SolidWorks vs. Inventor

[sanddrag]

Okay, let's have the big showdown. Personally, I prefer Inventor, but I can't pinpoint exactly why, I just do. But SolidWorks has a big selling point that you can get it for $70 if you are a student.

Which do you prefer and why?

[oljomo]

Hi

What do you need to be able to take advantage of this offer, and is it only availiable in the states?

oljomo

[alphastryk]

I prefer SolidWorks, but I wasnt aware that you could get it for just $70. I have only used it at my job, not for FIRST

[Madison]

I prefer SolidWorks as well. I make good use of features like COSMOS and find its ability to detect and limit motion based on collisions to be very, very useful.

[sanddrag]

I prefer SolidWorks, but I wasnt aware that you could get it for just $70. I have only used it at my job, not for FIRSThttp://www.journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?T1=36815643+FS3 Not with full COSMOS (that's a little extra) but still an incredible deal.

Also, http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edu/campusstore.html and check the links in the nav bar on the left for more info.

[jdiwnab]

I prefer, for now atleast, Inventor because that is what I am used to and it has plenty of power and ease of use. I am trying SW and like the COSMOS stuff, but some of the placements are weird to me. Maybe it just takes getting use to. I'll really decide when I get my demo of Inventor 10 in. Then I'll see which is better :D.

[Matt Krass]

SolidWorks definitely, and it does take some getting used to, but once you do, you're going to open Inventor and be like "Wow, this is a pain". Inventor is no longer easy for me to use, I remember it fine, I just find the SolidWorks interface so much easier. But it could just be me.

[Clark Gilbert]

I'm going to have to go with SolidWorks. I've never actually "used" it, but I had a demo (that I got with one of my textbooks) on my laptop for awhile and the couple times I messed around it seemed much better than Inventor. I've also learned to use and like IronCAD (http://www.journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?T1=31685703) because of my major.

[Rafi Ahmed]

I use Inventor a lot. For class and robotics. Its easier for me but i learned to use inventor first so thats peobably why i like Inventor more.

[Gui Cavalcanti]

I had a few jobs based in Inventor before I came to Olin College, and I was a little antsy about the campus-wide Solidworks. The first time I used it though, even with my reservations, I found myself saying "Assembly parts has never been easier!"

Solidworks wins for me.

[Lindsey]

I've used Inventor mainly for FIRST, but I will be learning Solidworks for my co-op job (as soon as it gets installed). What are the main differenced, and what suggestions do people have for someone switching over?

Lindsey

PS - I will courteously abstain from voting until I've become familiar with both programs.

[Conor Ryan]

I'm very pro-solidworks. In my experince I have found it simpler and a more powerful tool than that of inventor. It's the engineering standard around our team anyway, all the Engineers involved with it use it at work and home so those of us with the motivation to, use Solidworks too. Also Solidworks is cheaper and a more All-in-one tool.

Also Solidworks 2006 (http://www.solidworks.com/swexpress/pages/jul05/) is gonna be out soon, I think i might buy the student version of that.

[grim]

What's interesting about this thread is that Inventor has the higher percentage according to the poll, yet the thread comments are mostly pro solidworks.

[clydefrog88]

In technology classes at school i learned inventor. A couple of years ago i started plugging around on my dad's solidworks license and have since found it to be far easier to use. Seeing how fast he can bring stuff from a sketch to a full scale analysis in COSMOS has really shown me how large a gap there is between the two. The interface in solidworks just feels more intuitive i guess. The design times i encountered in inventor seem to detract from the software's ultimate goal: rapid 3 dimensional modeling (maybe i'm just incompetent). I don't know if inventor has similar export capability, but my dad tells me solidworks easily exports to his CAM software with minimal modification. I even like solidworks dwg editor better than autocad. I guess I'm just not a big fan of Autodesk products in general.

