SO i got myself this software recently. THinking of using it to draw sketches of my biulding project = a computer. Earlier ive used Google Sketchup, it was quite okay but it didnt have too good textures and also i think it was hard to draw the exakt mesurement. Anyhows, this Autodesk Inventor, or AI, for far more harder to understand? Are there any guides for using the program for tiny skectes like computers?
I use Autodesk Inventor (school) and Sketchup (home) just about everyday and I gotta tell you I'd rather use Sketchup. Inventor takes soo long to do something compared to Sketchup. I had a project at school that took me a week (1.5 hours a day), at home on my slow computer it only took me a few hours (1.5-2.5) to do the same thing BTW it isn't hard to get exact measurements with Sketchup, start a line, put it where you want it and type in you demension
you see I'm the exact opposite. I use Inventor at school and Sketchup at home and i can use inventor a hell of a lot faster than i can Sketchup. I have been using Inventor for 4 years now and started back with inventor 8 (not 2008). Where as I have only used Sketch up for about 6 months. But for what you are doing i think that Sketch-up would be better because Inventor is more of a professional program and unless you have a good PC that can handle it, and some know how of inventor, i would use sketch-up.
the sad part is that I have been using Inventor longer than SketchUp I will give you that chamfers, countersinks.... are easier using Inventor but you have to sketch on the face that you want to do something with, with sketchup you just click and draw
With Inventor it is hard to sketch or drill on a curved surface(you can't do it), you have to draw and extrude another surface drill it and then delete the flat surface I think you can buy just Inventor for $300-500, without having to but the whole Autodesk
nope. just checked it and its either Professional version for 7.9k or the suite for 5.3k http://store.autodesk.com/store/adsk/DisplaySubCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.10032800
Get Rhino3d if you really want something with a little more oomph. Good and very easy to understand, has a command line that you can ignore or use with aliases if you so want. ie. extrude3point could be e3 as an alias. Or whatever you like. Adding custom commands is easy. Plus You can map more than one consecutive command to a button or combo with scripting. Fully customizable and easy to do. It took Me three days to get the basics and I'm churning out drawings faster than in any other CAD software I have installed including: Solidworks CATIA Autodesk AliasStudio (Formerly known as Alias Studiotools) Autodesk Inventor (You know that one.) Autodesk Autocad The other suites I have mentioned above, have a very steep learning curve. Used Autocad for a while but that was way too stubborn for My liking. Hope I have given You some good info. If not, I'll return.
Sure, i have used it.. for the odd dabble it is okay. hence the name sketchup.. you can sketch a concept fast, but im still leaning towards rhino3d since it offers all i need atm. but once i learn catia and solid im gonna be good at cad. mind you this is a hobby basis so no books or anything. keep doing it till it breaks the model. thats how i learn it..
I personally prefer using Pro/E than Sketchup. Never tried AI or Solidworks though. For those of you who have a .edu email; Autodesk provides student licenses of inventor for free.
The one program I could never figure out was Solidworks (I heard it was really cool with the stress test and all), I tried and tried then I quit. I was just so used to Inventor (before I had Stechup) I think that our school sells programs to the students for a really low price, it was something like 1/5 or 1/6 the retail price but I'm not sure, I'll ask tomarrow
