Solidworks vs Autocad

[Kollargoll]

Simple question!
Which one is the best regarding 2D, 3D and posibillity to customise commands and routines by your self?

Anyone have experience with both ?

:roll:

[Raggi_Thor]

Are you serious?
3D: SolidWorks (or Inventor, SolidEdge, Pro/E, Alibre Design)
2D, customization, exisiting add ons, existin drawing base and user base: AutoCAD (or Bricscad/Intellicad)

[JD Mather]

You are comparing the wrong products.
I might change the question to, "How long will it be till you have completed the training needed to customize a complex software package?" SolidWorks and Inventor are relatively new compared to AutoCAD. There is a rather large, experienced userbase of AutoCAD customizers (as many as 25 years of experience) you would have to compete with in the 2-3 years (minimum) when you would have the needed experience. Learn VBA and one of the modern CAD programs.

[MichaelBrenden]

Interesting comparison: redbugtech do.tt co mm forwrd-slush weblogs forwrd-slush nathan dot pee etch pee question-mark perma link equals-sign 83

(sorry but apparently I'm too new a member and therefore, in case I might be a spammer, I can't post real web addresses)

[MikeScott]

I've used both, though not a lot of Solidworks.. just learned enough to handle a series of tasks that needed handling. The company I was with wanted to switch to Solidworks. They hired a guy that could use it, and were pleased with the results, however the company itself failed at that time, and I went back to AutoCAD at another job.

To me it's more of a question of:

Parts and assemblies of parts or documentation illustrations = Solidworks (hands down)
Architectural layouts = AutoCad
Sheet metal fab drawings = Solidworks

2d = both are good within their respective frameworks, though in Solidworks you can "unwrap" a 3d sheet metal object to get a flat part drawing from it, complete with releif cuts. That's worth it's weight in gold if you know all the settings regarding metal stretching, and need to do that kind of thing. Architecturally though, AutoCAD is a clear winner of 2d.

3d = Never seen a building and Site rendered in Solidworks, and I'm unaware if that's possible. I'd still prefer AutoCAD for that type of thing. Aside from that, Solidworks for 3d parts, assemblies, and exploded assemblies.

Fabricator compatibility = Never had a problem with either, though we commonly had to export Solidwork files into DXF (AutoCAD) format, which required an add-on.

Customise commands and routines by yourself = AutoCAD

Compatibility with other rendering / 3d programs = SolidWorks. (Autocad lost a lot of points on that a few years back, but works well with 3ds MAX)

I was impressed by Solidworks, personally coming from a long history of relying on AutoCAD. I'd like to learn to use it better. Parametric modelling and constraints were pretty damn cool, though AutoCAD has now started doing that too with release 2010... meaning I could now model both ways, I guess.

(I haven't personally tried AutoCAD 2010 yet, so I don't know how well that's been implemented)

I'm an AutoCAD guy though, and biased towards sticking with what I already know.

[MichaelBrenden]

youtube has a series of videos from an AC guy named Rob Cohee that are excellent.

[shift1313]

Solidworks hands down for everything.

Solidworks makes use of Blocks, dynamic blocks no less. Ive converted 4 lines into individual blocks in a sketch to play with linkage ratios. Really quick work. You can import blocks from acad, create them mid sketch in SW or any number of other options along the way.

Solidworks for customizing routines. Understanding macros/vba isnt needed but can be very useful. No Lisp routines but SW Design Tables are a great way to put a lot of functionality into SW. If you are proficient at excel you can do nearly anything and its very well integrated. You can draw a part, create a design table and it will create the spreadsheet in excel to control the drawing. from there you can create new configurations or simply edit that one. The user interface can be as simple as entering numbers in a spreadsheet or as complex as using excel custom views, visual styles, data validation as well as the developer options that can make use of activeX controls. How complex you get will depend on your experience with Excel but the functionality is all built in. Creating macros is as easy as pressing the record button then going on your way. If you have experience with Visual Basic this is an extremely helpful tool when dealing with automation.

If you have to work only in 2d there is really no need to get into something like Solidworks but it can certainly handle the task.

I used Acad for many years and the only time I open it back up is either for this forum, or to double check files ive exported to send off to a third party.

