Solidworks vs Inventor

[Shiner]

I used Inventor V1 thru V4, then changed jobs. Now, I'm at a point to use this type of software again. The reason we used Inventor previously was because it was an "AutoDesk" product. I will be wanting to use my models on a website, which solidworks has the capability. I know it's hard to say which is best, but I would like to hear some opinions about why you think one is better than the other. If I've missed a previous forum on this subject, please direct me.

 

[SBaugh]

Have you tried

http://www.google.com

and looked under comp.cad.solidworks? I know this has been discussed there.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[JNR]

I guess one thing to ponder is look at the market and where the systems are going. SW has over 1/4 million seats out there - I don't know where inventor is these days. I must say the SW was built ground up in the Windows environment and they are very web oriented. Other than that you have to make a choice based on requirements.

3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......

 

[maxlogan]

How u doing Shiner,
I have used both, and SolidWorks is better by far. Mind you Inventor is much more user friendly. But I like software with power, SW is very powerfull. It also helps that FEA support is available from various manufacturers. Also coverting file formats is much more accurate in SW over Inventor.
I still use Inventor, it's great. But for hi end stuff SW.

 

[Binary]

I've used Inventor (5.3 & 6) but never SW. However, from the SW demos it appears that SW handles import of AutoCAD drawings and solid models much better than Inventor. Weird, huh?

 

[Shiner]

Thanks for the reply's.
I had heard that Inventor had changed its modeling kernel in V7. Same type of move they made with the AutoCad format years ago. I don't think the industry would follow this time but, . . .

 

[Binary]

I've heard the same thing, something about their own proprietary kernal. If they've decided to get away from ACIS or Parasolids, I'd stay away. It's often foolish to follow a company when they start trailblazing.

This from the guy who bought both a Betamax and a PS/2!!

 

[MadMango]

PS/2 isn't bad, at least you didn't buy a Sega Saturn like me!

Wanna Tip? faq731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."

 

[NathanN]

I've just been evaluating Inventor and SolidWorks for my company. The main things SolidWorks does better than Inventor IMO are:

1) Configurations for assemblies - Inventor does not support them at all.

2) Sheet metal is far superior.

3} SolidWorks has an integrated PDM program. Though Inventor is releasing one soon.

4) More stable and less buggy than Inventor.

5) Much better support in our area.

We are actually moving to SolidWorks despite already having 3 seats of Inventor and 6 seats of MDT (which means that the upgrade cost to Inventor is quite low).

Binary, there's nothing wrong with a PS2 - they've sold WAY more units worldwide than the XBox. Oh, and Gran Turismo 4 is coming out soon.

 

[Binary]

Thanks for the update, Nathan. I'm holding out for the re-release of the AMC Pacer, Gremlin, or a Pinto (or maybe the Edsel). Haven't decided for sure which one ;-)

WRT Inventor being buggy, spoke to a guy whose company bought one seat each of Inventor and SW for a 3-mo side-by-side. They ended it by sending several guys to 1-day training seminars for each. He said that Inventor 6 crashed 19 times during the seminar!

Most of my experience was with 5.3 and it was somewhat buggy.

From what I saw of a SW demo yesterday, SW all the way! Inventor's just got too far to go.

 

[Rocko]

I would also look at Solid Edge because it is much closer and better in some areas than SW with the latest release coming out. That is probably why SW feels so much pressure to rush SW2004

 

[Binary]

My intro to parametric modelers was with Solid Edge. It was a great program and I'm sure is much better now.

My only concern with Solid Edge is whether it's destined to become the WordPerfect of modelers - great program without the critical mass to sustain itself.

Does anybody know what EDS is getting for a seat of SE?

 

[Rocko]

you should check out the new Cadence magazine article on Solid Edge V14. You can see the article on their web page. They have added some features that even solidworks doesnt have and is getting closer to unigraphics abilities for surfacing ect..

 

[NathanN]

SolidEdge is a good product and is very competitively priced. I found that it wasn't as powerful with sheet metal and it can be a bit dicky to use, especially adding parts into assemblies. But then, maybe I just suck at using it

It can be hard to evaluate CAD programs fairly if you are already familiar with one of them. We originally got MDT because our Design Manager was familiar with it - despite the fact that SolidWorks was a far superior product. You have to be open minded when trialing CAD programs. It's very easy to write off a CAD package just because you're unfamiliar with it.

 

[rocheey]

>>I had heard that Inventor had changed its modeling kernel in V7.

Well, Autodesk in general is... the ACIS (".sat&quot format is owned by Dassault Systems (SW parent company, of all people)

Too bad the Parasolid kernel, ".x_t", of which SW uses, is owned by UG... go figure.

 

[D3sign3r]

Ive used inventor5 for almost 6months now, and recently switched to SW2003 due to corporate demand. I honestly think that Inventer is far better. It seems like there are too many steps to do something whereas inventer does it in one or two steps. I was hoping SW would be better than inventor but it doesnt look like it.
Inventor can:
-Display material colours within the actually model (ie, chrome, plastic, rust..etc)
-Easily match up part with appropriate material, density, etc via pulldown menu.
-Select opposing tangent points to dimension on a pipe model (or a round part).
-Easy Parametric selection on model dimensions.
-and so on...

 

[Rocko]

SW has Real View (sw2004 that blows inventor away on representing materials)though u have to have the correct video card. I found the parametric selection on model dimensions easier in SW than Inventor. I think you may be fighting yourself on how SW does things versus Inventor or other packages. I initially found myself fighting how i use to do things in my other package versus sw way of doing things. Do i think there are areas of improvement, sure. Do i think Inventor has its own issues sure. I think you just need to finally decide not to fight it so much and go with the flow of the package and who knows ask specifict questions in the forumn and maybe you will find you are trying to do something the wrong or long way.

 

[progdie]

I have been looking at these software issues for 18 months now. I have used Inventor for the same time frame and SW for a little over a year. I used SW mainly for translating files (.igs & .stp) and seldom was there a glitch. With IV there were always problems.
I have just purchased SW (on my own) because it does what I need it to do with sheet metal and translations. The demo was fantastic at SW offices (not without mistakes) but I ambushed the demo jockey with a tricky file he had for only 1 day and I asked him to do things he had not prepared for.
All in all I feel confident of my decision (just got the software today, hope the confidence stays).
I loved the IV interface. It was very intuitive. Check out

http://discussion.autodesk.com/

and the IV newsgroup, very interesting, a lot of what you can't do and workarounds for buggy software.

 

[D3sign3r]

yeah ive used sw2003 for about a month now...Slowly but surely im finding out how to do things. (ie, inserting weld beads in an assemble..i like that)
It was nice how inventor allowed you to pick from a list of materials and apply it to your part. Once applied, it automaticly gave you the density, mass, rendering colour (which i miss) etc.. Im assuming sw2004 has more feature like that...Unfortunatly we wont be upgrading to it for awhile now! lol.