Solid Works vs. Inventor

[Elizabeth Waters]

Our team has over the past few years used Solid Works as its design platform in regards to CAD models of robot components. This year, we're investigating Autodesk Inventor as a possible software to use. There are a few options that we need to weigh before even considering switching over at all:

• Ease of design/user interface.
  
• One of our sponsors who aids in manufacturing custom parts for us uses Solid Works to design/manufacture such parts.
  
• Mentors who assist in the computer design process only know how to use Solid Works. Though it seems as if Solid Works and Inventor are quite similar...

We'll be attending a training session later this week for the Inventor software, hopefully making some of these issues clearer.

Any thoughts? What has been people's experience with either piece of software and are they even as comparable as they appear?

[Chris is me]

I'm by no means a CAD expert, but Solidworks is much more intuitive to me than Inventor. More potential sponsors use their files natively than Inventor as well. The main drawback for me is that the rest of my team knows Inventor a lot better. I don't think you can really go wrong with either software. Neither will make or break your season IF you are adequately trained in it.

[Siri]

Our team uses Inventor, though mostly out of inertia/experience. I started with it as a student on the team (though admittedly not very rigorously), but now use SolidWorks in college almost exclusively. I have to say SolidWorks is a lot more intuitive for me. They are pretty similar, and someone competent in SW won't get lost in Inventor (if they're patient). The learning curve can be pretty painful sometimes, though, especially during build season. SW is also much more ubiquitous in both industry and academia, and employers tend to prefer proficiency in it.
File transfer can be iffy depending on exactly what you're doing as well, so watch out for that. We're trying to get in the habit of sending our manufacturing sponsors a pdf/jpg along with the CAD format they request, in order to avoid mistranslations.

Given your situation and the considerations you listed, I'd recommend sticking with SW. Personally, I can't see much reason to switch from SW to Inventor (the other way is more compelling), but if you identified some possible advantages I'd be happy to see if I can provide further insight (though I can't guarantee the quality).

[EricH]

It never hurts to learn Inventor. I find that (at least for Inventor 8/SolidWorks 2008) they are similar enough to pick up one from knowing the other, and a few tutorials. (It's Pro-E that I have a hard time with...)

But, given that you guys work in SW already, you may want to stick with that for designing, and port over to Inventor for stuff like the awards or animation.

[artdutra04]

If your sponsors and mentors know and use SolidWorks, use it. Constantly switching between file formats is annoying and can lose functionality (some CNC CAM post-processors that ease manufacturing only work with with certain file formats; the machine shop might have to redraw your parts if you use other file formats).

[Aren Siekmeier]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

If your sponsors and mentors know and use SolidWorks, use it. Constantly switching between file formats is annoying and can lose functionality (some CNC CAM post-processors that ease manufacturing only work with with certain file formats; the machine shop might have to redraw your parts if you use other file formats).

I couldn't agree more. Stick with the one you have experience with, can get help with, and can export for fabrication. Of course, it doesn't hurt to learn Inventor as well. Enough teams use it that it would be helpful to be able to go back and forth across the platform difference with them. And maybe it has some advantages over Solidworks that you can use sometime down the road.

Our team has used Solidworks for the last 2 years, and I like it a lot. As Chris said, it's intuitive. I tried AutoCAD 2011 (not sure how that differs from Inventor) just recently and it kind of threw me off.

[Cory]

If you already know and use Solidworks there's really no reason to even consider switching to Inventor. Inventor is vastly less common in industry. If you're already working with a machine shop that uses Solidworks you'd only be shooting yourself in the foot by switching to Inventor.

It can't hurt to know how to use it, however.

[kinghashbrown]

Stay with Solidworks. I personally like the inventor interface more however my team uses Solidworks because the schools we come from use it.

Going back and forth between Inventor and Solidworks is a big pain.

Stick with what you got for ease of use.

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

I couldn't agree more. Stick with the one you have experience with, can get help with, and can export for fabrication. Of course, it doesn't hurt to learn Inventor as well. Enough teams use it that it would be helpful to be able to go back and forth across the platform difference with them. And maybe it has some advantages over Solidworks that you can use sometime down the road.

Our team has used Solidworks for the last 2 years, and I like it a lot. As Chris said, it's intuitive. I tried AutoCAD 2011 (not sure how that differs from Inventor) just recently and it kind of threw me off.

AutoCAD and Inventor are totally different. just made by the same company.
You should think about downloading Inventor 2011 and trying it. the 2011 release has many new features and I find it nice to work with.

Just my 2 cents.

I personally think that Inventor is better, but I only have experience with AI, so it may be a tad inaccurate.

I like the menu setup and view control in AI, but putting parts into assemblies is a bit complicated. (This is coming from someone who has only used Sketchup)

Anyway, Inventor is free, so I recommend it for new teams that are unlikely to get a sponsorship from Solidworks.


