Moldflow, Autodesk, and Solidworks?

With the announcement late last week of the take over of Moldflow by Autodesk, could there be a silver lining for Solidworks users?  For those not familiar with what Moldflow is, its a software package that simulates the filling of a plastic part that would be molded in a mold.  Our company uses it to determine gate locations, venting, and to simulate knit lines and potential cooling problems.  If you had Solidworks 2007 you may remember having Moldflow Express which has been replaced by FloWorks Express.  Moldflow Express was a lite version of Moldflow.

So what could this potentially mean to Solidworks customers?  Most likely nothing, but hopefully it will mean the acquisition by Solidworks of one of the other plastic filling simulation software companies out there?  In the Mold Making industry, Solidworks definitely owns the market, so hopefully they will see an opportunity to fend off Autodesks attempt to swipe away some customers.  Having used Moldflow software for a few years now, I can see how the marriage of Moldflow and Autodesk will workout just fine.  The Moldflow interface is not very intuitive, and its very difficult to navigate around, so most Autodesk product users should feel right at home.  Its problematic enough that I make using it a last resort so I wont have to fight my way through it every time I'm using it.  We even stopped our maintenance agreement because we didn't feel we were getting our monies worth. 

While using Moldflow I found myself several times wishing that Solidworks had a mold filling analysis program that would work as you would expect it.  So now that Autodesk is attempting to regain some of the mold building market, let's hope Solidworks will cash in some chips and snatch up a similar software company to keep that from happening.

Comments

[Nick]

Autodesk has not only acquired Moldflow. They fixed another Inventor Module which is called Inventor Tooling. I saw the product and it was a complete Mold Design solution with automatic core cavity generation an entire mold database etc. Also integration with Moldflow was absolutely great... The price also of the full package is even greater. SWX is left behind in this one. But we have other features that we are better...

[Pierre]

You can use e-simpoe to replace moldflow express :)
we use it since 3 months and we are really satisfied with the solution.

[PMP]

Thanks for your info, Mike.
As I know, Moldex3D is similar to moldflow.
And has good market share in Asia.

[Arnold Rowntree]

Hi Mike
The Autodesk/Inventor tie up seems to me to establish Moldflo as 'mid range' and third rate at that. Got to admit I like to think my own software is high end; 3D Sigma. Check it out Alessandro. (Pardon my English, I'm an Aussie.) I went looking for a simulation package that could do powder injection moulding but the Moldflo people told me they weren't interested. The 3D Sigma people in Australia said "yes we can and by the way, why don't you join us?" So I did. I'm also a Solid Works teacher at Swinburne Uni in Melbourne Australia.

[Ricky Jordan]

Once I heard the Adesk announcement things suddenly made sense as to why Moldflow Xpress went away in SolidWorks 2008.

Thanks for sharing your comments Mike. It's interesting to hear some feedback from someone who uses that type of software.

[Kevin E.]

"The Moldflow interface is not very intuitive, and its very difficult to navigate around, so most Autodesk product users should feel right at home."

Not to turn this into a "my dad can beat up your dad" discussion, but I think the Solidworks UI could use a lot of work. I have not used SW 2008 yet, so maybe things have changed. I far perfer Inventor's UI.

Kevin

[Alessandro]

Hi Mike,
thanks for the info.
For me MoldWorks is a excellent software.
SolidWorks prefer acquire little company to add them as add-in (PDMWorks, CircuitWorks, etc.)
Why is not MoldWorks mentioned into SolidWorks web page partner ?
MoldWorks is for you substituted by FloWorks ? But they are not the same.
Do you know Moldex3D ?
Can this substitute MoldFlow ?
I'm looking for a Mold simulator Software, can you suggest some ?

Thanks,
Alessandro

Sorry for my English, I'm Italian