Kubotek Forum

I started with Cadkey 2.0 in the mid 1980s.  Now I'm the lone KeyCreator holdout where I work, everybody else uses Inventor.  I'm sure my employer would prefer me to switch but as I'm going to be retiring soon they're not pushing it, Besides, they're probably going to switch to Solidworks both for compatibility with the other company divisions using it as well as PDM integration... and as much as it pains me to admit it, it's probably the right direction to go for those reasons.  But I'll be gone by then. :)

As great as KC is for basic design and importing CAD data, it just doesn't play well with downstream software.  I have to export all my layouts into pdf and step files so the document management system can see them, while it reads and manages Inventor (and Solidworks) drawings directly.

I understand that sketch based parametric modelers have their place, and depending on one's engineering style could even be better... but not for me.  My design approach  tends to be cut and slash; I make large sweeping changes, chop preliminary ideas off and replace them with something completely different, and KC is great for that while a history based modeler would be a nightmare.  OTOH, one of my colleagues takes a very orderly design approach, thinking everything out in advance and making small incremental changes; for him the structured approach of a parametric modeler is better.  We get to the same place in about the same time, but the path is very different.

So soon I'll sail off into the sunset and take my copy of KC with me; I just hope it will continue to exist for me (I use it a lot for my own personal projects) until I'm too old to care.