National Instruments Multisim vs. Solid Edge

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
NI Multisim
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
National Instruments offers Multisim, a simulation application for engineers, designers, and educators.
$1,869
per user
Solid Edge
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Solid Edge is a software solutions for product development — 3D design, simulation, manufacturing, data management, and cloud collaboration. Solid Edge aims to combine the speed and simplicity of direct modeling with the flexibility and control of parametric design.
$110
per month
Pricing
National Instruments MultisimSolid Edge
Editions & Modules
Base
$1,869.00
per user
Full
$3,267.00
per user
Professional
$4,838.00
per user
Design and Drafting XaaS
$110.00
per month
Foundation XaaS
$267.00
per month
Classic XaaS
$335.00
per month
Premium XaaS
$481.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
NI MultisimSolid Edge
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
National Instruments MultisimSolid Edge
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Best Alternatives
National Instruments MultisimSolid Edge
Small Businesses
Autodesk Inventor
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Score 8.3 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Navisworks
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Score 8.8 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Navisworks
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Score 8.8 out of 10
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Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
National Instruments MultisimSolid Edge
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.7
(16 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
5.3
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
National Instruments MultisimSolid Edge
Likelihood to Recommend
NI (National Instruments)
For simulation of electrical and electronics circuits either in transient or normal mode or various other modes. To obtain plots between various circuit parameters and elements and also check values of various output parameters based on input parameters. It also has various examples in the library which make it easier to modify few params instead of designing circuits from scratch
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Siemens AG
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.
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Pros
NI (National Instruments)
  • It has various components available
  • Real time simulation of various circuits
  • Various types of simulations for a single circuits to obtain plots and values
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Siemens AG
  • 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.
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Cons
NI (National Instruments)
  • It's good but sometimes error during simulation won't be more specific
  • Has wide range of elements but some specifications aren't available
  • Nothing
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Siemens AG
  • 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.
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Usability
NI (National Instruments)
No answers on this topic
Siemens AG
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.
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Support Rating
NI (National Instruments)
No answers on this topic
Siemens AG
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.
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Alternatives Considered
NI (National Instruments)
No answers on this topic
Siemens AG
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).
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Return on Investment
NI (National Instruments)
  • Prevent components from being burnt out
  • Better design of circuits
  • Real time testing
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Siemens AG
  • 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).
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