CAD Systems Comparison

Ok I know I am opening a can of worms here but I looking for a good place to
find a comparison of Cad packages. I would like to find non biased info on
Solidworks, UG, PROE, Catia and even the infamous VX and any other that are
in the same class. Our assemblies are large 3000 to 6000 components Art to
part type lots of curvy stuff.

Thanks

Dennis
Denniss"removethis"@sonomadesign.com

 

What other people/firms do you need to share or translate data to
& from? What are their needs?
That might be important.

What is to be done with your data when you are done
with it (or think that you are)? Who will use it from
there and what software or other tools do they need?

What are your own people used to ? That's very important too.
How "curvy" is "curvy stuff"? That might impact constrained
parametric vs. non-constrained modelers.

Do you have any "stylists" on staff? RUN FOR THE HILLS !!

All in all, probably not much help ...

 

What have you found out searching this newsgroup so far?

What are you designing?

How many seats and any collaboration required?

 

looking for about 25 + seats FEA, Thermal, Flow , Structural Freq, PDM
system Pluggin to a unknown MRP system looking for a solution there to.

We currently have 14 seats of SW 05 sp2. PDMworks Cosmos

We design Aircraft mounted EO sensor packages with allot of curved shapes
Mass properties are extremely important due to having a balanced system
collaboration is a important consideration with outside vendors

I have been lurking in this group for 2 plus years and see stuff about ProE
but mostly VX and from what I have seen posted I have a bad taste in my
mouth on that one

Thanks
Dennis

 

Dennis,
Start by seeking out the products built by manufacturers that exhibit the
following characteristics:

"Highly capable, innovative, and enthusiastic team with common goals and
values. The values held and the expectations for all team members are:
- Mutual respect and trust
- Dignity
- Pride in our Products
- Ethics, Honesty, Integrity, and Initiative

Our goal is to be a responsive, respected, value-adding team member for
client programs and we are committed to this success. "



If this looks familiar, it should. It's from your own web site and is the
reason your company is excellent and successful.

Everything else is just mechanics and therefore easy to evaluate with a
little effort.

My own 2c here would be to get CATIA and not to fool around with the
wannabees.

 

Another "happy" SaladWorks user heard from. This one can't figure
out whats really causing the bad taste in his mouth.

Sounds like with his "open mind" and "unbiased" evaluation
he will be much happier making his next jump from the frying
pan to the fire.


jon

 

First of all when considering SW I would most definitely point you
toward keeping CAD and CAE tools separate. I don't have a problem with
SW producing the "swoopy" shapes needed for aircraft or most anything
else. Salvador, Eaton, Wilson and others have gotten extremely good
results out of SW in that area. I have to ask how large your
assemblies may get.

In the area of interoperability with imported geometry you will
probably have some concerns. SW just doesn't go the whole 100 yards in
this area. But there are addins or better, standalone packages from
places like Capvidia that can do an outstanding job of getting you past
this hurdle.

I mentioned in the beginning standalone CAE tools. I am not a big fan
of integrated tools. Documentation of models is one big issue I have.
If you know FEA you know that the results are good for the geometry
used at the time of analysis. It is all too easy to change the model
after an FEA run and lose the geometry. For that reason I prefer
products like DesignStar, Cosmos/M, NEiWorks and NE Nastran. When you
do the analysis you also get a file (either text or binary) that
contains the geometry you analyzed. It can be archived will little
change of inadvertent changes. In addition, standalones don't tie up a
seat of SW while running. I have used all the products I have just
listed. Also, standalone may give you economies of networking fewer
licenses.

You can't beat Nastran for modal analysis and if you go with NE/Nastran
you can do structural, thermal and they even have a flow package,
though I haven't used it. NE/Nastran uses the FEMAP preprocessor which
is a bit antiquated, but very capable.

In addition for CFD I use CFDesigner. I have also used FloWorks, but I
prefer CFDesigner and own a seat.

 

You will find nothing that is unbiased. It is up to you to identify a few
systems to look at, and probably narrow it down to a list of 3 or 4 to
actually benchmark with a comprehensive example of your product performing a
complete workflow from concept to retirement of your designs, and I'm not
talking about getting eval copies. I'm talking about creating a script that
contains both a portion that the vendor recieves in advance of the
benchmark, and a part that the vendor recieves as they are performing the
benchmark. It will take some time and effort, but making the wrong decision
can cost much more in the long run.

Ken

 

With your requirements, I would recommend www.impactxoft.com
It is built on the Catia V5 kernel. It's native files are Catia V5.
Price is a little higher than SolidWorks but with their specials it may
be the same. 3000 to 6000 components should be a breeze for the Catia
V5 kernel but check with impactxoft directly of course.

Both Intel and Catia (Dassault)are owners of impactxoft.
http://www.impactxoft.com/company/investors.asp They have a free 30 day
trial too.

Best of luck!

 

I see ImpactSoft has a 30 day downloadable demo. When I get
a chance (unfortunately I don't think this will be anytime
soon as I'm committed to learning Gibbs Solidsurfacer at the
moment) I will have to try IX Style.

Your not an ImpactSoft "sock puppet" / shill are ya ? :>)

LOL

jon

 

As a matter of fact I am a shill for VX, ImpactXoft, and SolidWorks
2004 SP5

 

Gee, jb .... is VX really all that good at FEA, Thermal, Flow,
Structural Freq, PDM and MRP? How about CFD & COSMOS?
Works well with all those vendors too?

Got any demos or movies? I noted no such ads or blurbs for
such on VX's Site ..... have some secret ones?

Any clues what the terms mean? ANY of them?

BTW, No electrical/electronics or non-linear?

 

Pipe down Cliff -

It absolutely rocks on AFU, NFG & CTD.

(GRIN)

 

This would be the bad taste I was talking about

As a matter of fact I have downloaded VX Jon but with all the crap you post
here it has already clouded my judgment you by far are the worst salesman
and are hurting VX's sale more than your are helping keep up the good work

Dennis

 

LOL .... Probably it does but he'll never know.

 

and just think back, about a year ago Cliff was stumped when HSM was
mentioned. LOL!

--

Michael Gailey
Artistic CNC Mill, Router and Engraver Programming
3D modeling for Product Design and Development
http://www.microsystemsgeorgia.com/toc.htm

 

Thanks all for the useful information it will help us in deciding on or next
cad package Catia and UGNX are what we are leaning toward at the moment and
I will also be looking at impactxoft

Thanks again
Dennis

 

Missed many posts, did you?
How many times?

<G>

 

Dennis,
Don't give up yet.
Many others may yet chime in.

BTW, As you already know & use SW I'd guess ..... ?

 

since 98 plus