---
title: Inventor Reviews
meta_title: 'Inventor Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2'
meta_description: Filter 440 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry
  to find out how Inventor works for a business like yours.
aggregate_rating:
  rating_value: 4.4
  review_count: 440
  scale: '5'
date_modified: '2026-08-09'
parent_category:
  name: CAD
  url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad
---


# Inventor Reviews
**Vendor:** Autodesk  
**Category:** [Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD) Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/mechanical-computer-aided-design-mcad)  
**Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0  
**Total Reviews:** 440
## About Inventor
Autodesk® Inventor® 2021 software provides engineers and designers professional grade design and engineering solution for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation. With Inventor software, engineers can integrate 2D and 3D data into a single design environment, creating a virtual representation of the final product that enables them to validate the form, fit, and function of the product before it is ever built. Autodesk Inventor includes powerful parametric, direct edit and freeform modeling tools as well as multi-CAD translation capabilities and industry standard DWG™ drawings. Helping you to reduce development costs, get to market faster, and make great products. Speak to Autodesk Sales at 1-844-335-4986.



## Inventor Pros & Cons
**What users like:**

- Users value the **ease of use** in Inventor, which enhances learning and boosts productivity in solid modeling. (4 reviews)
- Users enjoy the **user-friendly features** of Inventor, especially the shortcuts and design gallery that enhance creativity. (2 reviews)
- Users appreciate the **user-friendly interface** of Inventor, making solid modeling accessible for all skill levels. (1 reviews)
- Users value the **accuracy** of Inventor, appreciating its reliable and precise solid modeling capabilities. (1 reviews)
- Users value the **user-friendly interface** of Inventor, enhancing both learning and assembly design experience. (1 reviews)
- Users value the **user-friendly assembly management** in Inventor, making it accessible for both beginners and pros. (1 reviews)
- Compatibility (1 reviews)
- Customer Support (1 reviews)
- Customization (1 reviews)
- Ease of Learning (1 reviews)

**What users dislike:**

- Users experience lagging issues with **heavy assemblies** in Inventor, impacting their workflow and efficiency. (1 reviews)
- Users find the **complexity** of Inventor overwhelming, struggling to remember all the necessary information and functions. (1 reviews)
- Users experience frustrating **crashes** with Inventor, leading to lost progress and the need to restart frequently. (1 reviews)
- Users find the **difficult learning** curve of Inventor challenging due to the extensive information required. (1 reviews)
- Users find the **insufficient training** a barrier, especially for teaching novice students effectively. (1 reviews)
- Insufficient Tutorials (1 reviews)
- Learning Curve (1 reviews)
- Limited Educational Resources (1 reviews)
- Limited Learning Resources (1 reviews)
- Performance Issues (1 reviews)

## Inventor Reviews
  ### 1. Review for Inventor

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Bharanidharan N. | Product cost Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 28, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Its the best tool for 3D modeling and user-friendly tool;

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

It is not supporting for lite analysis works compare to other tools

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Creating modelling and drawings works with this tools

  ### 2. Best concept Modelling and Drafting Software

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Naman G. | Jr. Project Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Easy to use.
Framing and rendering tools are impressive and fabulous.
2D drafting is very user-friendly.
Simulation
Sheet metal

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Surface modelling is very tough.
It requires a lot of CPU memory
Welding features are also very complicated
The harness feature is okay.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We are creating 3D models (Concept building) in the Inventor. Along with this, We are also taking advantage of its impressive render features.

  ### 3. Shrinks down large stp files for Revit

**Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Joshua H. | Cad coordinator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 24, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I like the ability to shrink down large stp files for Revit use

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Nothing I really dislike about inventor.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

When importing large stp files into AutoCAD, the files are too big. So we "shrinkwrap" the file through inventor

  ### 4. User friendly, modelable application

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Denny Supriadi K. | Mechanical Planner, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 15, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Besides the user-friendly gui, the usability from versions to versions are continuously improved. Autodesk would seem to consider user input and attempt to apply it according to the customers' requirements. I like the electrical transmission interfaces of sprung and frame generator.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Any of the ambiguous broken links contribute to the need for time to identify problems. The absence of snap features to indicate how CATIA will do it, and even the inability to position or uninstall now open parts in the application or some other window, instead of using the route to finding it.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Inventor provides a good share of the revenue to those other CAD software also for value. For Autodesk a strong contribution is the gradual innovation and support. This is an advancing function. This software works well for 3D modelling, design and 3D rendering I can suggest the app certainly.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Apart from the usual functions, the frame builder has helped in creating 3d objects and resources. We launched more current projects requiring comprehensive structure, support structures, and accommodation. Frame processor and its functionality save us huge quantities of time if these assemblies are produced or manipulated. The voltage regulation tools also provide a breeze for shaft, chain and bearings structures. Particularly useful are also the slot, main, and belt features.

