Solid Works vs Inventor?

[Matt Liberatore]

Hey, Just curious to see what everyone thinks about which CAD program to use, SolidWorks or Inventor. Which one is easier to use? Which one is generally better for Formula SAE? Your opinions on this matter are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
-Matt

[Matt Liberatore]

Hey, Just curious to see what everyone thinks about which CAD program to use, SolidWorks or Inventor. Which one is easier to use? Which one is generally better for Formula SAE? Your opinions on this matter are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
-Matt

[Dr Claw]

my vote has been, and always will be Solid Edge.

I know both Solid Edge and Solid Works equally well (6 years in each) and i can make things faster all arround better with SE. i do surfacing, design tables, and giant sketches in each and SE is better. easier too if you ask me.

[sr20detjt]

Between the two in the original question, my vote goes with Solidworks. Mainly because of the structural member feature for spaceframes (you make a 3D sketch and assign tube sections from your pre-defined library.) I've used both. Regular modeling and ease of use are about the same. Also if you use Cosmos for FEA, iterations are much quicker as It is just an extention of Solidworks.

-JT

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

Show me any company in industry that uses Inventor....most use Solidworks, Catia, or PRO-E

[NetKev92]

Ditto what Mike said. Get your foot in the door and develop skills on something you may see in the future. From what I've seen, Solidworks really is the junior version of CATIA V5. I've seen some impressive stuff built from Solidworks. Working in aerospace, I've only seen inventor used at the university level. Unless price dictates otherwise, I'd go with Solidworks.

Another important thing to keep in mind is the ability to load large assemblies of parts. I don't know how good inventor is in this respect, but Solidworks has proven to me in sevral applications that it can handle a collection of large models and keep going. Inventor may be good enough, but Solidworks has a significant installed base of professional users and I'm a big fan of a proven track record with bought software.

Solidworks in action:
http://dpcars.aprsworld.com/dp1/index.htm

[Kenny T Cornett]

I may be in the vast minority... but I like Inventor better.

They both have basically the same spec sheet, including a built in FEA and built in kinematics. Only thing I see in SW's favor is the Cosmos CFD stuff.

I personally find Inventor more willing to do what you want the first time. It does lack in the surface modeling, but that's a small thing. I'm a big fan of the fact that all Autodesk products interface now that Alias and Discreet have been completely merged in. Going from a 2d editor, to a solid modeler, to a surface modeler, and to a render engine seamlessly is a nice feature.

Plus, I use it at work all the time (water filtration systems)

[Ian M]

I work at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana (Tundra, Sequoia, and Sienna plant) and we use Inventor.
I personally think Solidworks is slightly more user-friendly, but both are impressive programs. I have also used Pro-E and pretty well hate that program, although it is good for generating CNC code.
Toyota's design centers use CATIA and I am not sure why the manufacturing plants use Inventor. Must have gotten a good deal or something.

[packtim]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by drivetrainUW-Platt:
Show me any company in industry that uses Inventor....most use Solidworks, Catia, or PRO-E </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sonardyne International....I worked for them. I would use Inventor any day over solid edge.

[B Hise]

To throw one more into the ring, anyone used i-deas? I've used it extensively for FSAE and I've used a whole lot of solidworks at jobs. Overall my time on each is roughly the same.

I have to say that i-deas (IMO) is far superior to solidworks for solid modeling. FEA is easier in solidworks. I would reccomend ideas if your school is willing to pay for it.

-Bryan

[Dave_Dal]

Ditto packtim.

I used Inventor a few years ago at a co-op job and that got my foot in the door for solid modeling. I thought Inventor was very easy to use (I learned how to use it in about a week) and from what I can tell it has only gotten better. I have used Solid Edge (v14 - v17) and I personally hate it. I've finally convinced my home department at school to stop teaching Solid Edge and switch to Unigraphics NX4 because it is so much better.

Realistically speaking, if you learn one package it isn't too much harder to learn another. They are all essentially the same, you just have to find where all of the commands are hidden.

