Because thats what we use here. When they did away w/ AutoCAD in the mid 90's Solidworks & Inventor weren't around. Pro/E was the solid modeler of choice. We are constanly using/recycling legacy data & drawings so we continue to use Pro/E. I like Pro/E, its the CAD system I have the most experience with. Users of other systems don't care for it. As it takes a long time to learn all of its depth of features.

Once you've used a few CAD systems, the learning curve for any system is greatly diminished. I have experience w/ CADDS-5, Mechanical Desktop, a little bit of experience w/ Solidworks & Inventor, but have 10,000+ hrs experience w/ Pro/E.

A lot long time users who migrate to Solidworks find that it lacks features. Esp when working w/ large complex assys. I think we could get along fine w/ Solidworks (or Inventor) here. But all our legacy data, assys, and drawings are in Pro/E.

Temp agencies exist primarily as a means of getting around labor laws that strangle the employer. Terminating a bad employee without an extensive and perfectly executed paper trail will, at the very least, result in that employee collecting unemployment insurance for improper termination. Race-baiting and other claims of discrimination are the real threat.

Supervisors in large corporations spend entirely too much time creating this paper trail. It can take two years or more to get rid of a bad employee. That is why you see so many of them in big companies.

The paper trail leads to a cat-and-mouse game. Write up a bad employee for misconduct and you can expect him to seek retaliation. He knows you can't fire him and he has plenty of time to make you look bad. The supervisors that survive longest are the ones adept at this game. They are better at sabotage than the employee. I've seen bad employees get the ax for completely fabricated reasons. It was the only expedient method available.

I used a temp agency to hire all my employees. It eliminated payroll accounting, employee paper trails, let me remove bad employees without recourse, and provided tax advantages not otherwise available to a sole proprietor. I hate temp agencies but would not hesitate to use them again if I need employees.

Pro/E, as has been said, has more trick features than solidworks. You can place things in Pro/E where you could not place them in SW, both for assemblies and features.

Solidworks is easier to use. A Pro/E user can migrate to solidworks with little to no difficulty, while someone going the other way around has a very steep learning curve in the way. I've seen both directions, but was fortunate myself in going the easy way.

I been a Pro/E contractor for a long time now.
The rates have been pretty much the same for the past ten years.
Now, why do they say there is a shortage?
I never deal with Manpower or Volt, their rates are about HALF what I normally get!!!!!!
Rising costs are making it next to impossible to do any contract work these day, it barely covers your costs of being on the road.


regards,
DJ