DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

Found this via Core77.com, Jason Morris has been researching the most requested software in Industrial Design jobs and the results are fascinating. What’s first on the list? SolidWorks, Pro/E? nope, illustrator and Photoshop get number 1 and 2 positions. Below that its SolidWorks, then followed by Alias and Pro/Engineer - then Rhino brings up the 6th position. What does this tell you? This was taking from job postings not user experience, but the result tally with what we’ve found over the last few months. Industrial Designers love 2D processes for concept work and always will, despite what the software vendors might think.

The interplay between SolidWorks, Alias and Pro/E is also interesting. Alias won’t cut it on its own for many industrial design-led organisations anymore, so it usually pairs with a more ‘engineering’ led tool, whether that’s SolidWorks or Pro/E. The same could be said of Rhino. SolidWorks might be ahead of the game, but the sample is around 200, so its not a massive difference. But what it really says is that despite all the noise from other vendors, Pro/Engineer is going absolutely nowhere.

Jason’s blog is also worth exploring further. There’s some great stuff on there.