Switching to Inventor

[MJuric]

I have a Co-Worker that is leaving the company and going to another that is using Inventor. I haven't used IV since 2016 or so and never switched to it from another system.

Are there any recommendations for guides that would help someone to switch from SW to IV? Tutorials that would be good to watch etc?

[Roasted By John]

I would repeat what I did to change to 360 - open up the program and play with it for a few days, then search for videos on You Tube and watch a few of those.

One thing to keep in mind, most 3D programs have very similar Icons, that do the same stuff. The rest he'll pick up as he moves along.

[smh.inov8]

I've worked with Autodesk Inventor since 2004 until recently where I switched to SolidWorks. I trained quite a few college co-ops/interns and most of them had SolidWorks experience, and I just basically had them go through the built in tutorials the first few days, and found they picked it up rather quickly. Of course I would help them if they got stuck on something.

There aren't quite as many resources available as for SolidWorks, but if you know one program you can quickly pick up the other. Both have pluses and minuses as far as I'm concerned. I have to tell myself when I occasionally struggle in SolidWorks - I've been on it for just over a month and still find myself trying to do things the Inventor way, which isn't always the same in SolidWorks.

One thing I will say about Inventor, despite the crappy corporate Autodesk decisions, the Inventor team really do seem to care about making the product better and listening to feedback. I was in the beta program for years and they really do interact a lot with the participants and are very open about where they're at implementing new features. I have a lot of respect for the development team.

[AlexLachance]

What's the distinction between Fusion 360 and Inventor..? I know they're both different programs, but both are made by Autodesk

[MJuric]

What's the distinction between Fusion 360 and Inventor..? I know they're both different programs, but both are made by Autodesk

F360 is more of a "New generation" and "Light" version. Inventor would, in my opinion, be comparable to Solidworks and similar in that class. F360 leans more "Hobbiest" without alot of the enterprise level options and tools that are in SW, IV, SE etc.

[mattpeneguy]

What's the distinction between Fusion 360 and Inventor..? I know they're both different programs, but both are made by Autodesk

They're about the same right? Just like MS Paint is the same as Photoshop...

[MJuric]

They're about the same right? Just like MS Paint is the same as Photoshop...

I know that was sarcasm but that's not a bad description...although I would say the actually divide between the two is slightly less than that. Maybe GIMP vs Photoshop.

[matt]

I know that was sarcasm but that's not a bad description...although I would say the actually divide between the two is slightly less than that. Maybe GIMP vs Photoshop.

I haven't followed these products closely, but Inventor was supposed to be a SW competitor, and Fusion was more of a testbed? Or if that's not right, what was the purpose of Fusion supposed to be?

[mattpeneguy]

I know that was sarcasm but that's not a bad description...although I would say the actually divide between the two is slightly less than that. Maybe GIMP vs Photoshop.

I wouldn't say that's a fair comparison. Gimp has been around for a long time and is very mature, and has a lot of the same features as Photoshop.

Fusion 360 has been around for something like 5 years, right? It doesn't have the equivalent to Weldments, Sheetmetal, or any of that type of advanced functionality like IV, SE, and SW does it? I'd think Fusion 360 is more like Onshape?

[MJuric]

I wouldn't say that's a fair comparison. Gimp has been around for a long time and is very mature, and has a lot of the same features as Photoshop.

Fusion 360 has been around for something like 5 years, right? It doesn't have the equivalent to Weldments, Sheetmetal, or any of that type of advanced functionality like IV, SE, and SW does it? I'd think Fusion 360 is more like Onshape?

I think F360 has some of the feel of Onshape but doesn't have the power of it. Onshape feels, to me anyway, more like a young SW/IV.

I'm not sure what ADesks intention is for F360 but I can see it serving as a "Low end tool" to compete in the hobbyist market and or as "Add ons" to some of their other products. For instance I think it was recently used to replace the modeling portion inside one of the CAM programs. The other possibility would be they continue to develop it like Onshape and it becomes IV's replacement.

In either case I don't see F360 as powerful a tool as the IV, SE, SW or even Onshape etc., at least not yet, or possibly ever.

[Marshall Wilson]

I think F360 has some of the feel of Onshape but doesn't have the power of it. Onshape feels, to me anyway, more like a young SW/IV.

I'm not sure what ADesks intention is for F360 but I can see it serving as a "Low end tool" to compete in the hobbyist market and or as "Add ons" to some of their other products. For instance I think it was recently used to replace the modeling portion inside one of the CAM programs. The other possibility would be they continue to develop it like Onshape and it becomes IV's replacement.

In either case I don't see F360 as powerful a tool as the IV, SE, SW or even Onshape etc., at least not yet, or possibly ever.

Never used F360 myself but FWIW A friend of mine who has used Inventor for many years recently told me that he is a lot more heavy user of F360 these days. Reason being, he says F360 has a much easier workflow for creating & outputting toolpaths etc for his CNC Mill & Lathe. He uses these machines for creating small precise mechanical fittings for custom high-end "Bespoke" light fixtures.

[MJuric]

Never used F360 myself but FWIW A friend of mine who has used Inventor for many years recently told me that he is a lot more heavy user of F360 these days. Reason being, he says F360 has a much easier workflow for creating & outputting toolpaths etc for his CNC Mill & Lathe. He uses these machines for creating small precise mechanical fittings for custom high-end "Bespoke" light fixtures.

I had no idea that IV even added a CAM option. Last I used it was 2016 and I'm pretty sure CAM was not included with it back then. We looked into Hypermill for IV back in the late 90's early 00's and for us the price was simply WAY to high. Ended up going with Surfcam and used that for years.

Never used F360 CAM either so no idea how it works. Just spent this weak in a CAMWorks class. I'm guessing that will end up being just like Solidworks, some stuff just won't work that should, some things will be buggy but I will probably be able to do all sorts of things I probably shouldn't be allowed to do

[Frederick_Law]

Never used F360 myself but FWIW A friend of mine who has used Inventor for many years recently told me that he is a lot more heavy user of F360 these days. Reason being, he says F360 has a much easier workflow for creating & outputting toolpaths etc for his CNC Mill & Lathe. He uses these machines for creating small precise mechanical fittings for custom high-end "Bespoke" light fixtures.

True,I use F360 to do a quick tool path to check if those fancy f-art will cut on leaser or waterjet. Using 0.005 and 0.040 "endmill".
The only "problem" is all files are saved on the cloud.

It is lots of different then IV. Different design workflow. Different UI.