Codeware, headquartered in Sarasota, offers COMPRESS, a pressure vessel design application.
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Solid Edge
Score 8.2 out of 10
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Solid Edge is a software solutions for product development — 3D design, simulation, manufacturing, data management, and cloud collaboration. Solid Edge aims to combine the speed and simplicity of direct modeling with the flexibility and control of parametric design.
Codeware Compress is a very powerful ASME design tool. It is very intuitive and easy to learn. Anyone engaged in ASME related design projects will greatly benefit from investing in this software. It has tools for all types of ASME code products (pressure vessels, heat exchangers & boilers). Codeware is always improving the software. New features are included in almost all new releases. Their customer support is also great. They are quick to respond to questions. The web portal has great support tools. The ability to export the ASME design into 3D CAD formats is a huge time saver. The software can also be very handy for other types of non-ASME tank design work as well. For instance, you can use it to explore leg support structures for elevated tank designs.
For simple steel construction, it is great. When you want to do other stuff like electrical wiring, factory planning, etc. it's not great, and the solution you can buy does not fit our needs so we need to develop our own.
Allows designers to work as they choose and not have to acclimate their work for the product's requirements. This results in productive use of Edge, thus an ROI for the company.
Manage large (high count of components) assemblies very well. Users spend little to no time trying to overcome speed issue with respect to assemblies.
Synchronous Design! This highly productive design process is unique to Edge and very addictive
Add more CAD functionality to create custom support structures and support brackets (clips, ect..)
Partner with a major CAD platform (such as Autodesk, SolidWorks) for an "In CAD" solution. Which would allow quick customization of the ASME design model without leaving the native CAD environment.
Being used to 2-key and 3-key commands from the keyboard, it would be nice if this was more robust in Solid Edge. The capability of programming keystroke commands exists in Solid Edge, but it would be more user friendly in that regard.
Editing hatches can be a challenge.
I'm not a fan of the ribbon bar, but that seems to be a feature across software platforms in Windows.
As mentioned previously, Siemens Solid Edge is not the most user-friendly of products at all. It requires intense training to make sure that the basics are understood, and after that, there are numerous other training interventions needed to be able to perform expert-level CAD functions. The GUI is not intuitive, as many other packages are, and the features built-in are not well defined. The process to use many of these features is counter-intuitive and requires a mind-shift.
I have been involved with support and training of Solid Edge for 24 years. Given that I based my business model on support, and have been successful for all these years, I know excellent support. Siemens support for Solid Edge, "GTAC", is the definition of support for a product in every aspect.
SOLIDWORKS has a really intuitive interface for a traditional CAD package. It is easy to use, easy to learn and is perfectly suited for any user. Solid Edge lacks this ease of use. Autodesk Inventor is great for personal use as well as in small businesses. It is easy to learn, produces great models quickly and is very reasonably priced. My personal favourite, Onshape has redefined what CAD is meant to be, as well as the way in which it is meant to be used. It is highly functional, intuitive, and changes the way in which CAD is perceived by the user. It is much more interactive than traditional CAD packages.
Codeware Compress is a huge part of our ability to design and release pressure vessels quickly. It has greatly reduced our engineering design cycle. We have built standards that allow us to release designs to fabrication in hours instead of days.
The ability to export the 3D CAD files makes quick work of developing quotes and proposals.
Codeware Compress greatly reduces the chances of errors related to meeting ASME code compliance. The software developers keep the software in sync with the current editions of the ASME code. That allows users to focus more time on the design aspects of the project and less time worrying about the actual nuts and bolts of the extensive ASME code rules.
