AutoCAD and Inventor

[muusle]

What is the key difference between Autocad and Inventor?

It seems to me that Inventor is more accurate and more suitable for making full detailed drawings with real life properties.

What can Autocad do that Inventor can’t do, and vice versa?

Tnx!

[CromCruithne]

Inventor excels at solid modeling, plain and simple. It's geared entirely towards mechanical drafting to the point that you can assign materials to an object and extrapolate info like weight, density, resistance and other attributes. It's second to none when it comes to it's use of constraints for drawing objects.
All that said, I'd never attempt to draw house plans in it. AutoCAD is, with enough work, capable of most everything that Inventor can do, but it takes longer and never does it quite as well.
Where in Inventor excels at one area, AutoCAD goes for breadth instead. It's hardly shallow, but because it covers so much, it can't work as well a program targeted at a specific area.

-Crom

[muusle]

Thanks for a good reply Crom! It’s clearer to me now.

[Mr T]

If you browse the http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...112&id=4268937 inventor gallery you will see it is for product design right thru to modelling whole production facilites and factories.

It does surface modelling, rendering,FEA, and assemblies as well.

Nick