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RRoussy@carrollhealthcare
Guest
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 Posted:
Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:03 am Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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Diemaker
Having read the replies to your question, I have little to add.
I have nearly zero experience designing molds and dies but much of what was
said, in reference to that field, made some sense non-the-less and I would
agree with most everyone's observations and opinions.
I design fixtures for mig welding cells in the automotive industry with a
local integrator and have been using cad for near 20 years.
My 2 cents:
I find Inventor better suited than Solidworks for managing and developing
multiple projects similtaneously. It is a bit of a bear to get a handle on
how they work and to set them up though.
The pack-n-go utility in Inventor is something Solidworks should develop.
I find Inventor utilizes a more common language and hence is more intuitve
to use. Hence, a shorter learning curve.
(I had detested Acad for many years and swore to never purchase an Autodesk
product. But am hugely impressed with Inventor and not because of the
difference between 2d and 3d)
Inventor has a nifty capability where a model can be driven by the 2d
drawing. (dangerous too though)
Did I read that Inventor is dual processor ready?
Solidworks is not. (coming soon)
Solidworks is crappy at rotating (IV equivalent is orbit and vastly
superior) Where IV creates a center of rotation upon the first surface
beneath the mouse pointer Solidworks always rotates about the center of
mass of the whole model. A pain when doing up close work. A really big
pain. (SW can rotate about a point if you preselect the point - but why??)
Additionally, IV will revolve CW or CCW about the center of the screen as
well as the spin / rotate ("orbit")
The workaround to this is to purchase a "Space ball"?
Solidworks is mouse click intensive as compared with Inventor.
Edrawings are great and by far superior to DWF platform. Although,
Edrawings have yet to show edges (outlined) and sometimes it can be
difficult to discern one component from another.
I preffer edrawings by far and use them constantly. Kudos for that.
Solidworks has a closer relationship with CAM packages which may be a big
plus for mold and die makers. But that's mot my strength and I believe
SolidEdge is the better choice there.
We use many off the shelf parts and there is great of support for
solidworks (by way of component models) from an increasing number of large
vendors. (Support for Inventor is catching up)
I would rather work with Inventor but Solidworks serves us better and
that's what we use.
Richard
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Diemaker
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Dec 05, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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Thanks for the good input RR.
IV's viewing mechanism is terrific. SW ALWAYS rotates on COG??? Oh,
no, that's a big one. I'm thinking I need a demo to find out what
other surprises are in store. Not being able to center viewing spin in
SW would gnaw on me like not having configs in IV. Spaceball lets you
center spin? Or just faster to spin, pan, zoom?
IV has no dual processor capability, except for plug-ins, rendering and
FEA I think. They tried with the early releases but had problems. If
CPU power stays flat, that's the route everyone will have to take,
eh. I wonder if microsoft got some built in multitasking with IBM's
chip they developed for the xbox. Hehe, that would be funny if powerPC
takes the lead right after Apple switches to Intel.
Adsk DWF doesn't have edges either. They just added dynamic slicing,
but only capped. I think adding slicing killed their perspective view,
thats gone now. Edrawings vastly better in every direction.
We've had zero problems with machine coding from .sat files. But adsk
is modifying it's kernel and wonder when it will have to create a new
format. Cnc code could be a gotcha.
"I would rather work with Inventor but Solidworks serves us
better..." If it weren't for the 3 things I mentioned up front,
I'd be happy. Those 3 things have been a real killer tho. |
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matt
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Dec 05, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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In article <1133801775.868041.120110@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
diemaker888@yahoo.com says...
| Quote: | ...SW ALWAYS rotates on COG???
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SolidWorks has an option to rotate about screen center, which can be set
as a default.
Matt
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RRoussy@carrollhealthcare
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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matt <m_lombard@ver_zon.not> wrote in news:MPG.1dfe3e1810236314989757
@news.verizon.net:
| Quote: | In article <1133801775.868041.120110@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
diemaker888@yahoo.com says...
...SW ALWAYS rotates on COG???
SolidWorks has an option to rotate about screen center, which can be set
as a default.
Matt
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Yes,
I have my system set to that option.
It still pales in comparison.
