Some IV vs. Pro/E Questions

[Anonymous]

Hey,

I'm a student trying to get into design ahead of the curb, and I'm looking into design software. I operate on a macbook air, so IV is an obvious choice. Not to mention the cost.

A friend who uses Pro/Engineer (I think they've changed the name now to Creo) tells me that Pro/E has a feature that takes a design and recreates it using the least amount of material possible without loosing structural integrity. Is there something like this in IV?

How does the stress testing work? Do you input the material being used (i.e. ABS plastic) and apply a force and direction?

Thanks for your time

[blair]

Sounds much like Inventor Optimization

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_optimization/

[Anonymous]

But that's not supported in IV 2011, is it?

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

But that's not supported in IV 2011, is it?

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Why do you say that?  By not supported do you mean won't run with 2011, or do you mean as a technology preview not supported as a commercial product? 

I recommend you try both products.

I teach both products.
I would estimate you are 2-3 years in experience level from making an educated evaluation of the products one-vs-the other.

[Anonymous]

"I would estimate you are 2-3 years in experience level from making an educated evaluation of the products one-vs-the other."

-- Yep, that's why I was asking. 🙂

[JDMather]

They will both do what you ask.  2-3 years from now will be a different world.  Try them both out using the built in tutorials and see how far you get today.

[cbenner · Accepted solution]

Opinion:

Pro-E is much less intuitive, and slower on the larger assemblies than IV.  Drawing module (2D) is not as easy to customize as IV, and doesn't look as good.  Configuration options are much easier to find and set in IV.  Piping and Frame Generator both are much easier to work with in IV.

This is strictly my personal opinion, after going from IV 2008 to Pro E Wildfire 4, and then WF5.... and then returning to IV 2011.  Having worked with both, my personal feeling is that IV is easier to work with,... at least for my application.

I agree with JD though, try them both out, your application, and your personal experience may not be mine.

For what it's worth...