  ### 5. Great Budget CAD Software

**Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Angelika L. | Head Waitress, Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 17, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor has all of the necessary CAD features you need for designing parts and systems. Great for those using 3D printers. It even includes a variety of analysis options such as strength and thermal properties as well as mass/density for different materials. This software is much more affordable than other programs (namely Solidworks) and the company even offers free educational licensures. This software is quick to learn and they even offer a walkthrough at startup that shows you the different tools and how to get started on projects. There is lots of literature and videos available to watch and learn the program.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Unfortunately this CAD software is less popular in industry. If you are looking to market your CAD skills many employers have never even heard of Inventor. However, many of the skills you can learn through practicing with Inventor can easily translate to other CAD software. This program also allows you to turn your 3D CAD design into a drawing file comparable to solidworks.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

I highly recommend this software if you are a student or beginner looking to get into CAD. This is a super affordable software that includes all the basics you need for projects or drawings. Very comparable to much more expensive software. Lots of package options for both students, home users, and professionals. I really enjoyed using this program and have found it to be incredibly useful. They are always updating their software and are constantly improving their interface and options. While Inventor may not be as popular as other CAD software, it certainly is not obsolete and it is easy to find literature and how-to information online that will help guide you through. Inventor supports engineering analysis, work instruction , accurate BOM information, and improved submittal information.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

As mentioned previously, Inventor is great for educational purposes. It is a budget friendly option and if you are a college student you can get a version of the software for free. This is great for home users designing things to be printed on a 3D printer or if you are looking to quickly mock something up. I've used this for several projects in which I can model my diy project prior to building. This can be super handy for making blueprints.

  ### 6. Awesome Programe

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Zane W. | Lead CAD Operator , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 19, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

How model fits together.  That is all to be said

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Doesn’t save print settings.  That is all

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Show how models fit

  ### 7. Best 3D Modeling Software I Have Used

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 26, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor has been with me since I started studying Mechanical Engineering in college. It was easy to pick up and perfect to teach and show others how to use it. The learning curve is minimal.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The pricing could be a little more friendly for small businesses.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Anytime I need to model something, I go straight to Inventor without even thinking of anything else. It is easy to export files to any format for anyone else to use.

  ### 8. Great software to use.

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 29, 2017

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Its user interface is simple, easy to learn and navigate. This software is very powerful and allows you to create almost anything you can dream up.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Some of their most valuable features are hidden and hard to find. There are also simple functions that other software has that Inventor lacks.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Machine Design. Its easy to make our designs come to life

  ### 9. A professional CAD

**Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Marco A. | Mechanical Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 09, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

It's a robust, mature and complete mechanical CAD software. There is an environment for each of your need: 3D modeling of parts, assembly, 2D documentation, sheet-metal design...
Parametric design allows to create dimension-driven parts.
Adaptive mode allows to let the parts adapt each other during the design process.
There are complete (and customizable) libraries for materials and for standard components (screws, nuts...).
It's possible to import/export files in other formats to share data with other software.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Inventor is available only for MS Windows.
It is too hard linked with MS products: for example, MS Excel is required to manage families of parts (called iParts). I can't believe that such a complex and complete piece of software really needs a spreadsheet (not anyone, just Excel) to do that.
The version management is simply inexistent: every time a new version is released (i.e. once a year if you are a subscription customer) you have to install it for scratch, and you have to migrate everything (libraries, materials, shortcuts...). Really boring, a big waste of time. And the file format is not backward compatible, so you could have lots of difficulties to share files with people using different versions of the software.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Inventor is the right choice if you have general-purpose needs in CAD mechanical/industrial design you use only MS Windows OS computers and you don't want to spend more to have the more expensive leader CAD software.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I use it since 2005 for my job as mechanical design engineer. I made lots of projects with it. Using it over years I developed my workflow so that I can be quick and productive. Its features allow to work with precision and with great control in each part of the design process.

  ### 10. Great software for large assemblies.

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** David M. | Steel Plate Structures Designer, Oil & Energy, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Great software for generating assemblies of any kind. I like being able to generate individual pieces and then fit them together in one space. I really like the immediate updates to the assembly model when you modify an individual piece.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

There's a bit of a learning curve. Occasionally there are frustrations with LevelOfDetail Settings, but I'm sure I just haven't figured out the best use of this function.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Building large assemblies with multiple designers on the project at the same time. The benefits of Inventor allow us to each work on individual portions of a large assembly and see updates immediately for faster and more accurate clash detection and cooperation between disciplines.

  ### 11. Great tool for CAD drawings

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 26, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor is very thorough and has capabilities beyond imagination.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Hard to use; the learning curve is very intense.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Inventor is easier to use than the competition and has endless resources online for troubleshooting.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Engineering drawings for manufacturing semiconductor furnace parts

  ### 12. Best for Oil & Gas Modeling

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** REHAN J. | Design Engineer Cad, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 09, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

*If you are into a project of oil and gas, this software is best for routing of pipes and making easy assemblies.
* It has best and easy user interface to work with.
*It has inbuilt toolbox so we can use standard parts easily.
*It has best welding symbol annotation option .
*It has and only software where we can use Dual dimensioning (mm and Inch) , so you need not to sit converting dimensions everytime.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

* Every time you need to select project axis , which is annoying to do while sketching.
*Measure tool can be improved as we cant see actual dimensions if we select any edge line.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

*If you are into a project of any Oil and Gas, Inventor is must for the work to flow easily.
*it has all the options needed for a project of pumps and equipments.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

*We can easily use inventor for Routing pipeline, which is best cad software to do.
*Drafting is awesome as it has maximum options with all welding symbols to add.

