solidworks2006 vs inventor11

Ed wrote:
if the CAD software is

Pure bullshit. If anything it shows you have a lack of knowledge of
the software, computers, or both. We run Inventor and SolidWorks
side-by-side on un-certified hardware and we don't experience stability
issues.

 

What kind of assemblies do you create? How many parts in them and how do
they interact with each other? Or are you confined to one off part (albeit
an intricate one) at a time? You do usualy help people to sort out some of
the problems they experience with creating parts. But I don't recall your
inputs when it concerns producing large assemblies and follow up drawings.

Igor.

 

I'm an idiot Igor, sorry for wasting your time.

 

But then, in the current era of buyers, video tape and underwear and
masks are a sign of being "Cool".

Bo

 

I'm an idiot Igor, sorry for wasting your time.

Isn't that being inappropriately dismissive considering your "Pure bullshit"
(which I must admit took me by surprise so I guess you have strong feelings on
the subject) is based largely on classroom environment experience or are my
perceptions in error?

 

Jeffery,

I don't believe this is the best answer you could came up with. I was hoping
you would elaborate on your original statement in line of my questions to
you. Is there still a chance?

Igor.

 

Igor, I believe that you have a point. Almost everything that I do is
involved with medium size and up assemblies. When I was using IV there
were a couple of things that happened fairly routinely. The first was
that I would save an assembly, be sure to rebuild etc. and that there
were no errors etc. But, it periodically happened that when I opened
the project the next time that there would be little red flags, almost
always involving some constraint problem that didn't not show up before
closing IV. I don't think that this has ever happened to me with SW.

But, my all time favorite, "free" feature with IV is when I go into a
part, (usually a fairly simple part) and change one of the dimensions
only to find that the rebuild of the part resulted in an number of
constraint errors.

Now I realize that the assumption is the operator and it may have been
but somehow when I switched over to SW these types of issues just went
away. I have tried to look at what methods that I used could have
caused these types of problems and when something is messed up with SW
I can usually find out what I did to confuse the program. And most of
the time the number of errors are less then 10. However, with IV I
have seen 20 to 30 errors show up on totally unrelated parts from the
one that I made a minor modification to. After 45 minutes of looking
to find the problem I would typically start to suppress, basically at
random various constraints and after a few of these, all of the error
flags would disappear.

A few weeks ago a buddy of mine asked me to help him on a very small
assembly where he was learning how to use IV11. No doubt many of the
issues that he was having were because he was new, but talk about
reliving old experineces...uggg. I especially loved the one where we
saved the project carefully and the next day when he opened it, there
were parts flying all over the place! The word that I use for IV is
that it is much more "fragile" then SW. And, yes the bigger the
assemblies the more problems that I have seen with IV.

Ed

 

I don't believe this is the best answer you could came up with. I was hoping

I will try to get back to this with a more thoughtful response when I
have time. Unfortunately I have "volunteered" for more projects than I
can handle and am jumping just to keep my nose above the water-line.
But for a brief response, I am not aware of any CAD program that will
not create drawings in a reasonably reliable set-up. To state
otherwise is simply worth no more than the stuff you get on your boots
out in the barnyard. Yes there are differences in size and complexity.
(Our educational license of SolidWorks is always latest release -1, so
my experiences might not be considered valid.) In my experience these
two particular programs are essentially identical for most users. My
modeling techniques in both are cross-influenced by how each works. I
am certain I would be far less proficient in either if I had only used
one or the other exclusively. While I do work as a consultant in
industry during the summer months and do have 15 years manufacturing
experience including 8 years out on the shop floor and 3 years in R&D I
accept the arguement that I don't now work under "real world"
conditions. My involvement in industry is now limited to "complex"
(for mid-range MCAD) geometry problems that push the envelope of
mid-range MCAD capabilities. (This past summer it was on
wire-stripping tools for the CATV industry - a derivation of the
cylindrical CAM-path problem for which Jeff has taught me much in the
way of good-enough solutions while we wait for the capability to sweep
one solid along a path in another solid resulting in the intersection
being removed. This can sort-of be done now with the new guide surface
sweeps but I still get errors and have to return to the method Jeff
demonstrated several years ago.) However there is ample evidence that
at least a couple of people have been successful in using these
products to do their work. The grass is always greener on the other
side of the fence until you jump over the fence and land in the
"fertilizer".

 

Thanks for the reply, Jeffery;

The thing is that most of your work revolves around one-off part. For me it
is not an option. I design custom machinery and a range goes from some
structural frames based machinery to a precision laser measuring devices.
Thus, assemblies and their stability is of paramount importance to me. And
not just that. Data management is equally important since it takes
significant portion of design time. You probably recall my recent post at
the IV forum under the heading "Design Assistance: Friend or Foe?". No one
so far came up with the answer to the question. SolidWorks, on another hand,
appears to be free from some questionable programming solutions Inventor is
having if the field of file management.
If we take a close look at some of the similar tools in both programs, I
would like to compare Hole feature between the two softwares. SW is
absolutely brilliant in the way they have implemented this tool. Can you say
the same for IV? Absolutely not! And there are quite a few examples like
that.

Now, to the million dollar question: why not to change platforms? The answer
is similar to that why doesn't one changing his/her bank every now and then.
The fees are high, the service at branches are low but not many people
changing banks anyway. The answer to both questions will be somewhat
similar, I guess.

Best regards,

Igor.

 

Hi Ed,

I am sure we are on the same wave length.

Thank you,

Igor.

 

I've heard of a couple of people using CAD software for assemblies.
I've got to believe that it can be done. Maybe I should do a little
more research.

 

Hmmm?

I think it is about time to just sit down at your SolidWorks VAR and go
through a small set of parts and then put together that simple
assembly. I'm sure they ought to have an example of a large assembly,
too.

Or find an existing SWks customer who would show you complex
assemblies.

Bo

 

It's nothing more than blatant sarcasm. Several of his responses fall into
this category. Non-native English speaking persons will have a more
difficult time detecting this.

 

Apparently a little too subtle.

 

You have lost me on this one. What your response has to do with my post?

 

You are probably right on this one (since I am non-native English speaking
person). However Jeffery has a reputation of a serious and knowledgeable
person in a field of design softwares. Thus I, for one, was taking what he
was saying at its face value.

Igor.