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Inventor and Solidworks

61 REPLIES 61
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Message 1 of 62
waynefisher
5119 Views, 61 Replies

Inventor and Solidworks

 

My company is in the process of researching Solidworks. We have for the last six years been using strictly Inventor for all designs, renderings, animations, detail drawings etc. My question today is, how many companies have both Inventor and Solidworks? Do you use both to run your engineering departments? Inventor has been a good tool for us in the past, we build primarily metal weldments. No plastics, no surface modeling. I am not quite sure the reason for acquiring Solidworks, however I speculate there is a greater workforce available that are Solidworks users. I am looking for any thoughts or concerns in regards to having two different software packages. I know the models for each will not cross over well into the other. Is there anything else I should know, pros and cons?

 

Thanks

 

Wayne

 

61 REPLIES 61
Message 41 of 62
WayneTaylor
in reply to: waynefisher

I have 16 years experience with SW and 1 year with IV . I find the sketcher much faster, solidworks is 10 times faster than Inventor.

Message 42 of 62
JDMather
in reply to: WayneTaylor


@WayneTaylor wrote:

I have 16 years experience with SW and 1 year with IV . I find the sketcher much faster, solidworks is 10 times faster than Inventor.


Where are you getting the data for this statement?
Post your data set.

 

What year month and day was SWx first released?


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Message 43 of 62
JDMather
in reply to: WayneTaylor


@WayneTaylor wrote:

I have 16 years experience with SW and 1 year with IV . I find the sketcher much faster, solidworks is 10 times faster than Inventor.


How much training have you had with Inventor?

For whatever it is worth, my opinion is that you haven't had enough experience to be making an evaluation.  (but I've only been using both products for about 11 years.


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Message 44 of 62
cean_au
in reply to: Loren_J

But still there are far more who can use sw in china, through sw is not taught on tv.
Message 45 of 62
WayneTaylor
in reply to: WayneTaylor

You may be right about my limited experience with inventor,however  I do find the sketcher and the assembly action very cumbersome,. I would not recommend Inventor to anyone at this time. Solidworks is just so much easier.Especially for rubber molds. The Inventor mold module is horrible.

Message 46 of 62
JDMather
in reply to: WayneTaylor


@WayneTaylor wrote:

Especially for rubber molds. The Inventor mold module is horrible.


You have not supplied any evidence.

Post a data set that demonstrates this.


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Message 47 of 62
ampster401
in reply to: WayneTaylor

time for another "I'm not here to make any friends" post.

 

From now on, I will always consider the joined date + number of posts made before even bothering to read a post where someone comes here to complain.

 

Not worth listening to.

Message 48 of 62
schae235
in reply to: ampster401

Not all of us who are new to the software (and thus new to the fourms) have a bias. 

INV 2012 SP1
Windows 7 64 Bit
ATI FirePro V5800
14.0 GB RAM
Message 49 of 62
JDMather
in reply to: schae235

Newcomers can add additional and important value to a discussion like this.

 

I sometimes pick up important stuff from students with nil experience.

 

But surely, someone with 10+ years of experience in competing MCAD software program should be able to provide verifiable evidence to help nudge Autodesk into providing a better product.

 

I have yet to see anyone provide significant evidence other than bits and pieces of some functionality that a competitor does better. 


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Message 50 of 62
Cadmanto
in reply to: waynefisher

Wayne,

I am a seasoned Solidworks user (12 years) and 3 months ago took a job that uses Inventor.

With that said I can honestly say that my comfort level is with Solidworks.  I have read through a few of the postings in this thread and I think it is fair to say that those that have used SW for a while that is where there comfort level is.  Those that have used Inventor for a while there in lies there comfort level.  If you were to post this same question on the SW forum you would get the bulk of the respondants in favor of SW.

