Solid works vs Solid Edge

[Little Bandit]

I know it's a bit OT but I need to know - which one is actually better? It seems to me these are quite similar but Solid Works have done more marketing. the boss thinks of introducing a 3D modelling software and is hesitating between these two. I must say I'm not very keen on switching to 3D (no keyboard shotcuts :/ ) but he expects me to give him an opinion on the matter

[JD Mather]

I must say I'm not very keen on switching to 3D (no keyboard shotcuts :/ )

Whoever told you no keyboard shortcuts was mistaken. SolidEdge, SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor are roughly equivalent. Inventor also includes AutoCAD for free.
Do you need to exchange files with others?
You might want to have the resellers for each come in and do a demonstration. I would say SolidWorks and Inventor have better market penetration than SolidEdge, but if you don't exchange files with others it might not matter to your company.
Whatever the decision on a particular CAD software, you should be doing 3D.

[Lazer]

I agree with JD, please request a Demo, they will be at your company before you can even put the phone down, both of them showing off their program, (I have been there last year, I had all 4 giving me a demo Inventor, Solidworks, Solidedge Catia).

What you need to do is find out what your company want from you, i.e tube bends, sheet metal work, complex surfaces, etc

Have samples of what you make available on the demo day, ask the reseller to model it, don't be shy just say say model it! (there will be be 2 of them maybe 3, 1 will be a salesman and the other a cad expert) take note of the time taken to model it and take note of any problems they are having, If they are having problems what chance will you have?

Price, the price they give at first will NOT be the price you pay, add £2000 on top for both Solidsworks or Solidedge, remember you pay extra for training / support, updates and any extra modules required, In my case with Catia the final price jumped up £8000 from the original quote, £2000 was a module to save out as a Step file.

As for your question what package is best out of them two..uhmm dunno I went for Inventor because it includes Autocad for free:lol:

[Navarone]

I agree, the best thing is to have them do a demo. I worked in the forging industry for about 20 years and we had the cad vendors, demo their software on a part that we chose. It had complex curves and complex draft angles. We needed to know if the software could handle complex shapes, how would handle die impression, shrink factors and so on. Don't settle for their canned demo, have them demo a part that you want to see done, measure it against your own company standards. Also, make sure the person doing the demo has some knowledge of your industry and the kinds of parts you make. Expect to take about a month to get the basic down and about 6 months learning curve to really learn the ins and outs of the program you choose. As a matter of interest, we went with Solid Works.

[Lazer]

Here is a SolidEdge render, the model was done in Inventor (by me) I had it on a memory stick while I was out at one of our suppliers and I asked them to render it. This render was with no setup, just a quick render. http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18126

[JD Mather]

Don't settle for their canned demo, have them demo a part that you want to see done....

I remember one particularly good demonstration I saw several years ago. Really impressive at the time, but I have never had the need to do what was demonstrated. In fact I'm convinced there is stuff built into each of these programs that has almost no real-world use other than to serve jazzy sales presentation promoting the software.

I agree, but that demonstration probably shows more about the knowledge of the presenter than the software. Just because the person doing the demostration might not know how to do something doesn't mean it isn't easily doable in the software. Of the softwares mentioned they are all relatively equal in capability except for maybe very very curvy freeform stuff. In that case they might not be the best choice anyhow.

I think there is far more variation in the capabilities of the resellers than there is in the software itself.

[Navarone]

Just because the person doing the demostration might not know how to do something doesn't mean it isn't easily doable in the software.

In my particular cas we allowed each vendor the opportunity to tour our plant and take the requested part back with them and model it. I did not mean that we had them do an on the spot demo. To demo a simple widget does not show off the power or capabilities of the software.

I wanted to express that if your going to purchased 3D CAD software at $5,000 or more per seat plus support and maintenance, make sure it can do what you need it to do.:)

p.s.
I just noticed my avatar is not showing up. It was the other day. Is there a way to fix this?

[Strix]

There have been some edits to the way the forum software runs Navarone, so your avatar will reappear automatically when you hit the 10 post mark :)
(posts made in chat don't count towards your post count)