WHY DON'T I USE SOLIDWORKS HERE? (It's kinda their fault)
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- Story time, I get asked this a lot, it's a good question and it's got a partly interesting answer! Why is there no Solidworks tutorials on Tech3D?
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#Solidworks #SWX #3DCAD #Autodesk #Inventor 
Хобби
I am 24 years old and I tried getting a student version of Solidworks maybe 2 years ago. Broke ass college kid completely dependent on his parents...my school didn't offer a free version of Solidworks. I went through those same steps and a day or two later I received a call asking me about Solidworks. The lady was very nice and I mentioned I had never used a 3D CAD program before, but I would really like to explore it and try to learn as I'm in school. I said "That sounds great, how can I download it?" "Oh well it is a limited student version and you have to pay for it, it's...." whatever it was, $50 or $100 idk.
"Wait....what? Why? Lady, I'm not working yet...I have no money, you realize what my bills are? Why would you not give it to me for free? Is there anything you can do about that price? I don't even know if I want to spend hours a day inside a CAD program yet." "No. You have to pay for it, that price is already deeply discounted..." (Trying to get me to buy it..) "Well, Autodesk gives me their 3D CAD program as a student...for free....and they will give me the exact same type of full version an engineer will get, so there will be no surprises as I transition from school to work. Their FULL version is COMPLETELY FREE for students for 3 years. Bye! 👋😃"
I don't understand how they do not see the problem with that.
Now, I am absolutely committed to Autodesk because that company helped me out when I needed it the most when I was a broke college kid that just wanted to ignorantly stumble around learning the software and just seeing if I like it and if I can figure out what stuff does...to see what I wanted to do with my life. Two years later, I am working as CNC Machinist in order to better understand manufacturing so that I can properly design for the manufacturing techniques available...and because the money is not too bad...and I can make my own stuff with the machines...kind of a win-win-win for now. I'm practicing to earn the privilege to be called an Autodesk Inventor Certified Professional in order to look that much better as I work up to my engineering education. I'm looking to also start my own business in the not too distant future.
You tell me...what company do you think I'm going to purchase a license from for the rest of me working career? 😃 What company will make more money in the long run due to their marketing and business strategy? Solidworks, rather Dassault Systemes, is missing out on AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF ENGINEERS using and potentially purchasing their products because of the way the handle the distribution of their software.
They are so inconceivably screwed, I cannot even begin to describe it. It is so foolish. Autodesk has been nothing but a pleasure to work with the entire time. I am entitled to a full license of literally every software package Autodesk offers, which thankfully far....far exceeds the diversity of any other software company I've ever come across.
Not to mention the UI in Fusion 360 as well as Inventor (along with most of thier other solutions maybe the sole exception of Netfabb? Maya could be a little prettier?) Is so much nicer to look at and I find it far more intuitive than any other 3D CAD package I've tried.
I'm not saying it's the best, I'm not saying it's the more powerful, or the one with the most tools. I'm saying that if it's not...The fact that they will have so many more people using it and providing feedback that it is inevitable to become the best, if it's not already.
Screw every other software company, Autodesk helped me when I couldn't even or could barely help myself. Unless Autodesk like really screws me over, I'll willingly purchase any and all programs even if it is just for my home computer in the next year or two. And that is me thinking I'm going to pay for it for the next 20 years, at least.
Dassault Systemes is friggin stupid, in my personal opinion. How can you not pay attention to the individuals that are about to enter the workforce?? That could be a lifetime of sales and countless more customers through networking. When I recommend engineering software, I recommend Autodesk....because...they get it, let alone it's typically very competent, intuitive software.
It blows my mind that Dassault Systemes just cannot seem to grasp it. What morons.
Totally agree 👍🏻 I thought the same
Yep I'm exactly the same, had access to Inventor as a student, no access to solidworks, obviously going to stick with Inventor now.
@@andrewcharlton4053 I am a mechanical engineer at a robotics integrator now because I was proficient and comfortable within inventor. I was willing to learn more and I am inside Inventor all day every day now. I love what I do (little tedious at times) but I love my job.
@@kevin_delaney Yeah it seems so short sighted from Dassault to limit copies of their software when the competition don't. I'd love to be able to use multiple bits of software and I spend time outside of work hours in the autodesk environment when I can, yet I just cannot get into certain pieces unless I got cracked copies. So so silly. Glad you love what you do.
"Morons" is a good word for the sale team.
Inventor is late to the party but brought the best beer.
The college I work at has (I think) about 200 seats for both SW and Inventor - but SW is never, ever taught. All our teaching resources, all our tutorials, videos, powerpoints etc etc are for Inventor. I don't think I've ever even seen SW running on one of our machines.
The main reason for that is that students can't download a copy of SW and study at home.
This seems like an almost suicidal business practice - they are practically discouraging us from equipping the next generation of CAD users with any knowledge of SolidWorks.
If your college has maintenance licenses for SolidWorks then they are entitled to equal number of free student licenses for distribution to your students. ( I teach both Inventor and SolidWorks at my college.)
I often get asked why I don't use Solidworks. My answer is always the same as yours, "I've never had any exposure to it".
