solidworks or unigraghics

[Gary]

I have the opportunity to study both these softwares and am stuck on where my time would be best spent. Which do you think has the best job opportunity's and security in the future. I want to put my efforts to learn in the best area. What are thoughts. thanks Gary

[Tom Szelag]

Depends on what kind if industry you want to go in to, to a certain extent. Around here most engineering firms use Solidworks, so for me, knowing it, working with it, and having taught a Solidworks class works well for me. It also has a very easy learning curve and is fairly powerful, and if you're a student, educational licenses are dirt cheap (~$89).

 

Unigraphics is a much higher-end design system. = Bigger price tag = out of reach for many companies. But if you want to go to a larger design company that uses UG, you're that much better off.

 

Also depends on how much time you have to learn these. Once you know one 3d, parametric-driven CAD package learning others falls into place very quickly. Ideally, learn them both. I'd lean towards UG, just because its a more 'prestigious' system.

[Guest]

IMO it depends greatly on which industry you are employed and if you are considering changing.

 

Unigraphics is HUGE in the automotive industry especially the big makers and their immediate suppliers, GM, Ford. It is also in use by many large aerospace companies, Northrup, Boeing, JPL, GE Transportation and others I'm sure I did not mention.

 

Solidworks is used by many small and medium sized companies with some larger ones thrown in for good measure.

 

With that being said if you are employed in a job shop enviorment or even a small company that does it's own product chances are you'll being seeing a good deal of Solidworks involved in those situations.

 

If you are working in or considering trying to obtain employment at larger company then Unigraphics may be the way to go.

 

Now there is the issue of the learning curves involved. Solidworks is a more than capable design software which is fairly straight forward and not overly difficult to learn and become proficient with in a reasonable amount of time.

 

Unigraphics on the other hand is a monster piece of software that I am convinced no one individual could ever know how to use the entire package. Again, a more than capable design software that is expensive in cost, training and the aforementioned learning curve.

 

A discussion I was having just yesterday with the head design engineer in my company he stated unequivicolly, I'll paraphrase "I wish we had gone with Solidworks, NX and Teamcenter are just a big PITA"

 

Solidworks postions seem to be more prevelent< I think since the positions are spread out thru so many companies. The UGNX position seem to be limited to a select area of the market, though the positions seem to be with major companies that are quite established and secure.

 

So ultimately the decsion has to be yours, based on where you're at in your career at this moment and where you hope in might take you in the future.

[BernieT]

I agree with all above. Only thing I can add is that when I saw the demo for Solidworks they said flat out that Solidworks will not do Class A surfaces. Class A surfaces are used for auto body design and anywhere a good visual reflective surface is needed. Our design dept bought NX. Six months after the one week training class, the designers were just starting to get simple useful models to the shop.

 

Both are good software, really depends on where you want to work. Good luck.

[Jack Mitchell]

quote:

---

Solidworks will not do Class A surfaces.

---

Sorry Bernie, I disagree. That's what the zebra finish is all about. It's in there if you go looking for it.

 

I suggest learning Solidworks or even Inventor (same differance really) These are so popular that virtually any designer has some education and has immediate training available at a very reasonable cost.

 

UG, Catia, & ProE are downright expensive and rather limited with the qualified training facilities. I am sure you're going get top dollars if well versed with these but the limiting factor is that you're stuck with employability at the higher end of the manufacturing scale.

Would this opportunity be granted to me? I don't think so since I do not have a university or college degree to say that I am a qualified engineer - the same would likely hold true for most of us in here as well.

 

My background and experience jumps out and says "Do the Solidworks courses Jack" then consider the other ones but only if they are relevant.

 

 

Regards, Jack

[kinglouie V]

Gary,

 

I can honestly say that I've had access to SW and Inventer for quite some time. At first glance I choose SW since it's so easy to navigate. After using this software to build models I attended a

a training session and relized this software had power I'd never use for the Machine Shop. It's just as easy as MC solids. I just wish "TOP" in MC wasn't the "FRONT" in SW. I think you'll love it.

 

inventer??

 

eah.

[Tom Szelag]

Personally I much prefer Inventor as a streamlined design package over Solidworks. Functionality is pretty much the same as SW, but the interface is laid out much better. It seems to handle large assemblies much better, and its native analysis package is from ANSYS and is pretty solid, whereas CosmosXPress is kinda sketchy.

 

Just defending..

