Inventor or Creo?

[OccamzRazor]

Originally Posted by kgargiulo

I am not seeking to start a posting war over which CAD is better. OK, I will say that if SolidWorks is actually charging FIRST teams for their licenses (I've read posts that say they do, and others that say they don't) then I don't understand why there isn't a mass revolt against them (we'll welcome you to Creo any time!). In any case, our team is very confident in our decision and the benefits we get from it every day. Your mileage may vary. I hope the information here helps, whether anyone chooses PTC / Creo or not.

Just to put this part to rest, 3506 has had 30 seats of SOLIDWORKS Student Edition for 5 years straight now and we have not paid a dime. SW is free for all FRC teams so do not discount it as an option.

As for version control and external references, using a data management software such as (free) GrabCAD Workbench would alleviate a lot of those grievances. I am hoping that EPDM will be included in the next license handout from FIRST and SOLIDWORKS because that would be even better.

As for CAD platforms I found that functionally CREO and SOLIDWORKS are very comparable while Inventor does not quite have as many features. SOLIDWORKS of course boasts ease-of-use more than anything else which I found much easier to teach to high school students. I work in the CAD industry and I can say there is no such thing as an unbiased opinion on these programs and that any head to head comparison is biased.

My bias lies with SOLIDWORKS but with that being said you can always change programs and learn something new. I would use the resources at your disposal and make the software decision based on what mentors are available that know the programs, what teaching resources you have access to on the web, and any literature such as a CAD manual from a course.

[evanperryg]

Inventor is extremely easy to use, and to get used to. It lacks some more advanced abilities, though. Solidworks is also pretty intuitive, is more widely-accepted in industry, and is a bit more powerful. Creo, in my team's experience, is a massive pain to get used to, and its more advanced capabilities aren't really useful in FRC. I'm still an Inventor peasant but I'd strongly suggest Solidworks as it offers a good balance of user-friendliness and advanced features.

[ajlapp]

I use both packages daily.

CREO is an advanced package and is incredibly powerful...however it isn't very intuitive in my opinion and can be very challenging to use if you continuer stand the fundamentals.

Inventor is very simple and has plenty of firepower for FRC.

I'd much rather teach Inventor to students than CREO.

[JustinCAD]

Inventor is the most preferred program on our team, due to our experience with it. As others have stated, Inventor seems to have an easy-to-learn design. Personally, I don't know anything about Creo, though I would like to learn in the future. We have a new student joining our CAD subteam who knows the basics of SolidWorks, and he may be able to help us with it. Overall, Inventor is currently my most favored software.