I started out with AutoCAD in High School. When I landed my first engineering job with a boiler company in 2002, they were using Cadkey 19. That was a huge learning curve. In 2004 I was learning Inventor as part of my degree in college and I brought in the professor's laptop and showed the company's owner the power and potential of Inventor, specifically the sheet metal module. We immediately made the switch to Inventor and here we are 14 years later still using it. When our owner retired and sold the company back in 2015, the new owners tried to push us to switch to Solidworks since that's what the other "sister" companies were using. Thankfully they understood that over eleven years I had worked thousands of parts, assemblies, textures, libraries, etc. into Inventor.
Great explanation, as always.
It is very curious but from what you have told, we have similar trajectories.I also worked in a reseller here, in Spain. My training started with AutoCAD and I followed exclusively with Inventor, etc.When I left the business, I was curious to know the strengths and weaknesses of, until then, my rival. You already know that "if you can not with your enemy, join him"
All the problems that you have found to get a legal copy of SW I have also suffered, but I found a small loophole in that ironclad customer acquisition policy. It was an evaluation copy that came with a learning book that cost me 50 € No salesman came later with his "blablabla" :), but SW did not fully convince me and I continue working and teaching Inventor as a" mercenary trainer" in an ATC from time to time.
There is a point that you have commented on the inappropriate or clumsy use of the software by the user and well, I do not know if out of curiosity, you see other people's videos .I do that and I can guarantee that a lot of this information circulating on RUclips about Inventor in Spanish is made by users with little knowledge and full of bad practices that are launched into the adventure I do not know with what intention.Maybe that's what Mr SW wants to avoid :)
Excuse my poor English and thank you for reading if you got here.
Personally if I wanted to sit through a comparison, it would be with you doing it. You are one of the best teachers I have seen. Your delivery is top notch!
Your tutorials are THE BEST compared to all the others available on RUclips. Sometimes I just watch your tutorials while breakfast and commuting even if the content has nothing to do with my projects, just for the sake of knowledge. And when I really need something with my project and search it on RUclips I never forget to put "TFI" at the end. You are doing a great work sir!!
I've worked with SW before but it's too dependent on OpenGL, so seems buggy if you don't use a workstation gpu. Inventor doesn't have this strong dependence and has the same capabilities. Yes and Autodesk is more generous on trials and for the education community. Have to give good word for a great product. Thank you for your great tutorials.
thanks to autodesk inventor
Hi Neal I see that many people have the same issue as me ---- how to create an undercut corner fillet.
While this can be done in a shaft accelerator not every model is a shaft. Is there anything built into Inventor that can do this relatively simply? Cheers John
We appreciate and like your channel !
Keep these tutorial coming ...
Thanks Neil,
I TOTALLY had the same experience a few years back when working in a small shop and trying to decide which tool to use. I actually did manage to "convince" a local reseller to be so gracious as give me a trial but at the time but we just couldn't justify the price then for our needs. Ended up being a very early adopter of Fusion 360 (in fact was right around the time when my easy to get free trial of Inventor came with Inventor Fusion so we pretty much picked up 360 out of the gate). Did some good stuff with early Fusion 360 but wasn't long before we got fed up with it's infantile software limitations and ended up subbing to Inventor. Which has helped us do great things.
Got a bit antsy with the Inventor 2019 announcement (wondering how much the product was really advancing, subscription model is kind of a long-term drain, etc.) so again was curious if I should be looking more at solidworks.
SAME THING years later...it was clear I had to grovel for a trial of the latest solidworks and was haunted by memories which haven't yet gone away entirely of being constantly hassled by solidworks salesmen.
In the end, at least for now, I decided Inventor had helped us grow a lot and although I am still a bit leery about it's future, I just couldn't be bothered to kiss the feet of some local reseller to simply get 30 days to reevaluate our tools. from what I can glean from the internet, potential advantages to switching are just not worth the bother...and I won't even mention all the disadvantages I am well aware of because as much as some features of Inventor are lacking, it for sure has a great many that solidworks can't touch.
To use your words, "I know I'm waffling a bit here," but I'm now more confident that I needn't have the Inventor v. solidworks again for at least another couple of years.
cheers
Same experience. The process of getting a trial from solid works took way to many steps and weeks of time. If the trial was so difficult to get how convoluted would the upgrade process be? At the time I wished inventor had more robust surfacing tools, but it was so much easier to deal with. Years later I still get calls and emails from the solidworks reseller.
This was a similar experience i had when was deciding which software to go with .they wanted me to go to the resaler for a demonstration and auto desk i just downloaded it it was a pretty simple, who do they think i was going to choose...
I experienced this first hand at a window manufacturer in the USA reseller.
We researched CAD programs and landed on Inventor after getting the runaround from SW. Thanks for all you do!
Love your videos! Informative, entertaining and brilliant!
During all my engineering 8 years career I used almost all - Solidworks, Creo, NX and SolidEdge, T-Flex...even VariCad... The best what really suits all my work is Inventor. And, I can admit, your channel and you personally with your tutorials and all other presentations influenced me to make my choice. I am more than happy to use it. Thank you for your efforts and your channel.
I have used both extensively for drawing furniture.Back in 2007 the company I worked for had an AutoCAD license, so we upgraded the license to Inventor which also included AutoCAD as part of the deal. Then they hired someone with Solid Works experience, and they switched to SW, so at the time I had both SW and INV. Back then SW was so much better, especially the interface.SW was also way more intuitive, and easy to use. I have now used Inventor since the 2012 release for a different company, and I would say they are both about even. Inventor also has freeform modeling, which if I ever get up on that, I am going places.There aren't very many good tutorials on that yet.
