SolidWorks vs. Pro-E

Scooter402

Scooter402

Ruffling feathers and shaking trees
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Feb 4, 2009
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It looks like I might have a shot at a new position within my current employer. I'm experienced with SolidWorks, but this company specifies a number of years experience with Pro-E. I've heard that they are relatively similar, but user interface is different, some love one and hate the other, Pro-E is said to be more powerful with assemblies, etc. etc. After a good bit of reading, it seems to be an argument of

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So what say the experienced engineers/designers here?
 
I currently use Pro-E. I started out with AutoCAD many many years ago, then learned Solid works, but haven't used it in about 18 years. I picked up Pro-E very fast due to already knowing Solid works.
 
3d CAD is 3d CAD mostly. There are a lot of nuances between the programs, but if you can use one well, you should be able to learn another very quickly. I've used AutoCAD Inventor, Solidworks, ProE/Creo, and Siemens NX. Solidworks is the easiest to use and most intuitive to me. NX is second. I found ProE annoying because it took too many extra clicks to accomplish an operation. Constantly asking if I was sure I wanted to do something and click ok for this and select that thing that you've already selected, etc. Since the company I work for owns NX, it's what I've used the most in the past few years. They had been using ProE for the past decade, and have forced everyone to go to NX over the past 2 years. At first all the drafters hated it, but now a lot of them prefer NX. My only complaint is that we get a new version every 6 months or so, and there are always a bunch of little changes you have to get used to. You will probably find ProE annoying at first since you're coming from Solidworks, but once you figure out the different terminology and navigation, you'll be fine.
 
I learned AutoCAD and SolidWorks at school. Well...as much as you can learn in a semester of each. :rolleyes: Then I had TONS of OJT with it at my last job, basically going to one of the PE's there and tugging on his shirt sleeve every time I had a problem, mostly feeling like a child with too many questions. The last version of SW I used was the 2014 professional edition, so I think it should be a relatively easy transition. What @jeepinmatt said was what I was hearing, with being prompted with confirmations of intended operations. I'd think that there would be preference settings to bypass those, but I haven't had any seat time with it yet. Hopefully I'll get to know it soon!
 
I learned Pro/E in school, but I use SolidWorks at work (by choice, from a few available CAD packages) if I'm actually designing something. Pro/E is very capable and has lots of plug-in support, but SolidWorks is intuitive and easy to use. I would say it's much easier to go from the more complicated Pro/E to the less complicated SolidWorks (than the other way around), but conceptually it's all just CAD and learning the billion operational nuances that make one package different than the other.
 
Fabrik8 said:
I learned Pro/E in school, but I use SolidWorks at work (by choice, from a few available CAD packages) if I'm actually designing something. Pro/E is very capable and has lots of plug-in support, but SolidWorks is intuitive and easy to use. I would say it's much easier to go from the more complicated Pro/E to the less complicated SolidWorks (than the other way around), but conceptually it's all just CAD and learning the billion operational nuances that make one package different than the other.
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That's also pretty well in line with what I've heard - SolidWorks is a bit more intuitive and user friendly. Too bad there's not a demo out there somewhere (that I'm aware of, anyway). But, like you said - it's all CAD...should be relatively simple to transition if one is familiar with one particular system.
 
solidworks
 
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