[miketwalker]

I've got experience in Solid Edge, Inventor, and Pro/E Wildfire 2. Out've the 3, I feel that Pro/E is the worst. It has some of the worst user friendliness out've any CAD software I've ever used, by far. Even after working with it very closely, I still do one minor thing that it doesn't like, and it spazzes out and you have to go back and fix things and then start again on what you were working on.

I haven't had to use advanced tools much, but I will say this... for simple stuff, Inventor is by far the best choice. When it comes to advanced features, go for Solid Edge. Solid Edge from everything I've seen has the same power Pro/E does, and it is a thousand times more user friendly. Plus, it's got an amazing tutorial/help system built in. Pro/E's help system isn't half-bad, but it lacks any tutorials to get you going... and if you don't know what you're looking for in help, it's gonna be bad day for you to find what you're looking for.

The one thing in Pro/E Wildfire 2 that I do really like are some of the relations features where you can code in things that you know will become repetitive (screws, for example) and just have it where you give an input change in the relations and bwam, you're ready to go. I think Solid Edge does this too, but I haven't messed with that in Solid Edge personally. I took a course in Pro/E pretty much for the same reasons you seem to be, just to understand another 3d CAD program in case you need to use it. I'd say play around with it, but when you start ripping your hair out (which won't take long heh), go to Solid Edge.

Hope this helps!