Solid Edge prepares for the release of ST3

Solid Edge recently brought me to Huntsville, Alabama for a look at the soon-to-be-released Solid Edge ST3. The most important info they gave me is under gag order until October 13. The stuff I’m allowed to say doesn’t interest me much. I don’t like to post teasers, but in this case, I think there is enough preliminary info to justify an early post preparing you for what’s coming.

Plus, there’s a little bit of a story that goes with it.

Huntsville is a great tech town. There is a lot going on there, especially if you’re an engineer. Just ask Ricky Jordan, who works at Dynetics, a participant in the Lunar X Prize. Fun stuff. So when I showed up  in town, Ricky’s famous wife, Christy Jordan, aka Southern Plate,  had some of her famous chicken stew still warm, along with some delicious halloween brownies, which she sent along with Ricky to meet me at the hotel. Wow, it was fantastic, and came as a wonderful welcome to Hunstville. Thanks, Christy and Ricky! Now go buy one of her cookbooks!

Ricky Jordan and Dave Ault

Before the trip I also was contacted by aSolid Edge user, Dave Ault, who some of you know better as Fieldweld. Dave is the real deal. An independent who bought theSolid Edge software out of his own pocket, and has had a few things to say about it. He comments here from time to time.

So Dave, Ricky and I stopped in a quiet restaurant near the hotel where we could yell and carry on as much as we wanted without disturbing normal folks. We had a good discussion, and learned that people who use different software have very similar needs. Dave filled me in on some of his history with Solid Edge, which I won’t repeat here. If you follow Solid Edge in the forums and blogs, you may already know part of Dave’s story.  The main thing I took from my meeting with him was that Solid Edge, the Siemens division, is going through a significant transformation. I won’t speculate about if the change was the right change or if it is enough change, but I will say that in the current CAD industry atmosphere, the change in direction at Solid Edge is a breath of fresh air. It appears to be very user centric, when everything else is PLM/big corporate centric.

Anyway, the purpose of the trip was to have a look at Solid Edge ST3 (I was told this is the preferred nomenclature, and I always follow the rules ;o)). Solid Edge paid for the trip and meals, and is providing me with the software for evaluation. Obviously, they are hoping that I blog about it, but I’m not being paid to write anything.

Solid Edge also brought me to Huntsville for the original ST release two years ago. After the first trip, I wrote an article for Desktop Engineering about Solid Edge ST1. Going back and reading it, it looks like a garbled mess. It was originally 3 times the length of the final article, and I had to cut it down for publication. It’s a little embarrassing to read it now, but here is a link to it. This reminds me of why I don’t like writing for magazines. I just didn’t feel that I could make my point clearly in the space they allowed me.

So this time, I’m just gonna write for this blog. And as usual, I’ll try to provide an unvarnished look at the tools, and what I think it means to users. I’m planning on using my own models for the evaluation, all created in SolidWorks by me. I imagine on October 13, you’ll see a lot of articles from professional press with the same quotes, the same screen shots and all. I really want to avoid that. I have my own set of quotes I got straight from Dan Staples, and several blog posts worth of stuff to say in my own words.

Of course you have to take a picture of the “no photography” sign

The guys I met with in this visit were mostly the same folks as last time. Dan Staples, the director of development, Kris Kasprzak, a marketing guy who knows enough about real software capabilities and user needs that he is a real asset, and Doug Stainbrook, the training and demo genius who drove the software to demonstrate answers to all of my detailed questions. Tony Lockwood, who has been hired by Siemens to act as PR for the rollout, arranged the details and sat in on the session as well. So this was pretty much a one-on-three 8 hour day of nuts and bolts. Most of my questions were directed to Dan and Doug, who between them offered fully satisfactory theoretical and practical answers to my questions. I did not concern myself with PDM, PLM, FEA or anything aside from CAD.

Quite apart from what is new, taking a second look at the Solid Edge software, it is unclear to me why they are playing third fiddle in the mid-range CAD market. Solid Edge is far more sophisticated than Inventor, and is arguably more usable and powerful for what real users need to do than SolidWorks. It lacks some of the flash and flare/flair of the SolidWorks interface and graphics. But according to the SE folks, the main people worried by that are resellers, not users. In my opinion, if Siemens cannot sell this software, it is absolutely not a failing of the technology.

If you measure ST3 against SolidWorks 2011, from a machine design point of view, I would guess that ST3 is about 20% more effective, based on what I have seen. If you are doing thin-walled parts, it is probably more like a 40% improvement over SolidWorks. If you are sharing data between 3d CAD systems (or for that matter versions of the same system), hands down, ST3 blows SolidWorks out of the water. Keep in mind that I am talking about editing parts, assemblies and drawings. I’m not talking about original creation. For original creation, I still believe that ST3 is more effective, but the playing field is more level than on the editing side. I didn’t really see much surfacing, but I would say that SolidWorks still has a distinct advantage in that area over Solid Edge. SolidWorks is about 60% glossier (meaning visual display and interface “prettiness”). I just mention this to draw attention to where each company seems to be investing its resources.

So, just be prepared. In a couple of weeks I’ll be back with a good up-close look at what appears to be a great release of software that I was pretty skeptical about a couple of years ago. If you have questions, put them in the comments, and I’ll try to include answers in the posts.