SolidWorks vs Inventor

[MARK_GOOD]

I learned today that I will be going to a SolidWorks 4 day course for free. Our company will receive a 30 day full working demo. Then I must compare Inventor vs SolidWorks.
Yesterday I gave the engineers a presentation of Inventor and they were quite impressed with Inventor's capabilities.
(We were shown a demo of SolidWorks 2004 2 weeks ago and this impressed them very much. Now our design firm is considering switching to SolidWorks.)
Unfortunately I feel I haven't mastered Inventor to fully show its capabilities.
The pressure is on to do my homework.
I should note that our company is experiencing down time at the moment as there is not much design work therefore we haven't fully implemented Inventor into an actual project.
Mark

[MARK_GOOD]

SolidWorks has a feature where a bolt for example automatically mates to its threaded hole of a part in an assembly.
If the threaded hole is modified to a different size the bolt automatically updates accordingly.
Does Inventor have this feature?
Thanks
Mark

[Anonymous]

Where are you going to get near instant help?
For most users I suspect that the programs are nearly identical in functionality. The other SoftWare is way ahead in some respects (I especially like their surface tools and E-Drawings).
I think the decision should probably come down to where the user will get help. Therefore the comparison of the software is not as important (at least in my opinion, as they are essentially the same for most common functions) as the competency and availability of help from your VAR or other resources.
Compare the free help here with the free help at their company website:
http://forum.solidworks.com/swforum/default.asp?b=1
http://forum.solidworks.com/default.asp?b=1&g=2&m=124

There are also un-moderated sites for both, but I tend to steer clear of those because of endless flaming and unprofessional language.
J.D.

[Anonymous]

I have no down time with Inventor. I help out here because my work goes so fast in Inventor that if I don't pace myself to slow down, I will be out of work. Bob S. "jiml" wrote in message news:17235046.1074878097838.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum1.autodesk.com... > Yes, but that is unfair as Inventor users have more down time and waiting time with Inventor. This give all you time to make web sites and be in this room to help. Now solidworks has very little down time so they can not help as much.

[duffield]

I was a user of SW for about 3 years before changing jobs/using IV. The support SW offers was fantastic. Everytime I had questions I had phone support from the re-seller or they visited us on site to help. Something I miss. I will say, you will not find better online user help as I have had using IV, simply unmatched. The decision comes down to putting the 2 thru in house tests on real jobs to see which you prefer.

[ddavies]

Interesting -

duffield, can you tell me whether SW allows the recording of a macro?
That's about the only thing I would switch products for. I am anxiously waiting to see if IV9 includes this capability.

Dave

[Anonymous]

Yes "nashville" wrote in message news:305979.1074892316382.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum1.autodesk.com... > Interesting - > > duffield, can you tell me whether SW allows the recording of a macro? > That's about the only thing I would switch products for. I am anxiously waiting to see if IV9 includes this capability. > > Dave

[AlEtzkorn]

I'm with duffield here.

I used SW for 4 years and have great response from users on the comp.cad.solidworks newsgroup. Also my VAR was never more than a phone call away.

However I have also had similar success with this DG. Don't know about the VAR yet...not sure who it is as I haven't needed them yet.

Alan M. Etzkorn
Nixon Tool Co.
http://www.nixontool.com

[Anonymous]

Mark,

This feature your talking about was leveraged from MDT. It looks very slick in SW, but, in creating those hole and fastener connections between plates creates whats called "an incontext edit" between parts. In Inventor we call it Adaptivity, and we can turn it off at any time. You dont have that option in SW. Basically, the 2 plates that are mated together with the fasteners are "Mated for life". SW says you can break the link and life goes on. During training, ask the instructor how to break those links in a couple of clicks and watch him fumble with it for 10 minutes and tell you when he's through "I think thats all there is to it".

Its a neat demo trick, but not very efficient. IF you like to use a lot of common parts that tool is not the way to go. Tell you managers that the "oohs and aahs" from had from the demo quickly turn to groans and grips soon after.

Another thing I noticed in the demo (and training I recently had) was that the weldment feature in SW looks very impressive, and for the most part it is, but it is not as mature as Inventors weld features. Cosmetic welds are still cosmetic welds, but if you use the bead feature SW creates a bead solid model that the file uses. Also place some holes near an edge that will get a weld bead. SW doesn't recognize the hole and covers it with the bead. Overall the weld feature is a little squirrelly, I cant tell you how many times I've had violent crashes to desktop using the tool.

