What significant features does SWX have that SE doesn’t? I already know most of the SE benefits and I like it so far…for the most part. The main thing is- the migration will be painful and I want to know all the “ugly” before we jump in with both feet.
matt and bnemec, what are your takes on this? I know you have experience with both…
Crash?
mattpeneguy Not true, I’ve locked up edge several time messing with it trying to use Synctech on complex geometry. Didn’t crash I guess but I had to kill it.
I have also, but each time it was me trying to do something stupid. 
Solidworks does that too, it’s called “user initiated shutdown” So hanging it better than crashing, then you can blame it on the use for killing the process.
catch (Exception)
{
while (1)
}
FIFY
Seriously though, we thought there was a lot but the list is dwindling as we use them.
In our opinion:
1)Configurations are implemented better in Solidworks, but if you’re using PDM don’t use them to put multiple part numbers in the same file.
2)It feels like SW has better simulation tools, maybe, we think.
3)Solidworks is excellent at blowing past GDI limit of 10k
4)Solidworks ability to leak memory blows Solid Edge out of the water, like an order of magnitude better at it. (but Solid Edge racks up Page Faults if you’re worried about that)
5)I like that SW can pretty much use assembly constraints when doing insert part/insert partcopy into another part. In edge one had to do a bunch of move and rotate body.
6)Solidworks can figure out how to display an assembly without needing the stupid .cfg file.
7)Solidworks doesn’t need a special file type for sheet metal. To be fair Solid Edge doesn’t either, you can use .par, but they just like to keep the .psm because confusion is fun.
8)exploded views might be easier to maintain (update from revisions) than Solid Edge.
9)We are liking Virtual Components, solid edge has no way to add a solid to an assembly, Solidworks solution seems to be nice. A bit worried how bad it will hurt if/when this “feature” bites us though.
That’s about all I can come up with right now.
edit: 10) Solidworks can prevent users from using ST. 
This one I disagree on, most of our parts/assemblies have multiple part numbers per file. We use configurations everywhere.
This is tough because they keep playing feature leap frog. You could spend a lot of time researching this. Also, my use of the software is limited to a couple of areas, so there are niches where I’ve never clicked.
matt You forgot the ability to make change to mulitple parts at one time- using ST ability to select faces from multiple part files and move/maninulate together.
I should have mentioned it separately, but I was thinking of that as sync assemblies.
Hey now! Stop being so positive. I want to hear the negative about SE.
I’d rather know it now by asking than learn it later by accident. 
The last time I worked on animations in SE was 2018 & it was a bit cumbersome, I don’t think animations have improved since then (but happy to be corrected). Probably over 10 years since I worked on animations in SW, but they appear to have improved it, it appears to be more user friendly & have more functionality.
It’s not a deal breaker for me, I’m very happy with SE. It more than makes up for it with other functionality such as sync & hybrid modelling. For FEA you inherit the NX Nastran Solver, which was able to mesh models for me that SW couldn’t.
Ben, Can you explain this for me?
Um, the first one was in response to
jcapriotti wrote: ↑2021 Jul 09, 11:57 am
@mattpeneguy … Didn’t crash I guess but I had to kill it.
When dealing with SW support and CXPA logs the most common response is that the user closed Solidworks, so technically it wasn’t a crash. Even though SW was hung or the “Solidworks is Busy…” window came up with no indication if or when it would return. So instead of letting the program crash and close, it’s better to let it hang so the reported issue is not a crash and can be blamed on the user closing Solidworks.
memory leak. Just using and watching users run the two systems over the past year and a half on the same models the only conclusion I can come to is that SW has serious memory leak issues above and beyond Solid Edge. So I’m saying it’s much better at taking system memory and forgetting where it put it.
Solid Edge has a miraculous functionality call Synchronous Technology and unless every user has a complete understanding of how to use it there is a good possibility that there will be strange changes to parts that were not part of the expected revision. Solidworks solves this problem by not having ST.
bnemec, I’m struggling most with SE drawings right now. What is your off-the-cuff impression of SWX vs. SE in that area?
Specifically:
-hole callouts
-ordinate dimension alignment
-sheet metal flattened views (seems cumbersome in SE so far; is it?)
-Smart dimension (does SE not work as well as SWX or is it just me?)
Many people here are struggling with SW drawings.
-hole callouts: I would guess it depends a lot on what you’re doing hand how the holes table is set up if that is what you’re using. 50% of our parts are sheet metal so just a extrude cut. If it needed counterbore or threads that was done in the model and the annotation would reference that. I thought it was simple.
-ordinate dimension alignment: almost never used it.
-sheet metal flattened views: we’re finding the mix of how SW adds the flat config automagically and PDM is a PITA. Often the user does not have the part file checked out when doing the drawing, so you can imagine the headaches there. “It was there when I saved it…” I don’t recall flattened views being a pain in SE, something specific?
-smart dimensions I think SW dimensioning is cumbersome, must be just different and needs getting used to.
In general the drawing side of SW gets more complaints than the modeling side in our transition.
Sometimes we forget about the peripheral aspects of CAD. Just had IT guys stop buy, a user in the tool room apparently needs to >view< models. (whether he really does or not I have to find out), but his computer cannot run Solid Edge. Probably just needs a GPU installed, but it’s not a workstation as he’s not a CAD user, he looks at emails and work orders in our “ERP” system. Solidworks has eDrawings to view models. Solid Edge took away the Viewer back around ST9 and SE app is just run as a free viewer. Problem is SE as a free viewer is not even close to lightweight and depending on PDM or other stuff it may or may not need to get/download and open all the file references. At least eDrawings can open a model without getting all the references and doesn’t pull a license.
The other down side of how SE decided to do this is that CAD users don’t have a viewer, so we wind up using more licenses from the server. It’s not super simple to switch SE back and forth between viewer and CAD system so even if the designer/engineer/supervisor just wants to view the file they are pulling a license.
As I understand it, the SE viewer is just SE with everything turned off. I installed it a couple weeks ago, and it was a 3+ gb download.
However, if you go here: Solid Edge Mobile Viewer - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store
It says there’s a PC based viewer for 20 mb.
you say use eDrawings to view SE models? The compatability war rages on, eD2019 cannot read SE 2019 files
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Can SE export good quality 3D PDF files?
Thanks.
Can’t we teach these kids to get a long?
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