I’ve been an Autodesk guy for years, and have been using Inventor for about a decade. I like it, but was introduced to Solid Edge ST this summer and have been using it for the past couple weeks. I’m really starting to like it, too.
While it does all the ‘usual’ parametric CAD things and handles Inventor-style ordered modelling just fine, it uses the Parasolid kernal to store the representation of the part or assembly in the computer memory. This lets it do a few things that Inventor cannot.
Most prominently it lets you move/adjust/constrain individual part features by working with the faces of the part. When using “Synchronous Technology” (the ST in “Solid Edge ST”) you can grab faces and move them about like in a 3D animation program… okay, there is a bit more rigor to it than in 3D animation, but you can adjust things easily without worrying about corrupting the hierarchy of your model.
It also does a much better job of detecting faces and features on imported parts than Inventor does, particularly when working in an assembly. It is very easy to reference features on one part of the assembly and use them to build another part to fit precisely.
Most significantly, perhaps, Solid Edge is free to high schools. Not just free for individual students, or free for your FRC team to use, but free to set up a site license in your computer labs and use it to teach CAD and design.
I still like Inventor, Creo and Solidworks. They are all fine programs… but as I’m starting to dig in to Solid Edge ST7 this summer I’m discovering a bunch of little things that have me saying, “Whoa… I can’t do THAT in Inventor.” It’s definitely worth checking out.
Jason
P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I had the opportunity to spend a day this summer with a Solid Edge applications engineer. He showed me some amazing things and it really helped me move along the learning curve. But I waited until I got home and had a chance to try Solid Edge on my own projects before posting this… it really is a nice CAD package and the educational licensing for high schools is just amazing. (It is very reasonably priced for post-secondary, too… but not free.)
I’ll definitely have to check it out (because having four CAD programs on my laptop is clearly superior to having three :))
Obviously I need to mess around with it a bit, but the ST sounds a lot like Creo’s “Flexible Modelling” features, which let you click and drag surfaces to quickly adjust models (which is very useful for prototyping!). Also, I know PTC gives out free lab licenses to teams (not sure about schools, but if I remember correctly they give out licenses through the same system now), because we set up the aviation lab at our school with a 30-seat lab license.
I never really took Solid Edge seriously, but I guess I have another CAD program to learn now!
Solidworks does this with it’s Instant3D feature. I haven’t found much use for it though.
I’m not sure what Creo’s educational program is like, but with Pro/E they were very good… teachers who took an introductory course from a Pro/E certified teacher received a 300 seat license to use at their school. The license moved from school to school with the teacher. It was one of the most sensible educational programs that I’ve seen, and I organized a course for a couple dozen teachers, but for some reason Pro/E never ‘clicked’ with me.
The project that I’m doing with Solid Edge right now is constructing a 3D printable mini-sumo robot. I made one using Inventor last winter http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:343916 and it is interesting to compare the process.
In Inventor I had to mess around with a lot of different dimensions to get the parts to fit properly… in Solid Edge I’ve been able to take references off of the other parts in my assembly much more easily. I basically put the gearbox, battery, sensors and circuit board in a suitable arrangement, then drew a box around them and have been whittling away at the box. In Inventor I started building the box and then kept adjusting it to try and fit around the parts.
It has hurt my brain a bit at times, but I’m starting to see some payback for my efforts. Solid Edge has some educator resources online at http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/academic/resources/solid-edge/educators/ and their help system is really good (they’ve got a ‘command finder’ in the bottom corner of the screen that allows you to type in the command or term that you’d use in a different CAD package and it will translate it into Solid Edge terminology and highlight the appropriate icon, which is kind of cool).
I’m writing a couple articles about my experience with Solid Edge which I hope to see published this fall.
Jason