I am probably not a fair person to ask this question, but what I can tell you is that there are things that Inventor does better and there are a lot of things that SW does better.  I read someone say that the things that INventor does that is of the opinion that the person making that claim just doesn't know Inventor well enough I find to be a tad bit incorrect.  I have posted many threads on this forum and for the most part there has been resonsed back that show me how to do it.  Sometimes the method is a littl more clumbersome and complicated and other times it is an easier process then it would have been in SW.  My general accessment at this point is Inventor 2012 is basically where SW was in 2004-2005

Being a CSWP and with all of the questions I have asked and the level of depth I have gained in the 3 months I can clearly see this.

Hope this helps.  I would invite you to post this on the SW forum just to get an idea of the other side.  It is only fair

if you are to clearly access this rivalry.

Best Regards,
Scott McFadden
(Colossians 3:23-25)


Message 51 of 62
kstate92
in reply to: Cadmanto

There used to be model challenges that some of the more experienced forum members would offer for others to try and solve.  I can't recall what the metrics were; time, maybe.  A similar problem-solving challenge to both Inventor and SW users might be interesting, but who would judge the results and how to guard against a problem carefully-crafted to be more amenable to IV over SW or vise-versa?  A cute idea that is wholly impractical, I suppose.

KState92
Inventor Professional 2020
AutoCAD Mechanical 2022.0.1
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit - 1903
Core i7-8700 32 GB Ram
Quadro P2000
Message 52 of 62
JDMather
in reply to: Cadmanto


@Cadmanto wrote:

  It is only fair if you are to clearly access this rivalry.


Of course anyone with significant experience in something as complex as MCAD software will favor their experience over their inexperience.

 

Without verifiable, scientifically testable data - it is all a lot of hot air. 

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=313471

 

*by scientifically testable - I mean professionals in both softwares could sit at a table and through demonstration support their positions.  I would wager that most of the people that appear here or on SWx sites favoring SWx or Inventor without substantiation that I can out-perform them in either program as judged by peers in either program.  My opinion is that the programs are essentially identical for all usual intents and purposes for which MCAD software is used.


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Message 53 of 62
JimSteinmeyer
in reply to: JDMather

JD,

I would dissagree with you on the statement that  " the programs are essentially identical for all usual intents and purposes". Being a SW user for 5 years and an Iv user for almost 1 year now I would say that there is definately a different thought process behind how to accomplish the same tasks with the two different programs. At the present, much to my chagrin, I have to admit that I greatly prefer the Solid-doesn't-Works thought process, but that is as suggested before because I am much more familiar with it. That being said, I would say that the two programs are comperable in what they are able to accomplish given a trained opperator. There are many things that are easyer in one program or the other so being identical is not the right term but comperable is a better fit.

     I am sure if I continue to visit this forum and learn your posts I will some day become as adept with Inventor as currently with SW and be able to accomplish the tasks in a simmular time frame.

WIth that being said:

I still hate LODs

I wish I could link balloons on all sheets of a drawing to the BOM on the first sheet

I wish I could directly change the density of a part to match the measured weight

I wish the new sketches did not select a new coordinate system based on the sketch face

I wish when I made a Ifactory and part I could get the part to update in the assembly some how

.......

 

jim

Jim

Inventor Premium 2013 SP1.1
Vault 2013- plain vanilla version
HP G71 notebook
celeron cpu w\ 4gb RAM and 64 bit system
Win 7 home premium

Ya, my boss has me running my personal machine at work.
Message 54 of 62
DVDM
in reply to: JimSteinmeyer


@JimSteinmeyer wrote:

 

I wish I could directly change the density of a part to match the measured weight

 


Just override the weight instead then, which will calculate the density for you. If you want to change the density because you have other parts of the same material that you haven't weighed, then just change the density in the material library to that value, so it updates for all parts.

