So for a little back ground, 2.5 months ago i was hired as a MDE at a manufacturing facility, I am one of two EGR's there. This place runs no different now than it did 60 years ago. That being said we are trying to bring the place up to speed. My back ground, software wise, is autodesk autocad mechanical 2012 and inventor 2011. Right now, we are using autocad 2002... From what i understand it was "an act of god" getting me hired on, so needless to say engineering does not get much funding. Myself as well as my coworker are pushing hard to upgrade our software. I would prefer inventor since that is what i am used to, But the 13k price tag is a far cry from reality (to give you an idea, google sketch up was a consideration..). So today i tried out Alibre (now geomagic), it is the trial, but i was told it is dirt cheap compared to the others. Needless to say i found it very much easy to use with my back ground in inventor. there are some bad things, but there also a lot of good things.. my question for all of you is what do you know about this software and is it a reliable product to use? We design anything from tooling to P&ID's. I'm mostly worried about its compatibily and practicality for my situation. 3D modeling and the ability to export to a CNC mill are among my top concerns.
Do you have any idea about ProE software it is also used for 3D designing of various tools, machines and everything what we want. Right now I am going to design linear actuator using this software so please let me know about the same.
There are several small disadvantages with this software package over inventor, but then again I'm not doing multi thousand part assembly's. the more I use this software the easier it gets, as with most the rendering isn't as smooth in model space but when I slap it in a 2d dwg, it is fine. So far so good, it's not ideal but for the price point I really like it (especially over cad 2002!!). I'm sure as time moves on and I learn some tricks it will get better, but this is the hand I'm dealt and I gladly accept it!
Creo (formerly ProE) is a expensive program compared to inventor it is very powerful and used by many large companies. What would you like to know about ProE? I have taught a CAD modeling/design course using this software for four years not at a university level.
I do not have much experience working with free or very cheap CAD programs on the market currently. However, I am guessing you have a software package that reads stl files to create CNC routes. Therefore, look at the CAD programs to see if they can export to stl files and you shouldn't have any problems except for some programs don't hold a high tolerance in the CAD software. The better CAD package you can get the more productive engineers will be in designing overall saving the company money. You can put together an easy cost analysis and for five years and probably recoup the money.
I worked with basic Autocad, and mechanical desktop, and 3dsMAX as well, for a long period, and I liked it. I tasted ProE Wildfire2, and it is a good modelling environment, it must be more advanced by the time, but it is very expensive, as I know. I have done a lot of design works (pipe systems, tanks, machinable parts, cranes, few thousand part assemblies (this is where Inventor's capability ends)in Inventor. Inventor has some irritating issues, but it is a good softvare to design. Currently I am working with CATIA V5 and I hate it, it is so underdeveloped, comparing with Inventor, but it has less instability problems as well. If you can have a good contract with your local Autodesk dealer, you can get the upcoming versions of Inventor, if I were you I would have Inventor.
!!!!?? never heard such a comment. That V5 lacks a FEA soft that match it's price tag, yes (V6 hve Simulia now - get ard the web to know more abt its origins).
This is how I feel. Accept it or deny it it is up to you. By the way I have only limited licenc of CATIA V5, and I have noticed, that some auxiliary parts of the program are missing, but the core is the same as the fully licenced CATIA V5. Hopefully the company will turn to V6 (I'll require full licens on this) or Solid Works, because the part database is not easy to move away from ENOVIA, thus this is also Dassault product and the database won't change.
You might take a look at KeyCreator (formerly Cadkey). It's not the cheapest out there at around $4K a seat, but still less than Inventor. It takes a different approach, no history, no parameters, no sketcher... you just model directly in 3D. This makes it very fast to make big changes, not as fast to make some minor changes since you can't just change a parameter or sketch dimension, but you can import anything and the program treats it no differently from native geometry, which makes it popular with job shops.
