Solidworks Future

I heard a rumor that Dassault is filing for bankruptcy? How will this
affect Solidworks? This has been one reason for us not switching to
SW, even though i believe its a better software.

 

What a joke , huh i guess Ford is stupid? EDS products being replace by
Dassault.
http://in.tech.yahoo.com/030206/137/20u31.html I think whoever told you this
is
lying. Autodesk is having some financial problems they are laying off 20% of
there
staff.

 

Phil,

Er.... Boeing uses Catia, always has

Airbus used to use Cadds.... Don't know what they use now.

Regards

Mark

 

Mark, did you know that Boeing also has a bunch of seats of Cadkey ? If
you need the exact number I can get it. It's not just a few seats.

jon

 

This is a total crock of shit. No other nice way to put it.

jon

 

Do you mind telling us who you heard this from?

Another CAD vendor perhaps? Do they have a "3" in their name?

What do you use now?

 

I heard a rumor that Dassault is filing for bankruptcy? How will this

Hi there -

To not choose the best software for your present needs is a bit nutty
in my mind.

A program like solidworks that has many users will have future revene
for any owner and therefore will be supported, sold, maintained and
probably exist well into the future.

By the way, nothing will be the same in three years. This industry
moves way to fast. Make your best choice based on your needs today.

Warm regards,

SMA

 

we have several seat of MDT and 2 seat of Solidworks that we bought to
evaulate. We been working in those seats for the past year and have
come to the conclusion that it,s a great CAD software. Us two user
have been pushing to switch to this new software, but its like
fighting a losing battle. There is a lot of lagecy in Autocad MDT.
Thanks for all the input.

 

There are only 2 of us on SW. Myself and another designer. As far as
porting all data, i don't understand what you mean "is
missing?".....I'm assuming a PDM?........We have completed a whole
project in SW.

 

you're losing a battle against mdt? WOW

if you want to talk about the future ... mdt doesn't have one. autodesk is
throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at inventor.

 

There are 10 MDT (AutoCAD) user total and two of those user also have
SW, which was purchased to evaluate it. By a "whole project", I meant
we designed a new a/c unit strictly in SW. Since this was our 1st time
using SW we model many parts from ground up in SW to see how it
worked. we have been very impressed with SW over MDT. Now we are
beginning to here that Inventor can do everything SW can do and it is
cheaper.

 

Copied from Cadalyst MCAD Tech New #111

By Joe Greco

The first week of December was once again the time period for the
annual Autodesk University in Las Vegas. This year's event featured
new products from Autodesk, scores of vendors, and hundreds of
classes. If you couldn't attend, here are some of the MCAD-related
highlights.

INVENTOR 8
Of course Autodesk had the biggest booth. Along with other products,
they were showing Inventor 8, which, along with Mechanical Desktop
2004 and AutoCAD Mechanical DX, is part of AIS (Autodesk Inventor
Series). I had the chance to see some of Inventor's new features in
action, as well as its integration into the entire AIS package. I also
reviewed a "What's New Tour" CD that was handed out. However, I
haven't had the chance to actually use the updated software because my
copy has yet to arrive. Nevertheless, here are my opinions on what I
saw.

MODELING ENHANCEMENTS
Some of the best improvements in Inventor 8 are in the area of
assembly modeling. Users creating assemblies with right-hand and
left-hand components will like the new Assembly Mirror tool. The user
interface seems fairly straightforward – it's easy to pick which
components to mirror and which ones, such as fasteners, to just copy.
Components selected for mirroring are automatically given new names,
so HANDLE.IPT becomes HANDLE_MIR.IPT.

Another assembly enhancement simulates the movement of components
based on their physical contact. In addition, sheet-metal designers
will appreciate the new ability to mirror and pattern sheet-metal
features, while product designers will favor enhancements to the Loft
tool. Anyone who creates castings or molded parts will welcome several
long-awaited options in the Draft tool, such as the ability to taper
about a reference plane.

