one other advantage of solidworks is their cosmosworks. it’s got flowworks, cosmos motion, and design star.
i don’t think alias has something similar. pro probably has some analysis tool but i have no idea how it is because i never used it when i was designing with pro a whiule back.
if you want to do shapes that can’t normally be made with lofts and sweeps in solidworks you need to move to catia. on their latest version v5r14 they have improved a lot of things including the automotive class a surfacing.
for rendering you have to get art vps’s catia module.
A shootout between SWX and ProE is going to be close. They are very similar products, with the definite edge going to proE+ISDX. However I have not seen any advanced Alias user laying the smack down as far as geometry creation goes. Every Alias model that I have seen so far can be modelled in Solidworks/Pro, and critiqued the same way that ykh broke down and examined the various SWX models.
Is it just the matter of higher order curves or higher level continuity??? Is it all smoke and mirrors or what???
higher or lower degree of continuity means absolutely nothing when your’s dealing with styling a car in alias or some other visual software. but in a cad software it’s a different story; just a more accurate way for classification of curves and tangencies. still you have to design something that is optimal.
so when someone who uses alias tells you i used a g3 continuity he’s just making an ass outta himself because he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about. he has just seen the g3 mark on the surface he has created to fit his design visually, that is all.
but when it comes to putting it in cad it’s a different story because those tangencies need to be optimized through curves that have numeric representation in cad.
i have not used alias but from what i have seen and heard it doesn’t carry that capability.
“so when someone who uses alias tells you i used a g3 continuity he’s just making an ass outta himself because he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about. he has just seen the g3 mark on the surface he has created to fit his design visually, that is all.”
not all. some of them understand the math. even some instructors.
“but when it comes to putting it in cad it’s a different story because those tangencies need to be optimized through curves that have numeric representation in cad.”
dont have to put it in engineering CAD. not always done that way. but yes, if thats done i expect numerical approximation occurs. pull points from source and run approximation curve through them. lose data in process. so i agree in that particular. but if alias surface is tooled direct this is non issue. both CAD and surfacers export STL meshes. surfacers have no extra data loss. both apps convert surface data to points. just tri’s for both of them.
i wouldnt build more than 3-deg surface in Alias for export to CAD. but if shape is final. no export translation. then 5- and 7-degree are fine. all depends on the workflow.
@ parel - agree. most Alias/Rhino models shown can be built in Pro/SW/etc. compound surface used to be special. not anymore. have to look at more extreme examples. even then Pro w Style could probably replicate 90%. but in what amount of time? Style is slower than Studio imo. clunky. non-intuitive. SW will eventually have its “Style” feature. will it be clunky too? at that level issue shouldnt be Can it do it? issue today is how easy and how fast.
smoke and mirrors? search net for surface continuity and see what the difference is. i can see difference myself. but for most product 3-deg is enough. maintaining surface continuity for plastic popping out a mold every 30sec is a joke. stamping a piece of metal is another story.
This whole My CAD is better than your CAD argument is getting old IMO. It comes down to using the right tool, on the right job, to meet the required deliverables, underbudget and ahead of schedual. Plain and simple, few clients in the Wal-Mart rules the world ecconomy care about the CAD software. Shot I have had to create only 1 CAD rendering in the past 3 years. That was only because the client wanted to conduct an in-store intercept of three possible final designs, but was too cheep to allow us to create presentation models, so we showed them 4"x6" prints. (What a joke, most of the people said I do not know…) Most clients only need the manufacturing ready iges file, most do not even request drawings of 2d documentation.
Isues for CAD is
Can it do what I need it to do?
Can I accomplish the design in the alloted amount of time?
Can I modify the file easily and quickly?
Is the maintenance and license affordable on our budget?
well, that’s probably why people still use alias because they don’t care too much about the curve having a precise math function. the continuity reading that alias offers might as well be considered something auxilary.
“well, that’s probably why people still use alias because they don’t care too much about the curve having a precise math function.”
why should we care? you said it. “it’s like saying screw all the curve bullshit i like the looks of it”. well, ID is a very “looks” kind of career. didnt know our job was designing the curve no one will ever see or use.
i thinks it’s a matter of preference, environment, and ultimately background and experience.
if design is considered a fine art like traditionally has then is it now becoming more complex because of manufacturing constraints like quality of the product, minimal material use, etc … availability of such advanced tools as simulation and FEA analysis…staffing, management, program conflict issues…
… i don’t know, but i don’t think current way of doing design with multiple computer programs, hand sketching, model building, rendering, so on so forth will survive.
eventually there will be a standard 3d tool for industrial design just as there’re other softwares for other type of professional work.
i’m sure nobody will use solidworks for painting or borland for photography.
I certainly hope not, otherwise I’ll start looking for a different career right away.
That’s just absurd to have one tool to do design work and to think sketching and modelmaking will dissapear. Every other artistic area of work has multiple tools. Graphic Design has PS, Illustrator, Quark; Digital Video has Final Cut, Premiere, After Effects, Combustion and even music recording has things like Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic and Sonar.
Contrary to what Bill Gates may have you believe, competition is good and brings about innovation.
What’s next? Are you going to tell me every designer in the world has to use the same process to create product and develop new designs?
i don’t think you can do surfacing with photoshop although you could use photoshop for what it’s intended: photographic 2d representation of a surface.
i’m not saying that you should eliminate all the softwares or jam’em into one monolith software. what i’m saying is that you’re better off using one professional software for designing what you intend to design.
if your company or client is happy with photoshop, illustrator, alias, pro, or solidworks that’s fine but to use two or more for a pretty obvious project that you know you are better off using one software to do the job is rather odd in my opinion the way software technology is improving.
a few years back everyone was saying you still have to use autocad with solidworks or pro to be able to get around because %70 of the shops use acad. today nobody wants to touch that software. even the architects are going towards parametric programs.
so let me ask you this. would you rather model your next coffee pot in acad and use photoshop to make it look nice?!!
Can you create a non-planar line in SW? I did a Rhino model a while back, and that was a big help in creating the form quickly. I have an idea of how to make it in SW, but I haven’t succeeded yet.
BTW: Someone asked about a trial copy. I visited the local retailer and got a 3 month trial that can be renewed, although the files can not be opened by another SW station, and the files created the first 3 months will not open after renewing.
you can also create a surface and extract from it in both directions. there’re other methods too with surfaces. or create two entities on a plane and then combine them in 3d space.
