Solidworks vs Autocad

[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=-K1TT...F78DC3FC655FD0

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/servl...ctID=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

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

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

[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

[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....