Likelihood to Recommend MicroStation is THE program to use for roadway and corridor modeling. Most departments of transportation and municipalities in my region require that the models be delivered in the dgn format, so it is MicroStation or bust. It is an absolute pain to use some of the add-in features though. Things that are easy in other programs like making smart tables that update with the latest information usually necessitate the use of
Axiom or similar outside programs/add-ins. I design storm sewer systems, and it takes us 6 months to train up new hires on this software, because it is NOT intuitive. You need to know which buttons to press, since it is not designed to be easily command-based like AutoCAD
Civil 3D .
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 Plethora of design alternatives to choose from right from design to completed models Detailed approach towards parametric, mesh and surface modelling Well integrated modelling workflows Intelligent parametric components with 2D and 3D designs 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 Some of the more complex models have had a few issues exporting. We've struggled with external consultants using the custom Autocad engineering tools, and it plays nicely with MicroStation. 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 MicroStation is very hard to use for our newest employees. It is not intuitive, and you need to know where to find the buttons to perform the commands you would like to perform instead of typing in the commands like other similar modeling programs. Also, it has no good traffic turning add-ins. We continue to run ALL our turning in Autoturn, since this is not a usable feature with MicroStation.
Read full review 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 We haven't had to use it for many years, so not able to comment.
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 The only general purpose CAD program that you can compare MicroStation with would be
AutoCAD . MicroStation, in my opinion, is a superior product in every way but one. That one issue is that there are just more people who have and know how to use
AutoCAD than there are ones who know MicroStation. This makes
AutoCAD easier to get up and running for most firms.
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 MicroStation usage is primarily necessitated by our major client who also uses the program. Without using MicroStation there would be many times where we would not be able to provide our clients with what they need. Therefore, MicroStation has had an incredibly positive impact on the business I work for as its usage has continued to secure contracts. 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