Solid Edge Coming Out From the Shadows

HUNTSVILLE, AL (Solid Edge ST4 Launch) – The enhancements are coming fast and furious at the Solid Edge ST 4 Launch event. I cannot keep up.*  I’m catching a few highlights, especially the ones that are applauded by the attendees. Like Range Offset Value, no more picking on empty space, prevention of assembly  relationship loops, shadows that appear correctly even on photo backgrounds (done with an invisible plane)… The cynical and those with the competition might say some enhancements are fixes for problems Solid Edge itself has created. Yeah, that happens. But many are bona fide and welcome improvements. If I was a Solid Edge customer I’d be doing cartwheels.

As Dan Staples, Director of Solid Edge development (aka Papa Edge) lists even more improvements, I realize I am witnessing a genuine and concerted effort to improve the product – an effort contrary to the growing belief in the industry that design software is as good as it can be, that all CAD software can basically do everything, all the features needed have already been added, that CAD software has have achieved parity, that it is more or less a commodity.

Bull.

Thank you, Solid Edge, for not giving up, for recognizing that, yes, even with one of the most robust and easy to use MCAD software applications in existence, there is still room for improvement, that users’ lives can still be made easier -- and there are still customers to be won.

At 250, the attendance at the ST4 Launch may seem small compared to the big annual CAD conferences. Autodesk and  SolidWorks measure attendance at their annual events by the thousands.  Still, this “launch” is significant in other ways. A gathering of Solid Edge users is a somewhat of a break from the mother ship. Siemens PLM has for several years attempted to lump Solid Edge users with UG users under the PLMWorld umbrella. There was only one problem: Solid Edge users stayed away in droves. The few that did attend PLM Worlds regretted it, telling tales of snooty UG users, being unable to find others like themselves (often cited as the single most valuable benefit of user conferences) and a conference program almost completely filled with UG classes. “We were the red-headed step child,” says one Solid Edge user.

Insiders I spoke with credit Karsten Newberry, Sr VP of Solid Edge for Siemens PLM, as the main reason for Solid Edge coming out from the shadows. Karsten gave the job of creating the ST4 Launch in only a few months to John Fox, formerly from PTC, who with a small but hardworking staff, engineered the entire show, complete with keynotes, a dual track of classes, meals, social events, even 3^rd party vendors (my favorite:  a cappuccino machine that dispensed coffee --for free!). Though small in scale, Solid Edge now has a scalable template for future events – something that Edgers (as Solid Edge users are often referred to) will no doubt welcome.

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*Get all that I missed at What’s New in Solid Edge ST4, by Siemens PLM (PDF)

 

Comments

[Andrew Thomas]

Jon,
As a real user of Solid Edge with an up to date license, and a person who designs real products, I don't want a CAM program inside SE.

I attended the ST4 event and thoroughly enjoyed meeting the other users. I understand the history with SE and it's not like it was ever pulled from sale. I purchased it amongst other well marketed CAD products for a reason. I tried it and it was better. Not everyone is an educated buyer. Some people just like the shiny box and marketing hype which you keep bringing up. That's life.

[Jon Sutcliffe]

It really does seem like things are on the up with Solid Edge (I have been there since V1 too)

Many of our customers could see the benefits of Synchronous but held back and stuck to their existing traditional / ordered workflow. Then ST3 totally changed the game with the integrated environments. Now ST4 will take that one stage further.

It is for this reason I believe that we have seen a big uptake in our Synchronous Migration course on Solid Mastermind – http://www.solidmastermind.com
This course is perfect for taking an existing user who has been working in the ordered mode and now wants to start to use Synchronous too. They can do this on-line and at their own pace.

More and more users are taking advantage of Synchronous Technology properly.... And becoming more productive as a result.

The future seems bright for Solid Edge and long may it continue.

[Dennis Pence]

Jon,

In 1996, I was tasked by the President of the company I worked for (we sold Microstation, Autocad and Microstation Modeler) to choose a eD Solid Modeling product to replace Modeler when Bentley abandoned it and rolled it into Microstation. I spent the better part of a year and after running my metrix on Pro-E, Inventor was in Beta then, Solid Works, Think 3, IronCAD and SolidEdge - Solid Edge came out on top functionally. The fact that they owned the parasolid that SW leased solidified (no pun intended) my decision. Then came my real battle ironically it was internal. SW was the fairhaired child, the Coca Cola of the industry and had done a great job marketing an inferior product. The best thing that happened was that UGS bought SE from Intergraph ans switched it from ACIS to the parasolid. If their marketing had been as good as their technical development, they would be number one. They have a second "window of opportunity" and it appears, though moving cautiously, that they are taking advantage of that opportunity. We are replacing seats of SW and Pro-E and the opportunities are growing everyday. Some people are having a little trouble wrapping their minds around ST (primarily because they are engrained in history based cad), but they are coming around. SE does have a fully integrated CAM package call CAM Express and it works great - no more waiting for your CAM solution to be on the current version of your CAD - because Siemens owns both. NX is a more highend product and we replace Pro-E with it, but Solid Edge fits more into the Inventor, SW market - although a lot of companies could easily replace Pro-E with Solid Edge. They definitely need more third party options, but recent annoucements such as Striker Systems is dealing with this issue. I believe Siemens is headed in the right direction, while Dassault and SW is not. Watch what happens when SW dumps the parasolid for the CATIA kernel (which they said they would never do). The cloud is just adding mor confusion for users. The number of seats of SW will be difficult to overcome, but marketing and a better informed consumer will eventually show that SE with Synchronous Technology is the best choice.