[Aceanuu]

Having always been an Inventor guy... I'm gonna have to go with Inventor. I'm used to its interface and and hotkeys, so I can quite rapidly mock basically anything up. I can't really say its superior to SolidWorks since I haven't really used it much (other than to cnc a fair amount of molds and caps). However, i believe overall, inventor is a much stronger package of features and capabilities (while not necessarily as user friendly).

[martin417]

Never having used SolidWorks or Inventor, I have to vote for Pro Engineer. I mean those are the guys that invented 3d parametric solid modeling.

Even though they screwed up the interface with Wildfire.

[Jimmy Cao]

I've always used solidworks, and for me, it's definately the easier of the two.

Solidworks is more than just modeling software, it can quickly do weight calculations, stress calculations, even heat transfer and such =D

Also, it is very good at importing nearly any type of external data, and it can export in many filetypes.

I also find it very userfriendly, and I like the general interface more.

[roboticWanderor]

i would love to say that i like solidworks more, with it's high caliber features and simplicity thought the entire sketch to assembly process.
but there are several pet peeves of mine with solidworks:
the rotate camera tool
hotkeys (or lack thereof)
rendering and animation is counter intuitive.
a lot more that i havent discovered.

i have used solidworks and inventor both for about 4 months now.
it is possibly the better one of the two, but it certainly has a learning curve like hitting a brick wall. (plus all the solidworks labs at my school default to metric units instead of IPS grrrrr!)

[Crazy Ivan]

I would have to say Solidworks wins by a slim margin for me. I personally find both to be equally easy to use. I learned CAD on Inventor and found that the only learning curve of going to Solidworks was learning where the buttons were and learning then new features. Still though, I find Solidworks a more powerful tool with less of a strain on my processor.

[Mike Harrison]

They are nearly exactly the same for me... i use Inventor at work and SolidWorks for FIRST. Only complaint i have of SolidWorks is drawings are 100x easier in inventor. But COSMO is pretty sweet. For the most part solid modeling and assembly is the same, just different interface. I use Inventor the most so I would vote for it.

[Pavan Dave]

Honestly, I like Pro/ENGINEER. I learned ADI in school and learned Pro/E at robotics and I like Pro/E better. I plan on getting the Stu Version for robotics next year. The biggest reason is its interface. Many people complain about Wildfire's interface but it is just like ADI or SW, you just have to get used to it. Overall though you can do much more with Pro/E than you can with ADI and SolidWorks.

[Tetraman]

I'm for Solidworks, but Inventer is usually better.

[David]

Personally, I like working with solidworks much more than inventor. It is much easier to use the more powerful features, as well as easier to the basic features

[JD Mather]

But SolidWorks has a big selling point that you can get it for $70 if you are a student.


Students have been able to download 1 year (or 14 month) FREE license of Autodesk Inventor Professional for the past 3 releases.

http://engineersrule.org

[Cory]

Anyone mentioning Solidwork's lack of hotkeys should read the help section. You can redefine/assign hotkeys to any function you wish.

I like Solidworks a lot better.

I used Inventor for 6 years, and Solidworks for 2 years. I feel much more productive in Solidworks.

I dislike Inventor's project system, in particular.

Solidworks is much more of an industry standard than Inventor, which is a good reason to use it in and of itself.

[ZInventor]

i love inventor, and have used it for one and a half years,

our team has almost all mentors from Autodesk, so we are a bit biassed, but can get tips and tricks any time...

i have used solidworks a bit, but after learning alot about inventor, it's really hard to switch.

[Jon Ahmann]

I have used Inventor for about three years now and I like it a lot. I have not really used SW (at all) and my opinion is definitely biased, but I have been using ADI since my freshman year in my CAD class, and have found that it can do amazing things. However, the animation can be a pain (I don't know what it's like for SW) and putting sub-assemblies into complete assemblies can also be a bit annoying, especially if you need them to move. Overall though, I would give ADI two thumbs up.

[AdamHeard]

I started with and learned CAD on inventor and that caused me to be an inventor fanboy.

I can say though, if you take the time to learn solidworks you will be very, very happy. Not only is the interface better and easier to customize, it WORKS. Everyone here who uses inventor for more than just basic parts knows what i mean; there are random weird errors all the time.