Open a medium assembly (say 100 unique parts - not including fasteners) and
zoom in close to a # 8 screw.
Now rotate while maintaining the screw in view.
I will give you this, It might be my video card, but the rotate don't work
right for me.
rich |
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matt
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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In article <1133805309.343178.295610@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
boclawson@earthlink.net says...
| Quote: | Matt, maybe once every week or two (SWks 2005), my center of rotation
flips from the standard default, to Center of Screen, and I have never
ever understood what I did to cause it.
With my small parts, I rarely have a need to rotate on anything but
Center of Gravity, but with longer parts it starts to be an issue.
Is there a hot key which causes the center of rotation to flip, as I
suspect there must be?
I attempted to use SolidWorks Help to find an answer but didn't get
one, and didn't think it important enough to call my VAR yet.
Many Thanks - Bo
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You know, I've seen that happen, and I can't think of what's causing it.
The setting is in the registry, so there's something going on there
which is a bit frightening. There is no default hotkey that toggles it,
but you can look in the menu to see if one is listed there for you.
Matt |
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Jason
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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It still doesn't work really well though as the enter of the screen is
still rotating too far in or out. Noticable on long parts.
What you currently have to do is select a vertex to rotate around.
Problem here is the selection is not remembered and has to be made
after each command. The other better option is the "Zoom to selection"
which sets the rotation center on the feature and holds it til the next
zoom. This works well.
Siolidworks has responded on their forums that they have this corrected
in 2007. |
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BoC
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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Matt, maybe once every week or two (SWks 2005), my center of rotation
flips from the standard default, to Center of Screen, and I have never
ever understood what I did to cause it.
With my small parts, I rarely have a need to rotate on anything but
Center of Gravity, but with longer parts it starts to be an issue.
Is there a hot key which causes the center of rotation to flip, as I
suspect there must be?
I attempted to use SolidWorks Help to find an answer but didn't get
one, and didn't think it important enough to call my VAR yet.
Many Thanks - Bo |
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TOP
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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Diemaker wrote:
| Quote: | Thanks for the good input RR.
IV's viewing mechanism is terrific. SW ALWAYS rotates on COG??? Oh,
no, that's a big one. I'm thinking I need a demo to find out what
other surprises are in store. Not being able to center viewing spin in
SW would gnaw on me like not having configs in IV. Spaceball lets you
center spin? Or just faster to spin, pan, zoom?
|
RR did eventually state how SW works in regards to screen rotations.
The only thing he really said is that he prefers IV's method to SW
method. He actually listed two ways to rotate about a specific point in
SW. One method involves the mouse and the other involves an extra
piece of software called a Spaceball. I use a Spaceball, but I can work
just as well with a mouse.
SW mouse method of screen rotation is to let the user hover over an
edge or vertex and click select it whereas IV automatically selects the
face under the cursor. I much prefer selecting a specific vertex or
edge when working in complex assemblies (read dies, molds, etc.).
The method I use for navigating the 3D graphics is as follows. Define
hotkeys Q, W, and D to put SW into Zoom to Selection, Window Zoom and
Rotate. The F key is already defined as Zoom to Fit. Place your left
hand on the keyboard and you will see that you can hit all these keys
with the left hand as well as the Z keys. The mouse hand then stays on
the mouse and you will have all you need to navigate graphics quickly
and smoothly.
The reason I use a SpaceBall is that I can not only rotate and zoom in
and out/up and down, but I can pick up part in an assembly and move it
into location while rotating the model with the mouse. The spaceball
also allows me to do quicky animations by rotating the model about an
axis.
| Quote: | IV has no dual processor capability, except for plug-ins, rendering and
FEA I think. They tried with the early releases but had problems. If
CPU power stays flat, that's the route everyone will have to take,
eh. I wonder if microsoft got some built in multitasking with IBM's
chip they developed for the xbox. Hehe, that would be funny if powerPC
takes the lead right after Apple switches to Intel.
|
SW does take advantage of multitasking when doing certain things in
drawings. Since you do complicated sections you would probably see that
improvement. If you use SW addins for stamping you may very well be
able to use dual or multicore processors.
| Quote: | Adsk DWF doesn't have edges either. They just added dynamic slicing,
but only capped. I think adding slicing killed their perspective view,
thats gone now. Edrawings vastly better in every direction.
|
Don't count on eDrawings. I have about a 50% success rate. The most
recent problem was that the customer was not allowed to load an exe
file. In house we use them alot. |
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Greg
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:10 am Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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"matt" <m_lombard@ver_zon.not> wrote in message
news:MPG.1dfe5f4cf7fbbfc4989758@news.verizon.net...
| Quote: | In article <1133805309.343178.295610@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
boclawson@earthlink.net says...
