Solidworks?

[T1G UP]

I chanced across a small company today that has a very smart little machine that makes whatever you have modeled in solidworks.

Looks like a coffe machine, costs 30k plus and builds up little plasticy bits into whatever you have on the screen, good enough to make moulds out of! i'm amazed TBH.

Now he said i could "hire" the coffe machine as we do a bit of developement work here.

But i was quite taken with the solidworks software, combined with the coffee machine you can play for hours!

What solidworks, where from and how much please.

[dan9090]

https://www.solidworks.co.uk/

its owned by a big French software house... Dassault Systemes

havent looked through myself but i do know someone who works in a sister company so let me know if you have any problems buying a copy

[camo110]

Solid works is a smart package, but beware its a modular system, so you buy the basic package then quickly find you need more "add ons" to develop what you need.

You also cough up a higher tech support fee for the more "add ons" you buy. You also need tech support to help on the various bugs in the system.

Make sure you haggle the price - mention Pro Engineer as an alternative or one of various other packages

The usual advice - Buyer beware, cheap it aint

[smo]

The machine is a rapid prototyping machine....cool arent they!

Solidworks is expensive, you have to buy through a reseller in the UK, i can gladly put you in touch with some excellent chaps who i deal with on a large commercial basis - i warn you tho, it starts at 6K and dont expect a trial copy without jumping through hoops, they guard them carefully to prevent piracy.

[steve_d]

I assume you are talking about a Stratasys FDM machine that in effect 'inkjet' prints the model using ABS plastic.

You say you can take moulds from the model but you can go further than that.

By passing the CAD model through other software the walls of the model can themselves be made hollow. When you then produce the FDM (Fused Deposition Model) it can then be passed through an investment casting process just as if it were a wax master. The result can then be a cast piece part in ali, bronze, steel or whatever ready for final machining.

Steve

[smo]

Many people make them, like Z-corp as well weho do FDM desktop models amongst others! It is most likely to have been that technology though rather than SLA or SLS which are the big boys toys

[T1G UP]

You lot have lost me!

Cool bit of kit not so good with the decaf!

6K wowser

[T1G UP]

SMO....what do you do with solidworks?

[smo]

I currently don't (as of a month ago) however for the past 2 years i have been implementing SW into Wessex Water and 5 national/international design consultants, making standard libraries, supporting the install, providing training and support and actually using it for design too.....so all in all i know it pretty well!!!

I have excellent contacts with the UK's biggest SW reseller and personally know the staff from directors down through the support and training staff as in my last job i held a fair ammount of leverage and worked closely with them, all excellent chaps.

[T1G UP]

I currently don't (as of a month ago) however for the past 2 years i have been implementing SW into Wessex Water and 5 national/international design consultants, making standard libraries, supporting the install, providing training and support and actually using it for design too.....so all in all i know it pretty well!!!

I have excellent contacts with the UK's biggest SW reseller and personally know the staff from directors down through the support and training staff as in my last job i held a fair ammount of leverage and worked closely with them, all excellent chaps.

Cool,was wondering as 6k plus is quite a major investment.We're currently playing at lots of there sites and others, loggers lots of s/s pipes though

What you doing now then? finished that dlander yet?i'm off to NOR with my td5 V.soon

[smo]

Now i work for Princess Yachts using software called Unigraphics NX (now siemens).

D-Lander not finished - its in dorset and i live in devon now altho i have a new workshop so its imminant! What is Shaun doing to your TD5?

[T1G UP]

NOR = Full monty!

It's being used as a developement mule for some new tube work.

Bought the td5 with a few dents so saves me replacing the panels and i get a tough truck from the start.

[smo]

NOR = Full monty!

It's being used as a developement mule for some new tube work.

Bought the td5 with a few dents so saves me replacing the panels and i get a tough truck from the start.

Ooh do tell me more (by PM if needs be) - i must speak to shaun actually as i've still got to sort my hi-lo mechanism with diff lock since me and him swapped gearboxes (manual for auto)

[simonr]

Solidworks is just brilliant!

If you (or someone you know) is in education, even part time at night school - you can buy the Education version for £100, which is very good value & contains everything there is in the full version save for the technical support.

I would really like an FDM machine - just a bit too expensive at the moment!

Si

[landroversforever]

marcus - you will shortly have a PM

[Timmy511]

if you want a userfriendly 3d modleing package solidworkd or solid edge is the one to go for! if you do alot of post programing you want solid edge and edge cam!

ive used them both for the last 5 years, im no pro, but i can use it well enough, and soon ill be using it to design a nice new front suspension linkage (for a 90) for my final year project at uni.

does anyone on here use any mechanism anaysis software? i need some help/advice.

