Creo or Solidworks?

If you're considering which CAD system to use, it depends on the application. If you're doing 'top down' design, such as in an automotive company CREO (Pro-E) is superior. It is stable. On the other hand if you work for a small company and the model files are relatively small SW is fine. SW is not great for large assemblies.
HB

Hi Hrachya Grigoryan
I feel both a softwares are very useful and user friendly softwares, but initial stage proe is some what difficult on same time solidworks is very simple on in initial stage users

the simulation purpose the solidworks is very simple on but my area of die casting CREO is very useful
Thank you

It was the Pro-E which first used parametric modeling in 1987, so Pro-E, now creo is very old player, and with bit steep learning curve if compared with SW, SW is very user friendly.

Solidworks is a lot better! no question about it!

I began using ProE 2013 in 1994. I am now using Creo 2.0, preparing for our update to 3.0. I began using SolidWorks 2011. I am now using SolidWorks 2017. I have taken classes in both; many more in ProE & Wildfire. I also have used Inventor with no training. I believe that Inventor is no competition with Creo & SolidWorks. I also believe that Creo is more powerful software, if needed. If you don't use surfacing, I think it may be a tossup between Creo & SW. I think PTC's pricing has become more competitive.
I lean towards PTC modeling packages, primarily due to familiarity. I like some of the commands in SolidWorks, but some are better in PTC packages.
Comments made about ProE/Wildfire/Creo being more difficult to use are predominately true. Wildfire & Creo have been key moves by PTC for user friendly improvements. SolidWorks ease of use is enticing and good in some areas. The ability to place features & components of assembly with less parameters provides for errors in placement & failure of features. The one company that I worked for, that used only SolidWorks, did not allow this. Their policy did not allow you to place the first component of an assembly in a frozen location. It was usually placed by using coincident origins. The other option was to align default datums of the part and assembly in the orientation desired.
One fact is that SolidWorks users have a difficult time learning the intent & required input & sequence of commands in Creo. For this primary reason, users of ProE/WF/Creo have an easier transition to SolidWorks. To me, this is a more secure system. ProE/WF/Creo has required specific input to define features & assembly. This is the frustration that SW users have. Engineering & Design require specific data. In development, this data must be flexible, but must be possible variations. Another issue is the chronological sequence of features & components of assembly that is required of the PTC modeling packages. I heard they were making this more flexible, but I still think of the sequence as I design. This can be a key element of creating a fabricated part in a similar (if not exact) sequence in which it would be made.
When I see Creo models, I can usually tell if that person is a SolidWorks person. The SolidWorks’ step of creating a sketch before selecting a feature command is added data to the Creo model. In Creo, the sketch is done on the fly (becoming part of the feature). The SolidWorks method adds an extra entity for every feature. You can see the sketch, followed by the feature which contains the sketch needed to access the initial sketch. This is an example of using extra steps that are unnecessary, due to not being taught the intent of the method of creating the features. It also provides the opportunity to change the initial sketch, causing the second (unnecessary) sketch to fail.
Here are two of my examples of feature creation & user knowledge of (or lack thereof) modeling intent.
The first simple example is the full round. In Creo, you select the round icon, select two edges, go to the round window and select full round & enter. In SolidWorks, you select the round icon, select full round, select the rectangle to list the first surface, select the first surface, select the rectangle to list the second surface, select the second surface, and then select the rectangle to list the third surface & select the third surface & enter. So the simple full round is 5 selections for Creo & 9 selections for SolidWorks. This may be an indication of the mathematical advantage that Creo has in handling complex surfacing & large assemblies.
The example of modeling intent is a torsion spring created in WF 5.0 with opposite hand helixes on either side of a center (fixed location) bend. The SW person created this feature with approximately 270 features. I created it with 27.
The bottom lines are:
1. Whichever you choose, use a PDM system! I currently work where this is thought to be too expensive. Pay me now or pay me later. This is a disaster in searching for a file & knowing whether it is the proper revision.
2. If you use SolidWorks, you can hire a user of ProE/WF/Creo or SolidWorks.
3. If you use Creo, you can hire a user of ProE/WF/Creo, but not a user of SolidWorks without Creo training (or plan for their training upon hiring them).

I've used both professionally over a 20-year career in product design engineering, with 5 years of Solidworks usage.
Solidworks has an easier initial usability curve, although this gets steeper given that it started life as a simpler piece of software, with complexity "bolted on" to compete with other CAD packages.
Solidworks is a mid-range CAD package and will always have a "glass ceiling" due to the market presence of CATIA. Creo is scaleable and can cope with projects from the very simple to very complex, whether that be number or interaction between parts or sophisticated geometry. Solidworks tends to get "messy" when it faces complicated scenarios - unfortunately the "easy to use" paradigm falls apart in the face of complex models.

Creo is much quicker to use than Solidworks and far more stable (being less prone to crashing / bugs). The Creo interface isn't as pretty, but it's much cleaner and requires fewer clicks to accomplish any task. Creo is also better at surface modelling, and will require fewer features to build a model, which will also regenerate faster. There are some interface quirks about Creo, largely due to the need for backwards compatibility over ~30 years of the software's life
Solidworks is more widely used than Creo, but this is partly down to clever marketing by Dassault Systemes, particularly in the late 90's and early 00's.
I can't comment about the cost of purchase, but the whole cost of use needs to be considered, i.e., how much will it cost you in hours to use?

Solidworks is definitely much better than creo.As for industry use, Solidworks is becoming more widely used than creo because creo is too expensive and is more cumbersome when it comes to doing simple modeling. Solidworks also has better FEA and dynamic simulation capabilities than creo does.

Kinda an old thread but i figured I would throw my two cents in for everyone. I have used Creo, Solidworks, Inventor, and Solid Edge. Creo is by far the worst. Creo takes 5 extra button clicks to do the same task that it would take to do in any other software. Many people claim that Creo is really powerful once you get rolling with it, but now a days that "extra power" is so limited by the time it takes to use that extra power that from a business perspective Creo is way more costly to a company because your engineers will spend more time trying to accomplish tasks that would have been mush shorter than in other software. For example, up until Creo 4, there was not really good way to make a middle plane between two surfaces. Also, the BOM feature for Creo drawings is way more clunky. You have to be a database and UI expert in creo to be able to make a BOM. In solid works, you just import the BOM. One thing that used to be really good about Creo was their PLM. But today, everybody has a pretty good PLM system so that is no longer an advantage. Like I said, if you are a business owner, or an employee concerned with how "lean" a software UI is, Creo is a no go.

I now worked with bot, Creo Parametric and Solidworks. And I have to say that Creo is definitly not my favourite cad-system. Yes some of it's Sketch Tools are good but in overall it really sucks!! Solidworks rules!

Creo sucks. Solidworks much more better.

Solidworks always

You people who like SW what experience have you in Creo?SW better is the biggest bullshit i ever heard.

I have used Pro/E (Creo) for almost 14 years since 2000i version. Solid works for 3 years. I would say Solidworks is very flexible to work with. Making models and drawings are breeze.

But Creo has it's own strength areas. I feel sketching, constraints in Creo is better. Associative section views is something Creo is very strong. I feel Creo is better suited for machine design with complex assemblies.

Measuring in assembly/part mode in Creo is very reliable compared to solidworks.

Even though creo is a difficult to handle in some areas. I personally feel Creo is a better tool to handle large assembly design than SolidWorks.

Solidworks is always better than the creo