[shift1313]

I thought i would put up a screen shot of a very simple design table to control the OD, ID and length of a pipe. The interface was done using custom views and design validation in Excel. When you right click on the design table in the configuration manager, excel opens up within solidworks(rather a somewhat limited version). After you edit the values and click in the model window the update takes place.

[drifter15]

Comparision is difficult.

AutoCAD is good in 2D, but solidworks is better in 3D.
But it is not always true.
AutoCAD is better in some cases and SolidWorks is better in other cases.

I advise you to use both.

I used to think that AutoCAD is the best and that it can do what ever solidworks does, but then I realized that solidworks is great in 3D

[shift1313]

Comparision is difficult.

AutoCAD is good in 2D, but solidworks is better in 3D.
But it is not always true.
AutoCAD is better in some cases and SolidWorks is better in other cases.

I advise you to use both.

I used to think that AutoCAD is the best and that it can do what ever solidworks does, but then I realized that solidworks is great in 3D


In what instance would you use Acad over SW? Im just curious cause i dont have any. :D

[drifter15]

In what instance would you use Acad over SW? Im just curious cause i dont have any. :D

I use it when I want to make a 2d drawing of an object. I don't want to make the 3D, only the multi view drawing.

Another use, in transferring a model from a CAD software to a Finite Element Software (ANSYS or ABAQUS)

I made the model of my final year project in SolidWorks and I transferred it to ABAQUS but there were some problems in curves and fillets, so I made the same model in AutoCAD but I increased the number of "isolines" from 4 to 1200 and I transferred the model. It made no problems :)

I am not that expert in SW, so I use AutoCAD mostly.

[shift1313]

Solidworks drawings are way easier to create than in autocad. You created your 3d model then start a drawing file. You can place any view you like, iso views, sections, break outs and so on. Add BOMs and auto balloon the parts. Its really very quick. I also deal with Configurations and you can add multiple configurations from one part or assembly file into multiple sheets and create pdfs just by Save As.

Solidworks has two levels of FEA. You can create a motion study of an assembly. This defines mechanical interfaces between components, springs, forces motors and you can animate this, pause it and export to FEA. Also you can plot forces, positions, accelerations and so on of components right there and export to excel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl90QzFkfms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DL0W2JCK5M

the voice is very robotic but this is just a general idea.

[MikeScott]

Probably a stupid question, but can you do room renderings with solidworks?

[shift1313]

Yes. There are a lot of environments built into photoworks. If you are modeling things like furniture you could place them in a room or add different images to walls, floor and ceiling. Here is a rim that i just placed in an outdoor courtyard scene.

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj39/shift1313/cad/rimrender3.jpg

[MikeScott]

It looks great, but that's just a background, isn't it? I'm referring to a new, non-existing room, with specific lighting set-ups.. like as in like a kitchen 3d rendering, where you define wall positions/ surfaces, etc.

Or like a building as seen from the air or something.

I was under the impression that AutoCAD does a better job at that sort of thing.

[shift1313]

Well solidworks has a few ways of defining an environment. The scene you see here is comprised of 4 walls, floor and ceiling all linked(even though you dont see all of them). The way the images on the walls are mapped can be defined a few ways but the images on these can be whatever you choose. The one above is one already in SW.

This one here is a glass i drew and used the Kitchen scene in SW. there isnt a counter there only the model/image relationship makes it look that way.

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj39/shift1313/cad/glass2.jpg

If you are modeling rooms, buildings or whatever this is fine as well. You can model whatever you like, place cameras(great control over cameras by the way), add your own lights and so on. The quality of renders is only going to be what you make it. I prefer the solidworks environment but it is what it is. The software is designed as a mechanical cad system as well as surfacing, CAE and so on. Something like Acad Architecture is a program suited for architecture with built in tools just for that industry. If your are only planning on drawing buildings or something like that, most of the features in SW will probably be lost because they are tailored towards another aspect of the industry(not saying that you cant use it). Just like Autodesk has dozens of products that are geared towards different aspects. A program like Alias Studio is for complex surfacing and you can then take those surfaces into Inventor to say create some of the structural aspects of the design as well as analyze it for strength, moldability and so on. You can draw complex surfaces in inventor, but Alias gives you more control options.

I hope that made sense.

[MichaelBrenden]

Every time in the past, when faced with learning new, "simpler / easier / whatever" softwares, versus biting the bullet, paying the expense, and climbing the learning curve, I've always regretted choices that were against going with the established leader.

