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Working in a Multi-CAD environment

cying
10-Marble

Working in a Multi-CAD environment

ProE has been the tool of choice for us for many years.  Due to our IT, we are still stuck in Windchill 9.1 Creo/Element (AKA WF5).  We are getting pressure from various R&D and some thru acquisition that want to start supporting Solidworks.  We have folks that are importing Solidworks files into ProE so that can load into our Windchill.  This issue has been brewing and I don't think by saying you have to use ProE is going to solve this.

I am sure I am not the only one who is facing this problem.  Our IT told us that we will not be moving to Windchill 10.X/Creo X by the end of next year at the earliest.  Therefore I am stuck in this environment where people are doing their own thing anyway.

1) We have one supplier that will use ProE (Creo 3) but that does us no good.

2) companies that we acquired, will not stop to learn ProE when most of their existing designs are done in Solidworks.

3) Unite Technology would be nice to support muti-CAD environment but we are min a year away (if we're lucky)

4) many of the college students that are hired all have Solidworks experience, although we provide them with PTCU for training.

Now you know the rest of the story....For those who are facing the same dilemma, what's your thought?

Thank you all in advance for your input.

Calvin

1 REPLY 1
TomD.inPDX
17-Peridot
(To:cying)

I have been in many different scenarios similar to yours at different levels.

The most disruptive solution in one company was to take a varied group from SW, Pro|E, and "other" into Teamcenter/NX.  No winners!  Everyone wins...

Fortunately, NX is a pretty good product and quite intuitive -and- the company threw an army at Teamcenter (it didn't replace anything).

Being a Pro|E guru of sorts, when I went back to contracting, I found several opportunities using SW.  No biggy; basic CAD in a new skin and not much drafting needed.

Recently I did a mixed collaboration.  Creo and SW just didn't get along.  Not sure why but exports to SW just failed miserably.  Imports from SW were to cumbersome to edit.

I folded... I got SW '15 to continue the contract.

Turns out all my Creo work pushed beautifully in the fresh SW install.  No love lost in the end.

Creo is still miles ahead of SW.  There are a lot of cool features and forethought in SW, mind you... but we have been spoiled with some very basic functionality in Creo.

I tried some of the built-in SW import in Creo3.0.  HORRIBLE!  Creo 2.0 was much better in this.  Regardless, its a one way street without the collaborative package.

I am glad I have both packages.  Creo is still my goto but SW is nice to have when you need it.

Here is my recommendation for your predicament... put in a PO for a basic SW package.  $5K and something to add to the resume.

This takes out some of the frustration when you need to make a tweak to a SW design, and you can manage the imports into WF5 without bothering someone else.  It will pay for itself for the short term.

Long term, someone in the company will have to step up and make a choice.  If it becomes your problem, step up and make a stand, whatever that may be.

As an aside, my more recent designs have a lot of simple dumb solid OEM components.  Its kind of nice not having them parametric.  It all depends on your product mix.

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