[Jon Banquer]

I have spent a good deal of time trying to help Siemens Mark Burhop so that Siemens Solid Edge users have some choices for fully integrated CAM. He's publicly thanked me for all the help and leads I've given him.

"Insofar as the closed forums go it is closed for a reason as Siemens/UGS/SE feel that only actual users of their programs should be there."

This is not true. Not everyone at Siemens feels this way and some Siemens employees involved with Solid Edge ST have gone on the record publicly saying open forums are the only way to go.

The heads of marketing in the US for Siemens Solid Edge obviously feel that closed, locked down forums are the way to go and this is yet more proof that nothing has changed with how Solid Edge is marketed. Actions speak louder than the words. Anyone objective looking at the actions of Karsten Newbury and John Fox would realize nothing has changed when it comes to marketing Solid Edge. Even the Velocity Series nonsense still exists and is trumpeted.

"There are advantages to integrated cam and I would like to see this."

The HSMWorks forum is open to non-users like yourself. No reason you can't read it, participate and realize how poor the CAM in VX is for the kind of parts you do. Imagine that... an open forum for a non users like yourself were you are welcome, and can attempt to learn and ask questions about the huge advantages to fully integrated CADCAM! Good thing it's not a closed, locked down forum like Karsten Newbury and John Fox heads of marketing for Siemens Solid Edge ST favor. :>)

http://forum.hsmworks.com/index.php

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

[Dave Ault]

There are advantages to integrated cam and I would like to see this. Mark Burhop has been assigned to a newly created position to integrate third party aps and he is looking into this along with other needs as he gets feedback from SE users.

SE is undergoing a huge change right now and the Huntsville meeting was the kickoff to the new way. In the next few weeks and months many new things to get the SE name out there where it counts and indeed should be are going to get started. If you are not in the loop to know what is planned just be patient is all I can say, they ARE coming very soon. Siemens is aware of the past problems in this area and they are not going to let this opportunity created by "Jeff Death Ray's kill SWX" philosophy go by and not take advantage of it.

Insofar as the closed forums go it is closed for a reason as Siemens/UGS/SE feel that only actual users of their programs should be there. As for the rest who do not use it they are wellcome to post on public forums of their choice where what you actualy use or know how to use does not matter

[Jon Banquer]

This is more true today than ever:

http://cadinsider.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/06/solid_edge_the_.html

The appointments of Karsten Newbury and his choice of John Fox make absolutely no difference, Ken. Tony Affuso runs the show and as long as that's the case Solid Edge is going nowhere fast. What does it say that the producer of the best quality Solid Edge training wasn't asked to present and wasn't even at this sparsely (compared to SolidWorks World) event?

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

[Jon Banquer]

Ken a logical person would take a look at Solid Edge and how long it has been available and ask why it has such a tiny market share compared to SolidWorks. A logical person would conclude that Solid Edge is not technically inferior and realize that it's a marketing problem not a technology problem. Nothing has changed with the person at the top since the marketing problem has existed for Solid Edge and a logical person would realize that until the person at the top changes nothing is going to change with Solid Edge marketing. Clues are everywhere Ken, you just have to want to see them:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=156665&page=1

Karsten Newbury has made no significant changes in how Solid Edge is marketed after a year on the job. There is still no CAM that runs inside Solid Edge and their is still no open forum for Solid Edge. In fact the person Karsten Newbury hired has created a new locked down, closed forum for Solid Edge on Linkin while everyone else is opening their forums up. Not what I'd call a brilliant move but it's exactly what I've come to expect from incompetent Solid Edge marketing that you and your fellow Solid Edge users continue to make excuse after excuse for.

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

[Ken]

Jon,
I don't believe that Tony doesn't want to sell Solid Edge. It fills a market that NX doesn't, and it's quite lucrative. If you look at the simple action of appointing Karsten and giving him the needed authority and independence to change what needs changing to get the growth they are now getting and the user enthusiasm that is building faster than ever, a logical person would not come to the conclusion you have. You also keep bringing up a statement from Tony about making the NX UI easier. Not sure when that statement was made, but with all the modules and features and the legacy UI baggage NX it had, improving the UI is a natural need. This was done not to far back, but does not translate into: making it easier to use than Solid Edge. It’s kind of like saying you’re going to put an automatic transmission in a semi tractor to make it easier to drive, and making a conclusion that they must be trying to replace pickup trucks with semi tractors.

[Jon Banquer]

Alan,

The advantages are many and fully integrated CADCAM is what many users are now demanding because:

You don't have file translation problems.

You don't have to train users on multiple user interfaces like one would have to do with NX CAM Express and Solid Edge ST.

Most stand-alone CAM systems have horrible 25 year old wireframe CAD with Parasolid thrown on top and this results in lousy chaining and piss poor geometry selection for toolpath.

If tying up a seat is a problem SolidWorks offers a version that has full part and assembly modeling capabilities but no drafting and this can be purchased from most CAM vendors who run inside of SolidWorks. It can be had for aprox $1,600. If one can't afford the extra $1,600 I would argue they should close their doors.

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

[Alan Pope]

Jon

Personally I don't see the advantage of running a companion product inside Solid Edge. Surely it is far better to have it link to Solid Edge Files with it updating when the file changes. If you have them working inside Solid Edge all you are doing is tying up a Solid Edge seat to run CAM.

Alan Pope
CADConsult Ltd