Likelihood to Recommend Navisworks is a key tool if doing any 3D model coordination with other trades. It will allow you to view your model content with others to know for certain that your design is accurate and can be assembled. Navisworks also comes with a lot of additional tools to make this process easy.
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 Model Viewing, the navigation tools are really easy to use for walking through the model, especially if viewpoints are set up for key locations. The take-offs work really well and can be very quick and easy if the model was built right. 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 Need more options for clash detection, e.g. clash between only the top and bottom faces of an element For applying different appearance profiles users need to remove previous sets first. Which is not good. They should just provide an ON/OFF button The use of Section planes are bit tricky for new users, they should add options like Revizto 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 Autodesk owns Navisworks, and it seems to have a pretty good support network. A lot of the troubleshooting or support information is provided through an online database, so you most likely would not be getting any personal attention with your issues. Since there are so many users for Navisworks, there is a lot of information on the web.
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 Navisworks is a master tool if we want to do any 3D model coordination with any trade of a building. It allows us to view our model content with all elements to visualize and understand for certain where our design stands in terms of accuracy and how all things can be assembled on site. Navisworks also comes with a lot of additional tools to make BIM process easy.
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 The software is very easy to use and quick to master, most users can navigate a building or model within a few short sessions, but there is enough depth to use it as a serious productive tool. The software cost of Navisworks Manage is a barrier to smaller companies, and has been a limitation on some of our projects that not all members could use the full functionality. However there is still enough functionality in even the free version to assist with smooth communication between team members. 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