Really good video, Neil!
Especially as a student, I have virtually no choice but to work with Inventor. Not that Inventor is bad, but I don’t understand the license policy of many other program solutions (CATIA V5 for example). I would like to learn all other programs, but it´s no fun being busy for 3 days filling in all these forms and pay money afterwards.
Just the request to join the 3DS Academy as a student took 3 (!) months to approve. that's ridiculous!
Thank you for that video, keep up the extraordinary work!
Actually, if your school have Solidworks, your teachers can give you a education license, which is cool.
CATIA is bullshit, even if your school has it, you have to pay 99$ for it (whatever they're gonna do with it).
I discovered Fusion 360 2 years ago and I was BLOWN AWAY by how natural it was, free for startups? Damn! And it takes 2 seconds to validate your licence, 2 CLICKS!
Dassault systems really has to do something, I'm a French student, every school here prey for French software like this and when you're going into "the real world", you realize they're just pissing at you, how nice...
If you dont learn CATIA you'll never be asked to use it. One week of having to learn CATIA makes that a win/win in my book.
It's exactly as you explained. I've been through the exact process. Relentless. I just wanted to try it. There is no "download" it's on disc media.
After I left the Autodesk reseller that I worked for, I started working for a company modeling oil rig equipment in Inventor. My department modeled a land based oil rig with a part count of 40,000+ total occurrences and 8000+ docs in session. The client we were doing the work for was purchased and the new owners used SolidWorks. At their request this design was re-modeled from scratch in SolidWorks. So I have a very unique comparison. I have seen the side by side performance of an identical data set in both programs and in my opinion Inventor was superior. Even comparing the workflows between the two packages, I prefer Inventor. Hands down. IMHO. Data Set: static.wixstatic.com/media/3a9fd8_63b55ab103754774aee22e47ffa3579e.png/v1/fill/w_549,h_457,al_c,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/3a9fd8_63b55ab103754774aee22e47ffa3579e.png
Yes, I know the pic has some over the top reflections. It's old. I tend not to do that anymore. ;)
Jason Cameron I am about to learn cad as a hobby and have already worked with solidworks in school for a year. My goal is to build a hyper car that would actually work if build irl. Since I already used solid works I decided to use it again for my project. Should this video concern me in any way if I am never going to use either system as an engineer or professional designer?
Both terrible choices. You should've been using ProE / Creo with AFX for that job.
No, it shouldn't. Use what you know best. It really doesn't matter how well one work over the other. For hobby use you would likely know no difference.
That being said, both of these packages are expensive for the hobbyist. Perhaps it would be better to look into a solution such as Fusion 360 or Onshape which are free for the the hobbyist on a limited basis.
Creo is crap
As a reseller, competing with SolidWorks, it's surprising you didn't get hands-on experience to understand how SolidWorks and Inventor compare - Know thy enemy sort of thing. Anyway, love your channel. Planning to switching from SolidWorks to Product Manufacturing Collection, mainly cost vs. value (and reseller interactions.)
What does solid works gain from only using resellers? How does this sales model work from them?
When i did start working for a pretty big oil-related company they had drawn everything in SketchUp. it was a nightmare to redraw everything in a proper cad program again cause SketchUp don't have material thickness.
Can i get inventor? I know SW but not Inventor.
Had the same experience, filled out the stupid questions expecting a download link. Only got a message saying they will be in contact. I get spam from them constantly since and didn't end up getting the trial, as they only seemed interested in selling and not giving me a free trial.
The course I was doing was supposed to have free download, but their code didn't work and the solidworks were no more help other than saying the code should be working.
I prefer using inventor as I have experience with both, but everyone keeps telling me inventor is crap while I think solidworks is not intuitive to use at all. I only wish Inventor would stop crashing constantly on my home PC.
do i understand you correctly? if you have 5 courses with 30 people you would need a room with 30pc's and 30 licences. Sadly only 30 students would be able to use it at home. IS buying 150 licences really the only option for the school? Or are those licences on a server so all students could use it but not more than 30 at a time?
Agree, even a student version of Solidworks our school provided was overwhelmingly complicated to download.
I learned basic CAD using PRO/E in high school, I really learned CAD in Inventor, but in college, they use SolidWorks.
I've been looking into Siemens NX specifically for the topology optimization.
After working 10+ years exclusively with Inventor and the complete Autodesk industry package I started a new designer job in a company that uses SW. It's so bad it actually makes me sick, and I'm not exaggerating here, trust me.
Joining SW haters club. Holy shit that thing just infuriates me
Cool video, man! I needed something like that to hear. I am freelancer using Inventor and I feel like I am the only one doing it. I mean, 70% of the people and companies I work with are using SolidWorks. And they are asking me - why are you using Inventor? And I am pointing out reasons and reasons, some of which are the same you mentioned in the video, but they wouldn't listen. But I don't care, that's the way so far. I also like the policy of Autodesk and the way they sell and develop their software. They also have free student versions, which absolutely positive and in huge support for universities and students. Besides, I had the opportunity to test SolidWorks and Inventor, Pro versions 2018 on the same computer and I'd say SolidWorks was much slower! And to me it doesn't work and it's not handled so, how to say, in an engineering way as Inventor. But anyway, anyway, thanks for the video and good luck!
