SolidWorks vs. SolidEdge and Pro/E - Overview and Comparison

I. Overview

SolidWorks is a product of the American SolidWorks company of Dassault Systemes of France. The aim is to enable every design engineer to use the powerful world's latest CAD/CAE/CAM/PDM system on their own PCs.

Solid Edge is now a product of Siemens PLM Software (UGs), which is later than solidWorks, so there are a lot of features not perfect; Pro/E is a product of American PTC company, its operation is still very cumbersome superimposed menu, difficult to learn difficult!

Second, compare

1) Product coverage

SolidWorks is the world leader in 3D computer-aided design (CAD), and its easy-to-learn 3D software supports and facilitates engineering and design teams around the world to create tomorrow's products. SolidWorks' comprehensive capabilities are powerful: from product design to finite element analysis to engineering drawings to rendering and PDM data management, providing a complete integrated solution. The integrated 3DVIA Composer is an easy-to-use application that lets you take advantage of 3D data generation technology publications, user manuals, catalogs, and rich animations.

Solid Edge is a learning software developed by UG. It is not enough in an integrated platform! Pro/E acquired RASNA in 1995 and also included Mechanica in its Pro/ENGINEER product lineup. In 2007, PTC announced the acquisition of CoCreate Software. CoCreate products include 2D graphics, 3D modeling (non-history based), integrated FEA, data management and PLM. They said they will continue to develop and support CoCreate, but the CAD products acquired in the past will be eliminated. Through the implementation of mergers and acquisitions, PTC has extended its industry to product lifecycle management (PLM) by sacrificing its CAD products and launching the Windchill family of products. Through significant cost reductions, several acquisitions, and minor improvements to Pro/ENGINEER, PTC has reversed the decline in CAD sales, but sales growth in this area is still weak. Now PTC is fully entering the non-manufacturing industry!

2) Overall comparison

SolidWorks software integrates everything from product design to analytical validation to data management through a high-performance digital product development solution that enhances innovation and provides an all-in-one solution, but not simply CAD, CAM CAE is integrated, but all product development applications are connected to each other in a manageable environment, using a single source of information to coordinate the various stages of development and improve collaborative operations. For example, through the establishment of a single three-dimensional model, interference inspection, finite element analysis, engineering drawings, rendering and other processes.

Solid Edge and PTC software are also involved in the CAD, CAM, and CAE fields, but they are not seamlessly integrated, and the operation is not very convenient, and the work efficiency is very low!

3) Operation

SolidWorks software is the world's first 3D CAD system based on Windows development. The system won the first place in the global computer platform CAD system evaluation in 1995-1999. If you are familiar with Microsoft's Windows system, then you can basically use SolidWorks to design. SolidWorks' unique drag and drop feature allows you to complete large assembly designs in a relatively short period of time. SolidWorks Explorer is the same CAD file manager as Windows Explorer, making it easy to manage CAD files. With SolidWorks, you can do more work in less time and get high quality products on the market faster.

Although Solid Edge is also based on the Windows platform, it clearly shows the traces of the early graphical interface operating system. Although Pro/E is easier to use than previous versions, it is still dwarfed by SolidWorks. Especially in solidWorks, you can directly open models of other software to inherit the previous design.

4) Rendering

SolidWorks uses PhotoWorks and PhotoView 360 to take advantage of SolidWorks 3D models for presentations, recommendations, or virtual and material studies before creating any parts. This will save a lot of time and eliminate the cost of prototype and photography. Can be compared with professional rendering software.

The rendering of Solid Edge and Pro/E does not have so many advantages, and the operation is complicated.

5) Assembly

SolidWorks provides a fully intelligent part assembly. Just select the faces or features you need to match. SolidWorks will intelligently analyze what relationships you have added and add them automatically. All you have to do is confirm it. SolidWorks 2009 has improved performance for large, complex assemblies. Commands to improve performance include: window selection, copying, adding, saving, and deleting sub-assemblies, as well as adding and editing mates.

Solid Edge still needs to choose the relationship you want to assemble in order to complete the assembly, not smart enough! Pro/E also needs to add cumbersome transfer relationships.

