I have used Solidworks 2003, ProE 2001, ProE Wildwire, ProE Wildfire 2.0, AutoDesk Inventor R5, and FEMLab (now Comsol Multiphysics) 3.1.
Solidworks 2003: Definitely user friendly and powerful however I do not believe it is as heavily used in industry as ProE.
ProE 2001: Only briefly used; Seemed very similar to Wildfire & Wildfire 2.0; Like every ProE I've used, I do not feel it is as user friendly as Solidworks.
ProE Wildfire: Good program; Widely used in industry; Very powerful.
ProE Wildfire 2.0: Very similar to Wildfire(see above); I purchased Advanced ProE and ProE Mechanica tutorial books which I am hoping to run through over Thanksgiving & Christmas break.
AutoDesk Inventor R5: First CAD program I ever used; Very easy and simple however I haven't touched it in 3 years.
FEMLab 3.1: Incredibly powerful and widely respected however I have not not used it enough to really build an opinion of it.
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Originally Posted by notnormal
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The Iowa State Mechanical Engineering Department is pushing SolidEdge quite heavily and I have heard nothing but horror stories about it: Very difficult to learn & sparsely used in industry. The only reason Iowa State even has the program is because the SolidEdge owners needed a big tax write-off a couple of years ago so they donated it to Iowa State. I have yet to see any company at any of the Iowa State Engineering Career Fair(the largest engineering career fair in the country) request students with SolidEdge experience, only ProE & Solidworks.