Moving SolidWork to Inventor

[snguyenSWVMS]

My company using SolidWork for 10 years and now they want to move to Inventor dues to pricing and performance.

I use Inventor for 20 years and Solidwork for 6 months. I wonder if anyone in here has experience about this and what I should watch for.

My company use SolidWork 2024 and PDM basic.

We want to move to current Inventor with basic vault.

I have try to open Solidwork direct with Inventor and I ran into couple problem and not sure how to correct.

1. My compnay using Solidwork and they have file name too long plus the network file so long and Inventor has problem open this file.

2. How do I open Solidwork direct and pickup the old property transfer to Inventor Iproperty?

3. Solidwork use part weldment with multi body but Inventor use frame generator. I can open the file but I can not edit the frame member because they are just body.

Anyway this is just few things I see and know as a problem. When we move to real work we may see more stuff.

I am thinking when we move to Inventor for new project we P&G from SolidWork to Inventor and open work new part will created with Inventor. We just want to see if we can reuse the purchased part and standard part foe the company.

Thanks for your help .

[andrewiv · Accepted solution]

You might want to check out a 3rd party software for doing this conversion.  I have not actually used this in a production environment, but I have seen several demos and used a similar software to go from Inventor to Solidworks in the pastl.  https://www.iti-global.com/interoperability-products/gotoinventor/

[hollypapp65]

SW files will become "dumb solid" in IV.

Just like any STP import.

IV will import properties, part number etc.

Everything will need to be remodel in IV.

3D party could reduce some remodeling.

Drawing is another thing you'll need redraw.

[snguyenSWVMS]

Thanks,

All model will be dumb solid but with new feature in Inventor is very easy to edit the dumb model.

All drawing we can export to DWG for quick released but any new part  will need new drawing.

I just want to see if I can save the custom property in SolidWork file to Inventor Iproperty.

Thanks

[snguyenSWVMS]

Thanks for the information.

[hollypapp65]

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@snguyenSWVMS wrote:

Thanks,

I just want to see if I can save the custom property in SolidWork file to Inventor Iproperty.

Thanks

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Yes, custom property will be saved to IV.

[andrewiv]

If all you want is to bring over the custom properties, have you tried setting the property mapping?  I know you can type in the names of the solidworks properties and map those to the standard iProperties.  I don't think there is a way to bring them into custom iProperties but maybe this will serve your need.

[snguyenSWVMS]

Thanks Andrew,

I think if I map the custom property in Inventor the same as the property in SolidWork it will bring over.

Thanks for the idea

[SharkDesign]

If you have loads of legacy data that you need daily, don't bother. 

If you create from scratch each time, welcome to Inventor. 

Inventor can import SWX, but as said above you get no feature history and the property mapping is pretty limited. 

You can however edit the 'dumb solids' by either creating new features on top, or by using direct edit command. 

[snguyenSWVMS]

Thanks,

I found software can transfer SW to INV with all assembly , model & drawing.

[SharkDesign]

Yes, but does it convert the FEATURE HISTORY in the browser?

If not and you just get dumb solids it is pointless using that software when Inventor can just open SWX files anyway.