Inventor vs Creo for Large Assemblies

[Anonymous]

Has anyone tried PTC Creo with large assemblies 5-10K + parts verses trying Inventor?

The direct modeling approach looks significantly faster for large assemblies than the history based approach.

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The direct modeling approach looks significantly faster for large assemblies than the history based approach.

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Is that based on your experience or is it based on watching a promo video?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've looked at the demoes and sure they look pretty and so do the Inventor ones, but I'm currently testing the software and so far it appears to handle large assemblies much faster & more efficient than Inventer.

This is something we've pulled our hair out over on a regular basis using Inventor and Rogain is getting expensive!

[Anonymous]

I can't say how well Creo works, but I often go over 5,000 parts with my assemblies in Inventor. I don't have a monster CAD machine & Inventor runs really well if you follow large assembly workflows & hygeine.

Have you read the Wiki?

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Inventor/enu/2012/Help/0073-Autodesk73/0460-Assembli460/Work_with_Large...

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 I'm currently testing the software and so far it appears to handle large assemblies much faster & more efficient than Inventer.

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Large dumb assemblies or large intelligent assemblies?  Who created the data set you are testing?  (most people do not have the training to really test stuff like this - they usually know one program well and set everything up correctly for the test and know just enough about the other program to make it look bad)

A true test would have identical but native datasets modeled with best-practices appropriate to the softwares.
I have never ever seen this done.

I am not making any comments about one program or the other as far suitability for the job, just the so-called "tests" I have seen.

[Anonymous]

They're large assemblies created by me with all of the data enabled.

I'm a certified Inventor/Vault user and just learning Creo, however it's very similar to Inventor. Autodesk designed Inventor after it (Pro-E). It's kind of freaky how similar they are.

You're point is valid. We want to compare apples to apples, so we'll be looking at it as thoroughly as we can.

[PACDrafting]

Not to sure what problems you are having inventor. But inventor has direct 3D modeling and is parametric. The parametric side of things sorts the men out from the boys if you get my drift. I think that's all that needs saying.

[PACDrafting]

Just a couple of questions out of interest. Do you use adaptivity? And if yes, how much?

[JDMather]

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PACDrafting wrote:

 The parametric side of things sorts the men...

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Creo is a parametric modeler.  Essentially identical to Inventor.

[PACDrafting]

Ok just trying to understand his original post. Direct modeling v history based?

[PACDrafting]

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Inventor/enu/2012/Help/2108-CAD_Mana2108/2138-Configur2138/2139-Work_sm...

[cbenner]

Just my humble opinion, but we used Pro E Wildfire for 3 years, and came back to Inventor 2 years ago.  The selling point that brought us back was a test we did in house, (and JD I agree with you about testing methods, so take this for what it is worth).

We were looking at a potential upcoming project, where the top level assembly would require us to have 17 large pieces of equipment being brought together in a plant setting.  At the time, we thought we were going to be using either Pro E (which was our main design software at that time) or Inventor.  For our test we compiled identical assemblies containing 17 skids.  One set modeled in Inventor, the other modeled in Pro E.  Since we HAD been on Inventor for years, we already had models we could use.  We then saved the top level assemblies, closed both machines down and started them up cold, so the conditions would be the same.  The computers in use were identical in hardware, software and memory etc.

On a 1,2,3 countdown we opened both assemblies.  10 minutes later we were spinning the Inventor assembly and able to work with it just fine.... 1 hour and 15 minutes later the Pro E assembly finally finished opening.  We've been on Inventor ever since, and haven't looked back.

Also, for routed systems, I MUCH prefer Inventor and the Content Center approach.  Easier to build and modify pipe lines, frames etc.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input guys. The Creo direct modeling isn't what you might think and is nothing like Inventor. It's setup to use less memory for each part and assembly, but doesn't bring in the part history, but still allows full control of the part and or assembly. So far it looks promising. Still testing however. We're not buying any new software unless it proves to get the job done better.

As for the note about Tube & Pipe, I couldn't disagree more. We've been using it for about 4 years now for our hydraulic hoses and it's been a @#$@$^ nightmare! We've had more problems and logged more time with Autodesk tech support than I have time or patience to list here. It's one of the worst peices of software I've ever used! Funny thing is that the tech at our former reseller agreed! This process is much simpler and stable in Creo.

I might also throw in Vault and Content Center which have proven to be highly unstable over the years we've used them both and as a matter of fact we're having trouble right now with one of the two, not sure which one is the culprit.

We'll see if I can fix it.

I know that part of you job is to defend your software and I can appreciate that, but our experience is showing that some of the other folks do build better mouse traps.

We wish it were different as we'd like to have raises instead of having to buy new software and learn it.

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the input guys. The Creo direct modeling isn't what you might think and is nothing like Inventor.  

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AFAIK - You should be comparing Creo Parametric to Inventor and the Creo Direct Modeling (CoCreate) to Inventor Fusion.

It sounds to me like you are comparing apples to oranges.

[Anonymous]

I am student currently an intermediate user in Autodesk Inventor, and I designed an induction motor using Autodesk, but now I'm looking if Autodesk offers an add-in or plug-in so that I would be able to convert my .ipt and .iam files to creo format.

Plus could these files be editable in Creo? Plus would it affect the animation?

[JDMather]

File>Save Copy As and choose one of the Pro/E file types.
All history will be lost.

[slphantom]

I tell you what I just started using creo 2.0 about 3 weeks ago. we design special machines and I had used Inventor for 12 years previous at my last job doing pretty much the same thing. I don't know why anyone would use creo? it doesn't even count the holes for you in the detail drawings!! useless.

I am use to being able to to pull up my BOM and add my detail numbers, sheet numbers and such and have it fill out all my detail sheets and assemblies. we set that up in Inventor with iproperties. you could do it in less than a min.

I used pro-e back about 13 years ago. seems like not much has changed. very sad