SE vs SW for pressure vessel detailing ?

[jlcochran1]

I currently have Inventor 8, SW 2004, and SE 14 demo loaded to compare for suitability for detailing tanks and pressure vessels. After taking 2 Inventor classes it appears to be lacking in areas like precise placement of parts in assembly mode, (ie precise rotating of a nozzle 15 degrees before mating to a shell or dished head). SW seems to have a similar user friendly interface.

SE seems to have more precise control in a number of areas, but be less intuitive and user friendly initially. Fewer publications and training sources available as well as a higher initial cost. I am trying to determine if SW is sufficient for our needs as we already have one seat and one individual trained, or whether SE has features to justify the higher cost and learning curve.

We have hit some snags with SW concerning nozzle placement and projection relative to the surface of a torispherical head that keeps us using 2D for now. For example in 2D AutoCad you can easily project 6" from the surface of a sphere at a given radius parallel to the vessel C/L to determine pipe length, this is more difficult in SW requiring a 2D layout to work backwards and precisely offset a plane to mate the nozzle to. I have seen demonstrations of vessels detailed in SE as well as received drawings from a company using SE for vessel detailing. Tryllium bases their product on the a server based SE solution. Still trying to determine which package would provide best overall value. It appears SE will do what we need given enough $ and training. Still trying to determine if SW will also meet our needs. Running out of time on my 2nd 30 day evaluation of SE however and just scratched the surface. I am concerned that there are so few 3rd party books and no SE training in a larger city such as Indianapolis. SW excels in this area.

Would appreciate any feedback from individuals actually using SE or SW to detail tanks or pressure vessels.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You should also post this thread in the SW forum ... but be prepared for some heavy "we can do this better" from both sides of the fence.

From your description it sounds like a fairly simple alignment which can be controlled by a skeleton or layout sketch & planes, multiple Configurations of which could in turn be controlled by a Design Table (Excel spreadsheet). I don't understand what you mean by "work backwards" when referring to a sketch though.

I'm sure both SW & SE will meet your needs but will employ different methods to reach the same goal.

from (the City of) Barrie, Ontario.

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.