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SW vs Inventor

SW vs Inventor

SW vs Inventor

(OP)
I'm in a dilemma of whether to choose SW2001 Plus or Autodesk Inventor R5. Can anyone help???

Thanks,
Simon :(

RE: SW vs Inventor

Dear Simon,

SolidWorks is the best CAD (except CATIA, PRO-E, UG). You cannot make the option for Inventor R5. If you choose Inventor, you will buy SW soon or later in the future. Of course Inventor R5 have some qualities, but not compare with SW.

Choose the right thing, choose SW!

RE: SW vs Inventor

You need to do your own comparison, but I can guarantee that the idea that if you buy Inventor, you'll eventually switch to SWX is nonsense.  Quite the opposite, SWX is losing customers to INV.  (Wright Industries gave up on SWX after using it for 3 years, they had 40 seats!)

Inventor is rapidly gaining on SWX in terms of customer base, and in some features, was ahead of SWX from INV r1.  (One example is what SWX calls "culling", which is simplifying the display during rotates/pans of a large model, INV always did that.  Smoothed vs Sudden redisplays when rotating a model were always in INV, SWX got that feature in 2000).  This is an interesting review of SWX, scroll to the bottom to see my point: http://www.cadserver.co.uk/common/viewer/archive/2001/Oct/26/feature9.phtm

In my company's evaluation, the most outstanding feature of Inventor was its intuitiveness and lack of clutter (plus fewer mouse clicks and dialog boxes to get something done). A review of INV r5 that addresses "ease of use":  http://www.cadserver.co.uk/common/viewer/archive/2002/Jan/16/feature8.phtm

Inventor "technology" papers: http://www.ccsc-online.com/mcad/inventor5.htm

RE: SW vs Inventor

Just make sure those comparisons are comparing apples and apples, and not apples and oranges.  In my quest to find unbiased comparisions I found that both companies would compare their latest version to an older version of the competitions.

The best thing to do is get a IV demo and a SW demo on different days, then get 30-day trail use of each software and run them through the exact same exercises. Then you can draw your own conclusions.

"Happy the Hare at morning for she is ignorant to the Hunter's waking thoughts."

RE: SW vs Inventor

<Clip>
In my company's evaluation, the most outstanding feature of Inventor was its intuitiveness and lack of clutter (plus fewer mouse clicks and dialog boxes to get something done). A review of INV r5 that addresses "ease of use":  http://www.cadserver.co.uk/common/viewer/archive/2002/Jan/16/feature8.phtm

That was with SW01. SW01+ Doesn't have any dialog boxes. Those have been removed. Even though for the most part I like the dialog boxes personally.

Check out these Reviews:
http://209.208.199.147:85/reviews/software/cad/0601solidworks/0601solidworks.htm

This is an older review
http://209.208.199.147:85/spectrum/indforum/1299indforum.htm

Here is a search I did:
http://www.cadwire.net/search/?ID=1005&Query=Solidworks

Otherwise I agree with MadMango,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
George Koch Sons,LLC
Evansville, IN 47714
sjb@kochllc.com

RE: SW vs Inventor

The bottom line is test it yourself.  If the functionality is the same buy the cheaper one.  With how technology changes there is a good chance that we will all be switching in another three to five years.  Each package seems to do something better than the other.  Find the one that does what you need for the price you want to pay.  Any good demo jock can make their package look like the cutting edge technology.  I beleave SolidWorks is a better buy but I am a little bias.  I Demoed, trained, and supported SolidWorks for 2 years. It sounds like engrmech_vis has or is sold or selling IV.  
I now work for a large company supporting SolidWorks for a large amount of users nation wide.  I still keep an eye on all the modeling packages to see what they are doing and where they are going. I beleave most of them, excluding MDT, will do what you need it to do.

Again try it yourself, do not take the sales persons word for it. A good demo jock can make any package look like the bleeding edge of technology. Anybody can make a comparison or benchmark lean in their direction.  If you are going to be working over the network make sure you test that also.

