Thanks, Tom. I just checked and appears Autodesk no longer sells student
version of Inventor Pro for $400+.. only a 13 month term student version for
~$150.. Student version of SolidWorks is ~$140 and that one is taught at
local Junior College too.. First, I'll see what this AutoCAD 2008 version
can do in 3D next spring.. and go from there..


"Tom Watson" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:28:11 -0700, "Jim Hall"
wrote:

Tom, Did you learn on AutoCad or Inventor? I've heard others prefer
Inventor of AutoCAD for its ability to resize in 3D and particularly for
cabinet drawings. I have AutoCAD now and plan to take a class on using
its
3D abilities. Unfortunately not available until next Spring. I watched
the
instructor create quickly in 3D with AutoCAD and am hesitant to learn and
spend the additional money on inventor or even Sketchup before seeing what
it can do..
Just wondering what you thought of Inventor and if you've used AutoCAD is
the advantages great enough to go the additional expense.. Thanks..


Jim:

Most of my 2D drawing has been in TurboCad. I'm really not very good
at AutoCad.

I started using Inventor four or five years ago because they were
beginning to use it where I was working.

I heard many of the AutoCad guys bitching about switching over and, in
fact, most of them continued to use AutoCad when they had to do
something quickly.

It seemed pretty intuitive to me and I thought that was because the
basics of the program seemed to have a thought process kind of like a
cabinetmaker. You make the slab and then you form edges, joinery and
penetrations. Then you snap them together using constraints.

Inventor is not a RAD tool, it's forte is tying together the design
process from the point where a 3D prototype would be made, through to
the manufacturing process. Once you make the parts and assemblies in
the program the rest of your drawings are basically a matter of
formatting. It will even give output that can be used by CNC
equipment.

That said, Inventor is by no means the top dog in its category.
AutoDesk got into the game late and SolidWorks and ProE have more
installed seats out there.

Inventor is also expensive.






Regards, Tom.

Thos. J. Watson - Cabinetmaker
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet