Inventor is a great tool and easy to learn and be productive with. It is not a direct solution for any specific trade other than Sheet Metal, but can be tailored to fit.

Inventor is very easy to use to create realistic, solid designs for cabinetry and millwork. I have tailored the software to streamline my creation of repetitive tasks, and it allows me to effectively document my designs quickly and easily. The software allows you to design and see where problems are in real time. My absolute favorite thing is that the drawings created, are always 100% exactly what you've modeled. It is impossible to have a view that does not dimensionally match another view. My experience with CAD systems in the past, is when drawings get revised, if not checked carefully, views can get out of sync with each other and when something is manufactured, the fabricator undoubtedly will ALWAYS pick the incorrect view as the one to follow. Inventor completely eliminates this problem. Last but not least, is that after being an Engineer / Drafter / Project Manager for almost 30 years, learning and using inventor has made designing and drafting fun for me again.

If there's anything I dislike, is that the software could be more cabinet and millwork friendly without having to purchase an add-on. The drawing sizes and model file sizes can get very large, in some cases I have drawings over 200mb, which can be painfully slow when loading over a network

The annual subscription is a good value for the money

The subscription-based price model and great customer support. Much better than Solidworks in this regard.

Hole feature does not have the robustness of SolidWorks. It is not possible to mate to planes and other non-model features.

Overall Inventor is a decent CAD package. A lot of functionality for a relatively low cost. However this comes with some frustrations.

This software has many useful features for it's price point.

Crashes more than other CAD systems I've used. There have also been many times I've struggled to get a function to perform correctly, in ways that make the software seem buggy.

Excellent. I wouldn't change to another software vendor anytime soon.

It is professional and easy to use (once you get past the learning curve). It integrates well with other Autodesk software and is an industry standard for most.

It does have some bugs and crashes occasionally. It also is impossible to use without an internet connection. This seems a little unnecessary, but sometimes if you are working very remotely it simply isn't what you want.

I created many solid models, assemblies and drawings. Compared to a previous high end system I used, it has been very robust and rarely crashes. Once you know it it is very intuitive.

Easy and powerful solid modeller that can create Assemblies with both Part and Assembly variations. Bill of Materials with tables can be generated directly in the Assembly drawing. A lot of functions are available under the right mouse button, which saves time not having to go through menus.

Once you get deeper into the software, the more powerful features can be somewhat difficult to learn. Support does not always understand your exact needs. Some of the lesser used powerful features do not get the same attention from their R&D. An example is that it took about 2 years for a feature to be corrected.

In my case being a professional of iNGENIERIA IS OF GREAT BENEFIT BECAUSE Inventor is updated (with the help of users in Inventor Ideas) and improves with each new version It keeps the user competitive by accessing our latest innovations at the time they are available, along with the previous versions you need Configure your products more easily with new functions for assemblies and autocomplete in the rules editor. Work with data from any 3D CAD system while maintaining an associative link

It has many tools that are very useful not only in the mechanical area, but also in the design of circuits, in the design of pipelines, etc., that's why I like SW. However, what I like about inventor is that besides being a program where you can make designs (CAD), you can also manufacture them (CAM) and do not need an interface like solidworks to recognize it in a cnc. Moldflow analysis: because it shows the quality of the pieces during the preliminary design phases and avoids the problems of higher level. Family mold: this allows the administration of family molds. You can alternate between several charged plastic parts to complete the partition plane design of each core and cavity assembly. Feed channel and injection point: provides the means to specify the type and location of the injection points, and allows to define the characteristics of shape, size and sketch of the feed channel. Cooling channel: improves the efficiency of the mold design and simplifies the process of creating complex cooling channels. Core and cavity design: solves the complex problems of defining the partition plane. The combination of these functions allows the closing of the separation, in addition to the automatic creation of revisions of holes and partition surfaces. Standard component library and tools: supports a wide range of components from commercial catalog libraries and a component utility to create custom parts. Automation of the drawing: the automation of the 2D drawing

Java does not generate code for further deeper developments. It does not handle much flexibility like code does in Java It only works with an Internet connection and it is a great disadvantage when you signal it is bad at home or work It can only be developed for Android The program has a high cost, due to its license. Knowing how to fully use the software requires a lot of time since there are many functions, and even that they are of little application, since they are very specific. It requires a powerful computer to work with processing speed, and a high space on the hard drive

Using Inventor for desingning machines with complex mechanisms in it is great,in my opinion is the best out in the marketing, its render system is not too good, but besides that everything is great and also there is a big community of Inventor users, so if you need help in something it's very easy to find

Almost all mechanisms i desingned i used Inventor as a tool, no other software is more useful for mechanisms than inventor, its motion simulation is great, so if you need to make a four-bar linkage for instance you can see all design parameter been shown to you as you put the measures

The only thing i don't like about inventor is its render system, for rendering in the company i used to work we used other cad systems to make final render

When I was a student, learning to use Inventor was a difficult challenge because it was the first time I used it and it was complicated, however with help I was able to learn to use it and it served me strictly for the subject of design and construction of mechanical models. Now that I am a teacher, in the development of degree and degree projects I teach and instill students who focus on mechanical designs to use Inventor, since this tool was key for me and now it is very useful to them. In summary, inventor is a complete and useful tool for mechanical modeling, although learning to master it is complicated.