  ### 13. Inventor continues to improve

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Adrian F. | Design Engineering Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Aside from user friendly interface, I continue to be impressed with the continuous improvement of features from version to version. It seems that Autodesk takes user feedback and tries to implement based on the needs of the user. I enjoy utilizing the power transmission, spring and frame generator functionalities.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Some of the vague error messages lead to time consumption in terms of figuring out issues. Also the lack of ability to use snap functionality similar to say how CATIA may perform this action, as well the ability to place or replace components that are already open in the window or other windows rather than navigate to a path to find it.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

For the price, Inventor delivers quality for a fraction of what other CAD software costs. Continuous improvement and support is a strong suit for Autodesk. Functionality which continues to trend upward. For 3D Modeling, Drafting and Design and 3D rendering this software work s great. I would definitely recommend the software.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Apart from normal functionality helping us create 3d models and Bill of Materials; frame generator has helped a great deal. We recently started more industrial projects which require extensive structure and support systems and housings. Frame generator and its capabilities allow us to save immense amounts of time when generating or manipulating these assemblies.  Also the power transmission tools make creating shaft, belt and bearing systems a breeze. The slot and key creation and belt functions are especially useful.

  ### 14. User friendly interface, great for modeling

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Nominzaya M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 28, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

It's easier to work on than Creo or other 3D modeling softwares. I appreciate how a user is able to demote a component to a different assembly. Makes it easier when coming up with a design from scratch. Content center automatically puts in hardwares which saves me time and headache of figuring out.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

I dislike when the constraints break when opening an existing model that I have to go back and fix the constraints. I wish there was an easier way to apply decals. Especially when applying the same part file decal on different size assemblies.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Watch videos on problems you might have while trying to model or assemble something. The "How to..." on right hand click helps solve a lot of problems. It let's you customize your workspace and what views you like. Overall great software. I have gone on multiple interviews where they told me that they use Inventor and someone even said that I could help them figure out how to make sheet metal parts during an interview for an internship.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I create the company's products that work a lot with sheet metal. It is great to visualize the flat pattern of a bent or rolled sheet metal. Visualizing products on  Inventor has saved me time and money that instead of wasting time prototyping with actual parts I can prototype on inventor. Another benefit is that I am able to download a 3D model from different vendors and see if it would work on my project.

  ### 15. I am glad I do not have to use it at this moment

**Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** henk w. | Engineer mechanical

**Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

easy to start with , when you are not used to CAD

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The program has a lot of bugs and it you have to know what to make when you start the model

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I cannot think of a problem specific solved with inventor

  ### 16. Affordable but unreliable

**Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Sean C. | CNC Programmer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 05, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor offers robust modelling and assembly features.  

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Without relying on Vault or another external software package, assembly files "break" easily whenever multiple operators are involved.  this is costly in terms of time lost to repairing links or obsolete files.

Following a Vault implementation, workflow suffered.  It became clear that the Vault installation compounded the linking issues, resulting in multiple save errors with EVERY part regardless of status as newly developed or vestigial.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Review support forums to evaluate abilities vs real world requirements.

Unfortunately Support forums are the only form of support generally available.  Despite a maintenance and support package, our vendor provided literally no training or support.  Evaluate your vendors carefully, as there can be a great deal of difference in support provided.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We use inventor to work across multiple platforms to incorporate thermal modelling, CNC mill programming information, and casting tool design.

We are realising a push to reverse engineer old parts created and produced prior to the company's use of CAD.

  ### 17. basic input

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Nic S. | medically retired, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 22, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

constraints and parametric .............

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

initial length of learning compared to using AutoCAD cam versions

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

i have made large platforms, process lines, entire building additions for the food industry production factories (such as Nestle, Kraft, Grain Millers, and more

  ### 18. Inventor in Education

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Samantha M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 17, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

FREE download with education provided email address!  Simple to learn, tons of tutorial videos.  The best is the ability to sketch digitally in 2D WITHOUT needing to design a 3D model first!  This is HUGE!  The program is very simple to teach to others and allows for very simple export process of your designs to a 3D print.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Does not work on Apple/ Mac products.  In the classroom this is a huge struggle as I cannot assign homework- or I can and I have my lab hours FILLED with students only there because they cannot access it on their personal device.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Creative thinking, outside the box design, 3D modeling, rendering, 3D printing.  The benefits are wonderful and it is simple for others to learn quickly adding to productivity!

  ### 19. Mechatronics engineer

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 04, 2021

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Easy to use for 3D modeling, great for new users.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Sheet metal bending is not precise an inaccurate.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Documentation for prodaction

  ### 20. Autodesk Inventor Experience 

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Shaya G. | Junior Design Engineer, Automotive, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** January 07, 2015

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

User friendly, easy to navigate, easy to customize.. You can easily connect it to Vault and use Autodesk Vault as the server. 

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

It crashes often and it seems like nothing has been done to improve. The file size is not as good as Pro-E. Also it requires very high computer system requirements. 

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

It's definitely a great software specially if you are looking for automation. It also works really well with autodesk Vault.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Mostly automotive part designs. 3D die design  and tooling design assembly. The VBA programming makes it very easy to automate.

  ### 21. We don’t have a license for inventor but I will make sure to purchase one now

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 25, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Modeling structures that can be transferred to civil 3d

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Inventor is not part of our autodesk license suite

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Training to use the software

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

To create new infrastructures  and transfering them to autocad civil 3d

  ### 22. Powerful tool but sometimes finicky

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Caleb B. | Design Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor really is powerful and capable. I like the wide variety of things you can design with the software and the tools they give you to do it. I certainly don't have the knowledge to take full advantage of the software.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Inventor is really finicky sometimes. It aggravates me because we have some incredibly powerful computers and sometimes when I am merely changing a constraint, Inventor will crash. It's not even necessarily when I'm working with a really complicated project.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I'm working on designing rock crushers with Inventor. One of the major benefits is that it is a 3D software and so I am able to visualize the designs much more easily.

