Program request

[Kozy]

Brad, have you used Solidworks at all? If so, how does the user interface compare with SolidEdge? SE does sounds marginally better than SW!

[revetec]

Never used Solid works. When I orignally got Solid edge it was far ahead of any competition. Don't know where it stands today, but I love using it.

[hightower99]

SE pssst!


AutoDesk Inventor FTW!

Parametric modeling beats parasolid kernel every time!

proven by the fact that autodesk inventor has now outsold all competitors for the 6th consecutive year!

I can't wait until I get Inventor 2008!

[jediali]

I have used cosmos motion to analyse components also. It looks at bearing forces and frequencies. stuff from uni work.

1) one SW model subjected to analysis
2) table of out of balance forces measured, use this to see how effective counterweight design is
3) graph of V8 and V10 mode shapes (used matlab for this)
4) multi-degree of freedom rotating disc analysis of crankshaft with result table
5) SW FEA of principal frequencies in a V8 and V10 crankshaft. There are around 100,000 degrees of freedom in these models so essentially that many principal frequencies, i am showing first 20.

[Kozy]

Never used CosmosMotion, might get onto it at some point and chuck my model through for a balance check and the like.

[revetec]

Originally Posted by hightower99

SE pssst!


AutoDesk Inventor FTW!

Parametric modeling beats parasolid kernel every time!

proven by the fact that autodesk inventor has now outsold all competitors for the 6th consecutive year!

I can't wait until I get Inventor 2008!

Hehehe! Solid Edge uses both Parasolid and Parametric modeling.

A quote from UGS:
"Solid Edge is built on a foundation of superior core modeling and process workflows that help engineers design more rapidly by modeling parts more efficiently than other CAD systems. Solid Edge harnesses the power of Parasolid ® - the modeling kernel owned and developed by Siemens PLM Software and, at more than a million licensed seats, the de-facto standard for 3D mechanical CAD. Highly innovative parametric modeling tools allow designers to quickly create basic shapes and easily add common mechanical features like holes, rounds and chamfers, as well as more complex geometry such as draft angles, lofts and helical features. And, for designers of more "stylistic" shapes such as those prevalent in consumer products and many other industries, Solid Edge's revolutionary Rapid Blue technology provides shape design tools that have enormous power and flexibility, while remaining easy to implement and use."

As for sales: Autocad has been a standard in the industry for ever, like Photoshop has been for graphic artists. It is better for Autocad users to move to Inventor for integration so of course there are a lot of companies that would take up inventor due to previous investments into Autodesk products. This doesn't mean it's better, just a larger market for them.

I have trialled inventor a while ago and my comments are as follows. It's stand alone features were not as good; you could purchase add-ons to almost bring it up to similar features of Solid edge but then the cost was a lot higher for each seat.

I just looked through the new features of Inventor, and just about everything there I have been using in Solid Edge for about 2 years.

Anyway it depends on your existing CAD system, your requirements, your integration with other companies and personal requirements of what type of 3D modeling software you want.

The main thing that swayed me was the Engineers Handbook or now known as the Knowledge Centre. It is a Design tool of a large range of engineering components such as gears and shafts etc. which you can generate parts with little knowledge of what will work in regards to speed and loadings. From some simple inputs you can quickly tell if what you want to use will work, and for how long.

Like a bearing. I have my dimensions I'm after, I know the type of bearing, The loads, the speed range etc. It gives me a list of SKF bearings. I select one and it tels me to the hour, how long that bearing will last. I get that data and contact SKF with the part number. Sometime the bearing is expensive and they suggest another cheaper type. I select the new bearing number and hit recalculate while I'm on the phone to them and the software tells me if it passes or not instantly. If it passes, I order the bearing and press the generate button, and it models the bearing for me. I love this feature!

jediali: Solid Edge has Dynamic simulation as part of it.

[jediali]

i dont want this to turn into an argument. I have experience with SW so i will stick to it just now. I have yet to master that, never mind SE, or inventor.