One last thing.  If you are looking at SW and IV or who ever, give them a list of criteria that meets your needs when they walk in the door.  Check them of as they go through the demo.  Ask for a more in depth presentation involving your product in the areas that seemed kind of fuzzy in the demo.  What you will probably will find is that none of the packages by themselves will not meet all the criteria.  Pick the one the meets the most.  At least this way you will have a list that makes you feel more at ease with your decision.  Good Luck. :)

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

Madmango is right. What you have to do, is get a 30-day trail use to know each software. The choice will depends of your real need for this moment.

RE: SW vs Inventor

I think the most import thing to look at Simon is, What are you going to do with the software that you buy.  Make your decisions based upon functionality in the areas that you intend to use it for.  What is important to one company may be entirely useless to another.

Take a test drive of Solidworks, and one on invetor.  have the Sales Reps do a benchmark of their product with you.

Questions you should ask yourself:

Are you design responsible?
Do you deal with imported data, if how much, and what types.
What do you do with that imported data?
what is you company's niche?
what would the ideal software be able to do for you r company?

I have my favorite, but i'll not try and push my opionions on you, I feel that if you do a side by side comparision, I  know you'll find one that stands out.

Call a VAR and arrange some demos.
Regards,
Jon Benavides
Fisher Unitech
Troy MI

RE: SW vs Inventor

APPENG,
I am suprised and impressed with your answer, considering the line of work that you are in.  I can tell that you really understand and beleave in what you do.

I agree with you as I stated in my above post.  Try the software and be the judge for yourself.  I would like to take one thing back though.  If the functionality is the same buy the cheaper one.  Remember cheaper is not always better.  You should also take a look at the track records of each company.

Good Luck!

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

Not only should you compare the software, but you should also compare the support you will get. If both packages will meet your needs, this may push you in the final direction.

Find out what types of training do they have and how expensive is it to get your workforce up to speed. If you submit a problem, how long will it take for the VAR to respond?

Unfortunately, this is not always software dependant since there seems to be more competition in the reseller market. Some resellers (at least mine) has a FREE night school once a month and provides an excellent turn-around time for problems we submit.

Good luck...

DimensionalSolutions@Core.com
While I welcome e-mail messages, please post all thread activity in these forums for the benefit of all members.

RE: SW vs Inventor

Your missing the boat, Look at Solid Edge. Our Company dismissed inventor right off the bat, Solid Edge and SolidWorks are the two main MCAD packages to look at just remember that SolidWorks run off of a kenal owned by EDS witch owns Solid Edge.

RE: SW vs Inventor

CADv11,
Did I miss something?  Does SolidEdge own the kernal? No!
Even if they did, which they don't, they would not limit SolidWorks in any way because of the revenue that SolidWorks brings in.  I think EDS has done the math.

DSI,
You make an excellent point about support.  Ask for a couple of existing customers that you can contact to asked the questions that DSI posed.

I am not seeing any more questions or responses from, biomac, the person who origanlly started this thread.  Are you still out there?  If so it has been three months.  Have you made any decisions?

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

Were did it say Solid Edge owns the kernal, I belive it said EDS owns the kernal and they own Solid Edge. You people are a joke. Solid Edge has just as much to offer if not more than the other company. Is a joke to think that EDS is going to wipout Solid Edge and make you go to UG. If thats the case the i will be able to get into UG at discount. Go for me.

RE: SW vs Inventor

midrangewebmaster:
I assume that is what you meant by "Here we go again!"

DimensionalSolutions@Core.com
While I welcome e-mail messages, please post all thread activity in these forums for the benefit of all members.

RE: SW vs Inventor

My mistake, one of these days I will learn?

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

Yes the debate continues.... Inventor is using image of his elderly brother AutoCAD and trying to catch on with SolidWorks. Well I think choose one of them. Stick on with them. Get maximum benefit and value.

