proE wildfire vs autodesk inventor

[ryan_f]

I've used inventor for about 2 years now and i want to try something new.
I'm debating on whether or not i should take the time to learn pro engineer wildfire. Which do you prefer most, and why?

[Max Lobovsky]

I have not used proE, but from what I have heard, it is definitley a "more serious" tool and is more common among professionals. I have used pro/desktop, a sort of simplified version of Pro/engineer just designed to introduce students to parametric design. The basic parametric concept is there, so it isn't a huge step from inventor. Now that they offer a really cheap student edition ($200 as compared to ~$5000 full price), I got a tech teacher at my school to buy it so I will hopefully get to try it out.

[Arefin Bari]

Originally Posted by Max Lobovsky

I have not used proE, but from what I have heard, it is definitley a "more serious" tool and is more common among professionals. I have used pro/desktop, a sort of simplified version of Pro/engineer just designed to introduce students to parametric design. The basic parametric concept is there, so it isn't a huge step from inventor. Now that they offer a really cheap student edition ($200 as compared to ~$5000 full price), I got a tech teacher at my school to buy it so I will hopefully get to try it out.

agreeing with max... i have used proE before... and it is defiinitely more advanced and professional tool. there is lot to learn from proE. if you do have access to proE, try it out...

[Tristan Lall]

I've been using Pro/E 2001 (the predecessor to Wildfire) for several years, now, first in high school (for FIRST) and later in a co-op position. Of the various CAD packages I've used, Pro/E is the most versatile and intuitive.

Only recently, have I had a chance to try Inventor out, and while it clearly lacks many of the functions of Pro/E, it isn't half bad. It's certainly better than I expected, coming from the people who brought us the utterly useless (for 3-D) AutoCAD. I'd go so far as to say that for a FIRST gearbox, you don't give much up by using Inventor.

For complex assemblies, or advanced geometry, or FEA capabilities, though, Pro/E is the better choice.

Now, they both have their flaws, but I'm not experienced enough with the newest versions of either of these packages (Wildfire 2.0 and Inventor 9) to comment on what bugs and "features" remain from the older versions. One thing is for sure: older versions of Pro/E were not user-friendly software--Wildfire seems to have fixed this, but I'm not prepared to try to compare it with Inventor, once again, for lack of much concrete experience with Wildfire.

If I didn't have to worry about cost--a one-seat commercial licence for Inventor is $7 000 (CAD), and around $30 000 (CAD) for Pro/E with a common set of modules, last I heard--I would go with Pro/E any day.

[kelleher]

have you looked at solid edge?

Originally Posted by ryan_f

I've used inventor for about 2 years now and i want to try something new.
I'm debating on whether or not i should take the time to learn pro engineer wildfire. Which do you prefer most, and why?

[ryan_f]

yes i have. In fact, I'm about to learn solid edge in the next semester of school, but im learning pro e on the side now since our main machine shop uses it

[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!