The business model i.e. licensing agreement is actually very different between Inventor and SW when dealing with piracy.
In the past, before 2010 SW tried dongles, it is plug & play and secure but it didn't work out due to it inherent "inflexibility" especially when using the "concurrent design teams" feature i.e. making it transferable from one PC to another PC seamlessly e.g. generating CAD models using moderate power PC and transfer to high power PC for simulations. So SW record their licensing as a group number (e.g. in a company) and NOT as an *individual* , which is why individual trial software is so difficult to get hold in SW and it also the reason why SW resisted to go towards *subscription based licensing* .
Instead SW get their money from providing real-time *Tech Support* fee (e.g. if you can't construct the 3d model the way you wanted, SW will help you), not subscription the licence itself, because SW believes once you own the package (albeit an older version) you own it for life and if you pay tech support fee annually, SW will provided you the newest SW version as part of the package.
Also, from 2000 - 2009, SW real competitor is actually PTC wildfire, many companies during this time I've noticed were asking this question with the rise of SW as it is cheaper, shall we get SW or PTC wildfire, that is the question? Considering one of the *main original* person who started Pro Engineer (PTC) is also the same person who started SolidWorks few years later in the 90s, where SW specifically focusing in *flexibility* in CAD design.
If you have ever used Pro Engineer, you would know what I mean.
for a very long time i was working with SW, that was my job. about 8 years ago i have changed my jobs and started working with inv. i was new, so the trial and later student edition was a help for me, i got very proficient, and my boss was happy. a few weeks ago got a new job, and now this is SW. I do regret. I was cursing INV a lot, but man oh man, SW is soooo big step backwards. and on top of this, i can't get a trial/student version to get better at work!!
Great video, I worked for an Autodesk Reseller for 15 years, some competitors to Autodesk look at Autodesk software, AutoCAD, Inventor etc like Apple people turn there nose up at Windows, Android. My friend worked for a Solidworks Reseller, he was the ultimate snob 😂
One feature Solidworks has is its capability in handling random surfaces. It can create flat patterns of random arbitrary surfaces. But in inventor, the surface has to be super proper to get the flat pattern. If you want to design a boat hull, then solidworks is way to go. If you design frames, then you want inventor. So, it depends on what you are designing rather than which design package is superior than another....
One thing I will say about Solidworks, the speed is much slower with large assemblies compared to Inventor. It would also hang up and crash a lot more. This is all at the company I work at, that has been using Solidworks for 15 years. I personally bought Inventor after being instructed on how to use it, at the now defunct Tech Shop.
I had almost the identical experience around Christmas, but I was seriously considering buying. I had the possibility of a big job for a long standing Client but all of their Clients files were Solidworks and they wanted to maintain a Solidworks work flow so that they could manipulate any files produced downstream.
"Good, Christmas is coming", thought I, I'll learn Solid Works over the break and hit the ground running in the new year. I filled in the massive questionnaire and was contacted just before Christmas by their local (very local about 5 miles away) rep. I explained the situation, that I wanted to transition from Inventor to SW over Christmas......and that was it....I never heard another word. No download, no nothing.
Fortunately, my Client uses SW in house they are sufficiently flexible (desperate?) that I still got the gig. Inevitably the suggested seamless integration of SW files into Inventor was a joke. Worse, Inventor would bring in most of the objects but not all of them so, although you think you have the full assembly there are bits missing...poor show AutoDesk.
And the SW free SW file viewer is absolutely diamond...what a shame AutoDesk doesn't have something as simple and effective.
So basically SolidWorks is run like a time share company.
Still not quite as bad as the experience I had with Swedgelock. In order to get a quote from them I had to give them my client's details. They said this was for "national security" since their products were also used be NASA and DOD. Next thing I know the client is calling me saying Swedgelock contacted them and undercut my prices by 30% and I only marked the quote they gave me by 10%.
Thats the guys that think ITAR applies to all of their product. Unless of course the specific product is designed for a military application then sold to consumers, then its ITAR regulated.
Christian_Patriot,
I don't mind the ITAR it was their use of the info screw me out of a sale to my own client that pissed me off.
You can use Ironcad for 30 days with minimal hassle. Great stuff.
I've had job interviews where they were asking graduates to have had SW experience which is almost impossible given they have no trail or student versions like Autodesk provide, needless to say I currently work at a site that uses AutoCAD and Inventor exclusively, I don't know how all the companies utilising SW find grads with SW experience.
I know of a handful of unis that use it. Showed my friends how to get copies of Inventor, they preferred it to the SW experience.
Neil, the process has change a little, but not for the better. I recently needed to take Solidworks for a test drive and this is how it went. They now give you a like to a version that runs in a browser. You can't use you 3D motion controller, only a mouse. And you get an hour to "try it out". Yup I said an hour. If that isn't enough you can get an additional hour. My first Inventor test drive (Series 9) was at least 30 days. I watched a bunch of SW tutorials on youtube, but they weren't very helpful. Any how, that took place last month, still not a good experience with SW. Keep up the great vids. Frank (aka the CADD Monkey) Cheers.