Also, the fact that universities and industry are more likely to use solidworks is a big motivator for me.

[Cory]

I found Solidworks very easy to pickup, coming from Inventor. The only "difficult" part is finding where all the buttons are. Otherwise, it works exactly the same, for the most part.

Can anyone elaborate on why they find SW more difficult?

[Brandon Holley]

I found Solidworks very easy to pickup, coming from Inventor. The only "difficult" part is finding where all the buttons are. Otherwise, it works exactly the same, for the most part.

Can anyone elaborate on why they find SW more difficult?

I'm with Cory here.

I've used inventor for 4 years, solidworks for 2 and pro/E for 1.
I used solidworks, inventor and pro/E at my last co-op job.
I use solidworks at my current co-op job.
I use inventor for FIRST.

Of all of them, i find the best balance of form and function in solidworks.


I feel people become biased to the system they learn to CAD on, but I started on inventor and have fully been engulfed by solidworks.

[,4lex S.]

Due to Autodesk First Base we all have free updated Inventor downloads for every new year from the company, so it really isn't a case of price for FIRST teams I wouldn't say.

I personnally prefer Inventor because I find the sketch mode to be significantly quicker to use.

[mplanchard]

SolidWorks will support any FIRST Robotics Team that ask us at www.solidworks.com/SponsoredDesignContest. Click the Apply button. We have sponsored robotics teams for 7 years.

After you fill out an application, we will send you software. Then we send you information about our contests such as March Robot Madness www.solidworks.com/robotics or the VEXplorer scholarship contest with Grant Imahara, Revell and Robot Magazine (see the announcement page of this website).

SolidWorks supports FIRST teams at the Regional level. SolidWorks employees are judges and mentors and SolidWorks customers are heavily involved in robot competitions.

Students who design great products should be open to all tools for their own evaluation on what is best for the project.

[Andy A.]

SolidWorks will support any FIRST Robotics Team that ask us at www.solidworks.com/SponsoredDesignContest. .

I can verify this. 885 asked for a copy of a Solidworks student edition and received 10 seats of a full up install and a bunch of nifty shirts and other swag. We were pretty impressed with how friendly, fast and easy the whole thing was. We asked, Solidworks delivered.

I'll echo M.Krasses comment about collision detection in assemblies. It's incredibly useful and something I wish that Inventor did as easily. I remember the first time I played with that feature after 2 years of Inventor training. Blew my mind. COSMOS is also pretty darn good and well featured for the price. I find the moldflow tools very useful, and am hoping to be able to utilize them in place of some specialized mold software we now have to rely on.

-Andy A.

[Jeff Waegelin]

I've used SolidWorks myself for the last three seasons, and I love it. I've used Inventor, UG, AutoCAD, and Pro/E, and of all of them, SW is definitely my favorite. I was very pleased to find out when I joined 121 that they use SW as well. I can also attest to the fact that SolidWorks is very helpful in sponsoring teams - we got an email from one of their reps asking us if we'd like some copies of the program, and they sent us 30 seats of the student edition. Very cool.

[Engineer]

I've been fully trained on on AutoDesk(Acad/mechanical Desktop/Inventor), ProE, Unigraphics but not Solidworks which is what I use now at work.

As for ease of use I'll put them in this order
1. Solidworks
2. Inventor
3. ProE
4. Unigraphics
ProE and Unigraphics are very close.

As for power of the software:
1. ProE
2. Unigraphics
3. Solidworks
4. Inventor
Again, ProE and Unigraphics are very close, and Solid works is not far behind.
Both ProE and Unigraphics require expensive work stations to run.

Bang for the buck, I would have to say Solidworks.

I prefere working Solidworks.

[R.C.]

does anyone know where to get good tutorials

[Aces]

2102 uses solidworks

Our school has a site license, so its a pretty obvious choice,
plus our school taught a SolidWorks class in the past, which 4 of our students have taken. Also, our CNC machine works with Solidworks, and not Inventor. (at least at the moment)

In the solidworks program there are a few decent tutorials, but basically the way I learned was pick up something and a pair of calipers and model.

