3 Reasons Why You May Catch the Inventor Bug

“Go big or go home,” they sometimes say. Well Autodesk Inventor has three ginormous enticements that may tempt you to take a closer look at Inventor. So if you have a fear of falling in love (with product design software), put your hands over your ears and start chanting, “LA LA LA LA LA” now.

If you know next to nothing about Inventor, see 5 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Inventor.

Now, about those 3 reasons . . .

• Use an existing AutoCAD drawing as the basis for a 3D model.
• Model up a wiring harness from a schematic created in AutoCAD Electrical.
• Document your 3D model using best-in-class drafting tools in AutoCAD.
• Create native BIM objects that can be spec’d into Revit projects.
• Send off a design for review (internally or outside the firewall) while keeping your IP locked down.
• Bring in designs you created using the new Generative Design tech in Fusion 360.
• Import laser scans or Revit data to design something that will sit tight in a new or existing building or factory.
• Use the right tool for every job naturally, because connections between products are foundational.

• The Inventor user interface is both intuitive to learn and can be configured to make power users even more productive.
• Inventor features that will amaze: marking menu, keyboard shortcuts, parameter definition while defining dimensions, and interactive extrude/revolve.
• The massively improved Hole command reduces picks, clicks and mouse movements. Create a hole without sketching it yourself using in-context editing and fast linear dimensioning. And you can make and organize personalized hole presets.
• In addition to a better UX, there are design accelerators for bolted connections that allow creation of an entire bolted stack of fasteners in a single action.
• Designing shafts, gears, cams, and belts is faster, and if you’re adjusting the size of a particular type of fastener on your project, Inventor will default to standard (stock) sizes.
• Could you use a Frame Generator? It’s as easy as creating a skeletal model, extruding, then clicking the edges to form the frame members.
• Add a plethora of parts to an assembly with Content Center. Inventor ships with an enormous library of fasteners (bolts, nuts, screws, pins, rivets, washers), molds, sheet metal parts, shaft parts, and other features.
• iLogic allows you to create your own easy-to-code scripts for any common task that is specific to the work you do.
• iLogic can also be used as a built-in product configurator to cut time spent on Configure-to-Order and Engineer-To-Order activities to a bare minimum.

• Whether you need to work with data sourced from third parties using different CAD software, or if you’re considering changing your primary 3D tool of choice, it’s scary easy to use data from any other CAD application.
• If you’ve been using CAD for over ten years, this will sound too good to be true, but Inventor can open data that originates from any commonly used CAD application (2D or 3D) without having to convert it.
• You’re no longer at the mercy of outsiders – suppliers, vendors, designers – using different CAD systems. Import Solidworks, Catia, STEP (open source), ProE and other files into Inventor models.
• Use existing components in new designs, and any changes will be automatically updated in the Inventor model.

Use it to invent; use it to animate; use it to visualize the world. As you can see Autodesk went “big” with Inventor, so this is a good Bug to catch. If you’ve been uncertain about switching over to Inventor, check it out, and hesitate no more. Follow this link to request a demo of Inventor with the real, not-scary-at-all people at Applied Software. We empower clients, champion innovation and help transform industries.

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