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 :(
Thanks,
Simon :(
When was the last time you drove down the highway without seeing a commercial truck hauling goods?
Download nowINTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS Come Join Us!Are you an
Engineering professional? Join Eng-Tips Forums!
*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail. Posting GuidelinesJobs |
|
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
Check out this thread This has be discussed quite recently
Thread559-15674
Thank dsi for pointing out these links as while
Thread404-1461
Thread724-8159
Hardware required to run SW. Thread559-14191
Hope that helps,
Scott Baugh, CSWP
George Koch Sons,LLC
Evansville, IN 47714
sjb@kochllc.com
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
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
http://www.tenlinks.com/CAD/reference/reviews/inventor/cadreport1001.htm
"Happy the Hare at morning for she is ignorant to the Hunter's waking thoughts."
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
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
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
I am suprised and impressed
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
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
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
BBJT CSWP
RE: SW vs Inventor
Yeap!
Jim Smithie, Webmaster
http://www.midrangecad.com
Free CAD evaluation kits and comparisons
RE: SW vs Inventor
RE: SW vs Inventor
RE: SW vs 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
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
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
http://www.cadsense.co.nz/INVwish.htm
Thanks for the site P.Kellner!
Best Regards to all,
Scott Baugh, CSWP
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com
http://home.insightbb.com/~scott.baugh/
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
RE: SW vs Inventor
BBJT CSWP
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
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
Geoff
RE: SW vs Inventor
Overall, not impressed by Inventor at all. SW is the clear choice.
Ken
RE: SW vs Inventor
SteveMS
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
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
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
http://www.tenlinks.com/NEWS/ARTICLES/tl/081102_sw_nofair.htm
Tim
RE: SW vs Inventor
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
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