Here’s the thing that your boss should really consider. Switching platforms is not just about the upfront cost of the software, there’s the baggage that comes with the design and engineers that are currently using SW. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t switch just wanting to at least point out that he take a look at quite a few factors such as downtime i.e. ramp up time to get everyone as good in (insert new software here) as they are in SW. It’s not just a feature for feature comparison alone it’s also workflow and strategies that people have for work arounds. There ain’t a software out there that you don’t have to find a way to make what you want with the set of given tools.
So this means down time and this is including if they take training because without that you can expect an even longer transition time. Let’s say you leave SW still on the computers but also the new platform as well, people will use what they are most familiar with and are also “faster” on because of they are comfortable with it and inherently people tend to go back to what is in their wheel house. Ok so now let’s say you decided to go cold turkey and take SW off of the new computers and only install (insert new software) now projects that need to get out the door will take a longer time because of some of the previous mentioned reasons.
Also in terms of resources, how many schools/existing users are there that, when hired, will already know the (insert new software)? Again not saying that you shouldn’t switch but these are things that with 10 years of legacy data in play if you need to leverage not just the geometry but any of the meta data, then you’d want to investigate that whatever new platform can access that. i.e. software like Spaceclaim can bring in 3D geometry and will allow for changes to be made but it won’t be tied to the technical drawings originally made from it in SW.
Again, not saying your company shouldn’t be looking at what else is out there just that there’s much more that comes with switching platforms than just cost of software. I’ve seen this with engineers that have 20 years invested in AutoCad and won’t let it go for the life of them even though they know that the new platform is 10 times “better”.
Just 2 cents to think about…