  ### 23. Inventor for product design

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Mike S. | 3D Printing Engineer | Intellectual Property Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 22, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

easy sketching
parametric and direct design tools

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Freeform modelling, I think it should be improved

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

very powerful design tool

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

when thinking solution and new products Inventor help me to design the first prototype and go to the end product

  ### 24. Making old processes new

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Scott S. | Vice President Of Engineering and Operations, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Most helpful is the ability to create a 3D assembly and explode that drawing with a BOM.  We can use these to train new assemblers and make them more effective much more quickly than we could before.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

I haven't had any negative feedback from the team other than we should have been doing this years earlier.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We are able to get BOMs more accurate by starting with an assembly model rather than building a BOM from memory.  We are able to get operators up to speed more quickly by providing an exploded assembly drawing.  We are able to outsource more effectively by having more accurate drawings.

  ### 25. Great Software Bad Subscription Model

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Donovan A. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Very powerful tool. Allows customers and users working on the design to get a full picture of what the final product will look like.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The biggest issue has to do with the subscription model. Constant server issues and when you work early before IT arrives this becomes a challenge. The stand alone model works well, but is more cumbersome to manage for IT.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

The licensing model is not user friendly.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Getting accurate representations of what our final product is going to look like for the customer.

  ### 26. inventor to the MAX

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Charles B. | EDT Technology/BIM/VDC Department Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

We are starting to explore the use of inventor to take vendor 3D files for things like pumps, skids, and valves, etc - then convert to Revit families. we love how you can segregate the data, and dumb down the files so they are not so model heavy. Awesome product, I love where it is going and we will see what the future holds. 

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

nothing so far, but were just getting started, only about 4 months in. 

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

solid product for manufacturing of parts, assemblies, etc. Spooling drawings, Bill of Materials, Illustrated Parts Breakdowns. the sky is the limit. this product has only gotten better and better over the years. there is a huge support group on the forums that you can ask anything you want, with excellent response. This product integrates well into other Autodesk software's. Give it a try and you will be impresses and not want to go back to whatever you were using before. Do not hesitate, download a trial today. What are you waiting for? go on... download today :) you will not be disappointed. https://www.autodesk.com/products/inventor/free-trial

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We are starting to explore the use of inventor to take vendor 3D files for things like pumps, skids, and valves, etc - then convert to Revit families. we love how you can segregate the data, and dumb down the files so they are not so model heavy. Awesome product, I love where it is going and we will see what the future holds. 

  ### 27. Inventor for Piping Skids

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Josh W. | CAD Designer, Oil & Energy, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** December 05, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

the detail you get in the designs with inventor is incredible.  With accurate weights in parts and components the program is able to calculate center of gravity which is great for shipping.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

the program can require a decent bit of learning time to master, But it is worth the time investment. 

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

I highly recommend a professional training class from an Auto-desk vendor or some other source to your employees.  The program is great but requires a different set of modeling skills than most are used to using in other 3D platforms.  

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Used inventor to help eliminate clashes with pipes not realized in the 2D world.  Faster drawing updates with only have to change things once in model.  Able to adjust skid layouts for more even load distribution with center of gravity calculations.  Stress calculations on skids saved cost of steel manufacturer being paid for this service. 

  ### 28. Inventor for Millwork and Tradeshow Exhibit Documents

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Steve G. | Design Engineer, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 18, 2018

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

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.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

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. 

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

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. 

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We utilize Inventor to create tradeshow exhibit manufacturing shop drawings, setup and dismantle drawings.

  ### 29. Great Multi-Tool Software for Work and as a Hobby

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Megan H. | Lead CAD Technician, Automotive, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 03, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor has been my primary 3D modeling and drafting tool for five years now. I like that it has a clean and friendly UI along with the capability of customizing the look to fit your needs and uses. I also use Inventor for modeling representations in my day to day life as well as for my career as a CAD technician. It's versatile in different task focuses and it feels like I can use the program for many years going forward.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Inventor still struggles with freeform modeling if you do not have extra tools to make the process easier such as a pen and tablet. There is also a disconnect with transferring files over from Inventor from other Autodesk programs such as 3Ds Max which things like .STLs and .OBJs are almost impossible to work with due to their mesh qualities and Inventor's inability to convert those to solid, simplified faced parts.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Inventor is a great software tool for building, engineering, drafting, or even if you're simply using it for a hobby. One of the biggest steps forward I've used Inventor for was beginning to use Inventor to get more into 3D printing where I can start making my own parts for both home and work.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Confirming measurements and being the key source of being able to see a build before it is complete IRL. We up-fit and customize utility and work trucks, which makes seeing a final product important to the customer and simultaneously diminishes costs by preventing trial an error in our shop which can cut the extra labor costs. In outside work use, I can use it to build and dimension check things I'm building around my house or even determining if I can alter things in my computer.