From my novice perspective, AutoCAD is decades worth of excellent at drawing 2D and is "the established leader" in 2D. 3D has reportedly been kludged onto it to placate those of us who still use AutoCAD. Fine.

But Autodesk's real answer, as I understand it, to SolidWorks and similar ilk, is something they call Autodesk Inventor. I've been watching videos of it on youtube, and it looks very nice and appears to usually match and possibly exceed SolidWorks.

Maybe I'm wrong here, seeing as how I've only watched Inventor videos so far and not yet used either SolidWorks or Inventor, but I'm sensing that same lesson of my past experience: bite the bullet and get/learn what is the (or is coming from an existing position of, and is therefore likely to become the future,) established leader, Inventor, or pay and learn twice, SolidWorks, then ultimately Inventor.

[Crazy J]

I'm feeling like SW is something I need to learn as an under-employed Mechanical Engineer. I had done 2D AutoCAD 10 years ago or so, doing some simple tooling drawings. It worked okay for that, then, compared to drawing by hand. But even back then, I didn't use it enough, so I probably wasn't getting everything out of it I could have.

Two years ago I had some SolidEdge training, so six months ago when I got using AutoCAD for 3D, I kept finding there were things I thought AutoCAD should do, but it didn't seem to. Again, I'm still using 2002 version, but just from the number of job posting I am seeing for Project or Product Engineers in the Mechanical Engineering field that want SolidWorks, it makes me think I should devote some time to learning that so it can be on my resume. Not too many companies seem to want AutoCAD for the Product Engineer role. Almost as a rule, all the job postings I see asking for AutoCAD are for plant engineering/building maintenance type ME jobs, or construction/architecture firms who have an ME on staff for the HVAC stuff.

All that said, is there a good place to get started learning SolidWorks? Some time ago I noticed a free trial for 3 months for SolidWorks student version I think. I haven't looked lately, but would that and a book get me going? If I'm not using it for actual work projects as I am going through the book, is that a worthwhile use of my time? Or will I not truly learn it until I get the chance to use it for a company? I say this, b/c while I recall the approach that I learned about 3D modelling in SolidEdge, I have not used it since my training, so I probably wouldn't remember the commands if I sat down on it today. And when I was taking up 3D in AutoCAD, I had a book and I realize now I spent way too much time going through all the surface modelling sections as I have used it zero in the consulting work I have been doing with it since.

[stevsmith]

I'm going to have to side with Shift on this one.
Solidworks hands down.

Although in my current job we only use Autocad, basically because my company are not willing enough to invest in solidworks.

[shift1313]

Michael, Inventor and Solidworks are on par with functionality. I prefer Solidworks over Inventor in nearly all cases(and use both on a regular basis). I feel that the Solidworks user interface is hands down the best of any cad software that I have used. Its very user friendly and easy to navigate. I feel like solidworks does a better job with 3d surfaces than inventor, but inventor has some nice benefits when working in certain aspects. I see the main benefit of using Inventor is its compatability with other Autodesk products. SW does a great job at handling dwg files also.

CrazyJ, Autocad has come a long way in the past 8 years. up until 2007 release you had very limited options for creating complex surfaces. 2007 saw the addition of sweep and loft to the bag of tools which goes a very long way. 2010 introduced what i consider a merge with 3dstudio with primitave based modeling options. Meaning you can draw standard objects like a sphere, cube, donut and pull/push faces based on their mesh.

Industries like mentioned that seem to only require acad are probably going to be based on 2d layouts. There is no reason to get a software package that is mostly useless to you. What i mean is if you would only ever do 2d layouts then one of the lite products would serve the purpose.

SW student edition can be purchased for $100 but you need to prove you are a student. Details can be found here about the different educations packages.

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/engineering-education-software.htm



A good example of what im saying is Unigraphics. I have this at work and its an extremely powerful software with tons of functionality geared towards the auto, ship and aero industry. It has some functionality that SW does not but its really too much for what I do. If i was designing cars then a lot of its functionality would come in very handy. Now solidworks and UGS are both the same "type" of programs but to me they are on different levels.

SW has some great tutorials built in to the software. Asking questions here and going through the built in stuff is great. If you crave more you can get that from SW as well.

