anonymous audience, asking vague questions, getting vaporous answers that can't be taken at face value and mean nothing, anyway, without being put in some specific context after verifying accuracy. Let's consider your situation, for instance. You work in a discipline that doesn't make Solidworks break a sweat. The logical extension is to wonder if Inventor or Alibre wouldn't work as well for you. At least Alibre would save you quite a bit of money. Maybe not as many bugs and their support is better, too.

Good for you.

I guess Alibre is all you need considering you know it so well. Did it ever occur to you that we switched from pro to sw because it is better in many respects? I'm sure there are many in thius forum who would back me up (apart from the proe bigots that is!!)

Chill dude. Charles did not ask which is better. He asked for a comparison with Pro/E. I gave him a comparison. I went from Pro/E to SW in 96. I put my money where my mouth is and bought SW in 98 for myself. I gave him examples that I have run into in my work. I do different things than you do.

In terms of the parametric functionality in the various software packages I have seen and use IMHO you can make a number of generalizations regarding usage:

1. The most used parametric functionality is changing single dimensions.
2. The second most used is linking dimensions.
3. The third most used is driving dimensions in configurations with or without design tables.
4. The fourth most used is driving dimensions with equations
5. The fifth most used is driving geometry with other geometry as in quide curve driven sweeps and sketch driven patterns.
6. The least used would be the parameter driven geometry available only in Pro/E.

As far as which program handles the every day parameterization best (1,2), I would have to come down on SolidEdge's side as being the most elegant and flexible of the mid range modelers.

Do you have much experience with both Alibre and SW, can you compare the limitations of each and is SW really more buggy, and are the bugs such the it is more prone to crash? Any other Cad programs you can compare. I think I'd give up quite a bit of function for stability.

Doug T

anotherasow wrote:

No, I don't. I can't. A guess: If you throttle back your usage of SW to a level comparable to what you could do with Alibre then SW would at least as stable.

But ...

You completely missed the point of my post. Anything I say is just so much vapor. Same for most of the other asows on Usenet forums. Sad but true. Even those with good intentions can't come to a consensus on whether or not SW is parametric. How we supposed to solve the biggies? Forums are good places to find out how to format a parts list or something like that; anything simple enough it can be described in precise detail and then duplicated. Anything else requires a lot of filtering, reading between the lines and a highly evolved nose for BS.

As long as you're not sure you would I guess there's still hope? Dropping Alibre's name was a bit of chain yanking. They do have a forum if you think you might be interested but I would explore ways to remedy the problems first. If you don't thoroughly understand them and the causes you may just take them with you.