How do you justify your pro/e usage?

[Nose Bleed]

I got into a discussion with another engineer today about using Pro/E for all my design work.



He argued that Pro/E and Pro/M is a cop-out for engineers, and that only true/real engineers should not need to use such expensive software to design with.



I was speechless, because I know in my mind that a good engineer has theory built into his head, and should know how to mathematically do FEA, and should only have to rely on good 2D engineering drawings to give to the machine shop.



My argument to him was that - yes, I do have to be able to verify Mechanica outputs, and that mechanica is only as good as its user - however, never have I come across errors that were not user errors, and that top down design exponentiates efficiency, compared to autocad 2D drawings. (He's still using autocad 2000).



Granted, the argument has already been decided by my organization - everything is going to be done in Pro...



Have any of you ever come across a similar argument?

 

[nguy_da]

well, i thought those engineers with autocad are all obsolete. that's my thought.

 

[miked]

Does he run autocad in his head?



I remember getting out of school and hearing the old guys bitch about autocad making everyone lazy (rev9).

The more things change...

Mike

 

[Nose Bleed]

I get tired of hearing the old guys moan and groan about how they did it in the old days, and how things were less confusing back then...



However, I currently have the opportunity to work with an old guy who's tickled silly about learning pro...

 

[dougr]

Sounds like someone is baiting you...

 

[gggggggggg]

what you really need to do is tell him that Pro/E assumes your design intent & that you can not change those assumptions.



then tell him it rounds every dimension off to the nearest 10'th.



if somebody is ignorant enough to not accept advances in technology, it makes you wonder how they get any thing done at all. tell him to ride a horse to work in the morning. cars make us lazy.

 

[donha]

You do not need Pro/E to design with. Given the option, I would rather measure minimal distances of complicated assembled components in Pro/E than attempting to figure it out on paper. I would also like to see the machine shop machine the part from paper scratch . What used to take 4 designers (drafting table), can be done with 1 designer today.

 

[charleskim]

Ask him why he is using AutoCad instead of pencil and silde rule.

 

[nkpham]

it really depends on what you are trying to do with it. if the complicated program increases efficiency, then it is worth it. if it doesn't, then it's not worth the money in his venue.

 

[Nose Bleed]

Yup - I thought about a previous post on this site when the Intent Manager subject came up, in regards to gggggg's comment



Well - the topic turned to using cheaper - similar software. the name solid works came up. But he's not a user of either one, so he had no idea what he was talking about...

 

[swcalvert]

I think the best thing we can do with old Emgineers is ask them to design a couple of parts, on the board, and put them into an assembly. When he/she has done all that, ask them to make a few changes and have it completed in a few minutes. All this is without any FEA, put this in the equation and they'll pull out their hair (if there's any left).



Basically, we use any CAD package because it speeds up the design process.



Steve C

 

[SW]

I graduated with an engineering degree last year and have come across this issue a lot. I will just leave you with a quote from one of my lecturers when I asked if I could draw a complex 3D part with Autocad rather than on the drawing board, don't be silly he said real companies don't use computers. QED.

 

[dougr]

Don't put any faith in Professors - especially tenured ones, they're only there because they couldn't hack it in industry..



btw:



QED - abbr. [Quod Erat Demonstrandum] what was to be, and is proven.



I fail to see what's proven by this hack's statement ???



Joke or not, it's scary that guy's like this are influencing next gen Engineers.



PS Did he happen to name any real companies ??

 

[Nose Bleed]

It's pretty funny - alot of the modeling I'm doing now is re-modeling all the old AutoCad stuff in Pro/E, none of the tenured engineers can handle this. They think it's a waste of time, because everything worked fine in AutoCad. they just don't understand the switch to Pro - they get really irate after seenig the cost of each license of pro!

 

[Nose Bleed]

Dougr - Do you think he mentioned, Industrial Gas Turbines?

 

[Speling]

Interesting

 

[Speling]

To nkpham



You are speaking like your never work on some easy or heavy project and I suppose that is not true. Also try to be precise

 

[dougr]

?????

 

[nkpham]

my thoughts exactly dougr.



to speiling:

i understand you are criticizing my post, but what exactly do you disagree with?



and btw, i am one of those rare females you are referring to.

 

[Speling]

I know that You are Female