Solidworks Student edition, COSMOS or no COSMOS?

[odin544]

I am gonna buy this basically to mess around with. I want to design up my cage for my truck and many other things. I know they use it in school which starts in a few days, so thats another plus to this over bendtech. Plus I think I will get bendtech before I actually build the cage.

The question is should I get COSMOS? I'm not sure if I would even use it. or KNOW HOW to use it. Any insight

the student edition runs for $69 without cosmos and $139 with cosmos. Both are 24 mo license

[TheRamChargerMan]

where are you getting it for that price ?

I'd buy it in a heartbeat

[odin544]

http://www.creationengine.com/html/p.lasso?p=14127

[tmorgan4]

I've got the same package, however I've got Solidworks '05 which will expire this Summer. Awesome getting the student prices. :D

I opted for the version without Cosmos because I couldn't see a huge need for it. Mine actually came with a basic version of Cosmos that still allows me to do a basic analysis on a part (still figuring out how to use that feature) but some of the more detailed features of Cosmos are left out.

I could see it being useful if you were designing a cage since it will show you points that stressed and you could go back, re-design, and re-test. I think you could probably get by with the basic features of Cosmos assuming this still comes packaged with Solidworks even when you don't pay extra for it.

PS: If you haven't ever used Solidworks before, prepare to be frusterated! I thought it would be cake since I could use AutoCAD but the way you do things between the two are completely different.

[Kc J]

the student edition runs for $69 without cosmos and $139 with cosmos. Both are 24 mo license

WOW :eek: My SolidWorks cost me around $4000.00 !

Spend the $139 and learn all that you can before you come out here to the none student world .

[rusmannx]

i don't think i've ever designed something in solidworks i didn't throw into cosmos. in my opinion, its the reason to own solidworks.

[traxman25]

Get it with Cosmos, it's worth the money. 4k sucks, but you don't get Cosmos with that. You don't want to know what our license cost! :(

However, you'll hate it for doing 3D tube work. Its a hell of a lot easier and faster to do the tube design in Bend Tech. Then if you want to do some studies on your strength you can get the export module and do those in any program that takes a DXF. If you're looking to do tube design you are much farther ahead spending the money of Bend Tech Pro. Easier to use and gives you the bend AND notch cut profiles.

BTW if your school has the Solidworks classroom book you'll get a free license when you take your drafting class.

[odin544]

Looks like I will be getting it elsewhere. It's on backorder. And it's in stock elsewhere.

COSMOSXpress™: introductory finite element analysi tool is what comes with the 139$ deal

Optional:

COSMOSWorks® - FEA: finite element analysis
COSMOSMotion™ - kinematics and motion analysis
COSMOSFloWorks™ - CFD: computational fluid dynamics and thermal analysis

I'm sure these versions of cosmos are much more. I'm sure xpress is pretty basic but I think it will do what I need for now. Thanks for all the feedback guys. I will be ordering it on monday when I can get the student verification stuff they want. I'll post up my ideas for my crewcab soon and have everyone rip it apart :D Thanks again

[JESSE_at_TLT]

Here's a list of places where you can buy it online (http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edu/campusstore.html).

[JESSE_at_TLT]

However, you'll hate it for doing 3D tube work. Its a hell of a lot easier and faster to do the tube design in Bend Tech. Then if you want to do some studies on your strength you can get the export module and do those in any program that takes a DXF. If you're looking to do tube design you are much farther ahead spending the money of Bend Tech Pro. Easier to use and gives you the bend AND notch cut profiles.
Dood, have you tried using Weldments? I have Bend-Tech Pro and it's great for calculating bends and notches, but designing tube work in SW is super easy if you create those models as Weldments. I'm looking forward to the SW plug-in that Bend-Tech is working on. I just talked to Chris yesterday and he said it's going to be a few more months before it's ready though.

[odin544]

Get it with Cosmos, it's worth the money. 4k sucks, but you don't get Cosmos with that. You don't want to know what our license cost! :(

However, you'll hate it for doing 3D tube work. Its a hell of a lot easier and faster to do the tube design in Bend Tech. Then if you want to do some studies on your strength you can get the export module and do those in any program that takes a DXF. If you're looking to do tube design you are much farther ahead spending the money of Bend Tech Pro. Easier to use and gives you the bend AND notch cut profiles.

BTW if your school has the Solidworks classroom book you'll get a free license when you take your drafting class.

I will be getting bendtech before I actually start the cage. I have been wanting to buy solid works for some time but couldnt afford it. now i can.

Here's a list of places where you can buy it online (http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edu/campusstore.html).