I have more grips, email me if you need anymore ammo

Mike

[Anonymous]

I'd call your IV reseller for help.... after all... the SW demo had a reseller... right? MARK_GOOD wrote: >I learned today that I will be going to a SolidWorks 4 day course for free. Our company will receive a 30 day full working demo. Then I must compare Inventor vs SolidWorks. >Yesterday I gave the engineers a presentation of Inventor and they were quite impressed with Inventor's capabilities. >(We were shown a demo of SolidWorks 2004 2 weeks ago and this impressed them very much. Now our design firm is considering switching to SolidWorks.) >Unfortunately I feel I haven't mastered Inventor to fully show its capabilities. >The pressure is on to do my homework. >I should note that our company is experiencing down time at the moment as there is not much design work therefore we haven't fully implemented Inventor into an actual project. >Mark > > -- Dennis Jeffrey Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert Autodesk Product Consulting and Training Tekni Omicron - Center for Design Excellence http://www.design-excellence.com 260-312-6188

[bill.costello]

Mark

I don't know whether this is relevant or not, I have a friend who I would consider to be one of the best SolidWorks users in the UK, he only models on SW, all detailing is by way of DWG out and into LT for detailing, says alot about Autodesk !! or perhaps about SW

[AlEtzkorn]

Bill

As I stated above, I spent 4 years on SW, my VAR said I would have no trouble passing the CSWP exam. I found that detailing in SW was for the most part more than adequate. I would never had exported to detail in anything else...it would be double the work for me. I always used the dimensioning from the model. Now in IV I try to use nothing but retrieve dimensions, however it doesn't always work. I personally don't understand why anyone would detail in anything but the parametric package. Not a flame...just a curiosity...when you export to .dwg for detailing, up until MDTDX, you lost your associativity. To me that is one of the biggest reasons for having a parametric modeler.

That's my $.10

Don't want to offend anyone and these are my opinions only...feel free to take them for what you want.

Alan M. Etzkorn
Nixon Tool Co.
http://www.nixontool.com

[Anonymous]

Charles, I spend some time constructing a library of common parts, etc, but for the most part I have not used iParts. I had tried them before and they did not behave like I had expected. I had hoped that they would stay a reference item in the library, adjusting each time they were referenced, but instead they just create new parts in the project based on the iPart. Granted they do have their use, but most of my common parts are also not really suitable for an iPart factory, either because they never change or the changes are not compatible with what I would think can be done with an iPart. Now iFeatures may be of more use to me, and also some custom programs. So I try to spend my spare "slow down" time formulating plans for custom programs and learning how to program them in VBA. My recently released ReadPointsFromFile macro was a direct result of this and has already resulted in me saving even more time designing. I've currently been working on turning it into an addin and improving it a bit more. I had several plans for more ambitous programs, but have found the API still lacking in several areas (drawings) and the others are just too complex for me to tackle just yet due to several reasons. Bob S. "cbliss" wrote in message news:401de569$1_1@newsprd01... You should be spending that free time creating iParts. Bob S. wrote: I have no down time with Inventor. I help out here because my work goes so fast in Inventor that if I don't pace myself to slow down, I will be out of work. Bob S. "jiml" wrote in message news:17235046.1074878097838.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum1.autodesk.com... Yes, but that is unfair as Inventor users have more down time and waiting time with Inventor. This give all you time to make web sites and be in this room to help. Now solidworks has very little down time so they can not help as much.

[Anonymous]

And I certainly wouldn't stop there. Solid Edge is also a very good package and worth being considered. -- Ken "duffield" wrote in message news:21536596.1074885953863.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum1.autodesk.com... > I was a user of SW for about 3 years before changing jobs/using IV. The support SW offers was fantastic. Everytime I had questions I had phone support from the re-seller or they visited us on site to help. Something I miss. I will say, you will not find better online user help as I have had using IV, simply unmatched. The decision comes down to putting the 2 thru in house tests on real jobs to see which you prefer.

[duffield]

Even though your question was answered about the macro, I can't resist telling you I never had any use for macros in SW, every user macro (from all the people here) I use in IV was a standard feature in SW.

[Anonymous]

Solidworks Animator isn't part of the base package is it? Animator for Inventor is free.. -- Sean Dotson, PE Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert http://www.sdotson.com Check the Inventor FAQ for most common questions www.sdotson.com/faq.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "duffield" wrote in message news:11186342.1076960664257.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... > Even though your question was answered about the macro, I can't resist telling you I never had any use for macros in SW, every user macro (from all the people here) I use in IV was a standard feature in SW.

[Anonymous]

So when do you get some sort of standard components library with solidworks? (yes i know some don't like the ones that are shipped) "Sean Dotson" wrote in message news:4031228e_1@newsprd01... > Solidworks Animator isn't part of the base package is it? > > Animator for Inventor is free.. > > -- > Sean Dotson, PE > Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert > http://www.sdotson.com > Check the Inventor FAQ for most common questions > www.sdotson.com/faq.html > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > "duffield" wrote in message > news:11186342.1076960664257.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... > > Even though your question was answered about the macro, I can't resist > telling you I never had any use for macros in SW, every user macro (from all > the people here) I use in IV was a standard feature in SW. > >

[millwork400]

Once you start with Solidworks, you will be pleasantly surprised with its operation compared to Inventor. I have been using SW for 4 years now and I absolutely love it and have become quite versed in the software. I just started using Inventor and I notice how much more cumbersome some commands are in Inventor compared to SW. Even the simplest of commands in Inventor takes a few more steps to accomplish. Compare toolbar features and customability in SW to Inventor. Inventor isn't nearly as powerful. SW is the leader in 3-D modeling for a reason. SW 2004 has some neat updates to 2003. Your company shouldn't have to devote much thought to the decision in my opinion.