Solid Edge Community Edn. – Gen. Qs. Thereof

[Tom Scott 3Participant @tomscott3]

It anyone has been debating is solid edge is worthwhile…..

I have worked with 3D CAD all of my career since I was a teen. I have used solid works, Siemens NX, catia, Autodesk inventor…. And it i am given a choice by whoever my employer is at that moment of time. No matter the project I would always choose solid edge. It is the easiest and quickest. And yet way more powerful than what is first shown at the surface.

I was offered a job by majenta (a former provider of solid edge) too help teach new users solid edge. I never took the job, but have taught many people from apprentices too old hands how too use Solid Edge and for 99% of people I can get them too a respectable level of competence in 3 days….

If you are on the fence about it…. Just do it. Solid Edge is the best mid tier industry software available and blows holes through solid works. And they are offering it you for free. I paid nearly £9000 for the privilege and am happy that at that price i get good value. So if you can get it for free snap their hands clean off their arms.

As some idea too the projects that can be done in this software, I developed tubular race car chassis, bridges and ramps for MOD and Nato, hydraulic pumps… The possibilities are endless.

The only real learning curve is the workflow, but with the right guidance you can get their in days at the most… If your stuck on how too model a particular part feel free too ask.

But this knocks the socks off fusion 360 marks undoubtedly the best software offered too the community at the moment

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

To up-date…..

I have established my new, WIN-10 loaded computer, and installed the new TurboCAD 2021-x64.

My previous computer is still set up but without a printer, so I can still use the TurboCAD 19 Deluxe I bought originally. [I bought both editions of TC from Paul (TheCAD) Tracy. ] It also holds a lot of photos I seemed unable reliably to transfer to the new computer.

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I have also installed, on the new machine, SolidEdge CE, and spent my first session with it, perhaps an hour, simply exploring it for some idea of what it looks like and what is where.

Later I found a purportedly introductory video, by Siemens not third-party, but found it not very helpful. Though I find tutorial videos generally are anything but tutorial. I wondered if it is supposed to augment a proper manual, but I could find no mention of that.

It essentially demonstrates drawing a dimensioned, 2D rectangle with a lug in one corner. Try it and it gives several lines that meet where they should; as separate entities.. Perhaps joining them into a complete outline as in a real drawing is at Intermediate-Level. (TC gives you a tool called 'Polyline' for the purpose.)

I heeded the warnings others have given, that CAD packages do differ considerably from each other, let alone manual drawing; though I do not agree that knowing manual drawing hampers learning CAD. Why should it? .

So I had tried to approach it as familiar with engineering drawings but new to CAD.

And made no progress…..

Don't get me wrong. It was worth trying SE. But…..

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I might be better staying with TurboCAD than spending so much time learning a totally new system.

The advantages:

– I am already fairly familiar with TC, for 2D work. (Its 3D mode is too difficult but really, of limited, rare practical use or need anyway, for me.)

– So I can already to produce fair orthographic drawings directly; and despite the equally baffling printing methods, to make prints possibly of true scale, but good enough for real workshop use.

The two big drawbacks with TurboCAD though, are –

– Its on-line "Help" menu, a pdf document, is still a mess, poorly-sorted, with no proper index and workable page-finder; nor decent instructions when you do find them.

– And this is one that causes problems even for its skilled users; its Users' Forum seems to have damaged its wretched "Captcha" trap, so it now lets you sign in, write something, then forgets you have so asks whilst erasing your post! Apparently, there are ways round it, but for the real experts.

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