One of the many advantages I like about Inventor when teaching is that it combines some parametric, direct, free-form, and rule-based design features to enhance the student's mechanical design development. Another important point that I like about this tool is that it has integrated Tools for sheet metal, structure design, tubes and pipes, cables and harnesses, presentations, renderings, simulations, machine designs, among others, which are used for learning concepts. basics of mechanical design to then be put into practice by students.

When I was a student, it was very difficult for me to learn how to use Inventor because it has a steep and complicated learning curve at the beginning. Now I have realized that some of its advanced features can be overwhelming for my students since they are less experienced, however with my help they understand better, the point of this is that they should create or improve complicated Inventor functions to make it easier His learning.

In short, it's a great software for designers, it helped me a lot during college, and in professional life, attributing a lot to my logical reasoning

It is a practical software with the 3D functionalities that any designer would like to develop their projects. In particular, I like the 3D extrusions and finite element simulations that the software provides.

A single point to be desired would be the plotting of auxiliary planes, which often makes me confuse a type of plane with another type of plane different from the one I would like to use, or, sometimes, I cannot plot the plane correctly.

inventor use for mechanical modeling of components for the manufacturing industry

the program is easy to use and allows you to model and draw even very complex mechanical components and assemblies. Intuitive and clean interface

Surface modeling is terrible. It is not comparable to other high-end software

Inventor is meant to be used to design parts of a mechanical machine. It is really good at that and not much else. It makes parts, assemblies, and drawings well. While it has animation tools, they're not great. Because of the detail and accuracy in the renderings, it goes through a lot more RAM, but makes great images and working drawings.

Inventor is good if you are rendering parts to a small product. You would not want to design a house or perform city planning on it. It is also not meant for animation, so being good at Inventor probably wouldn't get you a job with Pixar or Dreamworks. If, on the other hand, you want to 3D a missing keyboard key or the insert to your tape dispenser, then Inventor is for you. I am an engineering teacher and my students use this program for the entire second-half of the school year. I have a feeling that students using Inventor in their Introduction to Engineering Design class is a huge majority of where Autodesk Inventor is used. Inventor is very good at turning a part file into both assembiles and working drawings. The images it makes is just as good as anything you would find in IKEA assembly instructions. This works out well because I tell my students that by the end of the class I teach, they will be able to create an assembly instruction book that is just as good as anything IKEA would give their customers.

I already know that I don't use even a small fraction of what Inventor is capable of and that I can only review the limited number of tools I have used. But, based on what I have used Inventor for during the better part of a decade... Google SketchUp doesn't require that you place a sketch, then draw, and then extrude the sketch, and it works just fine. Inventor works fine for small simple projects, but it's slow-going to make something in it. Because it uses true curves, Inventor uses a lot of RAM and can crash when you are assembling complicated parts. It won't curve labels in 2 directions, it doesn't have a parabola, catenary, or hyperbola tools. I have struggled a lot with making their parts semitransparent like being able to see a ship inside of a bottle.

It's great. We have been using it on a daily basis for years now, not only for components design and manufacturing drawings but also for layouts, general arrangments, and plant layouts. It becomes easy to integrate scanned areas and easier to show end customers what they could expect.

Autodesk Inventor is the best tool in the market for 3D manufacturing design. The components library is huge with basically all the important vendors being part of it. The setups are easy, and the collaboration between workers is great and very functional. The BOM works perfectly and integrates with other pieces of software within the company.

It is an expensive piece of software. It could have an entry version as the AutoCAD 2D has the LT version. I understand that it also requires some bulk hardware to run it nicely, and this is part of modeling in 3D.

Model MASSIVE assemblies on not very powerful computers, design and process automation with iLogic.

If you have massive assemblies and love to automate processes, inventor is the ticket! This software runs well on computers that would barely be able to open SolidWorks. Huge assemblies (30,000 parts) open and are easily worked on. I can't imagine doing anything if this magnitude in any other software. I regularly use Solidworks, inventor and Pro-E (Creo), and inventor is my go to software for large machines. It's the best feature is iLogic which is a user-friendly programming interface to help you automate simple or complex tasks to save time and reduce errors. It is very similar to Visual Basic for applications, but you do not need to be a programmer to figure this out!

