Solidworks vs Inventor
Solidworks vs Inventor
(OP)
I used Inventor V1 thru V4, then changed jobs. Now, I'm at a point to use this type of software again. The reason we used Inventor previously was because it was an "AutoDesk" product. I will be wanting to use my models on a website, which solidworks has the capability. I know it's hard to say which is best, but I would like to hear some opinions about why you think one is better than the other. If I've missed a previous forum on this subject, please direct me.






RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP

3DVision Technologies
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
When in doubt, always check the help
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
I have used both, and SolidWorks is better by far. Mind you Inventor is much more user friendly. But I like software with power, SW is very powerfull. It also helps that FEA support is available from various manufacturers. Also coverting file formats is much more accurate in SW over Inventor.
I still use Inventor, it's great. But for hi end stuff SW.
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
I had heard that Inventor had changed its modeling kernel in V7. Same type of move they made with the AutoCad format years ago. I don't think the industry would follow this time but, . . .
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
This from the guy who bought both a Betamax and a PS/2!!
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
Wanna Tip? FAQ731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
1) Configurations for assemblies - Inventor does not support them at all.
2) Sheet metal is far superior.
3} SolidWorks has an integrated PDM program. Though Inventor is releasing one soon.
4) More stable and less buggy than Inventor.
5) Much better support in our area.
We are actually moving to SolidWorks despite already having 3 seats of Inventor and 6 seats of MDT (which means that the upgrade cost to Inventor is quite low).
Binary, there's nothing wrong with a PS2 - they've sold WAY more units worldwide than the XBox. Oh, and Gran Turismo 4 is coming out soon.
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
WRT Inventor being buggy, spoke to a guy whose company bought one seat each of Inventor and SW for a 3-mo side-by-side. They ended it by sending several guys to 1-day training seminars for each. He said that Inventor 6 crashed 19 times during the seminar!
Most of my experience was with 5.3 and it was somewhat buggy.
From what I saw of a SW demo yesterday, SW all the way! Inventor's just got too far to go.
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
My only concern with Solid Edge is whether it's destined to become the WordPerfect of modelers - great program without the critical mass to sustain itself.
Does anybody know what EDS is getting for a seat of SE?
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
It can be hard to evaluate CAD programs fairly if you are already familiar with one of them. We originally got MDT because our Design Manager was familiar with it - despite the fact that SolidWorks was a far superior product. You have to be open minded when trialing CAD programs. It's very easy to write off a CAD package just because you're unfamiliar with it.
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
Well, Autodesk in general is... the ACIS (".sat") format is owned by Dassault Systems (SW parent company, of all people)
Too bad the Parasolid kernel, ".x_t", of which SW uses, is owned by UG... go figure.
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
Inventor can:
-Display material colours within the actually model (ie, chrome, plastic, rust..etc)
-Easily match up part with appropriate material, density, etc via pulldown menu.
-Select opposing tangent points to dimension on a pipe model (or a round part).
-Easy Parametric selection on model dimensions.
-and so on...
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
I have just purchased SW (on my own) because it does what I need it to do with sheet metal and translations. The demo was fantastic at SW offices (not without mistakes) but I ambushed the demo jockey with a tricky file he had for only 1 day and I asked him to do things he had not prepared for.
All in all I feel confident of my decision (just got the software today, hope the confidence stays).
I loved the IV interface. It was very intuitive. Check out
http://discussion.autodesk.com/ and the IV newsgroup, very interesting, a lot of what you can't do and workarounds for buggy software.
RE: Solidworks vs Inventor
It was nice how inventor allowed you to pick from a list of materials and apply it to your part. Once applied, it automaticly gave you the density, mass, rendering colour (which i miss) etc.. Im assuming sw2004 has more feature like that...Unfortunatly we wont be upgrading to it for awhile now! lol.