What's new
What's new

AutoCad Inventor VS. Solid Edge

i_r_machinist

Titanium
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Location
Dublin Texas
I was shown Autocad Inventor by a guy that really knew his stuff. Came back to the plant and asked for it. One of our engineers said that they had a seat of solid edge that nobody was using, so we inherited it. The maintenance renewal, (so we could get some trainning), was $3200. They will sell us a new seat for $4400.
Our engineering and drafting(hahahaha) depts. are not interested at all. This is something we want in the machine shop to help us design and build tooling. Also to work in conjunction with our Faro arm and Gibbscam.
Both of us are fluent in Autocad now.
Is there a major diference in the two softwares? Would we catch on to Inventor faster than the Solid edge?
Thanks
i_r_machinist
 
I was shown Autocad Inventor by a guy that really knew his stuff. Came back to the plant and asked for it. One of our engineers said that they had a seat of solid edge that nobody was using, so we inherited it. The maintenance renewal, (so we could get some trainning), was $3200. They will sell us a new seat for $4400.
Our engineering and drafting(hahahaha) depts. are not interested at all. This is something we want in the machine shop to help us design and build tooling. Also to work in conjunction with our Faro arm and Gibbscam.
Both of us are fluent in Autocad now.
Is there a major diference in the two softwares? Would we catch on to Inventor faster than the Solid edge?
Thanks
i_r_machinist

I would say edge would be faster, inventor sometimes needs both ACAD and mechanical desktop to do what Edge can do with just one package.

but if you ask me SolidWorks is the way to go #1 mid range 3D solidmodeler in the world. $ 3995 to $5500 depends what options you want. maintenece is $1295 to $1495 per yr..... if you miss a yr they don't make you pay for the missed ones, thats why the upgrade to Edges is $3200. I'd ask them why are you dinging me SolidWorks doesn't do that!
 
but if you ask me SolidWorks is the way to go #1 mid range 3D solidmodeler in the world. $ 3995 to $5500 depends what options you want. maintenece is $1295 to $1495 per yr..... if you miss a yr they don't make you pay for the missed ones, thats why the upgrade to Edges is $3200. I'd ask them why are you dinging me SolidWorks doesn't do that!

I would also agree that you are better off to go with SolidWorks.

To clear up one thing. If you skip a year or more on the maintenance there is a $500 penalty to get current on top of the yearly $1300 maintenance fee.

Don't ask me how I know this.
 
I would say edge would be faster, inventor sometimes needs both ACAD and mechanical desktop to do what Edge can do with just one package.

Please explain! I use Inventor and Solidworks daily and honestly cannot see a major difference between the two, notice that I say MAJOR difference. There are obviously minor differrences between the two such as user features, etc.

I have never used Solid Edge, but from what I have heard it is very similar to the other two. What does Inventor need AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop for that Solid Edge can do?

Will it do the stress analysis like edge and inventer? Where something will break?

SolidWorks has Cosmo Woks which will do MILD FEA analysis.

I was shown Autocad Inventor by a guy that really knew his stuff. Came back to the plant and asked for it. One of our engineers said that they had a seat of solid edge that nobody was using, so we inherited it. The maintenance renewal, (so we could get some trainning), was $3200. They will sell us a new seat for $4400.
Our engineering and drafting(hahahaha) depts. are not interested at all. This is something we want in the machine shop to help us design and build tooling. Also to work in conjunction with our Faro arm and Gibbscam.
Both of us are fluent in Autocad now.
Is there a major diference in the two softwares? Would we catch on to Inventor faster than the Solid edge?

Whatever software package you choose to go with, you will see a big advantage to using a solid modeling program over AutoCAD especially when combined with a FARO arm and GibbsCAM. However, if you are used to drawing in AutoCAD there will be a learning curve when switching to a solid modeling program........it's a different approach to drawing.
 
now i haven't used the new inventor, but older versions had to use ACAD for the drawings and Mechanical desktop for more of the complicated modeling.
now that might have changed, i do not know.

