Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Hi,

at my office we use both inventor and catia. there are often discussions and a general consensus from one side that catia is the king. with arguments like; all the car manufacturers use catia. Sometimes when a project gets big and slow in inventor it is often suggested to rebuild it in catia.

another consensus is that large assemblies are better handled in catia, and it doesn't slow down much.

I doubt this, and I am looking for the answer to why this is the general experience. 

I think: 

1. in catia they constrain everything to origin of assembly, and all the constraints update relative to this origin. (correct me if wrong, I am on the inventor-side, and know little in catia) IN inventor one can constrain parts to eachother, and this results in that the constraints are harder to calculate to eachother. True or false? comments?

2. one catiauser always says that in catia the camera rotates around the assembly, which is different to other cad programs in that the assembly rotates about the camera which is harder to calculate. I highly doubt th|i|s|. true or false?

3. in catia, functions to simplify the details,.like shrinkwrap is not needed according to the catia crew. true or false?

4. I think adaptivit y creates sluggishness between parts, like in 1, when the adaptivity is "impossible " to solve. when adaptivity is used, one has to remember how each sketch is built before doing changes to keep control of the outcome. comments?

5. default look/graphics in inventor is higher set, which makes things harder to run. parts in catia look simple and ugly. true?

6. if anyone can give an example of a known product which is massive, and built in inventor, I'd appreciate it.

7.  I'd really love some examples of what catia can do that inventor can't. 

[#2]

Not sure if this helps with some performance settings or not? Cannot comment on the Catia side though.

http://www.synergis.com/uploads/2012-inv-performance.pdf

Regards,

Don

[#3]

You are comparing apples to oranges.  One is mid-range and one is high-end. 

Rob

[#4]

So far, to me, Inventor is the high-end application until I know what is better in catia.

Especially, useability, time in working through cutout files to acad, speed of production of drawings makes Inventor the better one for me. I'd like to know what makes catia the high-end app other than price.

[#5]

My experience is mostly in Inventor and other mid-range CAD packages. Catia provides high end Surfacing capabilities for one that cannot be matched in Inventor.

[#6]

Hello,

I agree with RobJV,

I had a chance to work in Catia long time ago and currently I am working in Inventor.

1.The two way editability in Catia V5 R14 was an interesting feature. (Drawing to model) it increases

the productivity of editing drawings/models at the same time.

2. The surfacing capability; undoubtedly makes Catia  "King" in those areas of design

3. It is a high end software - As it can do ergonomic design/generative shape design/ Advanced surfacing- A class surfacing/ It think piping/electrical circuit design are also available modules.

4. Catia V6 onwards the dyanmic in place editing of the model for designing a product is also one of the great enhancement. Similar which Fusion is TRYING to offer

All this said it depends on where you want to use it. What is your product requirement, whether Catia/Inventor is the right fit. Both the software can do certain set of common things which are in most cases needed for product development.

Example : If you are primarily Autocad company and trying Inventor then yes you might eventually find some interopability between these two software as they are both the products of Autodesk. Autocad 2012 onwards Inventor models can be used in Autocad for drafting.

Hope that give a brief idea