Ideas vs. Solidworks
Ideas vs. Solidworks
(OP)
Can anybody give me an opinion regarding Ideas vs. Solidworks in relation to modeling capabilities, ease of operation, drafting/assembly transitions and user friendliness? I've recently joined a consulting firm that has a client request for an Ideas project that I'm trying to convince will be much happier with Solidworks (they use both systems). Any opinions? I know it'a a loaded question but I'm looking for some rough comparisons here. I'm a Solidworks fan myself and believe I can complete the project in less than half the time it would take to do the job in Ideas.
Thanks - Dadelar
Thanks - Dadelar





RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
good luck with your ideas project.
RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
Oh, and good luck with telling your client what to do, I'm really sure they'll appreciate your sales pitch.
modeling capabilities- identical. may require some hard work. IDEAS is better for boolean operations, and its history tree seems more robust but less easy to understand.
ease of operation- who really cares, that's the CAD guy's problem
drafting/assembly transitions- 2D CAD - IDEAS, but not by much. Both make a job that a simple program like AutoCAD v11 can handle well rather difficult IMO. Assembly - can't say I like either, I think I get SW right more often than IDEAS on the first try, but neither seems to match my expectations.
and user friendliness-see ease of operation.
For free form solid modelling I'd rather use SW myself, but if I already had IDEAS and was paying someone else to create models I'd expect native IDEAS models.
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
However, I’ve been in a similar situation regarding which CAD system to use at my last employer. They’d had Solid Edge for a couple of years. They had a change in Engineering director to someone more familiar with Pro E. They decided to move to Pro E, their argument being that some of our major customers used Pro E, it was more compatible with Catia than SE and that it was more mature/advanced/powerful. In reality I think it was mainly because it was what they were used to.
After a couple of years they left the company. Leaving the company in a situation where they’d shelled out a lot of cash for Pro E without seeing much reward. Despite having had some training & small projects on Pro E most of the other Engineers & I couldn’t use it as well as we could SE, and just to put the icing on the cake the guy the director had brought in that was familiar with Pro E left a few weeks after the director!
The new interim director decided we needed to get up to speed on Pro E as he’d been sold on the propaganda. A job came up to take one of our major products which was still on paper/linen/film and put it on CAD. They did the costing based on using SE, I was involved in this. They then decided to actually do the work on Pro E to justify it’s cost. As our staff was busy on other projects and wasn’t very familiar with Pro E they brought in 2 contractors to help. The contractors didn’t seem to know any more than us, in one case less and just bleated on about how we had Pro E set up differently from where they’d worked before!
Anyway, to cut to the chase, the project ended up going around 3 times over budget, plus pretty much killed any remaining enthusiasm for Pro E.
So we were left with a major product on a CAD system none of us were still any good with as contractors had done most of the work, with some questionable modeling practices as the contractors were of questionable quality and we’d paid tens if not hundreds of thousands of $ for the privilege.
Chalk one up to good management!
Anyway what I’m trying to say is make sure you do all the research you can to get a comparison. Prepare comparative quotes based on each CAD system if need be. However, at the end of the day the customer, &/or manager makes the decision. There may be factors beyond your understanding/control.
Good luck!
RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
Obviously, you'll want as little headache with a project as possible, whether it's on the CAD guys shoulders or yours. Ultimately, if you're running the project there's no point whatsoever in making a decision that makes more work for a team member.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
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RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
Why is my handle 65Roses?
Please visit http://www.cff.org/aboutCFFoundation/About65Roses/ to learn why!
RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
Beware, though, once you ask this question it will probably ignite a firestorm of invective from the self-righteous highly opinionated CAD nerds who prowl those discussion groups. You'll have to filter the comments for useful info.
TygerDawg
RE: Ideas vs. Solidworks
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.