Multi-CAD environment

cying · ‎Oct 22, 2015

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

PremekVotava · ‎Oct 26, 2015

Hi Calvin,

I understand to your situation as some of our partner solve the same problems.

I try to split your question:

1) ProE (Creo) or Solidworks - Creo is still much more complex CAD tool for creating digital model. SolidWorks is more "sexy" for users. If you are looking for productivity and complexity, Creo is better solution, isn´t?

2) Windchill - Windchill 9.1 is also able manage SolidWorks data. I accept you could have problem with compatibility. As Windchill 9.1 is out of date, it would be not able to manage actual SolidWorks CAD tool. Windchill 10.2 has extended integration with SolidWorks. I think you can use Windchill (9.1 ? 10.2) for managing SW data.

3) New users - YES the students know SolidWorks much more as Creo - this is based on complexity of these products. Most of schools do not use CAD for a real projects. For them is using "Hobby tools" good enough.

4) I am not able to understand why you are using still Windchill 9.1. (heavy customization of Windchill?) I hope your IT already do not use XP 🙂

Have a nice day

Premek

cying · ‎Oct 26, 2015

1) ProE (Creo) or Solidworks - Creo is still much more complex CAD tool for creating digital model. SolidWorks is more "****" for users. If you are looking for
productivity and complexity, Creo is better solution, isn´t?

Agreed that Creo is a better CAD tool when it comes to large assemblies and complex models. Our R&D is complaining that it is hard to find supplier who are using ProE for their designs. Therefore we are having to deal with rebuilding the model in ProE so we can vault them in Windchill. In addition, many of our newly acquired companies are also using Solidworks, which making it much harder NOT to support Solidworks.

2) Windchill -Windchill 9.1 is also able manage SolidWorks data. I accept you could have problem with compatibility. As Windchill 9.1 is out of date, it would be not
able to manage actual SolidWorks CAD tool. Windchill 10.2 has extended integration with SolidWorks. I think you can use Windchill (9.1 ? 10.2) for rmanaging SW data.

Unfortunately I have no say in the Windchill upgrade. We are stuck in Creo/Element (WF5) because of the Windchill. We are I believe 5 releases behind and when
we are able to find a vendor using ProE, they are on Creo 2 or 3. Which we can’t check in to ourWindchill. I would need to learn more about how Windchill is able to manage Solidworks data, I have a feeling that we may have to support both CAD systems.

3) New users - YES the students know SolidWorks much moreas Creo - this is based on complexity of these products. Most of schools do not use CAD for a real projects. For them is using "Hobby tools" good enough.

New engineers and acquired companies are still using Solidworks to do their designs. They bypass the process by importing the file to ProE so they can check in to
Windchill.

4) I am not able to understand why you are using still Windchill 9.1. (heavy customization of Windchill?) I hope your IT already do not use XP 🙂

For the Medical arena, validation and verification that is needed for everything we do. Therefore any type of upgrade is heavily avoided, thus this is hurting the design community. They are in the process of upgrading, but the target is end of 2016 at the earliest.

PremekVotava · ‎Oct 27, 2015

Hi Calvin,

Your question/situation is really not easy. It seems, you had to manage both CAD tools. However you need to wait for upgrade to Windchill upgrade to manage Creo and actual SW data. At the same time I am afraid you will have this problem with compatibility in the future.

Exists only one way - you must manage your vendors. You must be important partner for your vendors and they need to use CAD tools a version as you.

As our company is vendor of product development services, we must use more CAD solutions and use also old version (e.g. Wildfire 4) as we want to cooperate with our customers!

Premek

Marco_Tosin · ‎Oct 27, 2015

Calvin,

if you look at the product calendar http://support.ptc.com/cs/product_calendar/PTC_Product_Calendar.htm#RANGE!A968 you will see that Creo Elements Pro5 (Wildfire 5) is out of support by the end of September while Windchill 9.1 it's no more supported since December 2013.

Marco