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What does solidworks composer do?

Question asked by Justin Harwell on Jul 18, 2014
Latest reply on Jul 18, 2014 by John Robert Burrill

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I am very confused. I know very little about composer, I found it downloaded with solidworks, and just got time to start to figure out what it is. From what I understand it is for making manuals.

However it only allows you to save as a jpeg or bitmap? The save as button is always greyed out.

You must convert your solidworks files to .smg files before using it in composer.

I am not seeing anything that this software does that can not be done in solidworks better. So is there somewhere I could get these questions answered, I understand I must be missing something. Any help would be appreciated.

Please note I have seen the sales videos for the software and it did not really answer any questions. That is why I am writing this.

Derek Parks Jul 18, 2014 11:15 AM

Correct Answer

Justin,

You may not be getting full functions fromit if you did not purchase the software. It is now being packaged with Solidworks software but is still a stand alone program. As Ian says it is used for making technical illustrations, animations for technical manuals, marketing, etc. For rastor images the exports are jpg,bmp,png,tiff. For vector images the exports are svg, eps, cgm, svgz. For animations the export is avi which is limited to 2gb chunks at a time so most poepl export images in Hi Resolution and stick together in a program like Adobe Premiere Pro for better results.

I could go on and on on the differences between Solidworks and Composer because they are not intended to do the same tasks. Think of it as Solidworks is for engineering and designing and Composer is for artistically representing your designs. If you have any questions specifically I would be more than happy to try and answer them.

Cheers,

Derek

P.S. John is a faster typer and hit the nail on the head

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Ian Worrall Jul 18, 2014 10:20 AM

Composer is for making assembly manuals etc from your SW models.

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John Matrishon Jul 18, 2014 11:05 AM

Justin, not quite sure if you are looking at full blown composer or the free player. It's not something you just get with your purchase of SOLIDWORKS.

You must remember that it is not a CAD package, and SOLIDWORKS is not a graphics/publishing package. Composer has many advantages over SOLIDWORKS in terms of publications, creating manual images, and presentations, but that's because it's not a CAD package. I've heard the phrase "I can do that in SWKs" plenty of times, but once I show them how I do the same thing better and quicker in Composer, it usually speaks for itself. Composer is a very "deep" product, and not always easy for the CAD guy to understand immediately, but once you do, you'll love it.

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Derek Parks Jul 18, 2014 11:15 AM

Justin,

Cheers,

Derek

P.S. John is a faster typer and hit the nail on the head

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Justin Harwell Jul 18, 2014 11:47 AM

Ok so the composer that came with solidworks is just a kind of demo, which is why i can not Save or Save as, along with other limitations. While I am curious as to why they bundled it in with solidworks, sounds like a interesting program. Thank you for the help

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Derek Parks @ Justin Harwell on Jul 18, 2014 12:05 PM

Justin,

Dassault just purchased 3DVIA Composer about a year ago so that is why it is now being packaged with Solidworks. If you do a lot of technical writing with illustrations or animations I would definitely recommend you give it a look. Hopefully with the buyout we will see more and more integration between Solidworks and Composer but it has definitely saved me hours of work and the learning curve wasn't bad in my experience.

Derek

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Don Cheke @ Justin Harwell on Jul 18, 2014 12:08 PM

I'd say that it is just a veiwer (player) that is bundled with SW.

The actual Composer program costs thousands of dollars.

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John Robert Burrill Jul 18, 2014 12:13 PM

Justin, for starters, Composer can export more formats than bitmap and JPG. You use the high-resolution workshop, or technical illustration workshops to generate those.

Composer is also more than an annoating tool for generating bitmaps. It's a complete pipeline for connecting 3D CAD to media publication including, interactive web experiences, technical illustrations (in combinations of styles that SolidWorks can't achieve), animations,

This pipeline allows you to work with large ammounts of CAD data from multiple systems in a compact format that can be updated from the source CAD files while still being self-contained, allowing it to merge changes to geometry and meta-data while preserving the composer session transformations, appearances and animation tracks.

Composer is not like Ilustrator or Photoshop in that you use it to supplement the capabilities of SolidWorks. It's an Enterprise software intended to connect department workflows to acheive efficiency and it's priced according to that kind of value.

