It's nice to someone here has some interest in CAD.

We use SolidWorks at work (four designers). We used to use AutoCAD (mainly) and Pro/E (a little). I've done some work with Solid Edge Origin (limited but free version) and Pro/Desktop.

Pro/Desktop is NOT the same program as Pro/Engineer. PTC bought a Windows CAD program, renamed it Pro/D, and later changed the kernal from Parasolid (from EDS / UGS) to Granite (their own kernal). It's by far the best free program out there, because it does assemblies. It also does allow a lot of control, but via COM objects. The available documentation on the web for the COM interface is pretty bad, but supposedly it's available on the CD-ROM. I will probably pay the $15 to find out. (COM is OK if you call it from Python)

As far as user interfaces go, based on my experience and talking to others, the original Pro/E is clearly the worst. It requires a lot more time to learn and a lot more steps to do anything. Pro/Desktop is much better, but not as slick as Solid Edge; it's hard to describe, but Solid Edge definitely requires less mouse movement.

Solid Works used to be clearly behind Solid Edge in user interface, but right now I'd guess it's just a bit behind. The new Pro/E Wildfire interface looks really good; it could be even better than Solid Edge, but until you use it for a while, there's not telling how good it is.

So, my ratings (best to worst): Pro/E Wildfire (if reality matches hype), Solid Edge, Solid Works, Pro/Desktop, and then by a wide margin, Pro/E. BTW, there's some good information for Pro/D available on the web.

Tony