Cad Opinion

[mayday]

thought I would toss this out. sounds like a lot of you use a little of everything.

My son is taking a 2 yr assc. degree in mech. engineering. this is his first year. they are using autocad. next year they will offer either UG or Catia. Around the state of Mich with the big three there seems to be more UG than anything else.

 

any preferance?? what stands out to be the most valued learning

[DavidB]

I now in Australia all the car manufactures use UG.

I also now what they get an hour.WOW

If anyone has the chance to learn UG go for it.

I did some coarses on it and it is so powerful,but just not user friendly.

 

We used it for plastic injection moulding design,we also hade UG CAM,but I stuck to Mastercam

[Thad]

I think UG is more widely used, although I have no facts to back this up.

 

As always, this opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it.

 

Thad

[d00d]

Just curious, not to hijack a thread, but how does Solidworks compare to these. I have never used either of the above mentioned cad programs. Are they that much better? Have I had my head in the sand? Or is SW one of the big 3 you mentioned?

[mayday]

quote:

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the big 3 you mentioned

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sorry, I ment GM, Ford and Crysler. Solidworks is a good software tho

[McRae]

The high end parametric modeller and manufacturing suites that needed to run on cost prohibitive hardware platforms are now down to 3 - Pro/E, Unigraphics, and Catia. With the advances in computers, they have now become much more cost accessable to the medium sized organizations that require multiple locations and collaborations - complete with some sofisticated data management capabilities.

 

The other packages are PC versions of the above. SolidWorks was concieved by a group of disgruntled PTC employees and SolidEdge is a derivitive of UG. Inventor is a mechanical attempt at applying archetechural software to 3D and there are other stragglers in the marketplace. My first experience with solid modeling and 3D was with Cadkey in the late 80's (are they still around??)

 

Anyway - the objective is to learn all you can - the skills and methodologies are roughly translatable form one to the next.

[McRae]

quote:

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the big 3 you mentioned

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They are now the "Big One - and the distant Third and Fourth" with the recent overtaking of second spot by Toyota!

 

<>

[Steve Biehl - Cimquest Inc]

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now down to 3 - Pro/E, Unigraphics, and Catia.

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Catia is a distant 3rd. Maybe even getting surpassed by SolidWorks and similar.

[mayday]

My first suggestion was UG, sounds very powerful

Thanks for the knowledge guys

[SledGeek]

We just switched to UG for Ford, Chrys. and GM from Catia and Ford's software(can't remember).

[TheePres]

If your son is interested in Aerospace...select CATIA.

[Hardmill]

We just had a demo of Catia yesterday, I got to

admit it was way impressive

 

PEACE

[CAM-mando]

quote:

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My first experience with solid modeling and 3D was with Cadkey in the late 80's (are they still around??)

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http://cadkey.com/keycreator/index.asp

[Jean-Simon]

I'm following a Catia V5 course right now and there's a lot of very nice tools in there and also some glitches, I've never touched UG tough but eard very good stuff on it as some mentionned earlier, they're all good but can't learn them all so you gotta make a choice!

 

 

Simon

[Müřlıń®]

CATIA is what the Aerospace guys around here use.

 

 

Murlin

[Thad]

+1 to Murlin. I've always heard Catia is used in Aerospace and at Chrysler. Apparently Chrysler isn't using it any more? Midnight...?

 

A guy I used to work with is now a programmer at Ford. Last time I talked to him (about a year ago) they were using Tebis.

 

Thad

[Thad]

I'm taking a UG class right now at Macomb Community College. We just crossed the half-way mark. It's a beginner class so we haven't done anything too fancy yet. It *is* pretty slick though. I can't compare it to MC's solids because I only have school experience with that too, and it was VERY basic instruction.

 

Mayday, what school is your son going to?

 

Thad

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

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...Catia is a distant 3rd. Maybe even getting surpassed by SolidWorks and similar...

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In Aerospace, the DeFacto STandard is CATIA with UG being a DISTANT 2nd.

 

IMHO - I'd take whatever I could get my hands on. Either way UG,CATIA,Pro/E, it's all good to learn those packages. Solidworks would not hurt either.

[mayday]

quote:

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what school is your son going to

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Thad,

 

starting out at Baker in Owosso. Close to home, 1/2 hr drive. He may have to transfer to Flint or Ann Arbor campus for the other classes.not sure yet

[Jimmy Wakeford from Barefoot CNC]

I think right now UG is the more popular, but catia has put a ton of money in development and working with ibm(?). The 777 was made entirely in a computer as well as the new cammanche and first test flight was exactly what was expected. I'm not sure what ug is doing on the development side, but would try to find out. Also aerospace has always sorta led the way in cad, though dont know if the big three would be willing to scrap the investment they have in ug.

[A3kid]

You've raised a good question, and it's my opinion that which package would be the "best" depends on what your son plans on doing after graduation.

 

What design discipline interests him? If he's happy working w/ simple to complex solid models, by all means go w/ whatever CAD system is predominant in the market where he'll be seeking employment.

 

The other side of the coin is this - maybe he'd be happier working w/ a job shop that supports the big 3 in the prototype role. If that's what he's interested in - CATIA all the way. Definately more powerful - more robust - harder to learn, etc., but in a job-shop environment that is the type of tool he needs to get things done right, the first time, quickly.

 

If he want to do high end - class "A" surfacing, then CATIA is the hands down winner between the two. Anybody who tells you otherwise is simply mistaken.

 

Midnite_Oil:

Ford was running I-deas by SDRC. The I-deas name still lives on after being purchased by EDS.

 

d00d:

The high end CAD packages absolutely have the potential to blow the cheaper packages out of the water. It just takes time to learn how to exploit their benefits. If a person/company is going to invest the time it takes to learn how to do things the "right" way - it's well worth the money. If the goal is just to get something "good enough" to do simple models/drawings, etc., then settle for one of the lesser packages that will work.

 

After running I-deas for about 6 years now, I can tell you for sure that my days of running or recommending lower end CAD systems are over. I want the good stuff.

[randy]

we make gears for the areospace ind my guys use solid works seems to work best for us no problems so far

[verge]

Hi guys!

This is my first post, so i am a newby in this forum.

If You look around for a job, will find out that 50% of the places are asking (lately) for knowledge of Solidworks.

[Jimmy Wakeford from Barefoot CNC]

Welcome to the forum verge. Come on in and sit a spell.

[McRae]

You've raised a good question, and it's my opinion that which package would be the "best" depends on what your son plans on doing after graduation.

 

In addition to this, it will take the prospective employer 6 months to a year to actually train the employee in how to do their job. The software that you learn is not as important as the methodology of how to do things, and just by participating in a class will show that the emploee is trainable. The employer will - if they are smart - send the employee for professional training, regardless of what they have previously "Learned". Council you son more in the finer points of having a Job - Show up everyday, ontime, ready to work, sober, fully rested (so he doesn't get caught sleeping...) and don't be afraid to ask questions - there is nothing I find more frustrating then someone who says they can do something only to find out hours later that they are spinning their wheels... A promise is a promise and if you are not going to do it, don't say that you will.