Who uses it? And for how long have you used it?
I do, i think 6-7 years now.
I do. Got 3k-4k hours of seat time with it. And another 10k hours of seat time with Pro/E.
About a year academically and a year professionally. Noobie I guess 
RIT pushes pro/E so I am somewhat comfortable with it, I’ve attempted solid works once and felt lost (probably because of the first half of this statement). Which do you prefer and why?
oddly enough, ME uses pro-e, MET uses SolidWorks.
When I was at RIT it was Pro/E, Unigraphics, and Mechanical Desktop. They were JUST starting to roll out Solidworks.
I used to be a huge Pro/E guy, but I haven’t been a heavy user of Pro/E (which is now Creo) in about 3 years so I’m rusty at it. I’ve been using SW mainly since I left Astronics (Where Luke L still is); but I’ve moved on from being a CAD jockey and rarely do any serious design work anymore.
Both have their strengths/weaknesses. Kinda like comparing a new Mustang to a new Camaro. (Then you have the Bugatti out there of CATIA which is a whole different realm of design software)
The biggest thing I’ve learned when I was being a CAD jockey was just proper modeling skills; building parts in feature orders that make sense with the proper feature controls/references, making sure things were fully defined, constraining things properly, etc. If you get and understand these; they transfer between every design package. LOTS of designers and CAD operators do not understand this and create models that are NIGHTMARES to work with. A model should be easy to go back into and modify; the feature list should flow in how the part is made if it were machined (at least as best it can); it should be labeled properly and just make sense.
I ran Inventor for a year or so then got my CSWP back in 2005. Back then it was an 8 hour hands-on test to be certified, not this 3 hr online crap. Oh well. Get off my lawn!
You can make a miserable part with any software if you try hard enough lol. I’ve been using solidworks for 5-6 years now. Its great for tweaking designs on the fly and I love the cross section tool, but I honestly still prefer 2d Autocad for rough layouts and sketches. It forces you to think in 2d, which is essentially how a bridgeport mill and engine lathe work. Anything beyond that usually becomes an expensive part to manufacture and dificult to inspect.
Yea, I used autocad in high school. Ended up figuring out how to draw a 3d model of my car. I wish I still had that floppy disc, lol
I miss having the command line and being able to press enter to restart which ever command I was using last.
In SW you don’t even have to hit enter… just right mouse button…
Solidworks for 4-5 years and now use Unigraphics at GM. The transition phase is always rough.
Six of one, half dozen of the other.
Historically, ProE has been more powerful, but SW adds features each year and is far more user focused.
SW is far easier to pick up and become proficient at.
If you know how to model, it isn’t going to matter, you’ll be able to transition to either in a short amount of time, its just learning where things are and setting it up to suit your style.
Its like asking if you want a Haas or Daishin CNC…
i used solidworks for quite a few years, as well as unigraphics, mechanical desktop, inventor, autocad, revit, etc. after the first few programs they all are pretty easy to use. some the way the commands work or the thought process of drawing/modeling are a little backwards, but overall pretty similar. right now im on revit mep 2011 and autocad mep 2011. not difficult jumping from program to program, i wouldnt worry about it being confusing…best way to learn is start clicking buttons.
I have played with SW and gone to SW training at cadimensions.
It’s fun, but I can not seem to find time to make cool stuff.
Cadimensions is out VAR. Great guys…
used each one for about 6 months in school. i like solidworks far better (but then again, by the time i started using SolidWorks, i had pretty much forgotten what Pro/E was like).
i have been using AutoCad 2D for about a year in the workplace and i like it a ton. so easy to do most everything.
Sorry for the delay, I have been in and out of the office.
SOOOOO, anyone who is a SW user that is really good, I would like to make some designs with you, until I can get fully up to speed on using it.
I now work for them has an application engineer for the FDM machines