Likelihood to Recommend 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 Thanks to the Simulink program, an electrical and electronics engineer can easily design and have information about the system before applying it. After performing the calculations mathematically, it can be tested with this correct program. One of the biggest advantages of the simulation program is that it gives results close to real results. It is also possible to find many training videos.
Read full review Pros 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 Control system design for continuous and discrete systems. The control systems toolbox includes many pre-built blocks for common functions, signals and plant models that help you analyse input vs. output responses. Greatly responsive and easy to use graphic based environment ideal for the easy representation of processes using signals that go from one block into another. Most engineering and scientific models including systems of equations can be translated to a Simulink model. Many pre-built toolboxes allow you to save time and facilitate access to create models applicable to many areas of science/engineering like fluid mechanics, robotics, decision making and embedded or electrical systems. Simulink comes bundled within the standard MATLAB package and most of its coding features/packages are compatible and can be used within the Simulink development environment. Read full review Cons 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 Simpler codification data Better layout of document usage Option of codification manual 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 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 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 Control blocks and more detailed algorithms can be run in Matlab Simulink. Simulation and PCB drawing of electronic circuit boards are performed in Proteus.
Read full review Return on Investment 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 Reduced investment to achieve desired outcomes in research projects. Opened the doors for our students to experiment with previously unknown engineering methods. Fostered the adoption of model-based design by a great portion of our faculty, especially in more technical areas. Read full review ScreenShots