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CAD - Engineering - Technical > What is the most used or best CAD engineering Software
 
 
da_man
Veteran
Location: NJ

I already know solid works very well and some autocad, but I would like to know what CAD program is the most used in bussiness and or the best for engineers?

What I want soo much should never hurt this bad
10-05-2007 12:12 AM
 
 
helical
Senior Heliman
Location: Bowling Green, KY

You'll probably get many opinions. My company uses Pro/E. I like it fine but I have no other experience except AutoCAD.
10-05-2007 12:46 AM
 
 
flyboy0413
Senior Heliman
Location: CT, USA

I use Pro/Engineer and CoCreate onespace modeling at work. Cocreate is definitely easier to use, but I find that Pro/E is a more powerful tool. It all depends on what you want to do. I think you can get a free version of cocreate from their website if you want to play around w/ it.

go to www.cocreate.com
10-05-2007 01:51 AM
 
 
TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN

Autocad is the predominant package used for most 2D work with Solidworks used for solid modeling. The majors, like ProE, Unigraphics, Catia and CADAM are used in corporate settings with large IT/IS departments and deep pockets to support these packages. The medical companies like Unigraphics(McAuto) because of its CAM side.

TM

"If you can do it, it ain’t bragging." - Will Rogers
10-05-2007 04:08 AM
 
 
Raptor30Heli
Senior Heliman
Location: Oak Creek, WI

My vote goes to SolidWorks. I've been using it since 1994 and really enjoy working with the software. I am a SolidWorks Certified Professional so I do know my way around the software pretty good.

I made an honest attempt at learing Pro-E to expand my job opportunities, but it just was not as intuitive as SW.

I've used AutoCad for 2D design work. Once you go 3D, you never WANT to go back to 2D!

-Mike

Team QuickUK Pilot
10-05-2007 03:02 PM
 
 
StickManMD
New Heliman
Location: Baltimore, Maryland - USA

All the files we get in from Architect's and Mechanical Engineers are Autocad and in 3d. All of the large jobs are requireing Building Information Modeling, which is a fancy term for smart 3d objects.

We use Autocad MEP and a 3d piping add on to produce the mechanical systems inside of a building before a construction worker sets foot on site. To say autocad doesnt do 3d is not accurate, it depends on what you want out of it.

Autocad is the clear leader in the construction industry, and is leading the way in BIM with their revvit product.

So like the others were saying, there is no in general "best product", however there are best products for specific applications. If you tell us what you want to accomplish it will help us to recoment the best software.
10-06-2007 02:41 AM
 
 
Furious Predator
Elite Veteran
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

i have used:

Auto CAD
Mechanical Desktop
Solid Edge
Solid Works
Inventor
Unigraphics

there are many others, but i havn't used them...

i have found that Solid Edge, Solid Works, and Inventor are pretty popular for mechanical engineering.

i worked at a place that was just converting from Mechanical desktop to Unigraphics.

Unigraphics is a VERY good and capable program, but it is very difficult to learn. i find that Inventor/solid works, and solid edge are very user friendly.

Auto CAD is still used, but i think its more reserved for architecture. In my opinion, solid 3D programs are far superiour to a 2D based program for mechanical things.

i spend most of my time on Solid Works at the moment. im currently using it to model my spair YS91 engine for my 3rd year project.

i just have to finish modeling the carb/regulator assembly, and its finished



Shawn
Team Leisure-Tech
10-06-2007 05:09 AM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
RaptorEngineer
Heliman
Location: Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

I use

Hi:
Actually I used Co-Create and Pro-E in my work. Pro-E its more powerfull and complex to learn. All depend what you want.

www.heliengineering.com

best wishes



www.camaraaerea.com

Make ideas into realities...
10-11-2007 02:29 AM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
lordraptor1
Heliman
Location: armore oklahoma, usa all the way

i know team associated, team losi, traxxas and others all use solidworks. i had a chance to play around with solidwork and with no training whatsoever i found it extremely easy to use.
11-10-2007 10:01 AM
 
 
Mike0251
Senior Heliman
Location: Hills of the Blue Ridge VA

My company currently uses Pro-Wildfire and SDRC Ideas which is now part of the Unigraphics family. I have over 50,000 hours with Ideas and find it to be the best out there for several reasons. Has an excellent DBM (database manager) built right in, an extensive CAM package, top notch FEM package, superb drafting package. It is a very fast and effective program to use. The assembly feature allows the user to use or not use constraints. It is not mandatory. I have used Catia, Pro-E, Inventor, Solidworks, Solidedge, A-cad, Cadam, and many years of drawing board in my career to date. Its a no brainer decision for what I like to use. What is unique with this program, you can design your layout as you go, part after part right in place or off to the side without having to build an assembly first. You can have as many parts on the screen at one time that you would like, designed in place, modify as you go, alter this or that, and them boom, create and assembly and add them all right in. I'm spoiled.
11-10-2007 11:26 AM
 
 
hootowl
Elite Veteran
Location: Garnet Valley, Pa.

