You can build a single part or a 5000 part assembly in the same file. In IRONCAD, part and assembly files are the same. Additionally, as you are not designing within the context of the assembly, often parts will be the wrong size and have to be adjusted after assembled leading to a time wasting ‘back and forth’ process. This means you have to deal with many separate files that can easily be lost or misplaced on a computer. You model all your parts in separate files, then combine them in an assembly at the end. In Traditional 3D CAD, Part and assembly files are different. However, in almost every case the IRONCAD way is a much faster, more versatile and ultimately more productive approach. Please note: you can also model with the same type of history dependency if in some cases it helps. This gives you a much more versatile modelling environment and also means you can make design changes without even thinking about model crashes and the effect of earlier modelling choices. This means no constraints are applied by default so you get to choose when and where to apply constraints. In IRONCAD, you model with a feature based history tree, but it’s not history dependent. All in all, this approach will usually slow you down and decrease your productivity, especially when editing previously made models. Because of these constraints being applied without choice, making design changes later can be extremely difficult and usually leads to model crashes which can take hours to fix. This can be beneficial if you know exactly what your design will look like before you start, but in almost every case, design changes will have to be made along the way. This means everything you do is automatically constrained by actions performed before it.
![ironcad vs solidworks ironcad vs solidworks](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yrKkdrnjyGg/maxresdefault.jpg)
In Traditional 3D CAD, you model with History Dependency. This is faster, more intuitive and most importantly more productive. You can then use IRONCAD’s patented TriBall productivity tool to position and pattern anything in 3D. In IRONCAD, you start with a catalog of 3D shapes and can drag ‘n’ drop them into your model and then push and pull to parametrically adjust the shapes size. This involves creating planes and making almost all changes in a 2D Sketch. You model the “traditional” 3D CAD way, which once seemed quite fast, however is now a much slower approach.