I got that earlier in the other thread. again thanks!!

[tmorgan4]

Dood, have you tried using Weldments? I have Bend-Tech Pro and it's great for calculating bends and notches, but designing tube work in SW is super easy if you create those models as Weldments. I'm looking forward to the SW plug-in that Bend-Tech is working on. I just talked to Chris yesterday and he said it's going to be a few more months before it's ready though.

I've been trying to figure out how to do tube in SW for quite some time. I've always used either the plain old extrude feature or the structural member functions and neither work well. Could you help a newb? :D

[odin544]

i know I could use any pointer as well from you more experienced guys

[TheRamChargerMan]

WOW :eek: My SolidWorks cost me around $4000.00 !

Spend the $139 and learn all that you can before you come out here to the none student world .

EXACTLY !!!

that's why I asked how he's getting it so cheap

[odin544]

just got it. 139 to my door. cant wait to get it and mess with it!!

[ROXROES]

No offense but COSMOS is a very inferior FEA program. I was shown a comparative analysis when I was looking at getting Advanced Mechanica for PRO E at work.

Same exact part, same forces, same material etc.

ANSYS vs COSMOS vs MECHANICA

COSMOS missed alot of the stress/edge concentrations. The results yielded from ANSYS and Mechanica were very similar.

In a nutshell, as far as FEA goes there is one saying. "garbage in, garbage out." Unless your going to go to training or be taught by somebody who knows the software. There is a strong chance that what you get out of it will not be correct. If your just looking for where your high stress concentrations are etc, I don't know, after seeing COSMOS perform. I wouldn't put my life at stake especially in a roll cage designed with it.

As for the guys talking about software packages cheap, $4K-$5K is the commercial licensed version. Most software companies, I know Pro E does, will offer a student/home engineer version that comes with EVERYTHING for $300-$400. The link below is a good site to get software from.

http://www.journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?ItmNo=86224903N

[jpmassey]

Dood, have you tried using Weldments? I have Bend-Tech Pro and it's great for calculating bends and notches, but designing tube work in SW is super easy if you create those models as Weldments. I'm looking forward to the SW plug-in that Bend-Tech is working on. I just talked to Chris yesterday and he said it's going to be a few more months before it's ready though.

x2 check out my build :-)

[JESSE_at_TLT]

ROXROES-
COSMOS might not be the best FEA package out there, but the basic designer version that comes bundles with SolidWorks is VERY easy to use. For the kind of stuff I'm designing, and as someone without an engineering background, it's great to be able to 'see' how different forces would be distributed though a part. I just want to address any weird stress concentrations and don't know enough to make good use of any more sophisticated FEA software.

[fabcam]

Dood, have you tried using Weldments? I have Bend-Tech Pro and it's great for calculating bends and notches, but designing tube work in SW is super easy if you create those models as Weldments. I'm looking forward to the SW plug-in that Bend-Tech is working on. I just talked to Chris yesterday and he said it's going to be a few more months before it's ready though.


Jesse,

There is NO WAY creating tubing in SolidWorks is even close to as fast and easy as it is in Bend-Tech.

Also, Traxman25 was talking about our CURRENT ability to send a 3d dxf file to SolidWorks and then you can create tubes from that very easily and quickly. This is available in Bend-Tech SE with the Import module.

Comparing the 2 products isn't fair to either one. I don't have any plans for Bend-Tech to calculate structural loads and SolidWorks will never be as good for tubing design, manufacturing and ease-of-use as Bend-Tech. My point is that if someone has struggled with using SolidWorks to design tube, he will NOT have those same problems in Bend-Tech.

Cris

[JESSE_at_TLT]

jpmassey-
Cool looking project. Don't listen to those knuckle-heads about the mitered joints.

Chris-
I'm the first to point out all of the great features that Bend-Tech Pro has to offer (http://tool.off-road.com/tool/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=362841). I agree with what you're saying about comparing the two products and I was tying to say that they complement each other very well. I use SolidWorks AND Bend-Tech Pro because SW doesn't have anywhere near the tube-bending and notching features found in BT.

But creating tubing in SW using Weldments is absolutely as fast and easy as it is in BT. In fact, it's a very similar process. You just create a 3D sketch, use construction lines and pick-points to create reference geometry. Then you put lines where you want to run tubes and the weldment tool sweeps whatever tubing profile you select along the length of that line.

[fabcam]

But creating tubing in SW using Weldments is absolutely as fast and easy as it is in BT. .

I simply must disagree.

[JESSE_at_TLT]

OK. No hard feelings?