Knowledge & Community You are here

[Lukas Schneider]

Hey, I need to create a small sheet metal enclosure for a power supply unit—mostly bent parts in 1.5 mm steel, with tabs, cutouts, and a few fastener points. I’m new to CAD and trying to decide whether to start with SolidWorks or Inventor. The end goal is to generate flat patterns and DXFs for laser cutting. Which software would give me a smoother learning curve and better sheet metal tools out of the box? Most tutorials I find are SolidWorks-heavy, but Inventor seems well-integrated with Fusion, which I’ve dabbled in. Curious what others would pick for this kind of work.

0

[tobias11]

Both SolidWorks and Inventor are great for sheet metal, but if you’ve used Fusion 360 before, Inventor might feel more familiar. They work well together too if you need to move parts between them. That said, SolidWorks has a bit of an edge for sheet metal stuff—more tutorials, easier flat patterns, and better support for bend deductions. It’s been around so long in mechanical design that there’s just more help out there. Inventor’s also solid, just not as many examples online if you run into issues. Either way, both will get you clean DXFs for laser cutting.

0

[RLess]

Hi Lukas, I switched from Inventor to SolidWorks about a year ago for my sheet metal work. If you’re after something that’s easier to pick up and helps you get things done faster, I’d go with SolidWorks. The sheet metal tools are super intuitive, and once you get the basics, creating flat patterns is almost automatic. If you’re mostly working on stuff like enclosures or brackets, SolidWorks just feels a bit more beginner-friendly.

0