Which is easier to learn coming from Rhino3D? ProE or Solidworks?
I don’t think coming from Rhino will necessarily help with one over the other since many of the concepts (parametric modelling, the feature tree, etc) are different but with that said Solidworks is MUCH more friendly than Pro E.
I’ve used Pro E for over 3 years now and I still scream at it on a daily basis. Granted I’m stuck on Wildfire 4 at the moment and there do seem to be improvements in 5+ but the UI inconsistencies are so numerous it’s painful. It’s clearly software that was written by 80 different engineers and none of them talked to each other.
I also love the fact that any action initiated in Pro E that requires confirmation always defaults to “No”. 
“Never commit to 1 style. Always keep and open mind” - Bruce Lee
“Won’t you try my Wu-Tang style” - Ghostface Killah, Wu-Tang Clan
I have used Rhino, Solidworks, Alias, Adobe, Catia V5, Surface works, Artios CAD, Sketchup and many more. You need to learn the language you want to communicate in, for what you want to achieve. All have their respective strengths and weakness’. What’s important is that you clearly communicate what you want done in the proper medium. I’ve worked with engineers who prefer me to solve and model using Solidworks, I’ve had other that needed faster models created using Rhino for rendering purposes. I’ve used sketchup for internal components for orientation studies and later as underlays to sketch volumes over. It doesn’t matter what you use, learn what you need to get your job done the way you want to. You’re almost always stuck to whatever your studio uses but it should hinder your design exploration.
Learn the language of surface building, and you’ll never have a problem translating to another software. You’ll soon learn the intricacies of the software architecture and the best methods for building.
Rhino experience isn’t going to translate to either one very well.
Solidworks will be easier to learn, but we’ll see what this transition of Pro/E to “Creo Pro” means, if anything.
Is the PTC/Pro-E business model still factoring in lots of paid training for its software? When I purchased Pro-E seats in the past, the software seemed designed to be so oddly complicated that training and long term commitment was a key part of the PTC strategy. Perhaps things have changed, I have not followed Pro-E for some time.
Solidworks - based on own experiances and what others have said.
Some have suggested learning PROE first becuase its harder than solidworks and easier to make the transition that way. Havign a good background in CAD packages is useful and knowning both will open up other jobs. However we all have limited time, ive tried my bestest to learn PROE and can’t I can learn other stuff with my time.
SolidWorks is much easier to learn. Pro E is more popular with big companies. If you want to get into Automotive Design or Aerospace than you are better off with Pro E but it requires more equation defining than SolidWorks.
My understanding is that ProE is like Solidworks but with a much less friendly interface and slightly better surfacing.