Matt, maybe once every week or two (SWks 2005), my center of rotation
flips from the standard default, to Center of Screen, and I have never
ever understood what I did to cause it.
With my small parts, I rarely have a need to rotate on anything but
Center of Gravity, but with longer parts it starts to be an issue.
Is there a hot key which causes the center of rotation to flip, as I
suspect there must be?
I attempted to use SolidWorks Help to find an answer but didn't get
one, and didn't think it important enough to call my VAR yet.
Many Thanks - Bo
You know, I've seen that happen, and I can't think of what's causing it.
The setting is in the registry, so there's something going on there
which is a bit frightening. There is no default hotkey that toggles it,
but you can look in the menu to see if one is listed there for you.
Matt
|
Middle (scroll wheel) click on axis, then middle (scroll wheel) hold & drag
/ zoom. Unless I'm missing something here? SW2006.
Greg |
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matt
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:10 am Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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| Quote: | Middle (scroll wheel) click on axis, then middle (scroll wheel) hold & drag
/ zoom. Unless I'm missing something here? SW2006.
Greg
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We were talking about how the switch at View > Modify > Rotate about
screen center seems to get mysteriously turned on sometimes, not about
how to rotate about a selected point. |
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ken
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:14 am Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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And to add to the eDrawings saga, it is not a Solid Works only tool. It is
made by Geometric Software Solutions and Solid Works just resells it for
their software. The Viewer is free and the Professional version can be
purchased directly from GSS for the following CAD systems: Pro/E, Inventor,
Catia, NX, and Solid Edge.
http://www.geometricsoftware.com/edrawings/default.asp
Ken
"TOP" <kellnerp@cbd.net> wrote in message
news:1133815925.373401.241200@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: |
Diemaker wrote:
Thanks for the good input RR.
IV's viewing mechanism is terrific. SW ALWAYS rotates on COG??? Oh,
no, that's a big one. I'm thinking I need a demo to find out what
other surprises are in store. Not being able to center viewing spin in
SW would gnaw on me like not having configs in IV. Spaceball lets you
center spin? Or just faster to spin, pan, zoom?
RR did eventually state how SW works in regards to screen rotations.
The only thing he really said is that he prefers IV's method to SW
method. He actually listed two ways to rotate about a specific point in
SW. One method involves the mouse and the other involves an extra
piece of software called a Spaceball. I use a Spaceball, but I can work
just as well with a mouse.
SW mouse method of screen rotation is to let the user hover over an
edge or vertex and click select it whereas IV automatically selects the
face under the cursor. I much prefer selecting a specific vertex or
edge when working in complex assemblies (read dies, molds, etc.).
The method I use for navigating the 3D graphics is as follows. Define
hotkeys Q, W, and D to put SW into Zoom to Selection, Window Zoom and
Rotate. The F key is already defined as Zoom to Fit. Place your left
hand on the keyboard and you will see that you can hit all these keys
with the left hand as well as the Z keys. The mouse hand then stays on
the mouse and you will have all you need to navigate graphics quickly
and smoothly.
The reason I use a SpaceBall is that I can not only rotate and zoom in
and out/up and down, but I can pick up part in an assembly and move it
into location while rotating the model with the mouse. The spaceball
also allows me to do quicky animations by rotating the model about an
axis.
IV has no dual processor capability, except for plug-ins, rendering and
FEA I think. They tried with the early releases but had problems. If
CPU power stays flat, that's the route everyone will have to take,
eh. I wonder if microsoft got some built in multitasking with IBM's
chip they developed for the xbox. Hehe, that would be funny if powerPC
takes the lead right after Apple switches to Intel.