Glad I specifically pointed out that I did all this a couple of years ago! Online cloud hosted trials you say... only an hour you say... this sounds like something I need to investigate... ;0)
So funny how my story with inventor started the same way in 2009, used AutoCAD in 2000 and was Autodesk ever since.. it’s pretty funny, I’ve been using my own personal seat for inventor ‘18-‘19 for quick models and drafting for CNC machining operations at work since all the “engineers” use Solidworks, and they are literally in my office asking about inventor everyday.. I could care less about SW, and so happy with inventor!! Btw your videos are top notch and so informative.. shame SW passed on the opportunity they could have had with you!
I could be wrong but I don't believe Inventor has Boolean functionality unless they have introduced it recently. SW and Catia going way back both have it - an utterly brilliant set of tools that I use all the time for plastic moulding and casting design.
I must admit my experience was the same here in Australia. I use Inventor but a client I do modelling for uses Solidworks so I thought I'd download a trial to see if using Solidworks was worth my time and money. Managed to get a demo off the reseller but it had a week expiry on it and due to how busy I am, never actually installed it to trial. Also the outfront cost was more that inventor so I haven't gone any further.
Pretty much the only reason I am working with Inventor instead of CATIA, Dassault makes it so hard to get it. During High school and college, I worked with all three of them and prefer Inventor over Solid but still would go for CATIA if I could actually get it.
Old video but what is funny is I remember about 8ish years ago (I actually can’t remember but it was in the last ten years. I actually did have a 30 day trial of solidworks that I downloaded from their site. I just had a look, definitely can’t seem to do that now like you say.
Long time SW user recent Inventor user and It irks the hell out of me that I can not get SW on a monthly basis! Inventor lets people do it Solid Edge lets people rent monthly but not Solid Works. BTW could you do a comparison of Solid Edge?
I recommend Inventor to all our engineering students because they can sign up for a license and download and use the real deal. They don't need to buy a product that I can't even use without buying to demonstrate. Yes, lots of other 'free' products out there, but Inventor lets you 'scale up' your design freedom where other products leave you pretty much hobbled design-wise. I also recommend this channel for levelling-up from my own quick start tutorials. These same students often will come back a day after my quick start tutorials with quality files ready to 3D print.
If you were to teach solidworks, that would be amazing lol. I’m a student at a university and the school lost its licensing to solidworks. I have resorted to using inventor to work on my capstone project and your channel has been a great deal of help. As a student we are given a FREE 3 year trial for inventor. It looks like solidworks is a bit money hungry to a fault.
That's a real bummer to hear, man! I remember last year I wanted trial versions of both MicroStation as well as Recap Pro. *Every* time I spoke on the phone or read an email with them following up, they seemed more like helpful, knowledgeable staff and less like pushy car salesmen. It's 2018. Trial versions are perfect for evaluating their value in your craft/workplace. Solidworks could have made the process easier.
Beard, grey hair and glasses....At least I don't feel so old following you now. Great series of videos BTW, very helpful.
I’m sure you could get a trial of Alibre or ZWCad.....
Now I understand the whole no SOLIDWORKS thing. Thanks for taking time to explain.
For me I had spent 2 years in AutoCAD and next two years in Inventor 2016/17 while I was studiing high school. When I moved to university I had the oportunity to choose edu version of Inventor and Solid Works (I also worked in Catia v6 for while but thats whole diffrent story). For me I use both of these softwares. I mean meanwhile Inventor is golden for designing stuff like spur gears and shafts etc. Solid Works works better for me when it comes to creating 2d documentation. Since I can use them for free the only major differenc thah makes me to prefer Inventor is hw optimalization and the fact that I can use it offline.
Maybe if enough people want you to review or compare the two software packages bad enough, they can come up with a way to buy a years subscription for you. I worked for a company that uses Solidworks back between 2006 and 2011. It was a lot further ahead of Inventor back then. Inventor has come a long way in catching up since 2011, and I use Inventor every day. I am currently on subscription using 2021. I would like to see a comparison of the two packages now, since I assume they are about neck to neck.
The Company I work for has always used AutoCAD and Inventor for over 20 years. They just switched over to SolidWorks over major objections from the Managers and Designers in Engineering. It's been a nightmare.
Very Good
i nearly used inventor in 2013-2014 the reason why i opted to solidworks was because there was little leaning content online to learn .....but now im proud solidworks guy and i appreciate the growth of inventor
We used solidworks for 4 years at school, it cost £600 to run it on a license server for so many seats. Students could only download the latest version each year , which meant we had to do the same so files could be compatible. It was all becoming a pain to do, so when autodesk allowed students and teachers free use it became a no brained. Solidworks are not helping themselves. Autodesk have a good plan to train students who can then go into,industry with good skills. It’s a bit like what PTC did in the early 2000’s with prodesktop which is where I started off on.
lol i remember the days when autocad only worked with a dongle plugged into the rs323 com port if memory serves me correctly, defo no trials in those days. I wish autodesk would do a Linux version for distributed network rendering and for those who run different operating systems, how many years before we can run autocad on an android tablet ....i can dream
Have you ever considerer Onshape?
IMO it's not ready yet for a workflow where hundreds of CAD editors work on the same projects. It might be for other use cases though.
Sound sync problems :), its a little bit distracting.
Aye soz, I recorded and rushed this out during lunch break in my day job so I didn't have time to fix the sync
Thank you for opinion and full explanation - just the best brand solid (BMW) or Inventor(Mercedes) but Mercedes all time is precision, not aggressive - so I am with you - Inventor
I work now with CREO on work - the most horrible program ever and ever special for dwg
Thank you for an excellent explanation
Full heartedly agree with you although I'm a Solidworks user since school. After years as a user, I was in the position to purchase a parametric software package for our company and for our budget Solidworks was a better purchase than Creo. 5 of the engineers were Creo users and I couldn't them to try it out because SW doesn't provide a trial.