If you're making 2 or 3 images for each of a dozen spec sheets that you're company produces for its product line in a given year, then that's not much overhead on the engineering department. If however, you need to make hundreds of illustrations on a regular basis to update manuals, work instructions and marketing collateral, then the value of Composer becomes clear.

You should ask your Var to demonstrate its uses.

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Ian Worrall Jul 18, 2014 10:20 AM
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Composer is for making assembly manuals etc from your SW models.
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John Matrishon Jul 18, 2014 11:05 AM
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Justin, not quite sure if you are looking at full blown composer or the free player. It's not something you just get with your purchase of SOLIDWORKS.

You must remember that it is not a CAD package, and SOLIDWORKS is not a graphics/publishing package. Composer has many advantages over SOLIDWORKS in terms of publications, creating manual images, and presentations, but that's because it's not a CAD package. I've heard the phrase "I can do that in SWKs" plenty of times, but once I show them how I do the same thing better and quicker in Composer, it usually speaks for itself. Composer is a very "deep" product, and not always easy for the CAD guy to understand immediately, but once you do, you'll love it.
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Derek Parks Jul 18, 2014 11:15 AM
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Correct Answer
Justin,

You may not be getting full functions fromit if you did not purchase the software. It is now being packaged with Solidworks software but is still a stand alone program. As Ian says it is used for making technical illustrations, animations for technical manuals, marketing, etc. For rastor images the exports are jpg,bmp,png,tiff. For vector images the exports are svg, eps, cgm, svgz. For animations the export is avi which is limited to 2gb chunks at a time so most poepl export images in Hi Resolution and stick together in a program like Adobe Premiere Pro for better results.

I could go on and on on the differences between Solidworks and Composer because they are not intended to do the same tasks. Think of it as Solidworks is for engineering and designing and Composer is for artistically representing your designs. If you have any questions specifically I would be more than happy to try and answer them.

Cheers,
Derek

P.S. John is a faster typer and hit the nail on the head
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Justin Harwell Jul 18, 2014 11:47 AM
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Ok so the composer that came with solidworks is just a kind of demo, which is why i can not Save or Save as, along with other limitations. While I am curious as to why they bundled it in with solidworks, sounds like a interesting program. Thank you for the help
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- Derek Parks @ Justin Harwell on Jul 18, 2014 12:05 PM
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  Justin,
  
  Dassault just purchased 3DVIA Composer about a year ago so that is why it is now being packaged with Solidworks. If you do a lot of technical writing with illustrations or animations I would definitely recommend you give it a look. Hopefully with the buyout we will see more and more integration between Solidworks and Composer but it has definitely saved me hours of work and the learning curve wasn't bad in my experience.
  
  Derek
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- Don Cheke @ Justin Harwell on Jul 18, 2014 12:08 PM
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  I'd say that it is just a veiwer (player) that is bundled with SW.
  
  The actual Composer program costs thousands of dollars.
  Like • Show 1 Like1
  Actions
John Robert Burrill Jul 18, 2014 12:13 PM
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Justin, for starters, Composer can export more formats than bitmap and JPG. You use the high-resolution workshop, or technical illustration workshops to generate those.
Composer is also more than an annoating tool for generating bitmaps. It's a complete pipeline for connecting 3D CAD to media publication including, interactive web experiences, technical illustrations (in combinations of styles that SolidWorks can't achieve), animations,
This pipeline allows you to work with large ammounts of CAD data from multiple systems in a compact format that can be updated from the source CAD files while still being self-contained, allowing it to merge changes to geometry and meta-data while preserving the composer session transformations, appearances and animation tracks.
Composer is not like Ilustrator or Photoshop in that you use it to supplement the capabilities of SolidWorks. It's an Enterprise software intended to connect department workflows to acheive efficiency and it's priced according to that kind of value.
If you're making 2 or 3 images for each of a dozen spec sheets that you're company produces for its product line in a given year, then that's not much overhead on the engineering department. If however, you need to make hundreds of illustrations on a regular basis to update manuals, work instructions and marketing collateral, then the value of Composer becomes clear.
You should ask your Var to demonstrate its uses.
Like • Show 1 Like1
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What does solidworks composer do?

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