SOLIDWORKS-2012
DS Solidworks Corp. has sold over 1.5 million licenses of SolidWorks worldwide.[5] This includes a large proportion of educational licenses. The Sheffield Telegraph comments that Solidworks is the world's most popular CAD software.[6] Its user base ranges from individuals to large corporations, and covers a very wide cross-section of manufacturing market segments. Commercial sales are made through an indirect channel, which includes dealers and partners throughout the world. In the United States, the first reseller of SolidWorks, in 1995, was Computer Aided Technology, Inc, headquartered in Chicago. The leading reseller in the UK is currently Solid Solutions Management, head-quartered in Leamington-Spa - who currently have over 3,500 SolidWorks customers in the UK. Directly competitive products to SolidWorks include Creo Elements/Pro, Solid Edge, and Autodesk Inventor. SolidWorks also partners with third party developers to add functionality in niche market applications like finite element analysis, circuit layout, tolerance checking, etc. SolidWorks has also licensed its 3D modeling capabilities to other CAD software vendors, notably ANVIL.[7].
AUTODESK INVENTOR-2013
Inventor includes an integrated motion simulation and assembly stress analysis environment. Users can input driving loads, friction characteristics, and dynamic components, then run dynamic simulation tests to see how a product will work under real-world conditions. The simulation tools can help users optimize strength and weight, identify high-stress areas, identify and reduce unwanted vibrations, and size motors and actuators to reduce energy consumption. Finite element analysis (FEA) lets users validate component design by testing how parts perform under loads (using actual load information instead of estimates).