Even if we were willing to buy they wouldn't do. As a result, I went for Creo although it is more expensive and stressed our company's budget, but without a trial I couldn't showcase my argument.
I'm using Autodesk Autocad and Inventor for 2 years already. Also I passed Exam for Professional certificate for Inventor. And I will be honest with you, in my company most of them use Solid Works / Creo, and I'm the only one who is using Inventor, and from time to time everybody is comming to me to make some things that their programms can't make it. And I'm really happy to use Inventor, and it's amazing. It's pitty that I can't work on Inventor and modelling full time on day, and I'm really sad about it, also I'm not living someone close to Autodesk or between some companys that use Inventor. To be honest, if someone offer me to work on someones project and to help someone somehow, I would accept it and would do it for free for some time, just want to work on it, and to be in contact with team etc.
what cant ptc/creo do that inventor can...except from ilogic? iam just curious :D ( 7years with ptc, vs 3y in inventor) yes,drawings are pain in the butt with ptc products compared to inventor....
Also working with sheet metal is not the same. Some parts Creo can't make flat pattern for some reasons... And in Inventor, it does without any problem.
it seems everyone has a different experience. with me its quite the opposite. :) i can open creo files in 3dmax with less effort as those from inventor....just for example. and there is more :D
In France solidworks is almost 100% present at school, even in Engineering school. That's the main reason why that software is so popular. My nephew (13) is already using solidworks at school to create some simple objects for 3D printing for example, on side with Google sketchup ! I used Solidworks 13 years ago, I keep it on my resume because it will remain a prerequisite for numbers of job offers, Inventor is now on my resume a very specific skill to get a job in some key companies using inventor.
I here your frustrations with solidworks, I have learned on solidworks and have been using it for the past 10 years. I have also been using HSM since before Autodesk acquired them and have been recently been looking into switching to Autodesk completely. I have noticed lately that solidworks is getting greedier every year, they continue to take away perks and Autodesk has been doing nothing but adding perks. My only problem is switching all the work I have done over to inventor or fusion, I like both but fusion is lacking capabilities I need and all the HSM work I have in the solidworks files can't be transferred over to either Autodesk products. However lately I have been seriously considering switching anyways. Have just been waiting for Autodesk to figure out a way to pull all their HSM data over with the model.
I saw your title and it was intriguing because I've been asked the same. I get tired of the guys who chant up one side and down the other on how Solidworks is superior to well... just about everything all because of brilliant marketing. When I started learning 3D modeling I went to a college where they taught night classes for 3D modeling when it was first coming out. The teacher who taught Inventor was a NASA engineer who was again, asked this question. He told the class that he had used ProE, Solidworks and Inventor during his career and found Inventor to be the best one for what he was doing. He said that Solidworks was smarter about giving it away to colleges so that the students coming in, would of course, patronize Solidworks if they were taught to use it. Let's face it, when 3D modeling first came out, it was pretty amazing to those of us who'd never seen it. And just like the guy whose dad buys him that first Chevy, now, all of a sudden, to that kid Chevy's are superior to Ford or Mopar because .... ahhh..... because, well who cares why, it just is. I was a mechanic for 15 years and I got to tell ya, the engineers who developed the Corvette went back and forth between the Shelby Cobra and the Dodge Viper; it was the same guy, different skin on the vehicle. So Solidworks had a much better marketing department which was willing to take the hit early on with giving away software in order to get a loyal following of trained students, which were to become engineers in the future. Brilliant. So although Solidworks is prevalent and some might even say, dominant in the market, it's not because they're superior. It's because they're marketing department was superior. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that there just might have been a software engineer or two head hunted away from Inventor or Solidworks to work on the competition. That's my two cents. Hey, love your videos and I've learned a lot. Keep them coming. Thanks
As someone that has 15 odd years on both Inventor from the Tritech days and solidworks when it was NT Cad Cam if you can use one you can use the other very easily I found it was more to do with "industry your in" and the one you are exposed to first than the actual software that your on , my experience has always been ,well "solidworks does it like this" or "inventor does it like this" or creo does it this way
Subscribed.
I use both SolidWorks and Inventor (albeit I use Solidworks a bit more 70%/30%). I like both software packages, both have their advantages. SolidWorks is faster and easier by far to do modeling tasks. Inventor is better for inter-portability and offers a greater portfolio of software to use your models with (that is if Autodesk can commit)
Both have unique features that I wish each other had .
SolidWorks is cocky, not surprised in the least by their rejection of testing. Their sales force is annoying as all get out. That said when they make something at least the commit to it. And they listen to their customers for product enhancement ides.
Autodesk is SLOW to implement enhancements, and it feels like you are talking to a brick wall when trying to get issues addressed. And as noted, they can not commit to keeping product and this is a major problem. Its hard to get invested in software when Autodesk is so fickle.
Both seem to be pushing cloud based software....this is a non-starter for our enterprise.