If you have the money go for something like NX4, it has everything built into it (FEA, Motion, Manufacturing, Surfacing, and much more) otherwise I would go with Inventor. I don't have any personal experience with Solid Works, tho I have seen some pretty pictures produced from it.

[The AFX Master]

I prefer SolidWorks http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

I never used Inventor, but Solidworks is pretty easy to learn (2 weeks or so), you can get a student edition for +/- 100$.The complete version is integrated to Cosmos (structural FEA), Floworks (CFD), does some thermal analysis and some rendering/publishing stuff.

In fact, i used to work only with 2D CAD.. now, i'm sticking to 3D CAD, and the GUI of Solidworks helps a lot to improve design times.

[Bill Kunst]

What a debate?! This is similar to the debate that I was having with the other teacher in my dept. The issue at the high school level is that we can lease all the autodesk software, 8 programs, for 3600 bucks. Solidworks is all alone for $1600. We get more for the money and the programs are identical in concept.


Question for those who "prefer" one or the other... How in the hell can you say that you prefer one or the other when you haven't tried both??????????? Holy Crap, that is like saying you compared the two after using only one, and you like the one you used far better then the one you didn't?! Why didn't you say that inventor/solidworks just didn't do what you wanted it to, but using it may have shown otherwise DUUUUUHHHHHH

[The AFX Master]

Calm down Bill, see this point of view: Matt asks for wich is the best CAD software between SolidWorks and inventor, because not all the people knows the two softwares at the same times, at least an opinion about one is useful.

If i know only solidworks and i think that's a crap.. i have rigts to say that's a crap!. and this opinion would be useful to the topic starter isn't it?.. too many people voting for some program is a way to measure the grade of acceptance of it.

btw, i didn't say that SolidWorks is far better than inventor. At least on AutoCAD, 3D is a pain on the ass.. i don't know if on inventor is the same....

[Bill Kunst]

I am talking about people who have the opinion that the only one they have used is better then one that they have not tried. i.e. "I like solidworks better, but I have not tried inventor." They probably shouldn't be saying that it is better, but just saying that they have used SW and that they like it, or haven't had any problems.

[Matt Liberatore]

Thanks a lot for the replies everybody. I asked this because I am involved in a start up Formula SAE team and Time has come for us to start putting our ideas in CAD and before we decide which CAD program to use I figured I should hear some opinions on both from people who have more experience than I do.

-Matt

[James Waltman]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dr Claw:
my vote has been, and always will be Solid Edge. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey mtg, can you believe that?
We use SE at work. The general consensus is that it sucks. Actually, I think I can safely say that the unanimous consensus is that it sucks – at least for what we use it for.
(I maintain that I don't hate Solid Edge – it hates me.)

I'm pretty good with CATIA and think it's great.
I think that the agreement our school had with the Dassault people (CATIA) was $2000 (US) per year for unlimited seats on campus – including every workbench you could need (design, drafting, CNC machining, surfacing, plant layout, circuit board design, and on and on).

So, I can't contribute to the SW/Inventor question.
However, if you can get one of the most powerful CAD programs out there for a really reasonable price...
(Disclaimer – learning very high end CAD programs in school may spoil you for lesser programs later in life.)

[Jersey Tom]

We use Solidworks through the engineering school. Its nice, easy to use, fairly powerful.. but I think Inventor handles large assemblies way better. Haven't used Inventor since v8 when the place I was working at switched over, but I liked Inventor a lot better.

[TG]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I'm pretty good with CATIA and think it's great.
I think that the agreement our school had with the Dassault people (CATIA) was $2000 (US) per year for unlimited seats on campus – including every workbench you could need (design, drafting, CNC machining, surfacing, plant layout, circuit board design, and on and on). </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Why do they even charge??? UGS had no problem taking a HUUUUUUGE tax deductible for NX donations to us at ASU. They just asked how many seats we needed and said if we needed any more to just ask.

[D J Yates]

I've never used Solidworks so i cannot provide a comparison, however, i have used several versions (5.3 to 10) of Inventor during my four year degree. Since most people seem familiar with Solidworks but not Inventor i'll help provide a little more info on Inventor:

Firstly, Inventor has improved massively since version 5.3, which was a bit unstable. Versions earlier than 10 were based on the same core as 5.3, but with each version the software was quickly improved. Inventor 10 was altogether new and is not backwards compatible. It is very stable and coped with everything i could throw at it.

