Inventor V Solidworks

[FIFTHTEXAS]

can anyone tell me which is the most commonly used solidworks or inventor
i have tried both and like them about the same, i am trying to progress from a job using 2d and trying to get a job using either softwares. i don't know if i should use both software packages to give me more options in trying to find a job or concentrate on one software but which one? it seems solidworks have more books, tutorials than inventor (amazon, ebay etc.)
does anyone know which is used more in industry. can anyone give any advice

regards

[Aardvark]

Depends a lot on your location as well as the industry and specifically what type of product the company makes.

If the product is complex surfaces, solidworks is most likely the software of choice. If it is complex assemblies with a large number of parts and sheet metal, probably Inventor. I don't know about England but in the US Inventor is used more heavily on the East Coast and Solidworks on the West Coast (very generally).

If you are in Aerospace or automotive, probably neither. You may want to look at CATIA.

Civil and Architectural, probably not using a 3d modeler at all, although civil 3d and Revit are becoming more popular.

[Lazer]

If you look back at my posts you will see I was asking questions about what 3d software I should buy.

I had a £25000 budget to buy the right 3d design software for the job.

This is what I could have bought and keep in mind our number 1 supplier uses Catia (hence the £25000 budget if I needed it)

1.Solidworks
2.SolidEdge
3.Inventor
4.Catia

I was given 5 months to choose.

I had salesmen/woman given Demo after Demo (hours of demos)
I had telephone calls after telephone calls.
I had searched the Internet and joined every forum above, asked questions
and lots of them.

Tool for the Job was Inventor.
1.You can drag and drop from autocad to Inventor its that quick.
2.Catia users where every happy with the translation from Inventor to Catia.
3.Ease of use
4.Fantastic for large assembly's
5.I'm in the engineering Industry Inventor get the job done the fastest.

I saved the company £17000
As Catia was not needed, I can do the job with Inventor.

Also you can now go to college and study for a City & Guilds in Inventor.

Answer to your question, most common used?
in the UK its Inventor as all the schools are learning it.

[arusho]

Solidworks all the way. I have a very large list of complaints with Inventor and I tell everyone I know do not use Inventor. Solidworks is much more refined and Inventor people know it. Proof is that I email them weekly asking them how to do certain things. Most of the time they figure it out, but many times, they say "it can't do it, gotta do a work around"...

The only reason there are more seats of Autocad Inventor is because Autocad bundles Inventor with Autocad 2D. Call them up, ask them, I did...

The only reason I am on this site is to get help with Inventor. Which I thank very much, but I don't like it (the program). :(

[Lazer]

It's a well known (fact) Solidworks cannot outsell Inventor and are in trouble of doing so, it's also known and talked about that Solidworks is trying to use forums like this to promote their software by slagging of Inventor and putting it down (moderators take note!), If you don't like Inventor then leave this forum and go slag it of on another forum instead, I for one will not take part in your childish sales methods.:P

[Lazer]

but I don't like it (the program). :(

I don't like jelly but you don't catch me on the strawberry ice-cream forum knocking jelly down all the time:lol:

[arusho]

It's a well known (fact) Solidworks cannot outsell Inventor and are in trouble of doing so, it's also known and talked about that Solidworks is trying to use forums like this to promote their software by slagging of Inventor and putting it down (moderators take note!), If you don't like Inventor then leave this forum and go slag it of on another forum instead, I for one will not take part in your childish sales methods.:P

Well, thats my opinion. Looks like your gonna lose sleep over this now :( .
You know you'll be driving home cursing about this. "I'm not gonna think about it!! That guy is wrong! Inventor rules!"

[jdkriek]

I love Inventor, but it has glaring omissions that simply cannot be ignored. Just to name a FEW. Simply things like rotating a part by 17 degrees to reduce the amount of material we waste is an impossible task in Inventor after the part as been created. And I have no way of knowing exactly how much I need to rotate it. I resort to exporting STEP files from Inventor to Mechanical Desktop to do this. Not to mention all the irregularities we have exporting STL files to the CAM software. While Solid Works, Rhinoceros, ECT never have any of these problems.

[Aardvark]

Jonathan,

What are you trying to accomplish by rotating? What is your workflow for this? What irregularities are you seeing with stl exports?

[jdkriek]

We mill things out of limestone and marble slabs. The part file sometimes needs to be rotated to fit the slab, otherwise we end up using two slabs and that leaves us with wasted material.

I typically finish the model normal straight up and down, but depending on what we end up working with in the shop I need to rotate it 17 degree here or 12 degree there. The slabs are always different sizes, so I never know until later.

Often our STL exports are not accurate in some manner. Most often, it’s the accuracy that is lost. It’s usually very slight, but noticeable in cut stone. Arc radius flatter than normal, material overhang showing up in CAM that isn’t showing in Inventor, ECT.

[alkorm77]

It's a well known (fact) Solidworks cannot outsell Inventor and are in trouble of doing so, it's also known and talked about that Solidworks is trying to use forums like this to promote their software by slagging of Inventor and putting it down (moderators take note!), If you don't like Inventor then leave this forum and go slag it of on another forum instead, I for one will not take part in your childish sales methods.:P

I spent 3 months doing the same as you deelay. I found solidworks the best. Not to say Inventor is bad, just not as good. It has less features overall. Inventor outsells SW (does now in Australia) because you can upgrade from Acad for less than 50% of SW base package. The other main reason we went for SW was FEA, inventor is very limited in this area and requires intergration with a much more advanced package, virtually resulting in the same cost.
SW has been around 10+ years now and inventor is playing catch up. Don't get me wrong, i like inventor & it absolutely *****s on Acad. Just not as good as solidworks in my book

[Lazer]

The other main reason we went for SW was FEA, inventor is very limited in this area and requires intergration with a much more advanced package,

We have just upgraded to FEA, I agree the FEA is better in Solidworks as I have seen it in demos, FEA is not really my cup of tea however our design team wants me to use it, I am hoping (after a 2 day training course on Inventor FEA) Inventor will deliver.