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/software-training-certification.htm

There is also something called SolidProfessor that has(for a price) tutorials. There are tons of their videos online but to get the full experience you need to purchase their products.

[JD Mather]

Michael, Inventor and Solidworks are on par with functionality. I prefer Inventor over SolidWorks in nearly all cases(and use both on a regular basis). I feel that the Inventor user interface is hands down the best of any cad software that I have used. Its very user friendly and easy to navigate. I feel like Inventor Alias Editor in 2011 release does a better job with 3d surfaces than SolidWorks, but SolidWorks has some nice benefits when working in certain aspects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K1TTtwUu6E&feature=PlayList&p=1AF78DC3FC655FD0


Industries like mentioned that seem to only require acad are probably going to be based on 2d layouts.

Keep in mind that most 2D AutoCAD (still a huge number) users in the mechanical field are in the process of changing from 2D AutoCAD to 3D SWx or Inventor. If they opt to stay with Autodesk product they will be using Inventor and these positions will never be posted as it is an in-house transition. They are probably more likely to look for outside talent if transitioning to SWx.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard people refer to Inventor as "AutoCAD" and Autodesk didn't help the confusion any by naming the 2010 suite release "AutoCAD Inventor". Be aware that Inventor is not AutoCAD.
http://store.autodesk.com/DRHM/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayProductDetailsPage&SiteID=adsk&Locale=en_US&Env=BASE&productID=183871700

Both Inventor and SolidWorks have had displaced worker programs running in the past year (not sure if still in effect) which provides free learning licenses (150-days SWx) (13-month Inventor) for displaced workers. You might do a google search and see if these are still running.

Students can download Inventor (and other Autodesk products) for free from http://www.autodesk.com/edcommunity
Students can download SolidWorks for free after purchase of certain textbooks (150-student version) from (well I can't tell you the url...)

As shift points out, SolidWorks and Inventor are nearly identical in functionality. If you learn one you should be able to pick up the other one very quickly. I think what you tend to prefer is what you learned first. I noticed that shift picked up a lot of the Inventor techniques very quickly even though he perfers SWx. I would say the same for myself.

In the end, keep an open mind and look at it as solving geometry problems rather than learning software. There are plenty of AEs who know every hidden tip and trick in the software but couldn't design their way out of a paper bag. You never know where you are going to end up working next month or next year so if you limit your thinking to a particular software you will be limiting your future options.

[NBC]

Isn't the question as to which software is better, similar to asking someone what their favourite food / colour / etc is ?
I mean, it's all subjective; each and every one of us would use software different, so any comparables are quite futile imo.

sure, we can list out what the software is capable of, and some of it's limitation - but at the end of the day the biggest parameter involved will be the person using it

[JD Mather]

Isn't the question as to which software is better, similar to asking someone what their favourite...


I think it might be more similar to asking what is their favorite compact car, luxury car, sports car, racing car, truck....

...all drive pretty much the same but are optimized for different things. I know I can fly into an airport and pick up a rental and whatever they give me I might be confused by some of the controls at first, but I can drive the car. And I'll notice a bit of a difference between the Prius, the Corvette and the Hummer.

[shift1313]

JD, autodesk still has the assistance program going on and has been extended through jan 2011.

http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=assistance_home


As far as I can tell the SW offer still stands as well but its a 90 day license.

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/news/167_6327_ENU_HTML.htm

[Crazy J]

How bout this angle? Do SW and Inventor have the same amount of "problems" that AutoCAD seems to. So much of the forum seems to be answered by "set your system variable suchandsuch to 1". Having really only used AutoCAD, I can't compare, but the amount it crashes compared to say Word or Excel just seems crazy. Granted, my computer is underspec'd and the work that a CAD program is doing is quite a lot more I'd imagine than a word processor or spreadsheet.

What's everyone's take on how the programs compare on the little issues and flaws that pop up? One of the posts touched on user-friendly... that sort of thing.

Also, how about comments on the %age of the functions of AutoCAD (or the other programs in the discussion) that the members of the forum use in their normal work. One comment on not needing 3D for certain types of work is a great example. It seems many members of the forum have used AutoCAD for mny years and never gone into 3D. For me, if I continue on in CAD, it will likely be solely in 3D.