[freeagent]

I've used both Solidworks and ProEngineer a fair bit, and like both of them.

ProE is awesome, but I didn't find it as user friendly as solidworks, but thought it was better for 'Hardcore' Engineering design, as the version i has was complete with ProMechanica FEA Analysis...

Student version of either is the way forward.......

As for FDM, i agree its awesome, but not as cool as SLA... check out Z-Corps website.

[smo]

if you want a userfriendly 3d modleing package solidworkd or solid edge is the one to go for! if you do alot of post programing you want solid edge and edge cam!

ive used them both for the last 5 years, im no pro, but i can use it well enough, and soon ill be using it to design a nice new front suspension linkage (for a 90) for my final year project at uni.

does anyone on here use any mechanism anaysis software? i need some help/advice.

I beg to differ about solidedge especially as i use its much bigger brother NX and CNC machining software every day. (I also chose SW over SE for various reasons in the big install mentioned above)

I have used COSMOS in SW for analysis.....

[david1701]

pm sending

[T1G UP]

Solidworks is just brilliant!

If you (or someone you know) is in education, even part time at night school - you can buy the Education version for £100, which is very good value & contains everything there is in the full version save for the technical support.

I would really like an FDM machine - just a bit too expensive at the moment!

Si

Thanks, thats good to know.

if you need to use the FDM i could ask the question?

[HoggyN]

If you (or someone you know) is in education, even part time at night school - you can buy the Education version for £100, which is very good value & contains everything there is in the full version save for the technical support.

It's worth pointing out that for your £100 you only get a licence that lasts for two years. If you don't want Cosmos packaged with it you can get it for half that. One year licences are also available. At the end of the licence period it stops working. The full price non-educational version will keep working - although they upgrade it every year and if you want to keep up to date it will cost you more money. Everything you produce will also be watermarked 'Solidworks Student Licence, Academic Use Only'.

I got mine from here

[Cheesy]

It should be noted that the FEA packages in all of these CAD programs are very very average.....

Another one worth looking at is Autodesk Inventor, it is faster to learn than Solidworks, it also has some features which are very useful that Solid works doesnt have (on the other hand it is also missing some)

[smo]

It should be noted that the FEA packages in all of these CAD programs are very very average.....

Another one worth looking at is Autodesk Inventor, it is faster to learn than Solidworks, it also has some features which are very useful that Solid works doesnt have (on the other hand it is also missing some)

Care to quantify what is wrong with COSMOS FEA - you'll find it is superb actually. Also care to quantify why inventor is better than SW, the features are almost identical and i definatley dispuite the claims it is easier to learn.

My credentials are on this post (or another similar one) - care to share yours to back these claims?

[Cheesy]

Care to quantify what is wrong with COSMOS FEA - you'll find it is superb actually. Also care to quantify why inventor is better than SW, the features are almost identical and i definatley dispuite the claims it is easier to learn.

My credentials are on this post (or another similar one) - care to share yours to back these claims?

Sure, the bundled FEA is very limited in mesh refinement, more often than not I have had to alter models to even get them mesh and converge, I would rather use a dedicated FEA program. The second issue I have with these is that they are very easy to use (actually a plus as far as the software goes), making everyone an FEA 'expert' which can be incredibly dangerous.

I never said Inventor was better than Solid works but I definitely think it is faster to learn and depending on what is being designed it can be faster to use, it is also less hardware intensive. In saying all that I would still rather use ProE than either of them.

Credentials... SW at University, 2 years with ProE in product development in an appliance company (1.5 of those as a CAD team leader), 3 years in engineering/product design (vegetable post harvest equipment) with Inventor and now back to SW doing tooling and product design. Just need to get my hands on Catia now...

[T1G UP]

It's worth pointing out that for your £100 you only get a licence that lasts for two years. If you don't want Cosmos packaged with it you can get it for half that. One year licences are also available. At the end of the licence period it stops working. The full price non-educational version will keep working - although they upgrade it every year and if you want to keep up to date it will cost you more money. Everything you produce will also be watermarked 'Solidworks Student Licence, Academic Use Only'.

I got mine from here

Thanks for all the info. what would you recomend as a starter. Recently did a HNC in process engineering and as such had a good understanding of autocad 2006.

Would a bundle with cosmos be applicable? i think i read it gives training with this package. £258?