Inventor vs SolidWorks
Inventor vs SolidWorks
(OP)
Just witnessed a demo of Inventor 7 and was suitably impressed. I have 6+ years of legacy Autocad and MDT data and it was imported without incident.
Is it a stable program?
Is it really as easy to learn as it appears?
What am I missing?
Is it a stable program?
Is it really as easy to learn as it appears?
What am I missing?





RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
After 4 years using Solidworks, due to the economy I had to make a job switch. The company I work for now uses Inventor...I have been on it for 6 weeks and can honeslty say I am nowhere near as comfortable on it as I was on Solidworks after a week.
It does seem to be a stable program...at least as stable as any of the other mid range packages out there.
If you understand the concepts of Solid modeling it's no more difficult to learn than Solidworks...however I don't feel it's near as intuitive as some seem to think.
I have not seen a viewer available that rivals eDrawings...if that was the only determining factor I would go with Solidworks.
As for legacy data...there is alot of talk on the Inventor Forum, moderated by Autodesk about problem with importing from MDT or ACad...and exporting .dwg to ACAD....from my experience with Swks there were far fewer problems with exporting to .dwg....don't know about the import...but I never seemed to have any problems importing.
Don't know if that's much help but it's my $.10 (inflation)
Alan M. Etzkorn

Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.
www.nixontool.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
I test drove SWX for about 6 weeks and went back to inventor. I found ease of learning just the opposite as Alan (it really depends on what you learned first, and how you work). I found SWX having major problems with solving constraint (mate) issues, and I found it to be more difficult to mate things together. (just my experience)
As far as stability, spend a little time on the solidworks section of this forum and look at the issues that they are having with 2004 (I think they are on SP3 since september)
This issue has been (and will be) debated at great length, and my take is:
SWX is better with sheetmetal, and surfaces, and drawings are somewhat better, has e-drawings (which have their own limitations), photo-rendering, and a very simple FEA program built in.
Inventor is easier to use and learn, performs better with many large assemblies (not all types), dwg output and import is improving, drawing performance is much better with R8, I found much more standard content (parts) for download, more free add-ons, the Adesk newsgroup will get you technical help very fast (from other users), you get the most recent autocad and MDT versions with Inventor, if you have MDT--Inventor is very inexpensive.
Both companies seem pretty sleazy, but SWX seems worse IMO. Subscription costs are similar. You see rumors about Desault/catia/SWX but that is just speculation. Get eval's of both, and test them, and keep talking to other users. Not an easy decision.
Some good Inventor sites:
www.sdotson.com (with lots of good links to Kent Keller's site and others)also has some great FREE tutorials
www.cbliss.com (for major parts content)
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Detailing in Inventor is much better as well.
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Sean Dotson, PE
Inventor Tutorials & More
www.sdotson.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Is it a stable program?
Is it really as easy to learn as it appears?
What am I missing?"
If u can i advise u to take IV8 : in that version they say to have improved the speed in drawings. I work with IV6 in a construction environment and it gives me satisfaction. But making a drawing who has a lot of complex features in it then it is somewhat slow (but mostly still acceptable).
"Is it stable?" I crash once a month. And maybe that is because i use beta drivers for my graphics card. But also that has been improved since my start with inventor.
"Is it really as easy to learn as it appears?" :
Yes it is. One thing though : the most difficult thing about 3D software is getting used to a new way of thinking. I learned it all in three weeks (and then i mean all features of inventor). Now (nine months later) I work fluently with the basics, rather good with sheetmetal but I still have to explore the iparts stuff
Next move to learn inventor better is using the iparts and visual basic stuff in order to write macros.
"What am I missing?"
What do u mean?
Concerning the eternal discussion of what the best 3D program is : its hard to find an objective opinion. Inventor is rather new and had its kidsdeceases but its a good program and i find it fun too design with.Dont forget that i have to work with it 8 hours a day, 7 days a week etc etc. I hope they keep on improving it.
I learned pro-e and i really hated the way they force u to make features. I didnt see pro-e do things that inventor cant do and mostly i needed more mouseclicks for making a feature then inventor. I also found it horrible the way they shield their knowledge so when u want to learn something or u need an upgrade u have to pay for it. They better should learn a lesson from autodesk : a good (available and not expensive) learning book makes a whole difference. As for Solid works : i dont have any experience with it so i cant judge it.
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Bottom line, make the demo jock use your parts and process. Then choose and don't look back.
BBJT CSWP
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
You get a star for that one...couldn't have said it better myself.
Alan M. Etzkorn

Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.
www.nixontool.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Sean Dotson, PE
Inventor Tutorials & More
www.sdotson.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Alan M. Etzkorn

Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.
www.nixontool.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Sean Dotson, PE
Inventor Tutorials & More
www.sdotson.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
I figured you were kidding, however, since the economy forced me to move from SWks to Inventor you have helped me a great deal.
so still I say you get a star.
Alan M. Etzkorn

Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.
www.nixontool.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Each has their pluses and minuses.
BTW, I assume you've visited my site. I have a bunch of tutorials on Inventor. If you have questions, please feel free to ask.
Sean Dotson, PE
Inventor Tutorials & More
www.sdotson.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
Does IV have a home usage option....similar to SWks...if you use it 80% of the time for work you can have a copy loaded on home PC....if they do then I would have more of a chance to go through some more tutorials.
Alan M. Etzkorn

Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.
www.nixontool.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
As long as the home and work machines are not being used at the same time (by one or more people) you can load the copy at both locations.
Sean Dotson, PE
Inventor Tutorials & More
www.sdotson.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks
That will help
Alan M. Etzkorn

Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.
www.nixontool.com
RE: Inventor vs SolidWorks