which should i purchase solidworks 2004 or solidedge 14

Why would anyone like dealing with Autodesk ???

jon

Time to raise the bar. :>)

jon

hi everyone, thanks for all your replies. I'm definetly going to take a look at alibre.

To answer some of your questions.. Most of the drawings i get are 2d

*.dwg autocad files, which i then import into mastercam. Mastercam is a great cam package but i think it lacks in the cad department especially when i have to create complex surfaces.

When the part shows some surfaces, i then take the 2d file and create a 3d part and the round surfaces that need to be machined.

Sometimes the customer will send me an iges file, which helps me alot, since i don't have to create the part of mastercam. all i have to do is the toolpaths.

Yeah so to answer your questions 90% of the files i recieve are *.dwg while the remaining 10% are iges files.

Then why not get AutoCad and the IGES option?

Perhaps because AutoCad is old, dull and expensive? And above all - it's Autodesk!

But for this need it might be the best answer ... and he may already have it but just lacks the IGES translator bit.

The data you are working with and where it comes from is important, as is your end result.

As he's machining things I doubt he needs a parametric modeler to try design iterations. ALL he probably needs is a way to work (well) with the data from his customers, who seem to use AutoCad .... and then transfer the data to MasterCam IIRC .

Is AutoCad so much more expensive than SW?

well recently i got a dwg for mold i had to machine, and mastercam was unable to create complex surfaces. So i think i need a good cad package that can let me create complex parts or molds easily.

Can autocad do this?

Nope. Surfacing in base AutoCAD sucks. It's so bad that Rhino

originally was planned as an AutoCAD add-in.

jon

Check the MasterCAM Forum.

If you search through the threads you will find that many MasterCAM users purchase Rhino to handle their surfacing needs and feel like you do that MasterCAM "lacks in the cad department when" one has "to create complex surfaces."

jon

....and if he does buy AutoCAD, he still does not get the surfacing he needs !!!

Once again... why would anyone want to deal with Autodesk if they did not have to. Based on what Adrian has posted, I see no reason that he has to.

jon

You again don't have a clue. Perhaps someone else here does.

No classes or support ?

You can never see much except what someone else posted you can later repeat and claim as your own words/ideas.

AutoCad (specifically, Adesk in general) is at the bottom of the barrel for such things. Just a bit of speculation if you consider the software purchase a long term investment; Inventor's dwg support is so abysmal one would think Adesk is trying to kill the dwg legacy themselves. In a very few years ... who knows.

=======================

Did you ask the people who gave you the dwg if they could give you the solid or surfaces? I would think that translating the surfaces would be much easier and higher quality than building them yourself.

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems

Ofcourse i did, i would rather do "the least amount of work" that i could possibly do. Unfortunately this specific client only has autocad. And also we get the most amount of work from him.

One of our other clients has Pro/E, so all his part files are iges 3d files, and much easier to work with since i just have to create the toolpaths in mastercam.

"One of our other clients has Pro/E, so all his part files are iges 3d files, and much easier to work with since i just have to create the toolpaths in mastercam."

If you go with IronCAD they license the PTC Granite One kernel so you don't have to go the IGES route. IGES is the least desirable way to import anything.

Further, IronCAD has the best integration with Rhino of *any* CAD/CAM package. Also from what I'm told IronCAD 7.0 will have major surfacing capabilities added to it. On top of all this, IronCAD offers far better editing of imported geometry and because of this IronCAD does not even bother with a FeatureWorks type of product.

jon

Except the fact that it's MasterCam that creates the toolpaths, not IronCad...

And the best alternative must be STEP, not a tiny format as Granite One...

/ Mr Atari

"jon banquer" skrev i meddelandet news:bm5e8e$ickcu$ snipped-for-privacy@ID-168325.news.uni-berlin.de...

Drooling moron.

IF you are going from a higher release level to a lower .....

This from the idiot that recommended a package that can ONLY use DXF & IGES and has many times suggested that DXF is better than IGES ...

Since when are *EITHER* CAD/CAM? BOTH are CAD only. WHY would you need *BOTH*?

Poor clueless ....

Find a new press release?

What's a surface? LOL ....

Have YOU ever actually used it? ANY CAD, CAM or CAD/CAM 3D software? NOT AFAIK.

No clues here ... never in a thousand years ...

But then again, ANYTHING is better than anything else people that know 1000 times as much as you do actually use, right? And it changes every post almost ... as long as it''s NOT what someone actually knows and uses .... (or they would call him on "his" never-ending BS about what they know).

Ignore the idiot troll ....

Are you angry at him? :-)

"Cliff Huprich" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m21.aol.com...

See alt.machines.cnc for details on patient 143c and his long and troubled history. Look for posts from Bill Roberto, Bottlebob, Tim Markoski, etc. I'd go on but it's a long, long, long list.

jon