Message 55 of 62
JimSteinmeyer
in reply to: DVDM

Often we will have an assembly (tire and wheel for example) that are modeled as one component but obviously it incorperates 2 materials. Or we will have a CAD print for a vendor's item that we want to model a guick component from to hold the space but we may not have an accurate shell thickkness for, or it could also be a composit. We know the weight of the assembled product so It would be quick to take the model weight and density and extropolate a correct density to have the correct weight. but it would be for only the one model and not correct for a material.

I haven't found out how to overide the weight yet, but as that is possible I will continue to explore how to do that.

 

Thank you

 

Jim

 

P.S. any suggestions on my other wishes?

Jim

Inventor Premium 2013 SP1.1
Vault 2013- plain vanilla version
HP G71 notebook
celeron cpu w\ 4gb RAM and 64 bit system
Win 7 home premium

Ya, my boss has me running my personal machine at work.
Message 56 of 62
schae235
in reply to: JimSteinmeyer

Jim-

have you tried looking into making the rim and the wheel two seperate solid bodies?  I believe then that you could have the rim say Alum and the wheel rubber.

 

MES

INV 2012 SP1
Windows 7 64 Bit
ATI FirePro V5800
14.0 GB RAM
Message 57 of 62
JimSteinmeyer
in reply to: schae235

Yes, that is an option. Unfortunately I have many leagicy models that would need to be redone. I also used the tire/wheel as an easy example of one of many types of purchased assemblies that we install in models for place holders where being able to find the correct balance of our product would also be very desireable.

 

I also wanted to say that while I currently greatly prefer SW, I am using my home $500 HP laptop to run Inventer at work and am having no problems other than being slightly slow. I have SW loaded as well but would not even consider making the same models as the computer would not be able to handle it.

 

Thank you

 

Jim

Jim

Inventor Premium 2013 SP1.1
Vault 2013- plain vanilla version
HP G71 notebook
celeron cpu w\ 4gb RAM and 64 bit system
Win 7 home premium

Ya, my boss has me running my personal machine at work.
Message 58 of 62
schae235
in reply to: JimSteinmeyer

I understand, I was only suggesting it because most users ignore this tool which I consider to be extreemly helpful in many situations.

INV 2012 SP1
Windows 7 64 Bit
ATI FirePro V5800
14.0 GB RAM
Message 59 of 62
stevec781
in reply to: kstate92

There is a little thing know as Cognitive Dissonance which in simple terms means that a person will make any excuse and ignore details in order to justify their decision.   A person that uses one brand of software will often ignore good features in another because they want to think that they are using the best one, and they will also ignore bad features in their own software and accept lengthy work arounds for the same reason.

 

Is is too difficult to say any one is better than the other as a general statement, but in speciic tasks its easier.  For example

The gear generator makes inventor better for modelling gears,

SW extensive mate options make it better for mating parts in some cases eg width mate,

SW has the ability to dimension an arc length in a sketch, Inv doesnt.

SW has multi body sheet metal, Inv doesnt

SW has better assembly mirroring where mates are involved.

SW extrude has an offset distance from the start plane, inv doesnt.

SW lets you assign a drawing scale to a sheet, Inv doesnt.

SW has thin option in extrudes and sweeps, inv doesnt

 

My list is SW biased because these are some of the things that I miss, but for others who dont care about those things they will argue that inv is better based on what they model.

 

So the best way to tell is to consider what you need to do and then see what tools are available.  And the reality is that for many people, Alibre, Ironcad or Spaceclaim would be a cheaper option that's just as good.

 

The majority of SW users will argue its the best just as the majority of Inv users will say Inv is the best.  So cognitive dissonance makes asking which is best in any forum as valid as watching a couple of 10 year olds have the GMH vs Ford debate based on which one their dad drives.

 

For me, for what I do, I dont like using either of them and am about to start a trial of Spaceclaim.

Message 60 of 62
WayneTaylor
in reply to: Cadmanto

I'd like to pack and go a part and drawing, rename them,make changes to the part and have the drawing automatically update.

Takes about 2 seconds in SW.

Is this possible in inventor?

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