Hi q_vazk,
Are you using SW 2006 with the latest service packs? I am not sure for which particular tasks you experienced problems but as per my experience whith most of these programs being used for similar tasks I can give you some general ideas. First don't consider the kernel in use as the only measure for stability and buggines. And some CAD/CAM programs being called unstable or buggy but sometimes it is more a CAM related issue than a modeling bug. Solidworks and Solid Edge are generally considered similar, both using Parasolid from UGS but in fact I found Solid Edge a more stable one with better surfacing. I use both when needed but give me only one choice I would pick SE. It may seems strange as they are using the same kernel in use by Unigraphics, the most stable program in every repect, both in my experience and according to more experience professionals from different industries. As far as modeling tasks is your concern you will be dissapointed to find a bug or push it to collapse. Even if you are on NX2 but remember to use the latest product update. Same I can say with I-DEAS. About CATIA it is totally different than SW, you may hear Catia is buggy but Catia is a huge program and again for modeling tasks there should be no problem to make you worried as far as you are using a well proven version with the latest service packs. As for Inventor I found it less stable and too buggy in their latest releases even though the old Mechanical Desktops were my favorite CAD programs. You may want to see it for yourself and as for ProEngineer it would be better than Inventor for sure but still Wildfires are too young on Granite kernel and the number of update releases shows that. Remember any young kernel has its stability issues as for Autodesk's own kernel. Try to see Ahlar-Vellum Cobalt for yourself and see how it performs for similar tasks you experienced problems with SW. It should not dissapoint you and with Rhino it works well for most modeling tasks. And for surface modeling, again StudioTools with its old kernel is by far the most stable one.
A good place to hear about CAD/CAM programs and discuss a problem with professionals is
eng-tips.com
http://www.eng-tips.com/threadforum.cfm?lev3=70

Any similar place recommended by anyone would be appreciated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: khorram,

thanks for the imput akh154,
unfortunatelly i only have the basic version of SW2005 no service packs installed yet... as for version 2006 i can't say it's gonna happen anytime soon... if you would have asked me a few days ago which one would i pick amongst the two (SW - SE) i'd say definitely SW because after a while everything begins to feel natural, and that sure comes in handy as i am a maniac when it comes to modeling --- and because none of my models till now were driven by predefined drawings speed is aq must during the trial&eroor stage of the design process... so i guess that in the end it all comes down to what you or the studio seeks personally from a software, some people saying workarounds suit them better than changing package, although having tried SE i can't but feel that it is superior to SW almost in every respect (the rib / lip commands actually work for a change, surfacing in SE has only praises etc) it just lacks a little doze of userfriendlyness...

Solid Edge is not more difficult to learn than NX to say. When I started using NX, I couldn't imagine anything more difficult to learn but in years I have learned to not see things only at first glance, the first impressions of user-friendliness, ergonomics, etc. I compare two programs in practice and see how they perform for a similar task. Again, it needs you have some basic to advance knowledge about those programs. Anyhow, this kind of job is not easy and it takes more than few days, two weeks or months to learn how a program can help you actually. I use both SE and SW and it’s my opinion, which is my favorite even though none of them is my primary CAD software.