Solidworks, Inventor and SolidEdge all do the same things, but the differents are how quickly the make models, how many clicks, how many options included in the package for the same money. other thing are how many companies are using said softwares, do the cam packages take the files in a file open or import, if you change the solidmodel will the cam package tell you the model changed and ask you do you want to update your tool path. how about the user base, user groups, whats taught at the high schools to colleges.

solidworks has 3 levels of software- SolidWorks, Solidworks Office Pro, and SolidWorks Premium. $4k, $5.5k and around $8k the last one being full FEA.
the first 2 are parts,assemblies,and drawings, light FEA and animation. the the 2nd adds photo, toolbox, utilities, PDM.

as for the maintenece yes their is a $500fee for missing a year but you can miss 7 years and its only$500+$1295 or a little bit more for the other levels, not $500 and $1295 for evey year you missed, like EDGE and ProE and UG. so $1795 is pretty cheap to move up to the latest version in the tough times.
 
solidworks has 3 levels of software- SolidWorks, Solidworks Office Pro, and SolidWorks Premium. $4k, $5.5k and around $8k the last one being full FEA.

SolidWorks has Cosmo Woks which will do MILD FEA analysis.

Actually, both above are incorrect - Solidworks Premium does not include full FEA, but CosmosWorks has all the usual FEA functionality. The thing is that Solidworks Premium does not include the full Cosmosworks package. If you need full FEA you have to pay a lot extra for that. Last time I checked the extra cost would exceed the cost of Solidworks Premium itself by quite a large margin. (See http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/mechanical-design-software-matrix.htm, tab "analysis products", for a detailed breakdown of the FEA product line)" That said I don't think SolidEdge or Inventor includes a full FEA package either. (Check for full analysis options for non-linear, motion, flow, fatigue, heat).

Some years ago Inventor seemed to be one or two years behind Solidworks on features. I'm not sure that is still true, and Inventor might actually have broader native support by other programs. The best program for you will likely come down to personal taste and workstyle, not actual differences in features.
 
I.R.

Whatevere you do, check the backwards compatibility and import capability of the software you're trying to purchase.
I do not know Inventor, but will surely be checking it out against Solidworks for that reason. ( well one reason anyway)
Solidworks provides no way of bringing in models from a newer version, other than one of the translated imports such as parasolid, step or the likes.
In addition, any imported model is virtually useless without FeatureWorks, as you get no featuretree and no way of re-creating the featuretree.

Check out how Inventor or SOlidEdge handles imported models. SInce you're not designing your parts, only tooling and fixtures, you likely won't need to keep up maintenance. Without that you'll be out of sync with SW in no more that 12 months.
 
I have Solid Edge ST (the latest release of Solid Edge) and highly recommend it. You should definately take some time to check it out. I can't compare it to Inventor, but I believe ST would have to be considered state of tha art in its price range at the moment.

Check out some of the demos on Youtube (search for Solid Edge ST)

You have to try it out with one of these: (I have the $59 one)

http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/spacenavigator.php

That, combined with "Synchronous Technology" is an awesome combination for fast creation of 3D models, especially when you are designing a part "on the fly" if you know what I mean.
 
Dan,

I went to the spaceclaim site and watched the vid. That was what I hoped SolidWorks could do when I first started using it.:D

I think this is much better suited to how a designer thinks. I'm betting the guys that hate the rigid barrier between sketch and extrude will take to Spaceclaim more naturally.

This is now what I am leaning towards rather than Alibre.

Has parametrics finally had it's day in the sun?
 
For what it's worth, Inventor does not "need" Autocad, Mechanical Desktop or other apps. that I have ever seen. They are included just as handy items, as far as I am concerned. I still use AutoCad for things like shop layouts and viewing older drawings, etc. But I use Inventor for all part/assembly modeling. I do a lot of automation/robotics/machine/tool/fixture design and I really like Inventor. We use 2008 currently. I find it fast, efficient and flexible. I use it for quite a bit of iPart (parametric) tooling modeling, where you can just set up a table, change variables and it changes the part. I have had very, very few issues importing other file formats, although currently it will not import native solidworks or native Catia files. This has not caused me any issues as normally they can be exported to a compatible format.
The only _really, _really annoying drawback I've found is with iPart *idw creation. It doesn't yet allow you to automatically generate a separate *idw file for each member iPart, given a base *idw file. You have to copy/paste to a new *idw. It works, but should be easier than this.
 
I have Solid Edge ST (the latest release of Solid Edge) and highly recommend it. You should definately take some time to check it out. I can't compare it to Inventor, but I believe ST would have to be considered state of tha art in its price range at the moment.

Check out some of the demos on Youtube (search for Solid Edge ST)

You have to try it out with one of these: (I have the $59 one)

http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/spacenavigator.php

That, combined with "Synchronous Technology" is an awesome combination for fast creation of 3D models, especially when you are designing a part "on the fly" if you know what I mean.

