Inventor 2019 Deja Vu Solidworks 2007

[Tmoose]

We are transitioning to Inventor because ProE/Creo's pricing for multiple seats is nuts. It doesn't help that our local PTC product supporters are so cavalier.

Anyhow, I'm in day 2 of 4 of Inventor essentials training.

First I was struck by how familiar many of the Inventor icons look.
Then the "drawing" paper had a very distinctive and familiar parchment appearance.
Finally some of the commands might as well be SW.. "Pack and go" to save an assembly with all the accouterments so it may be worked on as a stand=alone elsewhere.

I'm reminded that When Cosmos/M was a standalone product the fine print stated something like "Structural Research and Analysis Corporation has some agreement to use ANSYS Input Commands and Command Structure."

Does anyone know if AutoDesk struck a similar deal with Dassault/Solidworks ?

So far the right mouse click functionality of Inventor is quite nice, and perhaps a decade ahead of those old SW commands etc, but I'd bet SW has not stood still in that regard either.

 

[Sparweb]

I went the other way. (Inventor to SW to be clear)

I immediately noticed much familiar ground. This lets me get going with a lot of momentum, then come to a halt abruptly at some silly thing I suddenly can't do.

You're lucky to get specific training to help you settle in. I didn't get that so everything has to be trial-and-google for me.

No backroom deal that I know of, but plenty of personnel can move from one to the other.

Make sure to explore the PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS in Inventor. They are special and I have not found equivalents in SW or any other CAD system, to my despair. I used many of them quite often. The Solidworks users think that "copy with mates" is a great thing. To me, a former Inventor user, it's a half-a**ed patch over a bad workflow.

My work is characterized by elaborate assemblies that represent 90% reference material for CONTEXT only, and 10% the new parts under design or being installed. All of which is intended for presentation on drawings therefore often the detail invested in the contextual parts is low. As a consequence of this workflow, the repeated use of "pack-and-go" has considerable danger. For instance the potential to repeatedly copy an error in the context models, the bloating of project files, the inability to improve a context model retroactively.

If your work normally prioritizes drawings rather than models, be careful as you set up your revision control methods.

I don't know what you model/draw normally, but I would appreciate your comments, as you discover them, about managing constraints in Inventor vs. SW or Creo. I am simply not getting an efficient workflow down in SW and there are many useful things I could do in Inventor that I wouldn't dare to try in SW.

http://www.sparweb.ca

 

[lyell]

Hi SparWeb,

I've come from SW to Inventor and I have to say it has grown and grown on me but one thing I do miss is configurations in SW. The exploded views in SW also seem much more user-friendly and the presentations in Inventor don't seem to compare. I will look into the Productivity tools thanks for the tip.

 

[Sparweb]

Lyell,
I must agree about the exploded views. What a horrendous workflow it is in Inventor. As a result I almost never used it, and regretted it every time I tried.

OTOH, in Inventor I had very little trouble with isometric view presentations on drawings including break-outs, sections and details peppered over them. I don't dare do such a thing in SW because the methods to maintain consistent control over the view presentation simply are not there in SW. Even if you try just a limited amount, the workflow is awful.

http://www.sparweb.ca

 

[Tmoose]

thanks all.

We are 95% in the business of making models to make drawings to make parts, so exploded views and presentations are not too common right now.

 

[Sparweb]

@Tmoose,
I forgot to point you to one of my SW rants:

https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=455987

On the whole I find SW works for what I need to do, but there things I want to do that SW doesn't support.
And I know I can do those things because I'm also adept with AutoCAD, Inventor, Onshape and FEA software that I feed models into...

http://www.sparweb.ca