There is no global sheet scale in drawings and therefor no way to link a view scale to the title block in a drawing. It must be filled out manually.

It has helped to collaborate with the engineering teams effectively in the system design process. For more complicated systems that have inter-dependency on mechanical and electrical domains, it has helped.

Autodesk Inventor integrates really well with other Autodesk products that provide collaboration to a deeper extent between various engineering disciplines that include mechanical, electrical and civil. Whenever a mechanical assembly is updated it automatically notifies and updates the electrical wiring. Autodesk rendering of the assembly and components helps to visualize things effectively.

The user interface is not friendly as compared to Solidworks. The amount of time taken to design a mechanical part in Solidworks is much faster compared to Autodesk Inventor.

CAM integration, data management and option for Macro development.

Ease of use and Vault integration. Makes file management easy.

Some features can be improved to be in line with other CAD softwares in some aspects.

Being able to re-use existing 3d parts in new projects without having to re-make the part every time.

I use this software for creating custom-made equipment that is unique to each customer. The ability to store a single part with multiple configurations built into the part's file saves me considerable time. I also use the pipe routing part of the software and have had very little issues when using it.

Every time I have to migrate the Vault part of the software, I have to pay my distributor come set it up for me, because YOU ALWAYS have some type of issue when migrating the vault. This wouldn't be too bad if my distributor was close, but when they are over 200 miles away it becomes costly. I also have a gripe with having to pay my distributor an additional cost to support the Autodesk software. Not sure if the other 3d software companies have the same support setup, but in my mind, if your paying this kind of money for software shouldn't you have access to the software developer itself?

Inventor is a robust CAD package with all of the bells and whistles one needs to design parts whether it be modeling, sheet metal, or for additive manufacturing.

As a heavy user of Solidworks by Dassault, I was a bit hesitant when my new employer said they used Autodesk's Inventor solely. However, I was suprised, after I got used to the nuances of the system, how much I liked working with it. Some features, such as the quick dimensioning in sketches, I liked more than its Solidworks' equivalent.

There were some "getting used to" features such as mouse commands and on-screen maneuvering techniques. But, all in all, Inventor is an easy to used CAD package.

I found this software easy to learn the basics and not too difficult to learn the advanced features. I would however strongly recommend that you buy a learning inventor tutorial book and work your way through it. Once the basics drawing concept is understood, it’s easy to draw 3D components and assemble them as parts. I think this software works for both the amateur and professional designer. I use it for designing my woodworking projects and it’s made my life much easier having cutting diagrams for each part and confirming that there will be no interference in parts when assembled. I have tried SketchUp, and found Inventor to be much more intuitive to use.

There does not seem to be an existing user community library of parts. In this regard, SketchUp is superior.

We use our models for everything from prototyping 3D printe models to rendering for marketing. Love the software and it's many uses

User friendliness. Easy to train employees on the many different features Inventor has, from modeling to documenting the models with drawings, and rendering for our parts catalog to rendering hi-resolution files for offset printng.

Can not export/import custom materials to a spreadsheet to verify the accuracy and make changes

Easy to use Interface and button layout. The commands are clearly spelt out and even give you a quick tutorial glimpse of what the command or button does when you hover your mouse arrow over it for a few seconds.

Like any software, crashes can occur. You have to be sure that you keep up-to-date on all patches and services packs for your Autodesk Products to ensure you have the best experience while using their software.

love it, works for 2-d and 3-d very well, and looking forward to trying to use the machining part of it as it updates as well

very friendly to use can fix a dimension and whole drawing updates has a mastercam version i have yet to use

if one link in broken, you have to go step by step afterwards to ensure drawing updates correctly

I used a competing product while I worked in industry. However, Inventor quickly became my favorite design software when I saw its simplicity and efficiency.

Autodesk Inventor manages to be simple for students, but more advanced features can easily be turned on as needed. Great learning environment versus other engineering-design products.

The customization menu seemed pretty disorganized.

Inventor makes 3D modeling very easy to learn and use. The commands are simple to follow and the help files can be very helpful if you know what you are looking for. I have been using Inventor for 3-4 years now and I am still learning new and better ways to do certain things. Autodesk releases a new version every year with added functionality, which makes using the software easier.

Inventor can sometimes be a memory hog, if you have a model open with 100's of parts it can take 10-15GB of memory. Which slows down the computer and can make creating drawings slow and painful. Also the software sometimes can do things which you don't intend. This can get irritating and cause some delays in design.

Very easy and powerful software to use. One of the better parametric modelers out there and I have used just about all of them. The stress analysis is very handy and the constraints are intuitive and powerful.

Wish there was a plugin for featurecam into inventor. I know there is inventor HSM but its not as easy to use as featurecam.