Assemblies: Inventor 10 can handle full vehicle assemblies without any difficulty. It can be frustrating at first when learning to constrain large assemblies, but providing you are methodical in your approach, assembling a full final vehicle model is no problem - using driven constraints i even had animations of our car cornering with body roll and suspension movement over bumps. Even on my 4 year old and modest PC, full vehicle assemblies were not a problem. It takes a while to load large assemblies and models into the RAM, but once there they can be manipulated and modified very quickly and easily.

Spaceframes: Easy. Just a wire frame sketch, define a workpoint at the centre point of each member, draw a tube profile sketch and sweep along the centerline.

The dimensioning tools in Inventor are powerful. All can be controlled with equations or parameters stored in excel spread sheets. For example, you can design your suspension in excel and link the file to the CAD model so that any changes you make to the design are simultaneously made to the CAD model also.

The full integration of Inventor with Anysis Workbench and Autodesk vault provide you with a lot of control of your work and sufficiently powerful FEA and MBS tools for FSAE design.

Surface modeling: Inventor 10 can produce surface models, it's not that powerful but sufficient for modeling FSAE style bodies.

Inventor is very easy to learn.

Only possible issue is that with the number of people who don't use Inventor in the FSAE comunity, there are few CAD models, engines and such, floating around in Inventor .ipt and .iam formats. However, inventor can import most common formats successfully, although it often takes several attempts using the different options to get a complete solid model. Also, since Inventor is an Autodesk product, its easy to import and export to all the old AutoCAD formats, which is useful since lots of smaller engineering companies still haven't progressed to 3D CAD and continue to use AutoCAD.

In comparison to AutoCAD, there is none, they are as fundamentally different as word is from excel.

At the end of the day. Although my experience of other CAD systems is limited, personally i would choose Inventor because it has the functionality to do just everything i can conceivably would ever need CAD for. It may not be the best CAD software, i don't know, but if you choose Inventor for FSAE you'll have software sufficient for your needs.

[John Stimpson]

I am convinced there is no chance of a "best" solid modeling program being agreed upon...

I've used I-DEAS, Solidworks and UG NX3. I can easily say Solidworks is the best in my opinion. Last time I used IDEAS, it was master series 7, which was a GOOD while ago, but the way you stored your files in bins, libraries, folders, groups etc etc etc was massively confusing (at least at the time). I can't remember how many times I "saved" my stuff to a folder/bin thing that I was not allowed to retrieve from... meaning I had to make the part again. Try doing that a few times and see if you can keep your foot out of the moniter.

Solidworks seems much more intuitive to me than NX3. I've seen Solidworks first timers able to make parts with just a couple questions, such as: How do I define a new coordinate system? How do I let Solidworks know this is perpendicular to that?

For the first week of NX3, for me, and this is after YEARS of experience with Solidworks, I needed someone that knew NX3 to give me the blow-by-blow. I couldn't figure out what button to click, what checkboxes were required, etc etc etc. I was completely clueless... Perhaps because I was so accustomed to solidworks, I dunno.

[NetKev92]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by James Waltman:
(Disclaimer – learning very high end CAD programs in school may spoil you for lesser programs later in life.) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unfortunate but true. CATIA at work makes me hate what I have at home: Ashlar Vellum/Cobalt. It's just not CAD without good surfacing capability and a decent interface.

[BeaverGuy]

All I have to say about CatiaV5 is "Click ok to terminate."

But really any of the major parametrci modelling programs will be fine. They all have their benefits and downsides. And in the end it comes down to using the program and understanding how it works.

I was born to Autocad, grew up with Pro/E, dated Solidworks and Turbocad and am currently living with Catia.

[Jason Goetz]

I notice that many people have mentioned price as an issue in this debate. Autodesk has recently launched a Student Community portal at students.autodesk.com (http://students.autodesk.com) where any university student can register and download a student version of Inventor Professional for FREE.