 

And yea the way SW does the co-ordinate system differently is annoying. SW defines "Y" as being vertical. Crazy people. There are ways around that though. In your part template file you can just rename the primary datum planes, or when you have the part already modelled you can insert a reference geometry system and export your parasolid or iges or what have you, using that.

[BernieT]

quote:

---

Solidworks will not do Class A surfaces.

 

Sorry Bernie, I disagree. That's what the zebra finish is all about. It's in there if you go looking for it.

---

You probably know better than me, Jack. I've never used Solidworks. I was repeating what the demo guy said. At the time I was surprised he said something like that.

[Greg Williams]

gary,

 

John Paris is correct, UG is a beast of a program, It is unbelivably powerlful, but unfortunatly the mass of options that make it powerful are also the things that make it difficult to learn. After many years I still find things.

If possible do the UG thing

[Bruce Caulley]

Gary,

We have solid works, pro e, UG, catia and ideas. When we did mainly bread and butter jobbing work a lot of it would come to us as a solidworks file. The other packages seem to be specialised within a field. I don't mean the software itself, but the people designing with it.

 

All our automotive work is in UG and I think this is where most of the UG customers are. I would choose the software you learn by what type of work you want to be dealing with in 5 years time.

 

 

HTH

 

Bruce

[gcode]

quote:

---

UG, Catia, & ProE are downright expensive and rather limited with the qualified training facilities

---

My exerience with CAD classes

 

1 week of basic Catia classes $2300

 

1 semester of ProE and local 4 year college

$900

 

4 semesters of SolidWorks at the local community college $440 $110/per semester.

 

With a valid student ID you can buy Student Editions of SolidWorks and ProE for about $250.

I don't know about Catia and UG , but I'm sure they are available. They have a 2 year license

and print Student Edtion across any drawing you print

 

[ 06-26-2005, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: gcode ]

[Tom Szelag]

Incredibly, CATIA student licenses are $100. Includes design, drafting, some FEA, and even (simple, 2d) NC machining!!

 

However, your university has to already have some sort of licensing deal set up with them. And then you essentially can buy the same software available at the university machines to continue your schoolwork at home.

 

It's something I'm looking in to.

[Guest]

UG classes thru the UGS training centers run

 

$2000 for a 5 day class

 

the shorter classes amount to $400 a day

 

A Master of NX Design certificate thru UGS will set you back $6000 to $7200 for between 15 and 18 days of training.

 

Heck, a Master of NX NC Programming takes between

20 to 21 days, cost $8,000 to $8,400

 

No small investment for an NC programmer either

[Gary]

Is it true that more big companies are starting to lean towards catia instead of ug or is it just hearsay. I no that there are only a few companies in my area using ug and quite a few with solidworks. Also if you do a search on monster ect alot more for solidworks. I am starting to lean that way. The prestege is high with ug though.

[Guest]

I'm not really sure about this one Gary but looking at the latest data for cimdata Most seats

 

UG seems to have jumped ahead in the CAM seats shipped with IBM/Dassault, PTC, Hitachi Zosen Systems, and Delcam rounding out the top 5 for 2004. CNC Software still leads in total industrial seats installed though.

 

I suppose it is going to depend which salesaman you talk to about who is leading the market.

 

Now if you're not planning to move it sounds from what you say the Solidworks might be the way for you to go.

 

 

Late addition-----------------------------

I just went back and read your original post again. Are you going to be learning this from a CNC programming job or a Design Engineers job.

 

[ 06-26-2005, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: jmparis ]

[Tom Szelag]

I haven't heard anything about large companies all learning towards one CAD system. A lot use Pro/E 2001 and Wildfire...a lot use CATIA...a lot use Unigraphics.

 

If you're looking for jobs on monster.com or what not, those will be the smaller, more local companies I'd imagine. I don't see why Lockheed Martin or Raytheon or Boeing would be posting there.

 

Like I said. If you learn one system very well, the rest will come that much easier. And a lot of companies recognize that and put you through training.

[betts]

So on this subject, anyone do plastic injection mold design with soldworks?

 

We occaisonally have to outsource some mold design, and we tried a guy with solidworks who said he could not do the job we asked, and another with solidworks said if it would do it, he didn't know how. I know some will depend on the person, but in mold design if you aren't going to redraw the part (which the one SW guy said he couldn't do) then you will have to deal with some surfacing, and it seemed as if this was where SW fell down.

 

Our favorite outside guy uses UG, but again it may be him as the reason we get good models and he never says he can't do something.

 

In house its been MC, MDT, and now SE in some blended fashion to get what ever we need.