I come from a CATIA background where you could build anything, anywhere in space with minimum forced hierarchy. I'm on SolidWorks now and sometimes can get a bit frustrated with the unrelenting order of things. Yes I know, it's required for model based architecture but I really miss being able to just build a solid without the discipline when I need to. You can create planes, points, lines curves, than you can delete anything without getting a message telling you everything else will get deleted because one was created from the other.

CATIA has standard analysis power that is unreal. Solidworks has a very rudimentary analysis function that is sometimes hard to interpret.

That's CATIA V4. CATIA V5 is now PC based. I have almost no experience with V5 but I believe it's similar in functionality, generally speaking, to Solidworks. BTW Dassault owns CATIA, Solidworks and I believe the Autocad engine. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The issues today still are cross platform compatibility. I would like to see more standardized data transferability between systems.

Next week I will be back on CATIA V4 and V5... working on the V-22 Osprey program

I want to die like my grandfather - peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like the rest in the car.
11-10-2007 12:20 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Edwardn
Heliman
Location: northridge, CA

Hey Mike you should try SW 2008-it is killer!!!!
I have use many others and SW is defenetly the best. Yes it is required discipline, but how to design something and do not have everything in order. I work for company which is ES9200 certified and we have all in order.
BTW in SW if use blocks-you can design assembly in one sketch-no problem at all!!!
12-15-2007 06:57 AM
 
 
hootowl
Elite Veteran
Location: Garnet Valley, Pa.

Just recently started my new job. I'm back on Catia V4 and it sucks compared to the newer, cheaper PC based softwares out there today. Reason is it's been around to the point of being abandoned by Dassualt in lieu of CATIAV5 which is very similar to Solidworks. I guess you don't know what you have till you lose it. I will be getting a new PC worstation with CATIAV5 next to my new rs6000 that CATIAv4 runs on so I'll have the best of both worlds shortly.

Edward,

I went to the SolidWorks 2008 Rollout Seminar a couple of months ago. The new stuff looks great. It's getting more and more inuitive and the user interface is really coming along. I like being able to drag and drop sketches from inside other models directly onto your working model.


I just read in DE magazine that Mike Paine, the founding architect of ProE has come up with what they are calling the next major step in 3D modeling software. SpaceClaim 2007+

"SpaceClaim has no concept of history, just features, but these are not discretely stored operations. By using an inference engine, SpaceClaim allows you to select and edit features directly, when you choose, and it just works."

Here's the article. Looks pretty impressive.

http://www.deskeng.com/articles/aaagax.htm

I want to die like my grandfather - peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like the rest in the car.
12-15-2007 01:49 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
GyroFreak
Key Veteran
Location: Florida ... 28° 50' N 81° 16' W

For home use I used TurboCad.

Support bacteria. They're the only culture some people have. !
12-15-2007 01:57 PM
 
 
Edwardn
Heliman
Location: northridge, CA

Hi Mike.
Thanks for the article. Read it all.
Seems like this new SpaceClaim 2007+ has the same (some of them) futures as SW 2008-pulling and moving, live section, part in assembly editing etc. And price seems really good (I don't really care-my employer should care about it LOL)
Any way, 3D cad modeling going forward really fast and I am afraid very soon world will not need any more engineering schools, just classes to learn operate CAD. I see it on daily basisnew people comming to apply for work and call them engineer and only one thing they know how to "pull" and "move"
12-15-2007 03:49 PM
 
 
dhc8guru
Heliman
Location: Texas

Nothing is more powerful than Catia V5 and once V6 comes out we may hit the pinacle of PC based Parametric solid modeling software.
Having used Pro-E and Autocad, Catia blows them both away. Autocad is not useful for any serious modeling.
At around $30k for a Catia license...I would go with Solidworks, then Pro-E. Pro E is difficult to use because it was adapted from a Unix based system into PC based, making things cumbersome to model.
05-06-2008 07:30 PM
 
 
Pole
Senior Heliman
Location: Norway

Solid Edge is sweeeet... can`t wait to get my hands on v.21 that is comming soon..

Synchronous Technology looks good

http://www.plm.automation.siemens.c...s/breakthrough/



Stay tuned fore more happy days
05-07-2008 08:03 AM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
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CAD - Engineering - Technical > What is the most used or best CAD engineering Software
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