It's a 1-year license and is a fully functional product that includes modules for FEA and Kinematics.

Jason

[Raz]

I happened across this buy accident. I see that there are a lot of college students on these pages. There are a lot of good insights listed here. I have 20 years experience in CAD; AutoCAD, BobCAD, Silverscreen, ProE, SolidWorks, Inventor. You need to realize something when discussing which is best. It depends on your application and budget. There are only two major players left in the high end CAD market. Catia (Dassault Systems) and UniGraphics. Of course these are better at surfacing than the other players. They also cost 4-5X more than the other major players. The other major players being ProE, SolidWorks, and Inventor (Autodesk). ProE is getting more user friendly than when I used it in the late 80,s early 90's. These three products are narrowing the gap in surfacing capabilities of the high end but there is still a gap. ProE is not focused on whether they want to be a high end package or mid-level package. This has hurt them because they keep bouncing all over the place.
This leaves SolidWorks and Inventor for the rest of us. There are not as many users as all the others combined (Catia, UGNX, ProE, ...) than either SolidWorks or Inventor standing alone. SolidWorks had a three year head start and up until very recently was leading the technology race. However, SolidWorks is owned by the same co. as Catia and their R&D dollars are dwindling. Dassault seems to be moving their eggs to the Catia basket. At the same time this is going on Inventor as a product is leading with new technology. Autodesk seems to be offering the total solution in the manufacturing arena by offering products that allow you to move up the ladder without abondoning your past enhancements.
I would like to mention that I work for a company who uses and evaluated all three mid-level products and finds the Autodesk product line to be the most efficient. We relied greatly on the Aberdeen Group Report that was funded by all the aforementioned major players in the industry. This is a 42 page report but well worth the reading if you are trying to determine the best investment for your dollar for today and future in CAD.

[Joe Wilkie - SolidWorks]

And of course, on the pricing topic, for those of you who don't know already, SolidWorks provides FSAE teams with the full SolidWorks Student Edition, complete with COSMOS/Works Professional FEA, COSMOS/Motion (Adams kinematics/dynamics), and COSMOS/FloWorks PE (CFD).

The COSMOS will let you analyze any parts and assemblies for: Static, Thermal, Frequency, Impact, Buckling, Shape Optimization, and Fatigue. It also will help you with intake/exhaust and aerodynamics. Fast, easy and accurate.

Re-apply for sponsorship this summer and you'll get our new beam analysis for your frames. I completed torsional analysis on a 40+ member frame- it took less than 5 seconds to solve. Within a minute you can delete or add members and reanalyze. With that kind of time savings, you'll be able to freely experiment with alternative frame ideas and optimize your model. You're going to love it.

[Ives]

Slightly off topic I know, but with regards to the beam analysis, how do you go about solving for bends in the tubular frame? I have it running but I have to put a straight line in for every bend I have in the frame because it doesnt want to mesh the bend.

Back to the topic we have been using solidworks and inventor in our team because different people prefer different things it seems, but the guys who were using inventor and slowly starting to come over to solidworks due to the cosmosworks and the things it can do, not to mention the time savings we have seen by using works.

Thanks

[ad]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Joe Wilkie - SolidWorks:
And of course, on the pricing topic, for those of you who don't know already, SolidWorks provides FSAE teams with the full SolidWorks Student Edition, complete with COSMOS/Works Professional FEA, COSMOS/Motion (Adams kinematics/dynamics), and COSMOS/FloWorks PE (CFD).

The COSMOS will let you analyze any parts and assemblies for: Static, Thermal, Frequency, Impact, Buckling, Shape Optimization, and Fatigue. It also will help you with intake/exhaust and aerodynamics. Fast, easy and accurate.

Re-apply for sponsorship this summer and you'll get our new beam analysis for your frames. I completed torsional analysis on a 40+ member frame- it took less than 5 seconds to solve. Within a minute you can delete or add members and reanalyze. With that kind of time savings, you'll be able to freely experiment with alternative frame ideas and optimize your model. You're going to love it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Joe,

Im a big fan of Solidworks, but however i am a little scepticle of the COSMOS add on capabilities.

