Likelihood to Recommend CAD software with 2D drawing and 3D design tools. Enhance your engineering and architecture designs with drawing constraints, text editing, and interactive design tools. Collaborating with colleagues and vendors is easy DWG files. It runs on both Windows and Mac OS which makes it versatile and at a much lower price than other CAD software.
Read full review Well Suited for:
Integrated designs performed by multiple designers simultaneously (designs requiring a Product Lifecycle Management system); Designs requiring a high degree of parameterisation; Large companies where specific standards and best practices are applied to all models and drawings created. Not Well Suited for:
Personal use in designing one-off models and drawings; Small business use where very few of the expensive features are actually used. Read full review Pros 2D and 3D mechanical drawings Interchange with AutoCAD users and other CAD users. Publish technical data sheets and drawings. Creating PDF documents Read full review It has very good user interface in classic or ordered environment. In 2D or drafting, you can give any Geometric tolerancing and symbols to any dimension. There is a wide range of options available. You can convert any files in step file (.stp) and can open it in other designing applications easily. After converting 3D drawings in 2D you can make changes in 2D drawing by converting it in the draft. You can also add details like cross-sections and detailed view. You can directly make threads without creating holes. Read full review Cons Movement for 3D designs. Some tools could be easier to access. Read full review Being used to 2-key and 3-key commands from the keyboard, it would be nice if this was more robust in Solid Edge. The capability of programming keystroke commands exists in Solid Edge, but it would be more user friendly in that regard. Editing hatches can be a challenge. I'm not a fan of the ribbon bar, but that seems to be a feature across software platforms in Windows. Read full review Usability As mentioned previously, Siemens Solid Edge is not the most user-friendly of products at all. It requires intense training to make sure that the basics are understood, and after that, there are numerous other training interventions needed to be able to perform expert-level CAD functions. The GUI is not intuitive, as many other packages are, and the features built-in are not well defined. The process to use many of these features is counter-intuitive and requires a mind-shift.
Read full review Support Rating Corel's support has always been outstanding. Technical support is always available to assist with installation and licensing issues and there is generally additional free assistance for a time period after purchase. Corel also offers online tutorials and other self-help resources. Ongoing and available support is one of the outstanding features Corel has always provided.
Read full review I have been involved with support and training of Solid Edge for 24 years. Given that I based my business model on support, and have been successful for all these years, I know excellent support. Siemens support for Solid Edge, "GTAC", is the definition of support for a product in every aspect.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Compared to the big companies like solid works or
Solid Edge for 3D modeling, it has most of the basic tools and it is easier to use. It has more tools than some of the smaller companies but still provides the versatility of large brand-name software. CorelCAD offers an attractive alternative for those on a tight budget.
Read full review FreeCAD is often better than Solid Edge 2021 when converting files, but I hope this changes with 2023 NX is overall more powerful, but that is to be expected (and you cant add it above because it is too short for whatever reason).
Read full review Return on Investment CorelCAD easily pays for itself even when not a primary product. Due to its similarity to AutoCAD, it's a reasonable solution with a shortened learning curve for existing AutoCAD users. Read full review It took about 20 hours of use to get the basics of Synchronous Technology, and with just a basic competency I was able to make useful changes to the design. One of those changes was impossible to do our other CAD program. My use lately has mostly been on personal time and self-driven, so learning other aspects and features of Solid Edge has been slower. Creating a drawing for a part required a few hours to learn and do the first time, but luckily there were YouTube videos for examples. With practice, I would expect the time to reflect what it takes in SolidWorks (about 30 minutes). Read full review ScreenShots