Inventor 8 also features an interesting new command called Component
Selection. Use this tool to find and select all components that meet
your designated criterion, which can be a size, meaning all components
smaller or larger than a certain value are selected; or an offset
distance, meaning all parts that are within a specified area are
highlighted – good for determining clearances. Component Selection
works in conjunction with another new command called Isolate, which
displays only the entities in the selection set.

So the question is: Is any of this stuff new? Not really. SolidWorks
has provided right-hand/left-hand mirroring capability since version
2001+ and the physical contact in assemblies for about a year (Solid
Edge 15 just added it, too). Most MCAD programs already offer superior
tools for sheet metal and product designers, and it's hard to believe
that it took eight versions for Autodesk to give Inventor users a
serious Draft tool. The new Component Selection is nice, but Solid
Edge has had the ability to select based on a component's size for
years. Users familiar with SolidWorks Utilities are also able to
specify sophisticated search criteria.

DRAFTING IMPROVEMENTS
Inventor 8 features several drafting enhancements, but once again many
have appeared in Inventor's competitors for a number of versions. For
instance, the software finally offers a 2D measurement tool and the
ability to window-select multiple elements. However, there are a few
more original enhancements--one permits more flexibility when
retrieving model dimensions to the drawing, and another enhances the
power of creating parts list that have summation values.

Autodesk's Vault, a data management system introduced in Release 7, is
better integrated into Inventor 8. For example, a Vault browser is now
easily accessible via a drop-down menu located at the top of the
browser bar.

INVENTOR RECAP
While there is no question that the new tools listed above improve the
product, Inventor is actually losing ground in its feature battle with
SolidWorks and Solid Edge, whose latest versions are much more robust.
However, does the entire Inventor Series package make for a more
complete solution than SolidWorks or Solid Edge? That depends on what
you have and where you want to go.

If you are a Mechanical Desktop user, you already received Inventor as
part of Inventor Series. There's a reason for this – Autodesk wants
you to switch, even though there's no real solid migration strategy.
If you're unhappy with Mechanical Desktop, Inventor is worth a look.

If you use and are happy with AutoCAD or AutoCAD Mechanical DX, but
are looking for a 3D solution, upgrading to Inventor Series may make
sense. The updated AutoCAD Mechanical DX now offers some nice
integration options with Inventor. For example, if a linked Inventor
model changes, users running DX are notified that their 2D drawings
are out of date.

Though this works as advertised, many companies with this type of
workflow use AutoCAD and AutoCAD Mechanical. When Autodesk tried to
switch them completely to Inventor, they bought only a few seats. As a
result, there is a mix of MCAD applications, which in turn means that
AutoCAD and AutoCAD Mechanical are suddenly part of Autodesk's grand
solution, rather than what they really are – 20-year-old technology
that won't be allowed to go away.

AUTODESK INVENTOR PROFESSIONAL 8
In June of this year, Autodesk introduced a professional version of
Inventor, priced at $7,950. Even though it added powerful piping and
tubing capabilities, some users were upset about having to purchase
more software, even though Inventor was marketed as the "complete
mechanical design package." No matter your feelings about this,
Autodesk has, to its credit, so far made good on its promise to
continue to add major new functionality to this product.

The new Inventor Professional 8 now creates 3D wires and harnesses
with relative ease, from the demo I saw. However, most impressive was
its ability to import a wire list from AutoCAD Electrical and have
Inventor read it and automatically add the correct wires. The wire
harness capabilities come from software called EMbassy, created by
Linius, a software developer that Autodesk bought earlier this year.
However, the new Inventor Professional doesn't incorporate all of that
program's features--for instance, there is still no nailboard
functionality, something EMbassy had since early versions.

In short, though Inventor Series 8 provides some nice enhancements,
there isn't as much here as expected, especially because Release 7
added almost nothing. On the flip side of the coin, Inventor
Professional has progressed nicely in a short time. The addition of
much of the EMbassy functionality, which used to be a separate program
that cost around $5,000 all by itself, continues to increase the value
of the Professional package.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Greco is a freelance CAD writer, consultant, and trainer based in
Flagstaff, AZ. Reach him at .

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