I have no doubt your stuff does the same as my stuff, i thought i would just share my previous work. I believ these packages are very cometitive and have to offer similar capabilities (if difernent style, following etc.)

truth be told, many of these packages began simply as modelling packages, they havent always done simulations, fea etc. the people i work with turn to abaqus and other dedicated FEA software for such duties.

Just what ive seen

[Kozy]

I must say, SolidEdge does sound rather good.

What is the difference between parametric and parasolid modelling then? I gather SW is one of the two but I've not really head those terms before?

[hightower99]

Originally Posted by Kozy

What is the difference between parametric and parasolid modelling then? I gather SW is one of the two but I've not really head those terms before?

Parametric from wiki:

Originally Posted by wiki

A parametric feature based modeler is a Computer-aided design (CAD) software package that uses either a constructive solid geometry (CSG) or a Boundary representation (B-REP) modeler that allows a user to refer to features instead of the underlying geometry.

A feature is a term referring to higher order CAD entities. For example, given a 3D brick with a hole, the hole is considered a feature in the brick to reflect the manufacturing process used to create it, rather than referring to the hole by the mathematical term cylinder.

Parametric feature based modelers use change states to maintain information about building the model and use expressions to constrain associations between the geometric entities. This ability allows a user make a modification at any state and to regenerate the model's boundary representation based on those changes. This ability is called a transmigration operation.

Parasolid from wiki:

Originally Posted by wiki

Parasolid is a geometric modeling kernel originally developed by ShapeData, now owned by "Siemens Automation & Drives"former UGS Corp., that can be licensed by other companies for use in their 3D computer graphics software products. It is used in many Computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), Computer-aided engineering (CAE), Product visualization, and CAD data exchange packages, for example: NX (Unigraphics), SolidWorks, SolidEdge, Powershape, MasterCAM, OneCNC, Virtual Gibbs, DesignFlow, DesignSpace, Renishaw Productivity+, STAR-Design, and Moldflow.

When exported from the parent software package, a Parasolid commonly has the file extension .x_t. Most Parasolid files can communicate and migrate only 3D solids and/or surface data - Parasolid files currently cannot communicate and migrate 2D data such as lines and arcs.

So basically parasolid is just the name for a parametric feature based modeling software. However I personally like Inventor's way of making objects compared to SE (which I have only tested for a short time about 4 years ago).

Basically neither is better than the other so it comes down to preference.

I like Inventor and I have been using it for 4+ years.

[revetec]

Originally Posted by jediali

i dont want this to turn into an argument. I have experience with SW so i will stick to it just now. I have yet to master that, never mind SE, or inventor.

I have no doubt your stuff does the same as my stuff, i thought i would just share my previous work. I believ these packages are very cometitive and have to offer similar capabilities (if difernent style, following etc.)

truth be told, many of these packages began simply as modelling packages, they havent always done simulations, fea etc. the people i work with turn to abaqus and other dedicated FEA software for such duties.

Just what ive seen

The thing about Solid Edge is workflow. I don't need to go to a third party software to do FEA. I can do this while I am modelling. This means I can make changes and stress test them as I go. This feature has reduced my design cycle dramatically.

Here is an Article on the Siemens UGS/Solid Edge website about my use of FEA as I design. Article on Revetec's FEA while modelling and the time saved.

[hightower99]

FEA is included in the professional version of inventor 2008.

[revetec]

Originally Posted by hightower99

FEA is included in the professional version of inventor 2008.

As I said before, AutoDesk charges you more for extra features which are standard in Solid Edge.

[revetec]

Attached Image showing FEA while in Solid Edge Part design. I used a coarse mesh so it can be seen easier. (Factor of Safety Shown)

[Kozy]

Had a go at some bodywork for the chassis today, pretty pleased with the results!

Started off as this...





And it's finished up today like this.

[jediali]

very nice. relatively quickly executed too. was this tricky to do?