  ### 30. Autodesk Inventor, best modeler for the $$

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Andrew W. | Sr Manager, Engineering Services Support, Design, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I think the ease of use and the ability for new users to pick it up is the thing I currently like most. It is a great tool for doing design and can handle quite a large model set.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

I think the large assembly handling could always be better. I think it does OK but i want to push Autodesk to do more on the back end.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

It is a great tool and learning to us it is very easy. However new users need to know it is more than picks and click. It takes a true implementation approach including modeling concepts and trials,. I would highly recommend you getting a 3rd party to support you if you have never some this before. 

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Just the whole 2D to 3D problem that goes back to the beginning of Inventor. I have seen many times when we were able to save a considerable amount of $$ by going to 3D design methods. 

  ### 31. Rewarding. It has made my work so much easier and faster.

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Eric N. | Mechanical Designer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 17, 2018

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Parameters and i Logic! Loading up the parameters on the front end saves so much time when I have to edit a model and a drawing. It saves so much time and makes my model better. I also love to customize the pop up menus. That really saves a lot of mouse movement and eye movement. I love the new direct edit command too. I use it all the time now.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The default view rotation when starting a new sketch. It defaults to 90 degrees from upright so that vertical is shown as horizontal. Why? It doesn't make sense and it adds clicks, which cost time. It's a small problem, but you asked. I also hate that there is no dark settings for the environment. I really don't like the bright white menus. Dark is so much easier on the eyeballs.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

If you are willing to put in the work to build custom templates and iLogic assemblies, then it can save so much time.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Stress analysis has allowed us to reduce the amount of over engineering we have to apply to certain products we make. It's also allowed us to see how much room we will actually need in our electrical enclosures by modeling the electrical components. It used to be a guess, now it's known before we go into production.

  ### 32. Great companion to AutoCAD

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Kenneth S. | CAD Operator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 05, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

The user interface and customizability of the program to create detailed models.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The text editor needs to be up to par with what is available in AutoCAD. It is very difficult to generate identical layouts between the two programs. Many times I have to create text in MS Word or AutoCAD to understand where the formatting will end up when placing it into Inventor. In short, for what is available in Inventor text editor, it should act more like Mtext editor for AutoCAD.

There should also be better integration with iProperties to iLogic. Many times iLogic will not recognize custom iProperties unless they are within the Functions of a drawing. This becomes cumbersome and awkward when writing a code and needing to add more to the file than necessary just to finish a line within iLogic.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Inventor will aid in everything mechanical. Our team has been using the program over the years across three difference companies and have been able to customize how it is used for each scenario. Excellent tool for cross-sections, material weight and center of gravity calculations, as well as part interference. Everything from thread interlocking to macro components can be manipulated when set up properly. Positioning of doors, for example, can be controlled with slide bars via dialogue box for display and presentation.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Ergonomics, mechanical interferences and machining accuracy are the three top problems we have solved with this program. We have realized these can be animated as well as run through calculations for stress.

  ### 33. Inventor for whatever you want to create!

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Robin W. | Director, Tooling, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I switched to Inventor from Pro E and it is so much easier to use and integrate with existing 3D and 2D design work.  Autodesk is constantly evolving with new products and they actually listen to their customer concerns and needs!  They are a pleasure to work with and are constantly working to make Inventor even more powerful.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The downside of using Inventor is the time requirement and the lack of quick sketch capability.  However there are other products in the Autodesk library that can handle those needs.  It is worth the time to get full BOM integration, revision control, stress analysis and other features to make your design packages complete.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Do the demos and make sure they show the specific work flow with your product/organization

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We are using Generative Design to make our designs stronger and lighter and improve quality, safety and productivity in our plants.

  ### 34. Inventor is a simple 3D CAD that plays very well with AutoCAD. 

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Chris H. | Mechanical Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

A huge benefit is the cost. If you need 3D CAD and AutoCAD you can't get a better combination. Inventor is great and simple for parts design and evaluation. It is also customizable. The 3D cube is a benefit and being able to switch the background and also to change the lighting scheme is great. We use Inventor to create sales drawings and informational flyers and it is great that we can customize the drawing style and paper size. We have created huge drawings that are 30 feet long so we can make a stencil for tracing large parts.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

There are some simple tools and options that it is missing compared to Solidworks. I would love to be able to switch read/write permissions on a file from within the program. I would like the program to use all of my computer's processors instead of just one for most of the part and assembly design. It only uses multi cores when it is rendering. Also, it would be nice to have some sort of computer analyzer built in to suggest processor, ram, hard drive, or graphics processor unit to improve performance. Is there such a benchmark? 

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Great deal if you want 3D and AutoCAD.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I have benefited from the stress analysis abilities. Being able to create an assembly and then analyze it for structural strength is valuable and a time saver. I can print out structural reports for customers both in and out of house. 

  ### 35. Best software for the imaginary thinker

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I love how you can make anything come to life

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The software is complicated and takes some time to learn

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Learn it first, you’re going to need it

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

The benefit I realized was that it can be accessible anywhere, it doesn’t need wifi. I use this with my surface pro. I don’t have any problems, I learnt inventor via a friend

  ### 36. 3 months of experience for creating special form-work parts 

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Moamen E. | Engineering Intern, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I find Inventor to be user-friendly. I was able to utilize a lot of the commands in a short time. No Training required to use inventor. A person can learn easily from the tutorials as well as useful videos on the internet. 

