Hi all,
I’ve noticed on a couple of occasions that people have mentioned using Pro/E to model their board designs. I just curious how many of us there are out there.
I bought it, planning to use it on board design, but haven’t got it out of the box yet.
Overpriced and difficult to use. If you can get it free, great. SolidWorks is easier to use and IMHO a better product. Use both in my engineering biz; had to take classes for ProE, taught myself SW in less than a week. Unless you’re working with shaping machines, why bother? There are better graphics programs (like Corel) which are more friendly with curves. Get them plotted full size for templates.
I also use both. I’m no professional, but know a bit. I’m with Pete, Solidworks is much more user friendly. Pro/E makes me want to bang my head against the wall. The only reason I have even bothered with Pro/E is that I have a couple of friends that only use Pro/E, and they do pretty amazing things. -Carl
I’m more interested in knowing if anyone has successfully used Pro/E for board design and development. I’ve been tinkering with board design on it and find it far superior to anything out there (in terms of board design software). Of course you have to know what you are doing, but once the basic reference curves and surfaces are there I can modify any variable and the entire board will update. But what makes it really nice is I can experiment with any shape I want - anything - with no limitations. And of course, any existing board can be captured (scanned or digitized), cleaned up and reproduced. Disclaimer: I haven’t done this professionally with a surf board, but I have on a quite a few other products, many in the transportation area and many of those on watercraft development.
Just as some background, I have been using Pro/E for 7 years and Solidworks for 3. I have to use both because each client has there own requirements. Sure, SolidWorks is easier to learn (taught myself in a couple of days), but Pro/E is much more powerful, with more add-on modules, more reverse engineering capabilities and (this is a big one) freeform surface modeling. I taught myself Pro/E too, using the tutorials - yes it is much more difficult, but the rewards are greater. I use it quite a bit in watercraft development (deck and hull forms) - I don’t think SW could be used as successfully in this area. Don’t get me wrong - I think SW is great! But I do wish they would add the freeform surface stuff (ie. NURBS modeling, not the basic stuff they currently have). As for price - Pro/E finally realized they were losing market to SW so they are now priced competitively (from 40k 5 years ago to 5k now - quite a drop!)
As I mentioned in the original post, I’m just curious how many other Pro/E users are out there. I’d be interested in sharing experience.
Thanks
racer-x,
ProE rocks. been using it for 10 years in the product design industry and have designed and machine-shaped hundreds of surfboards using Pro.
SolidWorks has been trying to ascend to ProE’s level for years and has yet to even get close, IMHO.
kirk
Kirk,
Thanks for the responses. Do you know Andrew Hines of Apex? That is definitely a Pro/E model you is showing. Looks pretty well done. Looks like an earlier release (maybe 200i2 or 2001?) - I’m currently using Wildfire with ISDX.
Here’s a shot of my first board.
racer-x
racer-x,
your board looks great! do you have a local machine shaper? where are you located?
kirk
Kirk,
Thanks for the compliment - It is just pretty basic stuff, not really based on anything real. I haven’t really thought much about having it cut. Just did it for fun.