I started out in Autodesk 2D, then moved into 3D with PTC Pro/DESKTOP from there into Pro/E and SolidWorks, I also used Inventor and Mechanical Desktop and lastly Catia V5. All and all most of my career has been using SW, but I can easily switch between Inventor and SW without issues. I also used some other CAD software over the years, demo'd several but the problem is where you get gigs unless you freelance. Depending on the industry, you are often forced to use what the company uses, Aerospace often is Catai or UG (Siemens NX) also used in Automotive. SW is used heavily, but I wouldn't say it's a lock-in on your CV to get jobs across the board.
One big thing with SolidWorks, they are still using the Siemens Kernel (Parasolid) and is basically Solid Edge's bastard Brother and I don't see that changing anytime soon, though there was rumors they would switch to the Catia DGM kernel nothing has happened. So they are perpetually paying their competitor (Siemens) royalties and Dassault had plenty of time to switch since it acquired SW in 1997, but it's too far gone now to do so with the user base along with not hurting the premium status of Catia.
Hey TFI ,
I am a hardcore fan of Autodesk . Being an ex solidwork reseller and now fully committed with Autodesk ... Yes like u said some policies of Solidworks are very stringent ... Seeing your video and if I was the CEO of Solidworks (just kidding) I would have made up my mind to liberalise the trial version of Solidworks ...I hope Gian Paolo Bassi CEO of Solidworks sees this video. Also Autodesk they don't even charge the students right from AutoCAD to Maya ... I am proud to be a fan and a user of Autodesk products ... One big difference between Solidwork And Inventor is it crashes a lot ... Just a spoiler alert that I am giving to you ... Anyways feature to feature both are the same ... But when it comes to tooling Solidwork has pretty handy tools than our software Frankly speaking ..... But solidworks is just a modelling tool but Inventor is a designing tool ... I felt this when I saw Inventors design accelerator which can even do design calculations but Solidworks can't ... These r all what I wanted to convey to you ... Anyways good luck for getting a Solidworks trial ... If u get please do the comparison video ..
Regards
Aadithya
Your fan from India
For us, a Brazilian university, the Autodesk software is the "only choice", because no other company have the student license policy that allow us to teach their software ( as a way to educate in the CAD knowledge) freely! That's the main point for us!
Using any 3D CAD package requires an investment of not only money, but time. By the time you become proficient in one, a tremendous investment of time will be required to learn another. And a 30 day trial to learn any of them is too lean.
Ray Davis Students get a 3 year license for any autodesk program. I've used both. By the time I finished school, solidworks no longer seemed to be a requirement for me.
I'm an engineer at a relatively small company in South Africa. At uni we were given soildworks to learn on. At all the trade shows, sales reps will try to sell you solidworks and it just seems like soildworks is more interested in forcing their product on you than actually letting you try their product in your own time. Now given the massive initial cost of solidworks. I am far more inclined on either inventor or fusion 360 (We don't design Cars or Massive intricate machines more IOT type of stuff). I have somehow also developed a mistrust for it now due to the fact that i don't trust a company that spends that a mount of time trying to sell their product to you vs. the others. Only let me try out their product over the internet as well as having no backwards compatibility (which from experience has caused my previous company to lose potential customers because they have the newest software and we can't send them files or we have a newer software that they can't open). Don't get me wrong I like solid works and I have spent many hundreds of hours on Solidworks and I don't have an issue with the product itself. But they do have an arrogance about them that is causing the wool to be pulled over their eyes.
On that note, can anyone tell me exactly what inventor has that fusion 360 doesn't and vice versa. I have some experience with Inventor but none with Fusion 360.
I have only gotten to use Solidworks at one company for a week. Other than that I could never get a trial version from them no matter what I tried.
I am mechanical engineer i know catia, solidworks, autocad, fusion 360, creo but i dont know how get a job as a design engineer when i go for the interview they give me a very hard sheet from which i have to make model at that time i think if they allow autodesk software then it will be easy for me i think solidworks is more popular then fusion or any other but both do the same work however Autodesk software runs very smooth in low power cpu........i think ......
I used Solidworks for 4 years, it is very good 3D model software and user friendly. But I have to switch to inventor because my new company use it. Inventor is also not bad compare to UG, Pro-e they are too complex.
Right in the end I thought ur rant was about a girl saying no
u are not getting a one night stand (trial)
What does TFI stand for?
Solidworks as any software have its own issues but in what installation and configuration comes about, sometimes it becomes to a real nightmare, this is in a general case as standalone instalation, it becomes worse in EPDM. In the last case indeed a real support is needed "outside the box". Regards from another Autodesk Expert Elite.
Unfortunately solidwork have extremely unprofessional marketing. As you are saying about your experience which i had same problem. I used to work with solidwork at university and I believe it is strong design application. However i dont see future for it with this type marketing.
I find it funny that at my Dad's work they use ACad, IV and Creo...
It's not that bad... LOL One I wanted as a student a trial version of ArcGIS Server and they send me five pages (on paper, not email) of legal agreemet I have to sign and send back. Funny is that this agreement arrived almost at the end of trial period (they provided serial number earlier) :-D
EDIT: When I am thinking about that, better than meeting and other shit Dassault Systems required LOL
My only huge issue I have with AutoDesk is that I can't get a permanent licence anymore. For that reason only am I looking at any other options. I'm a small R&D researcher developing my own ideas. Designing and building when and where I please. I love the tools that AutoDesk offers but can't stand the subscription model. I hate it with a passion. I wish that AutoDesk would offer a permanent licence again but until they do I will not use there latest software. I guess that means that I'm going to swing to Solidworks as much of a pain in the ass it will be.
