SolidWorks vs. Inventor

[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=]

Originally Posted by Cory

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.