SolidWorks to SolidEdge Relearning Curve 2

[Gstoner]

Does anyone know of any information that can help me 'retrain' myself. I've used SolidWorks (03 thru 07) and find myself at a new company that uses SE(V19) So far, I've found it extremely frustrating to change to a new software. I've used SW, Mech Desk, and Inventor without problems, but SE seems to just work completely different. I'm looking for a 'translator' or something that could help me learn SE better (and faster!)

Before anyone asks: No, the company is not going to switch software and no, I can't find anything about User Groups closer than 3 states away (I'm in NC)

 

[Gemnoc]

Hi,

Not sure what the Commande Manager actually is, but from the SW08 screen captures I've seen, it seems inspired by the MS Office 2007 UI. I mean, the File menu replaced by a ribbon-bar with its contents changing depending on the tab you choose.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/Microsoft_Office.png

Siemens is due to lauch its V21 release of Solid Edge in Spring. I wonder if they will follow on this UI scheme.

 

[Gemnoc]

By the way, I find visualisation in SW08 really impressive. I mean, chrome actually looks like chrome. I don't know if those screen captures on the Net have all the display settings maxed out and are unworkable that way, but models in SW08 look great. I know this is just bells & whistle, but I hope SE V21 gets on par with SW on this subject.

They are promising the most significant release of Solid Edge since... V1.

 

[swertel]

I most certainly hope SE never implements a version of Realview. Why would any body want to have to spend a fortune on new hardware just to support a performance hogging feature that shows pretty pictures during the stage of the design where it is needed the least?

If I wanted photorealistic images, I will run it through a rendering package. For example, like SE's explode-animate-render environment.

Personally, I'm guessing that "the most significant release of SE since v1" is because they are doing something similar to SW2008 in terms of making it Vista native. In other words, the GUI is going to be completely different. Again, that's just my guess.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[Gemnoc]

Well, computers with quad-cores are already quite powerful. And, I can certainly see the use, since it allows you to take a quick good-looking snapshot to show a customer, without the hassle of going to the render environment. You can always turn the Realview off afterwards so you can continue the real work...

 

[beachcomber]

I have to agree with swertel.
A company I worked for had textures and reflections turned on by default in their template files. Then they wondered why they took so long to open, especially the larger assemblies.
My motto is keep the normal model view as simple as possible, no matter how powerful your workstation.
If you want a "pretty" view to work in then in Solid Edge you can turn on textures, shadows etc. and work like that, but please don't leave models saved that way.
I have a Core2 Quad with a Quadro FX4600 graphics card but I still keep settings turned down to get the maximum speed.

bc.

 

[KENAT]

Gemnoc, I'm with Swertel & beachcomber.

We have models large enough where it makes a difference. For default model display KISS.

Plus if marketing & management can get flashy images any time they want that's all you'll spend your time doing. If you make it clear it can be done but it's not necessarily a trivial task they're more likely to leave you alone to actually Engineer/Design.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[swertel]

Kenat,

I can't tell you how many times that has happened. So much so, that I had to talk to the VPs to tell them to tell their people to stop bugging us for pretty pictures (plotted full size on photo paper, none the less). Once they realized how much time it took out of a day and how much it really cost (compared to sending it to Kinko's, for example) they stopped.

But, I did manage to use SE to put the company logo on models that we submit as part of proposals. It appears that some of our "partners" were taking our ideas and then selling them as their own. Can't do that when every image of every model as the company's logo on it in such a position that it can't be washed off without destroying to proposal.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro