Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Well we had our SW demo yesterday so we will see now where management wants to go. A nice feature I saw that I wish Inventor had was the ability to constrain break edges in the drawing file. I am able to constrain section lines in Inventor but when will I be able to constrain break lines in Inventor? Another nice feature was the ability to add a dimension to a textbox box. I know how to do it in Inventor and is a little cumbersome. In SW he simply clicked the dimension he wished to add to the textbox and it was done. Just a couple of simple things I am sure, but they are two things we deal with on a daily basis.

Wayne

[#2]

If you have the resources to go to SolidWorks then I would say go for it! I have used both but SolidWork is a much better package if you need to convert your drawings to AutoCAD. You would think that Inventor would be great in converting to AutoCAD since it is made by AutoDesk but Solid Works does a MUCH BETTER JOB in converting.

I have posted to the discussion group and still have not gotten a response for the problems in countered when converting Inventor IDW's to AutoCAD DWG's.

If you only convert half of your seats to Solid Works you are ahead of the game and I am sure you will soon convert all your seats to Solid Works soon afterward when realizing how great of a software package Solid Works is.

[#3]

Solidworks replaced inventor in many industries

i have used both softwares believe me solidworks is much better software than inventor at this stage

[#4]

Make sure you thoroughly test your workflows in SW (or any other CAD package). You should have expert users compare functionality and develop a matrix of the strengths and weaknesses of the programs. You should also have average users test the new package for ease of use. One of the biggest costs of switching CAD packages is the initial training and the reduced productivity while people get up to speed. Expert users can usually learn the UI fairly quickly, but you need to base your training costs on the average users.

FWIW, over the last 25 years I have heavily used CADAM, AutoCAD, CV, CADKey, and Inventor. I have also used ProE, SW, and SolidEdge to varying extents. I haven't had any CAD software training other than an introductory ProE class in the mid-90's, so I know you can learn software on your own, but I highly recommend at least an initial training class and blocking out time to go through tutorials. There is usually transferable knowledge between software, but there is also a period of adjustment. Also, people will grow to appreciate the different functionality in a new CAD package, but they will always resent giving up functionality from previous software.

LorenJ

[#5]

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waynefisher wrote:

Well we had our SW demo yesterday so we will see now where management wants to go. A nice feature I saw that I wish Inventor had was the ability to constrain break edges in the drawing file. I am able to constrain section lines in Inventor but when will I be able to constrain break lines in Inventor? Another nice feature was the ability to add a dimension to a textbox box. I know how to do it in Inventor and is a little cumbersome. In SW he simply clicked the dimension he wished to add to the textbox and it was done. Just a couple of simple things I am sure, but they are two things we deal with on a daily basis.

Wayne

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SO SAY WE ALL.

[#6]

And so it is done!!...

Management told us yesterday that SolidWorks is in our future.... Which they said seemed more as the "Mainstream" choice.... My thoughts were WHAT??  The reasons being that our vendors (fabricators) use it. Also that all new recruits are putting SolidWorks experience onto their resumes. What does that mean? Did they have one semester of SW classes?

Autodesk, you need to get Inventor into the colleges no matter what it takes. Give it away for free. Whatever it takes to increase your user base. My next major hurdle is to convince them of the proper training, as I have had with Inventor. When one door closes, another one opens.

[#7]

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waynefisher wrote:

Autodesk, you need to get Inventor into the colleges no matter what it takes. Give it away for free.

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Autodesk is giving away Inventor for free to students (not to colleges), over 2 million members of the Autodesk Student Community. (160,000 new members in last couple of months). (see attached)

But I have see zero evidence that more than a handful of faculty in the world know how to use and teach the software.  From what I can gather they have not caught on yet to "digital prototyping" and view Inventor as a progression of electronic drafting board AutoCAD.

I have been trying to convince Autodesk for years to do something like http://singularityu.org/ for a select group of faculty that would ripple out among the edu community.  SolidWorks was embraced by the early adopters, the really bright people, those who did understand the emerging technology as more than electronic drafting - those who have their finger on the pulse of the technology and Autodesk has never caught up.

I've got to run to class, back with more on this later.......

[#8]

I hate to say it, but the few times it does come up, I'd say the ratio of SW to IV wrt customers and vendors is ~3:1.  One of our sister companies switched from AutoCAD to SW - and they are across town from HQ for the entire division.  I always assume one day some bean counter at HQ will ask 'why isn't everyone using the same software as our best pals?' and our glacially slow transition to IV will be over.

[#9]

 I have used both but SolidWork is a much better package if you need to convert your drawings to AutoCAD. You would think that Inventor would be great in converting to AutoCAD since it is made by AutoDesk but Solid Works does a MUCH BETTER JOB in converting.

I have posted to the discussion group and still have not gotten a response for the problems in countered when converting Inventor IDW's to AutoCAD DWG's.

Can you possibly explain this? I'm at a loss as to what you are claiming here. We do this day-in and day-out, that or we simply set our Inventor drawings to be saved as .dwg as opposed to .idw.

Are you talking about Inventor opening ACad drawing files or vice versa???

I'd honestly like to know what problems you are having.

[#10]

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JDMather wrote:

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waynefisher wrote:

Autodesk, you need to get Inventor into the colleges no matter what it takes. Give it away for free.

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But I have see zero evidence that more than a handful of faculty in the world know how to use and teach the software.

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The next time you're in China you should watch Master Chen teach Inventor on TV. You don't need more than a handful when the training is available to everyone in the country.