I feel like with my mind being geared to understand how things go together or are formed, that I've got the 3D design down fairly well for the time I've used it. The thing that I think I would stumble with is then getting everything to come out at the end in an orderly fashion, such as prints, linked documents, stored common components etc. What's anyone feel about the comparison of these products regarding ease of getting things output onto prints (preferably from 3D models).

Just some more fat to chew on......

[English Lad]

Being new to the forum and learning ACad as well as Solidworks my comments are as a newbie user of both...

I use Autocad 2009 and Solidworks 2010 and with autocad its a very exact way of drawing ie you know the exact length of line or shape you want in a 2D drawing.

Solidworks on the other hand you sketch a design or shape and manipulate its size and dimension afterwards and or drag it about to get what you want and then extrude a solid and build on from that. If you then want a 2D working drawing its easy as you just drag the views into place from the 3d object.

Since putting my efforts into Solidworks over the past 2 months I think I have used Autocad once!

The biggest difference is the cost! Solidworks is far to expensive :x

Paul

[shift1313]

Being new to the forum and learning ACad as well as Solidworks my comments are as a newbie user of both...

I use Autocad 2009 and Solidworks 2010 and with autocad its a very exact way of drawing ie you know the exact length of line or shape you want in a 2D drawing.

Solidworks on the other hand you sketch a design or shape and manipulate its size and dimension afterwards and or drag it about to get what you want and then extrude a solid and build on from that. If you then want a 2D working drawing its easy as you just drag the views into place from the 3d object.

Since putting my efforts into Solidworks over the past 2 months I think I have used Autocad once!

The biggest difference is the cost! Solidworks is far to expensive :x

Paul



Paul, it takes a different approach to modeling. When you draw in Acad its different than in solidworks and learning both at the same time may be pretty confusing. In SW you need to fully define(dimension and constrain) your sketches(in almost all cases). In acad when you say draw a line you can "free sketch" it or enter a numerical value. The dimension added to the line is purely for reference to the lines properties while in SW the line is driven by that dimension(parameters). You should in no way be just dragging shapes about to get your result. You can get things close but you should always rely on your dimensions and constraints. The features in your feature tree are time sensitive in SW(and inventor) so when they appear matters to the rest of the model. These models being based on their parameters allow you to change the model very easily at any stage for any reason(when done correctly). Simple changes like that are very difficult or not possible with autocad.


JD, i also noticed a comment you made about sticking with which software you learned first. The first parametric software I used was actually mechanical desktop(although not utilized in that manner), then inventor 10,11, unigraphics nx4.0 and 5.0, Inventor 2009 then Solidworks08 and 09(throw in Catia and proE somewhere). So SW was actually the last one ive used but really taken to its layout and functionality. The main thing that has me choose SW over inventor is really the surfacing and spline control. Im eager to give inventor 2011 a go and see how this has been changed. I also like SW motion simulation a little better than inventor dynamic simulation but its all apples to apples comparison :D

[English Lad]

I agree :) but the point I was trying to make as a novice is that in ACad you put a line down the size you actually want very much how you used to with a pencil, rule and paper. In SW you put any size line down and adjust its size afterwards.

As for dragging when you edit a defined sketch you can drag the points or change the driven dimensions, its a very different story in ACad.

Paul

[shift1313]

You can do the same thing with acad only the dimension doesnt limit the line. start a line at any point in acad and draw it to any other point. then right click on the line and go to properties. You will see a start(x,y,z) and an end(x,y,z) as well as delta(x,y,z), length and angle. the Delta, angle and length boxes are descriptions that can not be changed but you can alter the start and end points. Of course when drawing a line you can enter a start point(0,0) then a length and angle 50<120( line length 50, angle 120 from X+ axis). The difference comes when you try to drag a line end point. In SW if you define it with a length and coincident to the origin, you can drag the end point in a circle of radius = to your line. In acad you can freely pull the line anywhere.

SW = numbers define line
Acad = line defines numbers:wink:

[JD Mather]

The first parametric software I used was actually mechanical desktop...

Ouch! Same here. I started backwards - surfaces in MDT and then parametric solids. I remember walking into a class telling my students that we will look at this Inventor software but my preferred modeler is MDT. About half way through the semester we quite bothering to even open MDT. Inventor was still lacking some basic functionality but it was obvious that MDT had no future. A few months later Autodesk announced it would no longer be sold, bundled for free with Inventor Series....