6) Software integration

SolidWorks Corporation recently announced the 1000th company to sign up for the SolidWorks Solutions Partner Program. Among the many 3D CAD software on the market, due to its huge market opportunities and excellent cooperation plan, more and more partners choose to integrate their solutions with SolidWorks 3D mechanical design software. The sheer number of integrated engineering applications is enough to ensure that engineers using SolidWorks software have all the tools they need on the desktop to make them more creative and efficient. SolidWorks' certified Gold products are fully integrated with SolidWorks software and provide immediate access to partner applications in the SolidWorks window. Certified CAM and Solution Partner products offer a variety of ways to integrate with SolidWorks software, including direct import of original SolidWorks files, SolidWorks application programming interfaces (APIs), and industry-standard file formats.

Solid Edge: It's far behind. Pro/E and partners have been greatly reduced, even out of PTC.

7) Engineering drawings

SolidWorks: Most companies evaluating 3D mechanical design solutions have large amounts of 2D data in their legacy systems. SolidWorks protects this investment by providing a unique DWGeditor in each license. DWGeditor can: use original DWG files, compatible with version 2.5 to new versions of AutoCAD files, provide familiar user interface for AutoCAD users, run LISP programs, be part of SolidWorks design software, and be maintained accordingly. SolidWorks has many enhancements to drawings, including: support for custom drawing standards, comprehensive editing of BOMs on drawings, improved detail positioning controls, new printing options, custom line weights and styles, and sketches Slotted out the details. Quick View allows you to preview a drawing before opening it. Load Drawings lets you open a drawing by simply loading a sheet into memory.

Solid Edge: Provides only basic conversion of DWG and DXF files, forcing many Solid Edge customers to maintain two CAD systems. low efficiency. Pro/E is difficult to use, the solution of the old-fashioned Taiwan enterprises: Pro/E 3D modeling + AutoCAD processing 2D graphics, low efficiency and not associated.

8) Product Data Management

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM seamlessly integrates with SolidWorks. The new version of the product data management solution goes deep into SolidWorks 3D CAD software, extended bill of materials (BOM), and introduces a project-centric product data management system. At the same time, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM can also directly preview SolidWorks files. SolidWorks Enterprise PDM is a typical WINDOWS style. Based on the Windows Explorer's operating platform, users can easily learn and use. As long as they are familiar with Windows system operations, they can quickly learn and Master the use of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM.

Solid Edge is typically done with UG NX Express and is not seamlessly integrated. In 2007, PTC announced the acquisition of CoCreate Software. CoCreate products include 2D graphics, 3D modeling (non-history based), integrated FEA, data management and PLM. They said they will continue to develop and support CoCreate, but the CAD products acquired in the past will be eliminated. It is impossible to integrate seamlessly with its own software product line, and the same operation is cumbersome.

9) Integration

SolidWorks' CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM is self-contained, and Solid Edge is a component of the Velocity Series. Through the acquisition in recent years, it has also completed its own integration. However, due to the financial contraction, the product line that cannot be well digested can not be well integrated, and it needs to be further improved in terms of seamless integration. . Of course, this difference is absolutely unattainable in general applications.

Needless to say, the design of SolidWorks has its own characteristics and has been recognized by the majority of users. For example, SolidWorks is the first top-down design method implemented on the Windows platform. These make SolidWorks an advantage in designing this piece.

Analysis: SolidWork is Simulation and Solid Edge is Femap. Pro/E is Mechanica. SolidWorks Simulation has advantages in the types of simulations provided (drop test, material nonlinearity, nonlinear dynamics), tools that interact with the study, and provides seamlessness in the CAD system that is much higher than the other's workflow.

PDM: SolidWork is also very distinctive. For processing, SolidWork can be done through plugins. Solid Edge and Pro/E are not integrated.

10) Comparison of the latest technologies

SolidWorks has a new release every year, and each version of SolidWorks has more than 250 enhancements, superior speed and breakthrough performance that will change your time concept. Here are just a few exciting new features. For example: SpeedPak is a new technology that generates a simplified version of a complex assembly without losing reference. As a result, the performance of large assemblies and drawings has been greatly improved.

Originally released in February 2003, Pro/E Wildfire 3.0 is an updated version of Pro/ENGINEER with a new Windows-like user interface. The current version is Wildfire 4.0, released in January 2008, 22 months after the release date of Wildfire 3.0. Wildfire 5.0 was released in April 2009. The release of the version is too slow, and even many old customers are still using Wildfire 2.0 or earlier.

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