We get a free solidworks licence at my university, but it's so hard to claim it that I haven't bothered yet.
This is why I choose Autodesk, I'm a student so I'll take what I can get for free and everything else is a bonus. I won big with a great community and a few amazing contacts within the education bubble.
Had exact same experience trying to get a trial. It was like being hustled or something.. you are not worthy of getting their sacred trial unless you pretty much GUARANTEE you will buy it. 0_0
When I first got a glimpse of Inventor I was surprised Autodesk offer a 3year free license for students, it was amazing. No wonder universities implement it in their education program. It's a great way to learn things. Having to go through some bullshit like with Solidworks or as I experienced lately, Catia is horrible. Autodesk create themselves quite a nice publicity among younger generations and I hope it profts in near future. Wish other companies offered free licences for students.
Anyone here have experience Autodesk vs Rhino? pros and cons
AutoCad power user since 2.01 but things started going sideways around ver 12. Still think it's one of the better 2D systems but 3D design to 2D output was a bit weak. Did train in Inventor but the very weak 2D output was a deal breaker. It was hobby level when it came out and slow to improve. Not bad, just not even close to professional level.
SolidWorks is a good 3D system and very expensive. The work has to justify the cost, went Pro with a few extra features so about $25k US and that was a few years back. Then there is the many hours invested to get decent 2D drawings from the 3D models. Like AutoCad the programers did a hand wave at ANSI standards. For precision feature callouts there are specific symbol shape, height, and width relative to the text and numbers that they often distorted as being close enough. Sorry not meeting the standards mean the symbols as given are not standard. So include the added hours correcting their ANSI-ish drawing scribbles so you can generate drawings of good quality. After still claiming meeting ANSI standards during the early months the reseller did ask if I had worked out correcting things and showed him some of the drawings we sent out. When asked how... I told him NO.
A large pet peeve. These drawings are the legal contract with the outside shops to produce parts we will accept. If the part does not meet the feature tolerances there is a big waste of time and material along with a very upset shop. It has to be spot on when it goes out, not sorta close or ANSI-ish. You produce good drawings and shops actually like bidding the work.
I constantly have the need to export my models into AutoCAD, and that part has improved in the last three releases. Inventor will now export your model into AutoCAD as a 3D model, with solids, which can be isolated by the recipient.
Sadly, I only a few shops do well with 3D models and have the full understanding that the feature tolerances, finish, processing limitations, and flaws callouts on the drawing establishes go / no-go for the finished piece. Tossing it into MasterCam, crossing your fingers, and complaining when the order is rejected doesn't get it done. Your buyer also to be sharp and qualified to handle machine shops or you have to be allowed to work with the shops directly.
All reject parts, brought in by hero buyers and managers who know a guy, should have them directed to their desk, or in one case their marked parking spot. Also Acounting notified that your budget is not paying for it.
I have inventor on my personal pc and solidworks on my work computer. I agree it super hard to get free trail of solidworks! But after u buy I found solidworks easier to install than inventor.
i am you fan.
5.40......I think they are Neil
You can get a very low cost license by joining this group www.eaa.org/en/eaa/eaa-membership/eaa-member-benefits/solidworks-resource-center - not sure licensing would allow for RUclips videos, but at least it is a legal route for evaluation.
I honestly think SolidWorks is more popular because its easier to pirate with all the young people wanting to learn the software.
But... But how did Mr. Linus got one?
Because RUclips is a high school popularity contest, the more popular you are that's all that matters around here
imagine you are a small company that whats to do it right and buy licenses of SW and you have to work for your company through this kind of sales attitude ...... ones go in bed with one company it is hard to change direction especially for small companies .....
The software and the support forums are incredibly inaccessible. It also doesn't help that you can't reliably trust the software to function properly half the time.
Simple answer: because it sucks. Solidworks is "DOGTIA Lite" and both suck, each on its value relative to its price. Siemens NX is the only "top shelf" package with no competition whatsoever; anyone who says otherwise simply doesn't know enough about NX and is caught up in the DOGTIA or Brushfire (sp.?) cults, and don't know any better. Not especially user-friendly, that NX, but it WORKS. Rock solid, professional, the Snap-On Tools of the CAD world. Inventor. however cute its little toys are - until they break - is second shelf. DOGIA ('can't even create a real cylindrical face' Dogcrap-tia) and House-a-Fire (or whatever they are calling Pro/E these days) are billed as top shelf, but they don't justify big league price tags. The only "free" package I respect so far is the open source FreeCAD, partly because it's open source and partly because it's written in Python. Then, the up-starts that try to compete with the big boys, like that idiotic Unshape (did I spell that right? I think I did) remind me of the teenage girl who thinks she's the next Madonna, but sounds like Hidious Clinton, screeching like a cat on fire, and just doesn't have a clue. They are delusional. I LOVE YOUR VID ON THIS. "Bang on, mate!"
I've seen heated arguments about
Sony vs. Microsoft,
Apple vs. android devices,
ATI vs. Nvidia, etc...
Now I see Autodesk vs. Dassault Systems
But one thing is for certain:
Pineaple ain't meant for putting on pizza!
Warm fruit, on a pizza?! Coo coo loco.
EVERYONE HAS TRIALS EVEN NX but not SW