RE: SW vs Inventor

We are looking at a replacement to MDT and are evaluating both SWX and INV. Both CO's seem to have limited documentation available on their software API, does any one have a comparison or know of one ?

RE: SW vs Inventor

I use the SolidWorks API all of the time. The documentation leaves a bit to be desired (not enough samples and some errors), but most of the functionality is there. I have no idea about Inventor.

I may be able to provide some more insight if you gave us some more details about what you design and what you plan to do with the API.

Good Luck.

DimensionalSolutions@Core.com
While I welcome e-mail messages, please post all thread activity in these forums for the benefit of all members.

RE: SW vs Inventor

We push the API to the limit.  We wrote our own home grown PDM system which takes PDM further than most of the solution partners, Title Program, etc.  I personally do not deal much with the API but the gentleman here that does, has had a great deal of success.  Sorry, but I can not share these programs with anybody.  Company rules.

The way I see it if there is a will there is a way.  If for some reason the API does not have a call that we need SW API department has added them in for us.  They also have an awesome API training class that they offer at SW corporate office.

Also if you do a search on API in this forum, I am guessing, that you will find tons of questions that almost all have solution.

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

First, I'm a Senior Design Engineer with an interesting CAD background.

I was "born and raised" on Autodesk products from 1983, when AutoCAD was less than one year old!

For many years, I was a CAD manager who managed over 100 users of AutoCAD at a time.  I've trained countless users and wrote hundreds of LISP routines, many of them still invaluable for editing drawings.  I have all the desire in the world to WANT to like and use Autodesk products.  I used MDT off and on for several years when it first came out.  I now have Inventor 5, which is an impressive improvement for design work over MDT, although file management is a little more convoluted.

That being said, I started using SolidWorks in October of '96.  I could not believe how easy and intuitive it was to model with.  I learned it and became proficient with it much quicker than with the Autodesk counterparts.

For designing, modeling and creating drawings from my models, I find SolidWorks much more enjoyable to use than Inventor, so I'm getting a lot more practice with SW.  Unlike the guy above, I do NOT find Inventor to be intuitive at all!

If you have a large database of 2D AutoCAD drawings and think Inventor will make it easier to migrate to 3D by using that legacy data, think again.  We find that it is ALWAYS faster and cleaner to start a model from scratch than to import the 2D data and try to massage it into sketches for 3D features.  We want to have more control over how imported 2D sketches are constrained.

I've also got to say that SolidWorks as a company is much quicker to respond to users needs than Autodesk.  They consider their customers to be an investment, not a captive audience.  You also won't lose the equity you have in SolidWorks like we did with a couple licenses we had of AutoCAD R14.

Good Luck,

Tim

RE: SW vs Inventor

Wow, that's pretty basic stuff they are asking for. Good find, Scott!

DimensionalSolutions@Core.com
While I welcome e-mail messages, please post all thread activity in these forums for the benefit of all members.

RE: SW vs Inventor

It is dangerous making decisions ona wishlist of a product that is two releases old. Get the trials,a nd answer the question yourself. If this thread proves anything it is that each person has personal baises based on past experiances and possible misinformation. Solidworks is Ahead of inventor, but not as far as they should be with a three year head start. I use both products and will not reneder any opinion here other than they both work. Pick the product you like best and consider it a personal choice of a tool, not a religion.

RE: SW vs Inventor

Amen!!!! Zippo80

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

I agree it is up to the user or users who are going to use the software. That is why it is best to test-drive all software before buying it.

But...

If someone comes to this forum (Solidworks), you can bet my opinion is going to be biased and completely in favor of SW. After all that is what my career is riding on right now, besides my knowledge, experience, and education etc...

I would expect this from the AutoCAD\Inventor forum as well.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com
http://home.insightbb.com/~scott.baugh/

RE: SW vs Inventor

Actually, the link Scott provided was to a wishlist for I4.  I5 has addressed many of these issues.

