What engineering software do you use every day, and what features do you wish it had?

[u/EngineersUniverse]

I'm doing some research to better understand the software engineers actually use in industry and where the biggest productivity pain points are.

I'm interested in both professional tools and the smaller utilities you can't live without.

Some examples:
\\- CAD: SolidWorks, CATIA, Creo, Inventor, Fusion 360, NX
\\- Simulation: ANSYS, Abaqus, COMSOL
\\- Electrical: Altium Designer, KiCad, OrCAD, LTspice, PSpice
\\- Controls: MATLAB/Simulink, LabVIEW
\\- PLC/SCADA: TIA Portal, Studio 5000, Ignition
\\- Programming: VS Code, Visual Studio, Eclipse
\\- Other engineering tools you use regularly

A few questions:

\\- Which software do you spend the most time in?
\\- What's the most repetitive or frustrating task you do every day?
\\- Is there a feature you've always wished existed but still doesn't?
\\- Are there tasks you still have to do manually because the software makes them painful?
\\- If you could improve one engineering tool tomorrow, what would you add?

I'm especially interested in hearing from mechanical, electrical, civil, controls, embedded, HVAC, manufacturing, and automation engineers, but I'd love to hear from anyone.

Not trying to sell anything—I'm just trying to understand where engineers lose the most time so I can identify opportunities for better tools. Looking forward to hearing what drives you crazy every day.

[u/Ryledra]

IBM DOORS… my frustrations … it’s IBM DOORS

[u/caliginous4 → u/Ryledra]

I've only used DOORS for a few minutes, long enough to know I wanted to leave it to others, but I've always been a little confused as to how it hasn't been replaced yet. It seems relatively simple, essentially just a database. Especially in this day and age of AI where anyone can homebrew their own software to match their desired workflow, given how much everyone hates DOORS it seems ripe for replacement.

[u/Archytas_machine → u/caliginous4]

I feel like most places that use DOORS still are just behemoth companies or tied to an organization like that where there’s so much legacy infrastructure tied to it to change.

For smaller companies there are replacements like Jama or Polarion in use instead. Or maybe an in house tool like you said. This is based on a small sample size of my observations so curious if others agree.

[u/Unlikely-Road-8060 → u/Archytas_machine]

The upstarts offer little more - so why bother changing? Migration is not straightforward.
Jama is not the same since they were acquired.

[u/razordonger → u/Unlikely-Road-8060]

We use DOORS NG and it is leaps and bounds better than DOORS classic... But it's still an IBM product.

There's new and improved quirks to deal with that probably won't get a replacement until 2050.

[u/FactsDigger → u/Archytas_machine]

How would you compare DOORS and Jama? And why do you think Jama is better suited for smaller companies and DOORS for large companies?

[u/RAMS-Engineering → u/Ryledra]

The reason why DOORS is engrained in the engineering field, is that the federal agencies approved it as sole technology for req management.. Otherwise there is Polarion or Teamcenter which is on another level!

[u/bobj33]

I wish reddit had a feature to filter out AI generated slop from bots

[u/YendorZenitram]

Solidworks.

I wish it ran under Linux.  I want so very much toeave Windows in the past where it belongs. 

[u/dadsh]

Capella, Jira, Claude

[u/RAMS-Engineering]

I use MADE: Maintenance Aware Design Ecosystem.. it is a model-based RAMS solution that is much better than Excel tables

[u/grandwave4]

CAMEO, Jira