How to make my company switch to Solidworks ? 2

[RetroVirus]

Hi,

We use Autodesk Inventor and our contract is up on the 30th of this month. There are only 2 M.E's in our company and we want to switch to Solidworks. We got a quote and it's twice as exp as Inventor.

We need 'Solidworks Office Premium' whose equivalent is 'Inventor Profession Suite'. SW is exactly twice as expensive and my boss won't approve it because of the price.

Any suggestions ?

 

[TheTick]

Just what does SW have that you need that Inventor doesn't have?

 

[RetroVirus]

Complex shape modeling. IV just doesn't cut it. The amount of time we could save is a lot.

A robust FEA package. IV has none, SW has CosmowWorks.

There's so many, I could go on and on but the thing is, I understand why it's costs more but my boss doesn't. He is not into CAD.

 

[TheTick]

SW doesn't really cut it well for complex shape modelling, either. Why not UG?

 

[RetroVirus]

Does it have an FEA package that comes with it and how exp is UG ?

 

[TheTick]

If you're serious about FEA you won't just jump into bed w/ COSMOS.

 

[RetroVirus]

No one's jumping into bed with anything. We really can't justify purchasing Ansys or Algor.

Cosmos does what we need.

 

[MadMango]

Complex shape modeling. IV just doesn't cut it. The amount of time we could save is a lot.

A robust FEA package. IV has none, SW has CosmowWorks.

There's so many, I could go on and on but the thing is, I understand why it's costs more but my boss doesn't. He is not into CAD.

Seems like you understand the differences between the two packages. Translate your perceived benefits of switching software into something your boss will understand. You say you will "save a lot of time", how much time? 10mins a day, 2hrs a day? Convert that estimated savings into hard dollars.

If IV has no FEA package, what are you using now? If you are using nothing, how much does it cost you to send something outside to be analyzed? How much does the company spend a year on this? That figure could be a savings if you had internal FEA capability.

Convert your "so many" reasons into something your boss does understand: ROI. Also, I suggest you look into what else is available out there, as TheTick eludes to, you should also take a hard took at what capabilities you actually need and then see what software will provide you the best answer. Narrow your search down to 2-3 and have them come in-house to demo their software with your workflow.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[ShaggyPE]

We need 'Solidworks Office Premium' whose equivalent is 'Inventor Profession Suite'. SW is exactly twice as expensive and my boss won't approve it because of the price.

A robust FEA package. IV has none, SW has CosmowWorks.

That is the difference in price. Do you really need FEA?



-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional

 

[TheTick]

Curious what the particular shortcomings are for Inventor w.r.t. modelling complex shapes. If SW looks good in comparison, that's sad.

 

[Standing]

MadMango is right on the mark with this one. A star for him. We have always done as he suggested. We say off the cuff that an Engineer is worth $100 per hour and use that figure.

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[JMirisola]

Skip the facts and figures. Just tie your manager to a chair and beat him with a rubber hose until he signs the PO.

Sorry, it's Friday and the weekend is still seems so far away.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo, 4GB RAM, Nvidia 3500M

 

[fcsuper]

Jeff, jeff, jeff. now what would that solve?

Oh, yeah! Ok, nevermind.

RetroVirus,

There are a lot of good discussions on eng-tips that touch on this topic in one way or another.

One example is the suggestions to look at your suppliers and customers. What are they using? How much time, money and elimintion of translations errors would you save by moving to the SW because that is what most of your suppliers and customers are using?

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[JMirisola]

There's an ROI calculator on the SolidWorks website:

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/programs/roicalculator/

Also, there's a bunch more info here:

http://solidworks.com/pages/infofor/prospectivecustomers.html

as well as associated links.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo, 4GB RAM, Nvidia 3500M

 

[ctopher]

It looks like you are automotive. Depending on who your customers and vendors are, maybe you may be better off with CATIA? It's also more expensive, but it may save $$ in the long run.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 06/08
ctopher's home (updated 10-07-07)