Inventor to Solid Edge
Inventor to Solid Edge
(OP)
I'm a designer for a manufacturing company and my engineering mgr is having me evaluate SE ST because he wants to transition from Inventor. I'm trying to find out if the switch is going to be worth the time and money it's going to cost to change over. The first roadblock i've come to is the Inventor Data Migration utility that comes with Solid Edge, i can't get the files to translate. Has anyone had any experience with this data migration?





RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
Does Inventor do everything you need it to?
If so, don't change because you will probably break everything you have done so far. If you don't have a lot of data that may not be a problem.
Your part models may convert OK and you should be able to edit them in ST using the direct modeling, but there will probably be no relationships in any of the assemblies, and no links between models and drawings - unless the migration is supposed to do this.
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
We've done a lot of translation, though not with inventer that I'm aware of, and usually resort to having the native program export parasolid and open this with SE.
However, if you're doing a lot of it, like it sounds like you are you're right to investigate.
Have you spoken to Siemans/your VAR?
If they are potentially looking to sell it to you then it's in their interest to show you how to do what you want.
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
They may be able to open the models, be it via a 'generic' file type, and may be able to open the drawings, be it as dxf or similar if not direct. However they don't keep the links which is one of the biggest things with 3D.
Hound your "Technical Solutions Consultant", in this economic environment they should be hungry for the sale. Our Solid Edge sales contact just got laid off, along with 300 colleagues at Siemans.
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
I really like SE, but changing a CAD system is not something you should do unless the old one really doesn't do what you want.
Sounds like Mr Manager waited for an excuse to change - has he got you to evaluate SW yet?
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Inventor to Solid Edge
I wasn't making any (intentional) comparisons here.
I've been through a CAD system evaluation and change before and I know that although all new projects have been done with the 'new' one the company still uses the old one for a huge amount of legacy data - even after 10 years or so.
Mind you, the hardware is getting a bit ropy now and finding people that can still use it is not easy.
Have you seen the new Inventor 'Fusion' demos - it's very similar to the way ST and SpaceClaim work (and no doubt how SolidWorks will).
I'm still doing my own 'evaluation' of SpaceClaim and I have to say it's a very clever little package - although still limited and missing a few things.
Siemens should especially take a look at how the sheet metal works - but I'm going off topic here again.
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.