O/T 3D Design Software

[TeccBoxx]

Signing up for classes for next semester I was wondering what the better 3D design software will be to learn.

 

Pro/E

Solidworks

Autodesk Inventor

 

I already have the basics of Pro/E but havn't touched the others. What do you guys see more in the industry today. Is one more tuned towards mastercam or all they all thier own stand alone software.

[cadcam]

Solidworks would be a good base and widly used.

[Scott Bond]

+1

quote:

---

Solidworks would be a good base and widly used.

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[Tony]

+1

On SolidWorks

[d00d]

Quote from movie Blazing Saddles "Reverand!"

(means I agree)

[gcode]

SolidWorks

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

+1 On SolidWorks for me too. But, I personally would learn ANYTHING I could get my hands on.

 

JM2C

[Rick Damiani]

"Inventor!", says the Autodesk rep.

 

Seriously, I've been looking at Solidworks some, and I find Inventor to be signifigantly easier to use, especially when dealing with constraints and relationships between parameters. I really like the project functionality, too. It makes it very easy to keep track of your assemblys and maintian project-specific parts libraries as well as workgroup/departmental standard parts. iParts, iMates, and table-driven parts (what Solidworks calls 'configurations') are pretty easy to set up, and the adaptive stuff makes modeling a lot simpler.

[chris m]

Autodesk products are still very big in the industry, at least from what I've seen; we use Inventor here. A friend of mine has a (legit, honest) seat of Solidworks which seems to be a really nice program to work with, and I know that many companies are using that as well. I would think that either one would be a solid bet, I'm sure you could apply the basics of either one to learning the other.

 

Decisions, decisions...

 

C

[CAM-mando]

Well first of all I am not using any of the CAD packages mentioned, but ... From what Ive seen in the last few years, Solid Works is probably becoming the defacto standard in midrange Solids based CAD. How long that will last who knows, but their momentum seems to still be high.

 

We still use Cadkey, but I can tell you that in the CK community those who have moved on to another product by and large have moved to SolidWorks.

 

That would be my choice stricly in terms of personal marketability.

[lynnz]

Add 1 more vote for SolidWorks..

 

Lynn

[McRae]

Career Planning 101.

 

The type of industry that you are in and the type of companies that you want to work for will help you make this decision. For the user base here, they are suggesting that Solid Works would be your best bet. Any methodology that you use will be transferrable and so don't just focus on the platform.

 

For the local area that I am in, I would recommend Pro/E, Catia or UG for the reason that the multinational companies that I would want to be employed at - use them. Look at the want ads and see what qualifications and software the industry is demanding you have skills in.

 

The other thing is there are costs asssociated with training - so if the boss is too cheap to buy high end software, what are the chances that he will spend $1500 a day on training on software he doesn't own (this figure was for onsite, one-on-one training at our plant by a professional engineer - expenses are extra)?? There are barriers of entry here and the community college is staffed by guys like Jay, Jack, and James - they know there stuff and are quite usefull at getting the users trained, but they certainly don't get $1500 a day, so there may be more value in SW training if you are paying the bill yourself.

[MachineSMMC]

I would take a look at VX.

 

web page

 

It is extremely powerful and easy to use.

 

Lots of really nice features.

 

[ 04-28-2003, 11:06 AM: Message edited by: MachineSMMC ]

[kccadcam]

SolidWorks seems to be the most popular lately,

 

But I LOVE the new V21 CadKey:

 

http://www.cadkey.com/workshop/puregeometry.asp

 

I can bring a Solid model in from ANY other cad system and have No restraints on it. I can remove and add features and tweak it any way I want.

VERY COOL!!

 

History tree.... We don't need no stinkin history tree....

 

 

Blows away anything else I've seen.

[beav700]

First question would be. Are you going to be the owner of that seat or is it just for the company you work for. If I was to buy 3D pakage for my self, I would pick SolidWorks, but if I'm not the one paying for it I would pick UG ar Catia. I have used SolidWorks only for one day (8 hours) when I tried one job I was going to take and almost learned the hole thing in those 8 hours coming from ProE. It is the simplest 3D cad to learn and the cheapest to buy/keep. There is planty of books for it if you don't want to spend money on classes. There is even a nice tutorial included with the software. On the other hand, if you are an employee, and someday would like to get a diffrent job, Solidworks will get you minimum wage in Engineering field. The owners of most companies know that the software is simple to learn and they pay lower wages for people that run it. I know, I can take any guy from our shop and teach him Solidworks in a mater of days. Try that with UG or Catia. All big boys are using UG, Catia, some ProE and they always pay more to their engineers than the small shops that use SolidWorks. Loaded UG seat is $28.000 and if company is willing to spend that kind of money on one seat, they are not going to be cheap on wages.

If you know UG, really know UG (cad,cam) your starting wage is around $70.000. With SolidWorks, it drops to around $45-50.000

 

I'm in the upper 70s, using UG and working 38-40 hours a week in $5.5 billion company. Then, there is the power of the sytem. You can't even compare UG or Catia to Solidworks. It's like comparing MasterCam to BobCam. But you can't beat the value of SolidWorks. I could do most of the stuff I do in UG usnig SolidWorks for alot less.

 

[ 04-28-2003, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: beav700 ]

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Beav has a good point. Learning the Higher-End systems will make you valuable, but also know that the more systems you learn and are able to be proficient at them will make you even more valuable. I learned a number of CAD/CAM Systems in the beginning of my career and It helped me find work using a few of those other systems (some of which are no longer in existance).

 

If you take away one thing from this discussion, let it be this - "Knowledge is Power!"

 

HTH

 

[ 04-28-2003, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: James Meyette ]

[Greg Williams]

I have used Unigraphics (V16 to NX), Solidworks (2001 and 2003) and Inventor (5.3 and 6) for design work, My vote goes to Solidworks it is the best bang for your bucks on the market today.