On 5/17/05 2:14 PM, "Andrew P. Lentvorski, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As far as I know, this still holds (last I looked in detail was > 2001). AutoCAD was trying desperately to crack the 3D market, but > Pro-E holds the high end (aka GM, Ford, etc.) and Solidworks holds > the low end ($5K-$10K) (individual customers, small machine shops, > etc.). AutoCAD looks like they are dislodging SolidWorks somewhat, > but they really don't want that end of the market. > > I never hear the word AutoCad emitted when talking to plastics or > metal manufacturers. Mostly Solidworks. > > The problem for AutoCAD is that its huge 2D installed base doesn't > help in 3D. The thought patterns and usage of a 3D program are > vastly different from a 2D program. You don't construct a house by > removing a rectangular chunk from the inside of a block; you don't > construct a plastic flashlight by drawing its outline and building it > up in pieces. > > -a > > Okay, I just have to through my $0.02 into this thread. If anything just to clear up a few comments. Pro/E and SolidWorks are both considered to be in the mid-level (price wise) market. Recently PTC (the parent of Pro/Engineer aka WILDFIRE) repackaged their product line to be within $1000.00 of SolidWorks (There are packages such as Inventor and SolidEdge that also fit into this category). Pro/Engineer is not considered to be a 'high end' modeler. This is a very common error in description. High End: Catia, UG-NX, CoCreate Midrange: SolidWorks, Pro/Engineer, Inventor, SolidEdge Low End: Alibre, IronCAD I am a little biased towards SolidWorks as it is the product I support, however... SolidWorks has taken the momentum of the market with over 400,000 licenses of the product currently in the marketplace. The closest competitor is Inventor (from the makers of AutoCAD). However their marketing dept is very good a spinning things and will not release their solid modelers number without combining them with Mechanical desktop and AutoCAD Mechanical. So we really do not know how many people are actually using Inventor. I will state this much, Inventor is AutoDesk's fifth attempt at a 3D modeler that was introduced into the marketplace about five years after programs such as SolidWorks and SolidEdge. On Pro/Engineer. They did once hold the top slot and have brand recognition and companies such as Caterpillar as clients. However you will find most 'large' organizations use a variety of tools to complete their projects. Companies such as Ford, Toyota, Boeing, Airbus, etc. primarily focus on CATIA for their modeling needs. Pro/Engineer has suffered what many companies that reach top dog status. That is becoming complacent with very long release cycles, very little development in new functionality and are quickly loosing their install base and selling very little into new companies. It is still a very capable product, it just has some very bad public relations and are suffering because of that. -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