SW does take advantage of multitasking when doing certain things in
drawings. Since you do complicated sections you would probably see that
improvement. If you use SW addins for stamping you may very well be
able to use dual or multicore processors.
Adsk DWF doesn't have edges either. They just added dynamic slicing,
but only capped. I think adding slicing killed their perspective view,
thats gone now. Edrawings vastly better in every direction.
Don't count on eDrawings. I have about a 50% success rate. The most
recent problem was that the customer was not allowed to load an exe
file. In house we use them alot.
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TOP
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:10 am Post subject:
OT: Some interesting things about eDrawings. |
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Ken,
That was an interesting link. I dug through it and came up with a
couple interesting factoids.
Geometric has about 1,100 employees, most of which are in a south asian
country. About 75% of the workforce is 29 or younger. The average
personel expense is about $9,451 per person. I would guess a similar
company in the US would have an average personel expense quite a bit
higher. They spent a whopping $73,428 on software tools in 2005. That
is company wide IIRC. A fortune 500 company I used to work for spent
that much on a single workstation in the early 90s. Their $36,000 tax
bill really had to hurt.
So a couple conclusions. That 75% of the workforce is entry level to 7
years of experience. That inflation plus a newly formed middle class
will drive expectations higher during the lifetime of the workforce. I
wonder where they will be in 30 years. We had the baby boom. They have
the bit boom. And finally, communication of product definition has to
be top down and is well filtered from the end user.
ken wrote:
| Quote: | And to add to the eDrawings saga, it is not a Solid Works only tool. It is
made by Geometric Software Solutions and Solid Works just resells it for
their software. The Viewer is free and the Professional version can be
purchased directly from GSS for the following CAD systems: Pro/E, Inventor,
Catia, NX, and Solid Edge.
http://www.geometricsoftware.com/edrawings/default.asp
Ken
Don't count on eDrawings. I have about a 50% success rate. The most
recent problem was that the customer was not allowed to load an exe
file. In house we use them alot.
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Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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ken,
I'd like to clarify that Edrawings is NOT made by GSSL and resold by
Solidworks, but the other way around. Edrawings is a Solidworks owned
and patented technology and GSSL is involved with developing it for
other programs such as you listed. If someone buys edrawings for IV,
UG or Pro, some of that goes back into Solidworks pocket. Just wanted
to make sure you were aware. |
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3dquicktoolsusa
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Should I buy SOLIDWORKS? |
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Please review www.3dquickpress.com for a complete SolidWorks Die Design
solution. Please contact demo@callsts.com for live demonstration times
via the web. |
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ken
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Some interesting things about eDrawings. |
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I imagine if the technology is worth it, somebody will buy it and make it
their own. Apparently it isn't "all that"!
Ken
"TOP" <kellnerp@cbd.net> wrote in message
news:1133845529.496718.170060@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Ken,
That was an interesting link. I dug through it and came up with a
couple interesting factoids.
Geometric has about 1,100 employees, most of which are in a south asian
country. About 75% of the workforce is 29 or younger. The average
personel expense is about $9,451 per person. I would guess a similar
company in the US would have an average personel expense quite a bit
higher. They spent a whopping $73,428 on software tools in 2005. That
is company wide IIRC. A fortune 500 company I used to work for spent
that much on a single workstation in the early 90s. Their $36,000 tax
bill really had to hurt.
So a couple conclusions. That 75% of the workforce is entry level to 7
years of experience. That inflation plus a newly formed middle class
will drive expectations higher during the lifetime of the workforce. I
wonder where they will be in 30 years. We had the baby boom. They have
the bit boom. And finally, communication of product definition has to
be top down and is well filtered from the end user.
ken wrote:
And to add to the eDrawings saga, it is not a Solid Works only tool. It
is
made by Geometric Software Solutions and Solid Works just resells it for
their software. The Viewer is free and the Professional version can be
purchased directly from GSS for the following CAD systems: Pro/E,
Inventor,
Catia, NX, and Solid Edge.
http://www.geometricsoftware.com/edrawings/default.asp
Ken
Don't count on eDrawings. I have about a 50% success rate. The most
recent problem was that the customer was not allowed to load an exe
file. In house we use them alot.
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