Sheet Metal Design

team whit SolidWorks users :)

The software I have been using is Alibre Design https://www.alibre.com/ A really good cost effective product which I have been using to make real products made in the workshop. For making good drawings of products that you want to make you require a good knowledge of the machines in the works so that you design parts that can be made, also a good knowledge of the materials and sheet sizes available. Use all the features of your software to speed up your part of making products. Drive your designs from equations and design tables. By making a master model and drawings for making similar parts, making use of the parametric function, a range of similar parts can be detailed and drawings produced quickly

I work with 5 other people using Solidworks and multiple modules.

I use SolidWorks 2018 Professional.

I use SolidWorks for my sheet metal designs and I believe an ideal program is if use with production experience.

I used an Inventor 2014. It is good for sheet metal parts, folded parts, and dxf-export for laser cutters.

on my previous work we us cadmac...where you can draw and program a laser machine and cnc machine

Here in Brazil, the Big Companies like a John Deere, Massey Ferguson and New Holland use a Creo Elements.. Automotives industries use a CATIA..

The remainder of the vast majority use:

80% Solidworks

10% Inventor..

Other 10% various other softwares...

I prefer Solidworks...

Im using in Solidworks 2018 Premium

I previously worked at a job shop, We had 2 designers and 2 draftsman/programmers. We used Solid Edge, never really a complaint.

I use Sheetworks, It's Solidworks with a few modules added in to connect all my laser, press brake and robotic bending cell software to one hub.

The Unfold Operator helps me get a perfect flat every time.

I use SolidWorks 2017

KeyCreator.

I want to design hydrulic shearing machine for cutting.. is any one help me in this?

eu tbm prefiro solidworks para desenhos em chapa metalica, alem de produtividade tem grandes ferramentas para todo os tipos de trabalhos.

eu utilizo muito em meus projetos de maquinas.

eu tbm prefiro solidworks para desenhos em chapa metalica, alem de produtividade tem grandes ferramentas para todo os tipos de trabalhos.

eu utilizo muito em meus projetos de maquinas.

I use Solidworks + add ins SPI Sheetmetalworks+Topsworks+Cadlink (cnckad+mbend)

I use catia sheet metal

We use TruTops 100 for 2D laser cutting on older Trumpf units (L3030)

Solid Edge is superior for Sheet Metal. I have and have used in my professional career all 3: Autodesk Inventor, SolidWorks and Solid Edge.

My rankings go like this-

Solid Edge score 91/100

Inventor 86/100

SolidWorks 66/100

All 3 have things they do really well. The only thing that I believe SolidWorks is best at would be the newer "3D Interconnect" functionality, which is actually amazing. But it falls far short in almost everything else. It wants to boss you around on how you use dimensions in drawings. It has a ridiculous interface and doesn't make for an efficient workflow. SolidWorks is for people who don't know much about what they are doing yet and need something that looks pretty and plays nice.

Inventor is great in almost every way. iLogic is AMAZING. Patterning in Inventor is a breeze. It makes patterning part on a square assembly as simple as selecting the part, choosing an axis and then telling it to make a circular pattern in 4 locations and you're done. The things you can do with iProperties is also amazing where you can easily link fields. Also that when you create a first dimension in a part it names it d0, then d1.....makes it really easy to drive dimensions without having to think about it, just type d0 or whatever right into the dimension box and you're driven.

Edge surpasses Inventor, but not by much. And I'm not even factoring in the Synchronous Environment because I don't use it. I should. Because the speed it is capable of doing things at is phenomenal. But if you don't know what you're doing you can screw things up pretty quick too, and I'm too lazy and too busy to use it. But if you need to make large assemblies from the top down especially where the design may change at any moment and you still need to be able to get it done in time, Solid Edge, used properly, is unbelievably capable, more capable than Inventor and far more than SolidWorks.

Just an opinion, but also a correct opinion.

The big thing mostly overlooked regarding all of the major 3D products, return on your investment or how long it takes to get your cost of purchase back and are you making any profit from your investment.

If you purchase a new machining center for the workshop it has to make a return for the large amount you paid out for it. Often the same is not applied to CAD software. Sometimes due to lower cost of ownership a cheaper less perfect option cam actually make you money. Very often some of the features in your software never get used in your type of work, a cheaper product with less features, that you can live with for your application, is a better choice. Alibre Design not as feature rich as Solid Edge, a great product with, as you said, the best sheet-metal module, may be economically not a good as choice as the far cheaper Alibre Design, which can be good enough to efficiently do the job you need it for and will pay off the cost of ownership probably on the first few tasks you use it for. Somtimed with the top end and expensive alternatives they do not pay there way.

Very well said, and I do agree with you. It's all about how much use you will be getting from the products you purchase, and whether it makes it more efficient in the end.

CATIA V5

we've used Solid Edge for years at my office. Creating sheet metal parts is a lot easier than what i've done with Solid Works.

CATIA

Am using solidWorks 2018

Alibre Design

I am using SOLIDWORKS 2022 and Fusion 360

AutoCAD 2023 for 2d and mostly 3d. Yes, I know this an old thread. lol

I use Solidworks 2020 & 2022, and Autocad 2020. Im keen to learn other cad packages. Does NX do sheetmetal very well?