O/T: Pro/Engineer anybody?

[Bodo]

Are there any PHers around who use/setup/buy PTC's 3d-CAD software Pro/Engineer? Or maybe CATIA/SolidWorks/etc.?

I need to buy hardware to replace an old SGI workstation.
Problem is, new or remanufactured SGI stuff start at $7000ish. I want to use as much as possible mainstream hardware such as Athlon XP/DDR-RAM/IDE-hds on RAID and two GeForce2 converted to Quadro2 for dual displays (2x 17" is cheaper than one 21")
That'll cost €/$1000ish without monitors

Does anyone could advice cheaper or more powerful ways to set up the hardware?

thanks,
Bodo

[plotloss]

Isnt there someone on this very site who is an SGI reseller? Cant remember, maybe worth looking back through some career based threads.

As an aside, for the use that that machine is going to come in for I'd suggest going for the Athlon MP route rather than a single Athlon XP and go for a Mobo such as the Gigabyte GA7DXDPW or similar, however going the MP route will require XP or W2K which may affect your budget a bit.

Matt.

[craigalsop]

As a matter of interest, what SGI HW do you currently have & what SGI HW would you like to have? I worked in presales support for SGI for 5 years up until 3 years ago, so I still have the odd contact in SGI & resellers....
Can't promise anything, but you never know - managed to pick up a couple of Indigo2 Extremes for a few quid a couple of years ago - currently in use as part of my mail server test farm.

cheers,
Craig

[Bodo]

Thanks for your interest, Craig!

I have an O2 R5000 and I am looking for a replacement which is capable to handle the CAD 3D stuff as well as the usual private business: multimedia (lots of file storage), digi/cam, office-software and of course two displays

I've seen an SGI 550 visual workstation with 3x18GB/512MB/dual PIII Xenon on ebay going away for €1200. Is that a good value?

cheers, Bodo

[joe90]

We run CATIA version 5 very satisfactorily on a PC. It's a high spec of PC and you must have Windows NT. Two years ago, to set up one seat, including PC, software, training, installation, etc. was close to 20,000 pounds of which the PC itself was about 3000. The real sting is the 564 pounds a quarter for ever on-going license to IBM and 1200 pounds a year to the reseller for telephone support.

[AJLintern]

I use Pro/E on a P3 800 with a cheap 32MB graphics card. The main thing you need is lots of memory - I think my pc has 512MB, but more is better
It really depends what sort of work you are going to be doing. Its the large complex assemblies that slow things down a lot.

[SMiles]

For unigraphics with assemblies I have a dell with 1Gb Ram and 2 1000Mz P3 processors. SG flat widescreen monitor and Oxygen 32 card. I think it has abot 80 Meg storage, and this set up works nicely.

[tekta]

Well I've got solidworks 98 running on a PII 300 with 128MB of ram and a Geforce 1 and it works a treat, so it can be done, but large assemblies slow it down ridiculously. That's on windows 98, I understand there are more problems with XP etc.

[Paul V]

Mmm I’d love to get into 3D CAD, I currently use AutoCAD for drawings and 3D modelling but would like to move on to better things, anyone got any good tips career wise?

[raceboy]

Well I went the other way from Unigraphics Cadds5 to AutoCad LT, more cash and less hassel, but resturant worktops don't really warrent 3D unlike Aero Engines

[Paul V]

Aero engines sound a bit more interesting than work tops, I’m currently doing Data centre layouts and running a database for the connectivity.

[raceboy]

Its never as glamourious as it sounds, I was only doing jigs and fixtureing for production of a few components, and the management structure was a nightmare, now I've got more responsablity, more pay, the work flows a lot quicker, and theres more variation, oh and I get to be on here all day

[Paul V]

Yeah I used to do fire alarm layouts but there’s more money in this, its a bit boring at times, still want something that can fund a Cerbera. Not supposed to be on here all day but.....

[mel]

I run Autocad 2002 and Mech Desk Top along with RADAN 2002 being installed this week, which all run very nicely on mid spec PC's including my laptop. I've also go a licensed copy of Solid Works which I bought bundled with a terminal and never use if anyones interested??

[Esprit]

At our university I deal mostly with solidworks. Basically runs best on the faster computers (DUH!) but will run fine on our suite of P2500's although as stated before, large assemblies can slow the show down a little. Having said that, even the P41300's get chugged by large assemblies sometimes, although that tends to be just a matter odf RAM. Sounds like your setup should run SW2001 fine, it's a great package to use and I'd reccommend it (although i only have limited experience with other programmes soI'm not the most unbiased person to ask :P)

[SMiles]

hey raceboy , you didn't work for RR did you?

[raceboy]

Certainly did why?

[AJLintern]

I design bits for particle physics experiments on Pro/E - can get a bit tedious at times. The pay could be better, but thats what you get for working at a government funded, civil service establishment (I get 30 days holiday per year though )

[domster]

If anyone has any comments about SolidWorks, I would welcome the input - I write their ads for them.

[craigalsop]

quote:
Thanks for your interest, Craig!

I have an O2 R5000 and I am looking for a replacement which is capable to handle the CAD 3D stuff as well as the usual private business: multimedia (lots of file storage), digi/cam, office-software and of course two displays

I've seen an SGI 550 visual workstation with 3x18GB/512MB/dual PIII Xenon on ebay going away for €1200. Is that a good value?

cheers, Bodo

Hi Bodo,

I've had a chat to a couple of people (resellers of 2nd hand SGI kit) The consensus is that this is a good price for a 550. Apparently the trade price for a 2nd hand SGI 330 at the moment is about £1000, so getting a 550 for the same is excellent.
A caution I was given about these boxes is that they are only supported in the configuration that they were sold, so if you add memory, then you would be unsupported (don't know whether this is an issue for you or not - you can always remove things, if you need to log a support call)

cheers,
Craig