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Maybe more shortcuts can be introduced using the keyboard. There could be an option to insert Blocks such as drawings titles directly through Inventor instead of using the View name on drawings. In general a lot of the options in Autocad such as the tool palette and option of properties for lines, dimensions, layers, and coordinates. There has to be an option o

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I design special parts and assemblies for falsework. in some cases, it is hard to design in 2-D. Designing a special part and exporting it to Autocad is the greatest advantage. 

  ### 37. It's a fully featured modeler that is more stable than solidworks, but more inconsistent UI.

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Michael Z. | Product Development Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 05, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

It crashes fairly rarely, even on full assemblies with fasteners. I like the available high contrast/dark mode themes. It has a good feature set and a lot of versatility. Replacing model references in drawings or assemblies is much smoother than solidworks and often results in only a handful of broken dimensions. I love the built in simulation. It handles multiple closed areas on sketches very well (selecting what to cut works very very well).

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

There are some inconsistent UI things. For example most tools you can click enter to finish the tool, for things like doing a baseline dimension though, you click your origin, then all the dimensions, but to finish, you have to right click and continue, then place it, then right click again to finish the action. It's also missing a handful of features that I find helpful in SolidWorks, feature driven patterns, PEM inserts in the hole library and toolbox, the width mate (I know you can make symmetry mates work, but you have to have origin planes or work planes already available)

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

I have professionally used Inventor for about 4 years and Solidworks for about 5 years. In my personal opinion if you're choosing between them I would recommend Inventor. One of the largest reasons for that is the increased stability of the system. There's little more frustrating than having an assembly crash part way through the day. Additionally Inventor has a very good feature set and really works well as a full featured modeller.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

The built in analysis has already led to some better designs. It's fairly quick, but seems pretty full featured. Results seem pretty consistent and the automatic contacts is really handy. We can check that our product is sturdy enough, or more importantly compare competing designs based on strength/cost/etc. 

  ### 38. Like Solidworks but dumber and more limited

**Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Brett H. | Senior Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** February 14, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Being able to define sheet metal by the final target shape is useful.  It's the only feature that I can think of that is more user friendly than Solidworks 2013.  

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Everything seems to take an extra click for no reason.  Buttons and functions are hard to find.  The program always thinks you've made a change and need to save when nothing has been done.  The program has poor awareness of what components or subassemblies have already been checked out of vault.  Solidworks assembly mates from ten years ago are more varied and useful.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Pay close attention to what makes the solidworks user interface so much more intuitive.  I could do more after my first week with solidworks than I could after months with inventor.  For instance, placing a simple diagonal length dimension is something I had to take time to look up.  When sketching, trimming a line completely dissociates the lines with no colinear restraint assumed.  Inventor is full of time-wasting traps.  

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We model and draw parts with inventor.  It gets us by, albeit poorly.  Some of this is our fault (we have no formal process to supersede or obsolete old drawings) and some of this is vault not being fully launched (all files are shown as "work in progress" - none have release information at the inventor level.  

  ### 39. Been working with Inventor since 2005. I am a Certified Professional

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I like the robust sheet metals tools that are available.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Could use more drawing capabilities in the drawing environment.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

time from concept to shop floor has improved greatly.

  ### 40. Powerful Modeling Software

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor (by AutoDesk) is one of the most robust 3D modeling software currently available that I have used. It makes it simple for me to not only model individual parts but then to integrate many parts, sometimes hundreds, into a greater assembly and really visualize how the product is going to turn out prior to actually manufacturing it. When a customer requests a quote on a certain part I always analyze the build in inventor first to truly see how it will all materialize and look for any tricky or possibly problematic areas.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

There is a definite learning curve to the software. I have trouble still integrating new parts from new revisions into old assemblies without creating problems with the overall build of the model. The iLogic function for automation is a bit difficult to use as well and it overall doesn't seem to add much value, at least in my case. 

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Inventor is a powerful three dimensional modelling software that can fit just about any needs in the manufacturing industry. 

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Inventor allows me to create and view everything from simple models to complicated assemblies with hundreds of unique parts. Prior to greenlighting the parts to be physically manufactured I can analyze the process and predict what may be problematic during manufacturing and either improve the process or notify the toolmaker who will be making the part in order to avoid scrap parts. 

  ### 41. Empowering Students

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Kelly D. | EPIC Engineering & EPIC Department Chair, Primary/Secondary Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I teach students to use Inventor because they can see their concepts come to life, and then take those concepts through design to prototype easily from Inventor.   

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The main downside for my students is it does not auto-save their work if a computer crashes.  I was happy to see more online/cloud features be introduced over the last couple of years.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

My students find Inventor very easy to visualize their ideas come to life.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

My students tackle problems like how to help someone with a genetic disability and how to solve needs in their own life.   Inventor helps them dream big and design what they envision for their solution - which we can then make into prototypes using 3D printers.

  ### 42. Not Always My Favorite

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Utilities | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 28, 2020

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor offers a Solidworks type atmosphere for a little less price.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Not easy to pickup like most software but worth it if you can.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Used to help with assemblies with multiple parts.

  ### 43. Autodesk Inventor Review

**Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 25, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor is one of the best tool to create mechanical Parts with proper detailing and also for creating of sheet metals drawings in 3D and 2D drawings aswell, also the best part is we can create small animations using the models we created using Drive command.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

This tool has some limitations in making models also the 3D rotating cube gives you heck which is very smooth in handling but we can't use the cube how we want.
More skills and on-hands experience is required to use this tool effectively.
Very limited use industries as i see.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Great tool for who willing to start their career in Automotive and Mechanical Industries.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I've used this tool to create sheet metal 3D Models and 2D detailing drawings which can be directly used for Casting.

