Pro and SW

[ptc-169947]

Hi all,

I work for a company that started using ProE in 1997 to replace both Acad (to a degree) and the board. It's been our company standard software for mechanical design ever since. We have the usual start parts, templates, formats, hardware parts library, etc.

We have since merged with another company that uses Solidworks as their design tool, and in addition, have aquired several smaller companies, many of whom also use Solidworks. We also work with many vendors who use Solidworks. There is a push by a small group here to switch over to SW, primarily because they like it better, and don't want to use ProE, which I do not see as a valid reason. However, there's no question that as a result of our merger and aquisistions, that a decision needs to be made with regard to how best to address the possible use of more then one design software in-house.

I'd like to put a question out to the group regarding ProE and Solidworks. I do not wish to start a thread about preferences, which software is better, etc. I'm just looking for companies that have either had to make a choice, started with one, stayed with it, switched for whatever reason, or have incorporated both.

Does anyone work, or has worked for a company that uses one and converts models/drawings created in the other as needed?
Does anyone work, or has worked for a company that has switched from one to the other? If so, why?
Did it work out as planned, or did you switch back?
Are there companies out there that use both internally? If so, do you utilize start parts, formats, library parts for both? If so, how do you determine which software will be used for a specific project?

Any other comments on the topic would be appreciated.
Surely there are other companies out there who face the same issues.

Thanks for any responses,
Stefan





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[dgallup]

I work for a company that acquired this facility 6 years ago. At the time we had both Pro/E and AutoCAD. Since then they have acquired other companies and moved some of their products into our facility. Our company head quarters uses SW (badly IMHO) and some of the recent acquisitions were also designed in SW. So we now use Pro/E, SW & AutoCAD. I have diligently tried to get as many of the legacy AutoCAD parts as possible into Pro/E but facilities and quality still use AutoCAD for plant layouts & other functions. Our product lines are pretty much split between Pro/E and SW. These different product lines don't share any common parts and don't have to go into common assemblies so we just keep both CAD systems. There is no benefit to us to standardize on one, the cost of conversion (in labor, checking, etc.) is way too high.

If we start a whole new project (rare), it really comes down to the lead engineer to decide which system to choose. If it's me, we use Pro/E.

[ptc-169947]

Hi all,

I sent out the email below about three weeks ago regarding how companies choose which software to use and support moving forward, and got three good responses from Rich (Serafin), David (Gallup), and Andrew (Kelly). Even though their responses were posted to the group, if anyone wants them, I can post a summary.
Our management has finally decided to choose one to use moving forward, and I've been tasked with listing the benefits/drawbacks to using either, and switching from one to the other.

With the exception of Rich, David and Andrew, I thought I'd ask one more time to see if there were any others who found themselves in the same situation. It's not a Pro v SolidWorks thread, just a question of how companies are handling various types of native data that they now have to support due to merger, acquisition, vensors, etc. And how that decision was made.

Thanks,
Stefan


I work for a company that started using ProE in 1997 to replace both Acad (to a degree) and the board. It's been our company standard software for mechanical design ever since. We have the usual start parts, templates, formats, hardware parts library, etc.

We have since merged with another company that uses Solidworks as their design tool, and in addition, have aquired several smaller companies, many of whom also use Solidworks. We also work with many vendors who use Solidworks. There is a push by a small group here to switch over to SW, primarily because they like it better, and don't want to use ProE, which I do not see as a valid reason. However, there's no question that as a result of our merger and aquisistions, that a decision needs to be made with regard to how best to address the possible use of more then one design software in-house.

I'd like to put a question out to the group regarding ProE and Solidworks. I do not wish to start a thread about preferences, which software is better, etc. I'm just looking for companies that have either had to make a choice, started with one, stayed with it, switched for whatever reason, or have incorporated both.

Does anyone work, or has worked for a company that uses one and converts models/drawings created in the other as needed?
Does anyone work, or has worked for a company that has switched from one to the other? If so, why?
Did it work out as planned, or did you switch back?
Are there companies out there that use both internally? If so, do you utilize start parts, formats, library parts for both? If so, how do you determine which software will be used for a specific project?

Any other comments on the topic would be appreciated.
Surely there are other companies out there who face the same issues.

Thanks for any responses,