I have used Solidworks regularly for the past 7 years now. The company I work for, has 7 licenses. I use it to model refrigeration systems, mainly sheet metal housings and pipework layouts.
I've also used Pro/Engineer, and Solid Edge. From what I can tell, Solidworks has really grown stronger and stronger over the past few years. I believe it is one of the more common systems nowadays, behind the high-end stuff like Catia.
Its kind of a mid range bit of software, not quite as powerful as Pro/Engineer, but it is soooo much more user friendly. That said, it is still about 4k for a license if I remember correctly. plus a £1k computer to run it, and your license will need renewing each year to get the latest release, at a cost of about a grand.
Catia is one of the most powerful packages out there, but it is very very expensive compared to Pro/Engineer, Solidwork, Solid Edge etc.
|