what's the diff?

Hi all, so my employer just purchased our upgrade from autocad 2011 to 2012. Along with they purchased Autocad Inventor... what is this? How is this any different than autocad? I know it is precominately a 3d tool but how is it any better than just solid modeling in autocad? Thanks for feedback.

Inventor is nothing like AutoCAD so take just about everything you know regarding AutoCAD and put it aside.

Have you gone on the AutoDesk website and read up on Inventor? Start here...

http://usa.autodesk.com/autodesk-inventor/

well yes i have done a quick read up. I would have to disagree with u in that it is like autocad in that i can open the same dwg files that i typically work with in autocad. i can rotate them, shade them, ect, ect. my question is still "what is the differnence (or advantage if u will) to using inventor? thanks

Inventor is a parametric program making editing a file very easy. Modeling in AutoCAD is fairly easy but once you want to change something you have to jump through hoops sometimes to get it done. In Inventor you double click on the sketch for a feature, change the dimension and the changes are shown throughout the model and also in the drawing file, assembly file, etc. If all you do is 3D then I would learn Inventor it will make life much easier, albeit after a steep learning curve.

Go back to the website find and click on the topic "Reasons to Choose Inventor".

awesome! that's what i needed to know. thanks guys for your help.

on a side note, after the installation of the upgrade I cannot edit my pgp file at all now it keeps trying to save over the existing and then telling me i need sys admin for that... i was editing it all day long in 2011. any thoughts?

Right-Click the AutoCAD Icon and select "Run as Administrator".

Right-Click the AutoCAD Icon and select "Run as Administrator".

many thanks.. that worked.

....my employer just purchased Autodesk Inventor... what is this? ...

If your employer paid extra for a next generation tool, I think that is what I would use rather than a left-over tool from the last century

http://www.google.com/search?q=1985+amc+gremlin&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=97KrUIHeNdOI0QGuhoGIDg&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1160&bih=595

Yes, no one uses left over tools from the last century unless they are artisans.