X2 for SE. And on the spacemouse. Inventor Fusion looks like autocad's answer to ST. SW is also woking on something similar I understand. Now that Siemens is pumping money into SE I think it will no longer be the less known of the 3 systems. I've had SE since version 4 and wouldn't give it up. FWIW, I've spoken to 3 individuals who work in design/drafting firms where all 3 are used in order to serve customers, and all 3 clearly prefer to work in SE. And that was before ST was heard of.


The maintenance renewal, (so we could get some trainning), was $3200. They will sell us a new seat for $4400.

The $4400 probably does not include maintenance, you'd have to buy that in addition to the seat, right?
 
Hi Smallshop,

Yes SpaceClaim is pretty nice to work with. I don't use it as my main program (you will never take my Rhino away!!) but SpaceClaim does fill the voids where Rhino is lacking. In a few days I will post something that explains that. Look for it on the Rhino NG. (I have to wait until SpaceClaim 2009 comes out before I can make my post).

Dan
 
I just found out today that Solidworks does have some of these capabilities. They have a feature called Instant3D. Do a help search if your running Solidworks, I'm not sure what version this feature arrived in, I'm running 2008. Pretty neat!!!


yes it just started in 2008, they had a move command for a long time but you had to know where it was and it wasn't as slick as the new instant3D.

but what most poeple are complaining about is backwards combatability.
can't take a newer SW version into a older one. no save as version XXXX, thats where SpaceClaim came about, so you could import and edit dumb solids for a slue of CAD packages
 
The only _really, _really annoying drawback I've found is with iPart *idw creation. It doesn't yet allow you to automatically generate a separate *idw file for each member iPart, given a base *idw file. You have to copy/paste to a new *idw. It works, but should be easier than this.

Sorry for bumping an older thread,
In the last 3 months i learned 3D modeling and assembling, iv'e been using 2D sketchers/drafters for a while, and never had the motivation/time/opportunity to learn to draw in 3D, never downloaded illegal versions for fear of converting my pc into a spyware station.

A few months ago i received a trial version of a CAM program along with a trial of Solid works, that opened up the opportunity to practise making solids.
After a few long evenings i got the hang of it, and once i knew a bit where everything was, learning to draw went even quicker.

I started to like Solid works, but the trial was over, and i wanted to play more with it, i found that there was a student version, wich i downloaded.

But since i used Solid Edge 2D for the last years, and still used it alot, i started to wonder if they also had a student version, and a quick look around answered that question, yes they also have a student version.

After i installed it, i followed some tutorials, and that was enough to get familiar with the program.
Now that i used it for a while, and compared to SW, i must say that SE makes me create and modify solids/sketches with alot less mouseclicks then SW.
SE is for me alot more intuitive then SW, and in SW i encountered a few bugs(but that could have to do with the student version)

Then lastly i found that inventor (2012) also came with a easy to dowload student version, installed it and played with it for a while.
It looks smooth so far, but i think learning to work with it is gonna take a whole lot longer then SE or SW.

It starts with creating a new file, there is the option to pick 10 types of .dwg , then 5 types of .idw, then theres a few .iam's another few .ipt's .ipn's , and the funny things is, there is no short explanation inside that window that explaines what the use of any of it.

For new users it doesnt feel friendly at all.(to me)
 
It starts with creating a new file, there is the option to pick 10 types of .dwg , then 5 types of .idw, then theres a few .iam's another few .ipt's .ipn's , and the funny things is, there is no short explanation inside that window that explaines what the use of any of it.

For new users it doesnt feel friendly at all.(to me)

Xjender

That's actually very simple. Those multiple types of the .IPT ( model) .IDW ( drawing )or .IAM ( assembly) simply represent pre-defined templates.
IOW you would have a standard-metric.IPT Standard-imperial.IPT, Sheetmetal-metric.IPT Standard-Xjendefloip.IPT etc etc.
All that means is the defaults are set to a predictable and specific way which best fits what you intend to do at the time. That is the units, workspace, environment, sketch defaults etc etc.
They are just different templates you use to start.
If you want only one template and all models, drawings or assemblies use all common settings throughout the company, then just delete ( or move) everything else out of the templates directory.

Solidworks I believe works much the same way too.
 








 
Back
Top