  ### 44. use it daily

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** farrell b. | Technologist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I started out using AutoCAD many moons ago and I really had my eyes opened to this software's way to 3D modeling and it changed everything for me

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The program doesn't seem to like the hibernate feature of laptops and often crashes

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Be sure to give it a try and compare it to the other platforms such as solidworks, solidedge, and fusion360.  One of the huge benefits to our company was the cost as compared to the other programs.  The builtin tutorial is excellent for new users and was hugely beneficial.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I'm now able to model my complete assemblies and verify that components are going to work together as intended before parts drawings are issued.

  ### 45. powerful and full of features

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Ed W. | Drafting Manager, Machinery, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I really like the drawing environment, it is the easiest one i have ever used and very intuitive.  skeletal modeling is also very powerful to use and makes the software a lot more powerful than standard out of the box.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

sheet metal still needs some more strength to allow us to do more in one part which we can do in real life but not in software.  

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Inventor is easy to use and is quick to implement, but that doesn't mean that it is not powerful

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

2d design and sketching to prove 3d concept will work without the heavy up front work.  we can very quickly prove things work without entire design.

  ### 46. Software Developer using Inventor API and doing Model Automation

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Tyler K. | Software Developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 20, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

Inventor provides a rich API to access and automate the internal objects. The linked parameters from excel are a useful feature from automation as well

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Inventor is very heavy and can be slow with larger models (although it is being improved with each product release). When using many parameters for the models the performance degrades as well. The single threaded nature of some tasks also bottlenecks performance.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

It's a very powerful tool for design automation and even with the advances in fusion 360 still has a place for powerful and large model automation

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Design automation is a very powerful tool and with forge being released we can leverage it even better.

  ### 47. 5 Years of Self Taught Experience

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 05, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

I like the direct representation that sheet metal gives. It speeds up production on the shop floor when I know when the model I create can be created out in the shop without hesitation.
Frame generator is a very useful feature and makes quick work of structures and parts that need modeled. I now can now accomplish a few weeks worth of work into hours.
The modeling environment is great, what I see is what I will get, given the shop tolerances are setup correctly.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The lack of response from Autodesk when a known bug or problem is brought up and has not been fixed over several years. This coupled with the lack of attention to the user interface, some things not thoroughly implemented throughout the whole application. They got it right for the most part, just have to polish it up.
Frame generator preview could use a huge improvement. What you see is not what you will get once applied. Hours can be lost picking and choosing to get the right results.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Learn to use shortcuts to be more productive. Setup the workspace to your liking and to what your application is.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

The benefits of the sheet metal environment coupled with frame generator is a huge time saver. I have also realized huge time savings over traditional modeling methods that other software forces you to do.
Also what use to be long drawn out processes engineering the right angles have all been done away with sketches and the ability to make them function without going through the whole modeling process.

  ### 48. Job Shop Manager

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

The Gear design Generator speeds up the process for us to reverse engineer customers worn parts. We also use the spline design generator, as well as other parts of the power transmission design tab.The ability to make changes in the model and have it directly affected in the print is wonderful. Being able to build models in three dimensions and see that they are compatible and fit together is a huge bonus.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Sometimes there are quite a few steps needed in order to make simple part drawings. The dimensioning portion of Inventor is not as robust as AutoCAD, but it is close. There is some flexibility used in dimensioning in AutoCAD that I miss.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

This is not a program that is learned overnight. I've been using it for years, and I still learn things on a regular basis. sometimes I will see a tab or button that I never noticed before, and wish I had seen it years ago.I highly recommend classes to get started. 

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We have the ability to make clear and concise drawings for our machinists to duplicate the customers old parts. Changes and revisions are very simple and quick to carry out. Laying out bolt hole patterns into hole charts eleiminates an area where we had issues in the past with.

  ### 49. customer review of Inventor

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

The menus are well laid out, and easily accessible.  The functionality allows you to go form a 2d sketch to a 3d command with out closing the sketch expediting the drawing process.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

The thing i miss the most coming from AutoCad to Inventor is the key command interface key commands allow you to preform a function in one easy step.  It also remain the same form version to version eliminating the search process for command buttons when a new version is released.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

inventor is a easy to use product, employees forming form almost any Autodesk product or solid works should be able to navigate the menus with ease.  The program is extremely useful in creating sd parts and assemblies to demonstrate to customer how your products should function.  The rendering features make it easy to create easy to use images for a user Manuel.  the features associated with assemblies allow you to create a bill of material in only one click that can be quickly changed into an inventory sheet. This product is perfect for any small business all the way up to a large corporation.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I use inventor for a variety of purposes, most frequently it is to design parts to meed customer needs, but often we will use it to confirm fitments on complex assemblies, or to recreate a engineers drawing to be dimensioned for our machinist. i alos use the rendering feature to creat images for out Manueles as an aid in selling our products.

  ### 50. Inventor Review

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Philip T. | Aerospace Ground Equipment Technician, Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2019

**What do you like best about Inventor?**

The ability to model in 3D is a game changer.  Inventors logic for constraining and creating parts is very straight forward and anyone who has done any sort of 2D CAD before should be able to learn to create parts with relative ease.  I also enjoy the additional add ins that are available to Inventor like the CAM software for programming CNC machines as well as the 3D plant layout tools.

