SOLIDWORKS is horrible

Thanks to Cory I downloaded the software. I have experience with AutoCAD products, SketchUp, and the old fashioned T-square and drafting board. SolidWorks is horrible - very tedious to do simple things. Also I can't get through the first tutorial - halfway through the tutorial the software stops responding correctly to the commands depicted in the tutorial sidebar. The dimension function will not accept the selected figure - I keep getting error messages whenever I click to place the dimension arrow.

I'll give it one more try. Is there a way to get another download or reinstall the software?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by Average Joe

....I have experience with AutoCAD products, SketchUp, and the old fashioned T-square and drafting board. SolidWorks is horrible - very tedious to do simple things......

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I feel exactly the same way about AutoCAD (along with all of the clones I've tried) and I avoid it like the plague. I tried Sketch-up briefly before giving up on it too. :mad:

Something is unhappy with the install or the system it's running on but I'm no expert on SWx problems. Hopefully Corey or someone here can figure out why you're having these issues. If you get a stable install on your system we can help you with the sometimes click-happy SWx UI design. I use a lot of hot keys and right mouse button clicks.......

I use both AutoCAD and SolidWorks and frequently I draw something in one program and transfer the drawing to the other program because what I want to do is better done in AutoCAD or SW. I have been using both programs almost daily for 25 years.

When you are drawing in SW it is easy to draw a line and impose some kind of restraint that you did not intend. The trick then is to right click on say a line, or the ends of a line and in the control box check to see what constraints have been placed on that element. This trips me up frequently.

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Originally Posted by lathropdad

When you are drawing in SW it is easy to draw a line and impose some kind of restraint that you did not intend. The trick then is to right click on say a line, or the ends of a line and in the control box check to see what constraints have been placed on that element. This trips me up frequently.

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In a sketch (2D or 3D) Try View>Sketch Relations


You can then see all the sketch relations graphically, you can pick them with your mouse and delete them at your leisure. You can also add sketch relations in several ways, also at your leisure.

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Somebody said SW is horrible?! I beg to differ. It's not perfect, but it holds its own very nicely in the company of the big boys like CATIA, NX, ProEngineer, etc.

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Originally Posted by Average Joe

Thanks to Cory I downloaded the software. I have experience with AutoCAD products, SketchUp, and the old fashioned T-square and drafting board. SolidWorks is horrible - very tedious to do simple things. Also I can't get through the first tutorial - halfway through the tutorial the software stops responding correctly to the commands depicted in the tutorial sidebar.

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I've never used AutoCAD products, but I found Sketchup to be miserable and very limited. Solidworks is pretty similar to most of the other powerful solid modeling software out there: CATIA, Unigraphics, ProE, etc. One you learn one of them, you can pick up the rest pretty quickly. Give it some time and you'll see why industry uses these applications and not something like Sketchup (again, I can't comment on AutoCAD).

Joe, I've only been using it a few months but have found it to be very powerful. A few problems with the install and font sizes early on, but well past those issues now. Big learning curve, but starting from no prior experience with CAD I've managed to progress to the point where the usefulness is way bigger than the difficulty. Like learning a new language.

I think of it like SAP or Oracle for Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) - I have some experience implementing SAP to run the Navy's logistics business (from the process side - I'm an aircraft maintenance guy, no IT geek). Huge, complex, general purpose, integrated across many functional areas so you only need one system, not dozens. But HARD to learn exactly because of that power. Everyone hates it at first and thinks it's too complex and non-intuitive, at least until their intuition starts to adapt - then it makes good sense. But you pay in sweat for broad capability. You can't have it both ways.

Joe, I've started using SolidWorks after using TurboCAD daily for 21 years. I love the ease of use of TurboCAD (hate AutoCAD) and struggle with the sketch concepts in SolidWorks. At the same time I can create 3D models in SolidWorks which I could not easily do in TurboCAD. I would love the easy drawing features of TurboCAD to be in the sketching of Solidworks.

Is it possible that your hardware is the problem not the software? There is a lot more math going on in the background with SolidWorks.

Dennis,

Can you explain what in SWx sketches gives you a hard time? Maybe we can help.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Harbin

Joe, I've started using SolidWorks after using TurboCAD daily for 21 years. I love the ease of use of TurboCAD (hate AutoCAD) and struggle with the sketch concepts in SolidWorks. At the same time I can create 3D models in SolidWorks which I could not easily do in TurboCAD. I would love the easy drawing features of TurboCAD to be in the sketching of Solidworks.

Is it possible that your hardware is the problem not the software? There is a lot more math going on in the background with SolidWorks.

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Amen to that...

i as using TurboCAD daily for work, and 3D models were pretty time-consuming and painful. Once I went to SolidWorks, I only use TC to open .dwg files and take measurements I can. Then transfer to SW.

Of course SW is a bit more spendy than TC, but hey...what's a few (thousand) bucks here and there?

tB

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Originally Posted by Dennis Harbin

I would love the easy drawing features of TurboCAD to be in the sketching of Solidworks.

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Can you elaborate? What are the easy drawing features of TurboCAD? As I noted above, in my experience Solidworks is very similar to Unigraphics, CATIA, and ProE which really makes me wonder what TurboCAD makes easier. The sketching seems pretty straightforward to someone with no CAD experience.

I'm going to copy this to a new posting about what I wish SW could do. I don't like getting messages about SW is Horrible. It Isn't!

I'll work on a list and keep posting things as I encounter and/or remember them. Here are some things I like about TurboCAD I wish were as easy or possible in SW.

Layers - I use layers to deal with clutter so you can easily turn things off. I can create layers in a poor way by creating multiple sketches on the same plane and then turn them on or off but all the inactive layers will be grey and hard to sort out what you are looking at.

When you are drawing a line there is this annoying thing of wanting to keep drawing lines chained together like a poly-line. If I just want a line I just want a line. I like the arc at the end of the line but at times would like to control the center point of the arc while drawing not just the current 2 choices. To do it you need to stop and select arc and draw an arc then go back to drawing a line.

I'm used to having all my drawing and snap icons available to turn on or off what I need on the fly. I may not want to snap to the center of a segment or I may want to snap to the center point of an arc.

The same thing with creating construction geometry. Once you start drawing a line you can't just click construction and switch to construction. You need to select it first or after you are done.

All these things mean extra clicks and time spent finding an icon. The trim icons are buried so it always takes at least 2 clicks. If you want to extend a line it's a pain to get to the icon and then it seems you have to get it all over again to extend another line plus you can't type in a value to extend it, you have to select the line and give it a dimension or edit it's value, but if it was created as a midpoint line you can't extend one end by entering a value.

At times it would be nice to turn off relationship creation while allowing snaps so you can create geometry which uses something as the reference for easy creation but isn't tied to it. Not every relationship should be permanent.

When creating parallel lines like for laying out an airfoil in TC I select parallel line, pick an existing line and move the cursor or type in an offset value (+ or -) and it's done. I keep on creating parallel lines until I select a different function.

In TC I can set a reference on an object (temporary or permanent), like a corner or center, grab that point and snap it to another object.

The difference is speed and ease of use. I still like the 3D capabilities of SW but it's taken me longer to model a wound wire ferrule than it did to build the tooling and make over 100 parts.

http://nc3397.blogspot.com/search/label/Wire%20Ferrules

This morning I finally got it to work and I'm delighted, no on to the wing rib.

I replied in the new thread.