Transition from Autocad LT to 3D modelling

[foxbat1979]

Hi all,

We are currently in the process of selecting a new 3D CAD software package to replace our ageing Autocad LT97 seats.
We are a manufacturer of special purpose electrical motors
and centrifugal fans

The main parts of motors and fans are usually castings and our products are no exception. We have had demo's thus far from Inventor and Solid Edge and we are also considering Solidworks but that demo will be in a couple of weeks.
We are letting them use our own drawings to do the demo.

I personally have not been overly impressed with Inventor as SE looked the easier one to use to me. Furthermore the PDM package Insight that SE is offering seems much more customizable that Autodesk's Vault.

What does concern me a little bit however is that the SE partfile of a centrifugal fan is over 3MB whereas the Inventor file was just over 1.5MB.
Now I know that server hard drive space is easily upgradeable so it should not be too much of an issue.

What I would like to know however, if there are any users out there with experience and/or issues in modelling castings in SE/SW/Inventor and what their experiences/recommendations are.

Thanks in advance!

 

[fredericmenage]

Hi,

Make sure you compare apples to apples when it comes o file size.

Were ou comparing assembly file size ? In that case, you should add the file sizes of all the components plus the file size of the asm to get a true picture

In any case, were the models built with a similar level of parametry ? If not, you cannot compare file size.

This is just to help you with your benchmark. I do not have much experience in modelling castings though.

HTH

Fred

 

[foxbat1979]

Thanks for your reply Fred,

The parts were both solid models of centrifugal fan housings but they were not completely identical. However,
they were similar in complexity.

Anyway, I am going to be asking those demo jocks some questions about file sizes anyway. Just to get things straight in the head.

 

[Kenny_G]

I do know that Solid Edge stores additional info in the part file to speed up assembly loading in Inactive mode as well as preview data. There are also things that could be done by Inventor when storing the file like on the fly compression or rollback of the features, but that could translate into longer open times. Hard to say.

Bottom line is, pick what works best, as drive space is so cheap it is insignificant.

 

[beachcomber]

On castings there are usually many rounding operations and these that can add considerably to file size.
Make sure that both systems have modelled exactly the same complexity, otherwise, as Fred indicates, you can't really compare.
Solid Edge can create a simplified version of the part, with holes, roundings etc suppressed. The simplification adds to file size and hence file opening times, but reduces manipulation time and drawing view production times.

bc