As far as the three-year headstart that SolidWorks has, it's no surprise that AutoCAD is not three years behind.  They've had SolidWorks, among many others, to lead by example which SHOULD speed up their learning curve.

I can't believe they haven't got configurations figured out yet, however!  Also, they could really learn from some usability studies to be more intuitive to those who use umpteen Windows applications.

Tim

RE: SW vs Inventor

Our company is looking right now at changing over from Solid Edge to SolidWorks. The simple fact it Solid Edge is just way to tedious at doing simple things. My favorite example of this is the dimensioning tool. I still can't figure out why you must change between liner and anguler in SE. If I pick two lines that are on an angle to each other why would I want a distance? My second favorite is when you go to type in a dimention and SE shows the dim you typed in, but underlines it and does actually change the dim. What use is this? Why not say the entity you are tring to change is fully defined (hmmm, like SW?) I could go on, but Like eveyone else has said it should be up to the users. I just can't wait till we get our SW software!!

Geoff  

RE: SW vs Inventor

We are long time users of AutoCad, and very satisified with it.  We have been transitioning to Solidworks for the last couple years. We had a Inventor Demo last week to see what all the hub-ub was about...what a joke.  Couldn't import 2D geometry (from AutoCad) correctly, problems mating, just didn't seem to have as much functionality.  Altho they can NOW parametrically define one circle to be equal in diameter to another circle.  WOW! <--Sarcasim in case you didn't catch it.

Overall, not impressed by Inventor at all.  SW is the clear choice.

Ken

RE: SW vs Inventor

I have a comparison between SolidWorks to Inventor, interested? I can send it to you as a pdf, SolidWorks comes out on top.

SteveMS

RE: SW vs Inventor

SteveMS,
Who was the campaison done by?  Do not get me wrong, I think SolidWorks is the best mid-range package out there.  There are comparisons on SW website with SolidWorks comming out ahead and there are comparisons on AutoDesk showing AutoDesk coming out ahead.  The only true comparison that anyone can beleave is the one they do for themselves.

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

SteveMS,

I would like to take a look at the SW and Inventor comparison. Could you send me a copy?

Thanks,

Derek
derek.taylor@seg-outdoor.com

RE: SW vs Inventor

Less than two weeks ago I read about a "shootout" between Inventor and SolidWorks that was sponsered by Autodesk.  Of course, SW declined to participate (since Autodesk was defining the racecourse), but these guys found some poor soul to run the SW software who was obviously not as well trained on SW as the Inventor guy was on Inventor.  Needless to say, Inventor comes out looking like the cat's meow and SolidWorks looks lame.

http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/adsk_inventor/select/moss_shootout.htm

Funny, but isn't it interesting that it's always the little kid on the block who's envious of the big guy and is always making up some kind of contest he can win?

RE: SW vs Inventor

Yes it was a lopsided "shoot-out" but that is SolidWorks own fault.  They chose not to attend for what ever reason they gave.

I am sure the reason was not because they thought that they would loose to IV.  I would venture a guess it was more in fear that people would see for themselves that all these mid-range packages do pretty much the same thing.  Each does something a little better than the other.

I have said it a million times.  Get a trial copy of each and test them yourself.

One thing that I can brag about as far as SolidWorks goes is that our VAR, and SolidWorks themselves, have always been there for us when we needed support and direction.

BBJT CSWP

RE: SW vs Inventor

BBJT
2 write ups. SolidWorks2000 Vs Inventor V2 Vs SolidEdge V8.

1:One is done between SW200o, SolidEdge Version 8, Inventor release 2 and has been done by Joe Greco a freelance CAD writer.

2: Inventor 5 to SolidWorks 2001, done by you guessed it Autodesk

I have used both Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks, currently using SolidWorks and my preference is to SolidWorks hands down.

SteveMS

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