**What do you dislike about Inventor?**

Inventor does struggle with large assemblies and dealing with really complex shapes that software like Catia handles.  Catia is designed from the ground up to handle this sort of process though and there for excels at it.

**Recommendations to others considering Inventor:**

Don't be afraid of the software.  If you doing things other than fluid analysis I would highly recommend Inventor over Solidworks.

**What problems is Inventor solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Without inventor we could not do what we do.  We have to be able to design in the 3D realm to deal with the complex systems that we create and ensure that tolerances and clearances are held.  It has allowed us to come up with ever increasingly complex designs and components that were unheard of for us before.


## Inventor Discussions
  - [How do I ensure my weldments always accept weld at their interactions.](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-ensure-my-weldments-always-accept-weld-at-their-interactions) - 1 comment, 1 upvote
  - [Am I using it correctly, space planning, fit issues, some structural loading forces](https://www.g2.com/discussions/am-i-using-it-correctly-space-planning-fit-issues-some-structural-loading-forces) - 1 comment, 1 upvote
  - [What are some of the best practices for students working in groups to use Inventor?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-some-of-the-best-practices-for-students-working-in-groups-to-use-inventor) - 2 comments, 1 upvote
  - [How do you handle the data creation problem?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-you-handle-the-data-creation-problem) - 2 comments, 1 upvote
  - [What is the best way to balloon multiple items?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/15670-what-is-the-best-way-to-balloon-multiple-items) - 1 comment, 1 upvote

- [View Inventor pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/inventor/reviews?page=2&qs=pros-and-cons&section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-13+00%3A55%3A42+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=d559a6b9-b6b2-4663-af97-ba6184d86c32&secure%5Btoken%5D=ee0287be6e7003613302b18bc1a6809bdd4cb239bc5aa2428dbc420cb30073ad&format=llm_user)
## Inventor Integrations
  - [Adobe Acrobat](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-acrobat/reviews)
  - [Autodesk Alias](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-alias/reviews)
  - [Design Review](https://www.g2.com/products/design-review/reviews)

## Inventor Features
**Design**
- Drawing
- Modeling
- Visualize 
- Rendering

**Design**
- 3D/solid modeling Tools
- Drawing Tools
- Editing Tools
- Rendering tools
- Stochastic Modeling
- Presentation Tools

**Tools - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)**
- 3D/solid modeling Tools
- Rendering Tools
- Drawing Tools
- Editing Tools
- Text Editing Tools

**Edit**
- File Import 
- Push/Pull
- Views
- Grips 

**Tools**
- Fluid analysis
- Finite element analysis
- Multibody dynamics
- Design Analysis

**File Options - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)**
- Export Files
- Import Files
- File Interoperability
- Backwards compatibility
- File size

**Collaboration**
- Annotate
- Documentation 
- Data Extract

**Work**
- Discrete event modeling
- Continuous event modeling
- Mechanical event simulation
- Manufacturing process simulation
- Integrate
- Turbulence Modeling
- Motion Modeling
- Dynamic Modeling
- Mathematical Modeling
- Agent-Based Modeling
- Monte Carlo Simulation

**Customization - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)**
- Custom Commands
- Custom Scripts
- Custom Menus
- Custom Interface

**Additional Functionality**
- API
- Image Editing
- Activity Dashboard
- Animation
- Reference Management
- Secure Data Storage
- Third-Party Integrations
- Configuration Management
- Annotations
- Drag & Drop
- Data Synchronization
- For 3D Printing
- Customizable Templates
- Modeling & Simulation
- For Manufacturers
- Multiple Format Support
- Workflow Management
- Version Control
- Document Management
- Sketching and Annotation Tools
- Multiple Projects
- For Architects
- Content Library
- Bill of Materials Management
- Collaboration Tools
- Design Management
- Rules-Based Workflow
- Reporting/Analytics
- Data Visualization
- Generative AI
- Data Capture and Transfer
- Projections
- AI Copilot
- Real Time Comparisons
- Document Generation
- Component Library
- Compliance Management
- Customizable Branding
- File Management
- Real-Time Updates
- Configurable Workflow

**Environment**
- Hardware support
- Task
- Manage Multiple Profiles
- Command Clarity

**Environment - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)**
- Hardware support
- Task-based interfaces
- Manage Multiple Profiles
- Command Clarity

**Additional Functionality**
- Activity Dashboard
- Configurable Workflow
- API
- Data Verification
- Data Visualization
- Generative AI
- 3D Imaging
- Projections
- Data Import/Export
- Design Management
- Drag & Drop
- Real-Time Monitoring
- Version Control
- Visual Analytics
- Third-Party Integrations
- Access Controls/Permissions
- Workflow Management
- Direct Manipulation
- Scenario Planning
- Product Data Management
- Predictive Analytics
- Change Management
- Process Control
- Customization
- Content Library
- Document Management
- Real-Time Data
- Reporting & Statistics
- Rules-Based Workflow
- File Management
- Compliance Management
- Policy Management
- Graphical Data Presentation
- Customizable Reports
- Graphical Workflow Editor
- Reporting/Analytics
- Industry Specific Database
- Project Workflow
- AI Copilot
- Performance Management

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