What capabilities for nonlinear analysis does COSMOS have?

For e.g. how does it handle nonlinear,

-strains (i.e large deflections)
-materials (plasticity, hyperelasticity etc)
-contacts (open, closed, friction etc)

And can it handle rigid and flexible body dynamics?

Can you do any fluid structural interaction yet?

[ad]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ives:
Slightly off topic I know, but with regards to the beam analysis, how do you go about solving for bends in the tubular frame? I have it running but I have to put a straight line in for every bend I have in the frame because it doesnt want to mesh the bend.

Back to the topic we have been using solidworks and inventor in our team because different people prefer different things it seems, but the guys who were using inventor and slowly starting to come over to solidworks due to the cosmosworks and the things it can do, not to mention the time savings we have seen by using works.

Thanks </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If your using different CAD packages within the same team, its akin to people working towards different goals!

I'd almost force people to use one or the other!

[Paul Nguyen]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> All I have to say about CatiaV5 is "Click ok to terminate." </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can relate to you BeaverGuy and I think many Automotive OEM's and suppliers would agree. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_mad.gif

I used Pro/E 2000, Pro/E Wildire in college. I will have to admit that after using CATIA V5 for a year, I am a big fan of V5 compared to Pro/E. CATIA V5 just seems more user-friendly and much more intuitive.

I think most designers where I work has lost hours of work due to "Click OK to terminate".

We recently upgraded some machines to 64bit to make full use of the 4gb of ram. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_mad.gif

[Joe Wilkie - SolidWorks]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ad:
Im a big fan of Solidworks, but however i am a little scepticle of the COSMOS add on capabilities.

What capabilities for nonlinear analysis does COSMOS have?

For e.g. how does it handle nonlinear,

-strains (i.e large deflections)
-materials (plasticity, hyperelasticity etc)
-contacts (open, closed, friction etc)

And can it handle rigid and flexible body dynamics?

Can you do any fluid structural interaction yet? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The new release to schools will include the full COSMOS/Works Advanced Professional suite so it will handle everything you mentioned, as well as composites. For full informaiton you may want to review the COSMOS/Works Advanced professional info at http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/cosmos/cosmosworks.html

We also include COSMOS/FloWorks PE for all of your solid/fluid problems.

[Joe Wilkie - SolidWorks]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ives:
Slightly off topic I know, but with regards to the beam analysis, how do you go about solving for bends in the tubular frame? I have it running but I have to put a straight line in for every bend I have in the frame because it doesnt want to mesh the bend.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Correct - linear elements only for now. The members also have to be created with the weldment structural member tool (you can't analyze mirrored members. Instead, mirror the sketch and apply the members). A time saving benefit of this type of analysis using structural members is that you don't have to waste time trimming/extending to analyze.

[Brett Neale]

I'm a huge fan of Inventor, I use it at work (along with a bit of SolidWorks, but haven't really got into it too much yet). It's excellent for drafting (being an Autodesk product and all - it knows it's roots...) and part modelling is quite intuitive. The real power is in the assembly - it handles huge models with ease. Through uni I've been exposed to UGNX, Catia and Wildfire too - both UGNX and Catia I found were excellent, but a bit tough to get into, and Wildfire was just a huge headache, not at all intuitive.

For FSAE though, UARC uses Solid Edge. It's taught in first year and everyone has some understanding of it, however big assemblies are a pain and the speed is sometimes an issue. The most annoying part though is it's reliability - it's horrible!

So if I were to choose a CAD package for FSAE, it'd be Inventor. Easy to use, exports to ANSYS, excellent drafting, speedy performance.

[method55]

Out of the two you listed, I prefer Inventor. I know how to use both however.

There are many companies out there that use Autodesk Inventor, (contrary to what was mentioned in a few posts above). The company I work for uses is for one, and I know quite a few other companies in the park use it as well.

They both have the same exact workflow, just different button locations.

There is nothing Solidworks can do that Inventor (Pro) cannot. Including skel. framing with space frames, FEA, Motion Analysis, etc.