Solidworks 3D Composer - What is the Limit? 2

[SBaugh]

I posted this at the Solidworks Forum, but I guess I am not well liked out there anymore or no one really has an answer for me. So I decided to post it out here hoping I might reach someone using Composer for what we are looking in to using it for.


What is to much for Composer to handle?

I am researching animation tools and we have reviewed Composer with the help of our VAR. They animated a machine for us and it looked really good. I understand what Composer is and the documentation portion of the software is something our Automation department would use it for. But I need it for the animation portion.


The ultimate goal is to follow the birth of our part to when its packed up in a box. What we do here at Berry Plastics is make consumer products out of you guessed it "Plastic". We do Bottles, Caps, Containers, Lids, specialty stuff and many other items. I will be putting together an entire plant assembly of a mold machine with a multi-cavity mold, conveyor system, to another process, then off to packaging.

I need to know if Composer is going to be able to handle something of this magnitude?

Using Composer makes it much easier for making the animation, since it brings in SW files natively and that is a huge plus for us and it ignores mates. Otherwise I will have to learn more advanced animation software, which I don't have a problem with, but nothing I have seen supports SW files or if it does it does not import them well.

Thanks in advanced on any help on this.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Berry Plastics
Cad Admin\Design Engineer

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[JMirisola]

What makes you think you're well liked here?

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Design Manager/Senior Designer
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I don't think there are too many Composer users around.
That is a very expensive program

 

[AnnaWood]

Get in touch with Christine Longwell. She is using Composer where she works.

http://www.longwellweb.com

Anna Wood
Xeon W3680, Nvidia Quadro 4000, 12 Gb RAM, WD Velociraptor, Dell U3011 Monitor
SW2011 SP1, Windows 7 x64

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[manxJim]

We use composer but mainly for our user and installer instructions,
I have made a few animations but nothing on the scale you are proposing. I haven't found anything that composer can't handle, although it has struggled with some of our larger files but then so has SolidWorks

Jim Self
SW10 SP4.0
Dell Precision T7500
Win 7 64bit
6GB Ram
Quaddro FX 4800
dlplimited.com

 

[SBaugh]

Jeff,

I never said you guys did, but I had hope... I guess it was for nothing

Thanks Anna! I sent her an email, I hope she has some ideas on what we are trying to determine.

Cheers everyone!

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Berry Plastics
Cad Admin\Design Engineer

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[rockguy]

I'm using Composer a fair amount now. I think it will handle your project(s) OK but it's a hefty price tag to pay for a simple animation tool. If it had photorealstic capability I'd be able to swallow the price a little easier.

It's fairly easy to learn and use although I'm no expert. I find training or help on the product is in short supply and you're left to figure it out on your own. Not bad just takes longer to learn.

It also doesn't pull in any SW appearance info which blows.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

http://www.axiscadsolutions.com

http://www.robrodriguez.com

http://www.robrodriguezblog.com

Eastern Region SWUGN Representative

http://www.swugn.org

http://www.nvtswug.com

SW 2007 SP 2.0

 

[ctopher]

I have heard of it, but never seen it work. Wasn't sure what it did until this thread.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[mjcole]

Scott,

You might want to check out the 3dvia forums

http://www.3dvia.com/forums/

http://forums.3dmojo.com/

SolidWorks VARs aren't really pushing composer but I used quite a bit while working for one. It should be able to handle your assemblies for animation. It reads in files of other types Catia, ProE, NX etc. as well. Because the feature data is not considered the parts are more efficient than lightweight in a SolidWorks assembly. If you want to learn it well there are 2 classes that show a lot of detail. I got the books for free while working as an Application Engineer.

The nice thing about composer is that it will bring in the file properties for each part which can be used for views. It can also create Interactive PDF files which allow different levels of 3dvia functionality inside of the pdf.

3dvia has interesting ways of handling and defeaturing of models to save space as well as several ways of storing required information to save space. Although the cost is near that of SolidWorks it is pretty expensive for an animation documentation tool but you won't need one for every engineer at your company.

Michael

 

[SBaugh]

Thanks Michael!

Too bad I didn't stay around longer with the VAR's, I might have been able to get one of those books myself. Last tutorials I received was 2009.

Thanks for the info about Composer. I know its a lot of money for 1 feature I want to use out of it, but to justify it I will have to have the Automation group here review the software to see if its something they want to use as well. Then of course the cost will be split between the divisions.

I will be taking the 30 day trial after SWW this year. Since the fastest way to know is to test it out.

Thanks every one!
,



Scott Baugh, CSWP
Berry Plastics
Cad Admin\Design Engineer

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376