Why should anyone get Inventor instead of solidworks?

[explodingbee]

As I understand it Inventor is designed to do more or less the same things as Solidworks, easy 3D modeling.  I think the cheapest version of Inventor is $5,000 and the cheapest version of Solidworks is $4,000.  Since Solidworks is generally considered the industry standard, the best out there, why would anyone get Inventor (except for reasons like that an entire company is already using AutoCAD and doesn't want to switch)?  Is there anything of significance that Inventor does better than Solidworks?

[ChristianAlanJamesBerg]

It's better at crashing for no apparent reason...

[CCarreiras]

Hi!

Why solidworks is the one Industry standard??!!
And Creo?, and Solidedge?, and pro-E? and Inventor?

If you find a Suite with:

• a standard 2D tool: Autocad and Autocad Mechanical,
• real time render: Showcase, 
• professional render: 3D Studio max,
• A powerfull 3D mechanical design tool: Inventor
• sketch tools for conceopt design: sketchbook
• cloud services
• conection to softwares in a large field of aplication: industry, construction, entertainement,
• ...and so on and so on... for less than 6000, please, tell me.

Now, comparing only the 3D tools for mechanical... I believe that all tools are at the same level, one has better features for one operation others has better features for others operations, but no one is isolated in the podium.

If solidworkd is much bestter than the competition , why millions of people use inventor (and others), they are all stupids?! I guess not.

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[MicahelASC]

Like another person mentioned Inventor does love to crash unexpectedly.  I have used both and I feel like I understand both pretty well.  I feel like Inventor does have a lot of features but I rarely use any of them.  I may be bias but I do like Soildworks better than Inventor but I did learn Soildworks first. 

I feel like Soildworks is a simpilar program, kind of barebones compared to Inventor.  Soildworks has what you need and nothing more.  Where as I feel like Inventor has alot of features, some of which are useful and some are more of an annoyance.

In the end Inventor is like a Galaxy S4 its got a lot of features and when you list them off they sound cool, but when you actually use the phone on a day to day basis you hardly ever use features like:reading mode, smart stay, screen mirroring, s beam/nfc, smart pause, smart scroll or blocking mode." I dont even know what the last one is but its listed on my phone.

[MicahelASC]

Soildworks is the industry standard.

[cmcconnell]

Not in my industry....

[explodingbee]

Hi Carlos,

Thank you for your response but I am not sure it makes sense to me.  You are saying that Inventor and Solidworks are about the same.  So then why should I pay $1,000 more for Inventor?  Also, I don't know why you are talking about suites.

[explodingbee]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your comments.  They are helpful I think.

[explodingbee]

What is your industry and what is the industry standard there?

[cmcconnell]

We design skid mounted processing equipment for the oil and gas industry.

I really do not see an "Industry Standard". I see Pro E, Solidedge, Catia, Inventor, Solidworks and AutoCAD (in no particular order) being used to design our type of equipment. I have used both Solidworks and Inventor in production. Inventor is my tool of choice at the moment because I am more comfortable with it.

I think you really need to look at what you will be using it for, and make you decision based on that - not on price alone (or what the salesguys tell you).

[CCarreiras]

Hi!

In my place, Solidworks and Inventor cost almost the same. But When we speak about suites, yes, is expensive, but comes with a lot of Tools.

Check it.

http://www.autodesk.com/suites/product-design-suite/overview

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[Carthik_Babu]

hi,

to answer you regarding cost difference......

autodesk inventor has ilogic programming integrated along with the software.

while you need to buy seperately "Drive Works" to automate 3d design process in solid works......

http://www.driveworks.co.uk/

http://www.solidworks.in/sw/products/details.htm?productID=514

[yannick3]

 Hi

i think it's very simple, solid works standard don't include toolbox, drive works, PDM, Autocad (draftsight is autocad LT equivalent).I have a customer that use solidworks and i don't like this software, but it have some great feature that Inventor don't have. My choice for commun mechanical task is Inventor.

there are a plenty of raison to prouve my choice and the first one is Inventor is more bright (more intelligent) than Solid Works and anothor raison is the ability to manage BOM, with inventor we can separate in, reference, purchased, phantom, normal and virtual; Solidwork can't do that. I love Inventor style there is no librairy style in solid works and etc etc

[blair]

After using Inventor for 15 years (since release 4) and Mechanical Desktop prior to that, I'm really not about to look at different software. If I would, without a budget limit, it would be Seimens Solid Edge.

[yannick3]

Hi

I agree with Blair comment. i think Solid edge is more robust than Solid Works. I work sometimes with SE and it's more easy to share parameter and create equation, the BOM have more option than Solid Works, but SE is not user friendly. And now SE have multibody modeling capacity

[chad38]

Solid Edge, puts SolidWorks to shame, and solid works is actually using Solid Edges kernel. For sheetmetal, there is no comparison, Solid Edge leave both behind. Heck, all SolidWorks can pull off is the user interface, and it really barely pulls that off. SolidWorks somehow ended up with the brand name recognition, but this is the only place it won. Heck, SolidWorks can't even edit Solid Edge's model natively, however Solid Edge can bend, edit and change parts made in Works at will.

[explodingbee]

Hi everyone,

I want to thank each one of you for giving me your thoughts on this.  I was definitely suprised that there were so many of you who preferred Inventor to Solidworks and also that there were several of you who suggested other programs, such as Solid Edge.  I will find out more about Solid Edge.  If that program is really better than Solidworks and Inventor and roughly the same price I will consider it.

I am just an independent guy working on a completely independant project that I eventually hope to market and make money with.  I have no income from my CAD project at this time so if I am going to spend $4,000 or so to get a legit CAD program I want to make sure I spend the money wisely. 

Thanks again and Merry Christmas to all of you,

Vincent

[twinz3950]

You could always download the 30 day trial of Inventor and use it to develope your own opinion. I am not sure if the other products mentioned  have a trail or not as I have only used Autodesk products.

[explodingbee]

Yes, that is a good idea.  I just went to the Siemens website and it looks like Solid Edge also offers a free trial. 

[chad38]

Just a tip, but you're going to want to use the "ordered" style of part modeling, not the "synchronous" they plug and have set as default. Synchronous, though very powerful, scares the heck out of me because of how easy and fast it can be to screw something up without knowing it.