G2 Crowd publishes Winter 2015 rankings of the best product and machine design software

CHICAGO, Feb. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The first Grid℠ report for product and machine design software, published today by business software review site G2 Crowd, ranks seven products to help purchasers in their selections.

The Winter 2015 report is based on more than 170 reviews written by business and engineering professionals.

The Grid℠, which is created from G2 Crowd's software review platform, factors in customer satisfaction reported by users and vendor market presence determined from social and public data to rank products.

Product and machine design software is a subcategory of computer-aided design (CAD) software, targeted specifically toward designers and engineers across a number of disciplines, including manufacturing, product design, automotive, and aerospace. These tools allow users to generate precision 3D models of parts, components, and assemblies to aid in engineering, manufacturing, and design processes.

To qualify as a Leader, a product must receive a high customer satisfaction score and have substantial market presence. SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical and Solid Edge were named Leaders in the report. SOLIDWORKS earned the highest overall customer satisfaction score.

Across all product and machine design platforms, reviewers reported the product they use meets their requirements at an average rate of 82%, and on average reviewers said they were 80% likely to recommend the product they use.

Some highlights from the product and machine design software reviews on G2 Crowd:

"[SOLIDWORKS] is extremely easy to use. [It's very] intuitive, efficient, and [powerful] software. I have used it to design complex surface parts, basic machined parts, complex sheet metal, buildings, and [more]."
- Aaron Jackson, Design Engineer at Spray Equipment & Service Center

"[Inventor] makes it very easy to build parts and pieces once, manipulate them through parameters and instantly have a series of parts that range in size that can be saved and cataloged for later use."
- Valerie Gindlesberger, Home Plan Designer at Summit Custom Homes

"The best part about Solid Edge is the strong capabilities and intelligence that is part of the synchronous technology. It allows you to make a model without having to worry about order of operations, yet it still uses features that make for easy editing. This has been a game changer for me when roughing out a design; even while in the context of an assembly. Less time is spent thinking how to make the change to the model, which frees my mind to think about how to design the part."
- Brian Stewart, Design Engineer at Apex Tool Works, Inc.

"I like being able to draw any object without having to close a loop of line segments. In many similar programs, the lines are only used as borders of a area, and so if the area is not complete, the programs has problems. With AutoCAD [Mechanical], a line is simply a line. I also like being able to customize the plot settings and appearance of every characteristic using layers and line weights. This allows for quick but uniform and professional final prints."
- Troy Foster, Mechanical Engineering Intern at FES Group

Of the nearly 20 software vendors listed in G2 Crowd's Product and Machine Design category, the seven ranked products each received 10 or more reviews to qualify for inclusion on the Grid℠.

Satisfaction rankings are generated from the user reviews, and market presence is calculated from vendor size, market share, and social impact. Based on a combination of these scores, each software solution is categorized as a Leader, High Performer, Contender, or Niche.

Premium research access can be purchased on the site for $599. These offer the original data for filtering and weighting, as well as individual profiles of each platform with the most helpful positive and negative product and machine design software reviews, detailed company information, user satisfaction ratings, feature scores and customer metrics. Future refreshes of the Grid℠ will provide updated rankings based on the latest reviews and social data.

Be sure to check out the new Grid℠ for the best product and machine design software and subscribe to the premium research.

About G2 Crowd, Inc.

G2 Crowd, the world's leading business software review platform, leverages its roughly 25,000 user reviews to drive better purchasing decisions. Technology buyers, investors, and analysts use the site to compare and select the best software based on peer reviews and synthesized social data. Co-founded by the founder and former executives from SaaS leader BigMachines and backed by more than $4.5 million in capital, G2 Crowd aims to bring authenticity and transparency to business technology research. For more information, go to G2Crowd.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150205/173794

SOURCE G2 Crowd, Inc.

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