[Brandon Holley]

2102 uses solidworks
Also, our CNC machine works with Solidworks, and not Inventor. (at least at the moment)


I guarantee you can get the machine to use inventor made parts

[wildmantaz]

I want to know if inventor is capable of copying line work to sigma nest torch program?

[Kyle Love]

I know in my high school we used Inventor with the Project Lead the Way curriculum. Why? It is a easy to learn, simple program. It gets you familiar with terms like fillet, extrude, revolve, and many many more that you can use, or use terms similar in other programs. Basically, Inventor is a good stepping stone into other, more advanced, industry standard software like Solidworks, Pro E and Catia.

[wildmantaz]

Well, i've heard it from people in 2002. Now which is better in 2008. Inventor or SolidWorks?

[EricH]

I'm going to say that Inventor is better, but I'm still learning Solidworks. They're similar, but definitely not the same.

[chris31]

Personally, I like SolidWorks much better. Its similar to Inventor but I like the UI much more and after having used it all the time for my summer job it is what I think I will stick with. Plus, I have a license on my desktop and laptop currently and I dont have Inventor set up.

[Andrew Schreiber]

I know both, I use mostly SolidWorks. Unfortunately everything else our team does is in Unigraphics (NX3 I wanna say)

Personally Id like to find how to change the shortcut keys in SolidWorks (2007 Student) but until then I have to keep using the buttons as opposed to the shortcut keys in Inventor. That to me makes a huge difference.

Power wise, I have to say Solidworks just seems to have more ability. But integration with 3ds max (for the animation or something) just isnt there in it. Yeah Photoworks can do some nice stuff but I know 3ds max really well.

[JOhnch181]

I used Invento for the first time last year for robotics, but my school has engineering classes (5 to be exact) that use solidworks. I know how to use both and so far inventor is alot easier to build in but solidworks has a better mating system.

[Cory]

I used Inventor for 5 years, and have been using SolidWorks for 3 years now. I find that there is no comparison between the two. SolidWorks is superior in every respect in my opinion.

I was proficient with Inventor and didn't really want to change, but in under a week of doing the tutorials in SolidWorks and just fooling around, I was pretty easily using the program on a daily basis.

I find myself to be much more productive in Solidworks in every facet of modeling, from sketching to extruding/patterning/etc to creating assemblies and drawings.

In particular the mates in SolidWorks are much more intuitive than Inventor.

Anyone who dislikes SolidWorks or finds it harder to use than Inventor probably hasn't taken the time to set up the UI to match your work style. Once you customize the toolbars and hot keys, you can do anything you want with minimal mouse clicks.

In addition, SolidWorks is much more of an industry standard than Inventor, which makes it worth using solely for that purpose. While most CAD programs are enough alike to make the switch fairly easily, I think it's better for students to learn on what they are likely to be using in college/industry.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

In addition, SolidWorks is much more of an industry standard than Inventor, which makes it worth using solely for that purpose. While most CAD programs are enough alike to make the switch fairly easily, I think it's better for students to learn on what they are likely to be using in college/industry.


This is the best part. (http://www.3dcontentcentral.com/) ;)

[EricVanWyk]

My disclosure: I am not a MechE. I am an EE. I do not use either professionally. However, I have used both quite a bit (for an EE).

Solidworks was a delight to learn and blew inventor away in terms of ease of use. For a MCAD simpleton like me, Solidworks is the obvious choice.

[R.C.]

Cory, I share the same views. I am in the process of getting the school to switch over to Solidworks. The one thing that autodesk does better than solidworks and the only thing is that it has a way better rendering engine. Make sure you you learn Solidworks, it is the industry standard and it is really the best CAD software out there. If anyone wants tutorials, please email me or if you guys want I could upload them to chiefdelphi or to another site. I have all the tutorials from basic to advanced.