Being involved in the marketing of my company but not directly using SolidWorks, I have been considering for some time now the investment in the Solidworks Composer software (ex 3DVIA Composer).
However, given the investment it represents, I want to be sure that it meets my needs.
For this, I would very much like to have some feedback from regular users of this software (SolidWorks users or not in parallel).
One of the things that particularly worries me is that apparently, the notion of mechanical stress doesn't exist at all in SolidWorks composer.
That is to say that if I want to make an explanatory video of a mechanical kinematics (and not a simple exploded one as shown in most demos), I will have to do it "by hand" by successive translations and rotations which seems more than random to me or to use parent/child pivots which are anything but ergonomic...
I have seen this subject discussed on other forums as below but without any major solutions.
Has this been solved or improved since then?
Thank you in advance to all for your answers and opinions!
" No import of Solidworks constraints into 3d-Via despite the use of the export plug-in (which is used for what basically?). Point confirmed by a salesman. Cool to import the metadata of the files but no constraints... Surprising. The solution is to rebuild a driveline by hand "select the parent/child .... position the pivot... " anti-ergonomic as possible and LONG on rather small assemblies so let's not talk about the big ones... The very existence of the software is absurd without this function, it seems to me."
When I arrived at my last company, they had just ordered SolidWorks Composer and were considering using it for trajectory simulations, but more marketing/sales oriented...
I watched, followed a 3-day training course and you have to face the facts. For step-by-step simulation, like moving a box on a conveyor line, it's done, even very well. If, on the other hand, it's to show a 6-axis robot with combined movements, forget it!
The big interest of Composer is in the illustrations, rendering of a high quality while keeping a link with SW: in case of updating the 3D model you don't need to redo everything. It is also very good for making animations of editing procedures.
So if it's to make quite complex animations, maybe it's better to use a SolidWorks license to work with than on the Motion Manager module. Not sure that the difference in the price of the licenses is huge.
It's a software that doesn't do chained kinematics. To do this, you have to make simple cutscenes that you animate manually.
One advantage of using 3DVIA/Solidworks composer is its ability to reduce digital mockups. However, very large sets are very quickly unsuitable to use, especially if they are textured and you use a non-adapted computer.
Otherwise, it's a good application for communication, maintenance doc, the creation of illustrations and animations, IPC...