Thaine

[kstl99]

I really think that you should get Inventor. I assume you are a student and as such you have an opportunity you may not get later. You can get it free with tutorials and have support from the FIRST community even if your mentors are not familiar with it. I have seen more companies that use Solidworks but there are still plenty that use Inventor so knowing it may come in handy in the job market. The more you know the more valuable you become.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by blondie624

• Ease of design/user interface.
  
• One of our sponsors who aids in manufacturing custom parts for us uses Solid Works to design/manufacture such parts.
  
• Mentors who assist in the computer design process only know how to use Solid Works. Though it seems as if Solid Works and Inventor are quite similar...

A) Personally I like Solidworks interface, but both are equally nice depending on who are you. This should be decided by your team.

B) If one of your main machine shops already uses Solidworks, why shoot yourself in the foot like Cory stated earlier? We have a shop that does a lot of machining for us and its just nice being able to send them a Solidworks file.

C) If your mentors know Solidworks and are proficient at it, why are you bothering to switch?

A CAD program is relatively easy to pick up with prior CAD experience. If your looking at something to play around with, then sure why not get a free copy of Inventor. But it seems like your team has mentors that know solidworks and a shop that uses Solidworks. So I would stick with Solidworks if at all possible.

-RC

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by R.C.

A CAD program is relatively easy to pick up with prior CAD experience. If your looking at something to play around with, then sure why not get a free copy of Inventor. But it seems like your team has mentors that know solidworks and a shop that uses Solidworks. So I would stick with Solidworks if at all possible.

-RC

I too recommend Solidworks. My department at work is Pro/E based but is now switching over to Solidworks for all files (lucky for me, I hated using Pro/E).

Also, I completely agree with what RC stated here. The switch between Inventor and SW isn't really a big deal, and the new versions of Inventor are pretty similar in interface. The only one that really took me a while to learn after SW was Pro/E, but Inventor is a quick change.

.

[mplanchard]

I must disclose that I work for SolidWorks, before that I used SolidWorks in industry and in college along with 10 other cad software packages. I spent 5 years working for Computervision/Prime (now owned by PTC). CAD software changes - even SolidWorks changes from year to year. First, learn one cad system well, then it will be easier to adapt to others.

Let industry be your guide as to what cad tool to use.
Who are your mentors? What about the machine shop?
Try looking at Monster.com and the colleges and universities in your area.
Check out a local SolidWorks users group, there are 170+ http://www.swugn.org/ talk to other designers in your community.


If you would like to continue your SolidWorks sponsorship this year go to www.SolidWorks.com/SponsoredDesignContest. All teams will receive SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress - what other software allows you to determine your carbon footprint of a robot part in the same user interface?

And if your really want to focus on engineering don't forget about the math.

Marie

[Elizabeth Waters]

Originally Posted by R.C.

A) Personally I like Solidworks interface, but both are equally nice depending on who are you. This should be decided by your team.

B) If one of your main machine shops already uses Solidworks, why shoot yourself in the foot like Cory stated earlier? We have a shop that does a lot of machining for us and its just nice being able to send them a Solidworks file.

C) If your mentors know Solidworks and are proficient at it, why are you bothering to switch?

In reality, we have only one mentor who helps us with CAD models for the robot, and he comes from the sponsor corporation (Oceaneering) that helps manufacture our parts; this year, they actually manufactured nothing for us as it was not needed. Yet, after the Inventor training that we attended last week, it does seem as if SolidWorks is an overall better platform (and as many have previously stated, more widely used in industry). At this point, the only issue that we're concerned with is award submission being exclusively Autodesk; thus, we'd like to be proficient in Inventor for that reason. Still, with the basics down in Inventor and knowledge of SolidWorks, shouldn't be too bad to "transfer" our final design into Inventor.

Thanks for all the input!

[AdamHeard]

Please people, when someone makes a post like this they are asking for factual help.

I personally think that Inventor is better, but I only have experience with AI, so it may be a tad inaccurate.

I like the menu setup and view control in AI, but putting parts into assemblies is a bit complicated. (This is coming from someone who has only used Sketchup)

Anyway, Inventor is free, so I recommend it for new teams that are unlikely to get a sponsorship from Solidworks.


Thaine

If you only have experience with inventor, how could you possibly accurately say it's better?

My team has always received SW whenever we have asked, in fact, they give us more licenses that Autodesk has (although I've never asked Autodesk for more). I believe this year we asked for 35, and were given 35 a few days later with no hassle, questioning, etc.

Originally Posted by kstl99

I really think that you should get Inventor. I assume you are a student and as such you have an opportunity you may not get later. You can get it free with tutorials and have support from the FIRST community even if your mentors are not familiar with it. I have seen more companies that use Solidworks but there are still plenty that use Inventor so knowing it may come in handy in the job market. The more you know the more valuable you become.

All the same advantages exist for Solidworks; even more so actually (in the job market).

Personally, I prefer Solidworks (I've used inventor for 2 seasons, Solidworks for 2 season, and both for quite some time); it also clearly lines up better with your teams resources and structure.