Anyone else find Inventor the most frustrating program ever?

[tzframpton]

Have you ever had a play with 3DSMax? Inventor is childsplay in comparison.

 

Inventor 2010 is out now by the way.

You're comparing Apples to Oranges. 3DS Max is a NURBS Modeler, Inventor is for machinery and manufacturing. Two totally different apps.

[Hickoz_bro]

Yeah, I'd argue that too.. from my experience (limited though it may be) good ol' AutoCAD is easily the BEST program out there due to it's ability to do virtually anything, though it may not be immediatly apparent, or even easy to do. it allows a massive arrange of things ot be achieved using the base program, and customisations.

[DVDM]

You're comparing Apples to Oranges. 3DS Max is a NURBS Modeler, Inventor is for machinery and manufacturing. Two totally different apps.

 

I was comparing Autodesk programs and their complexity as per the original argument.

I agree that they aren't exactly competing programs.

[jakal]

Though i am new member of the forum but know h ow to use Autocad very well and can also use inventor, i think if you have a proper training on inventor or a proper training manual inventor is sweet and better than Autocad, used to think that autocad was better till i learnt how to use inventor properly. i am gathering some materials on autodesk inventor when i am thru will see how i can get them to you. i dont know if it is allowed to post things on this site.

inventor is far better than autocad whatso ever if you know how to use it very wll.

[Lazer]

i dont know if it is allowed to post things on this site.

 

You can post what you like just keep it clean:)

[Robamobabob]

In 6 years of using IV I have never had it crash on zooming or drawing a line:?

 

I use Inventor every day and I push the program hard, about once every 3 months if that It will crash it, I also save when I am happy with a model so If it did crash I am not too far away from were I was.

 

I'm not sure what's up, but mine keeps crashing, too. I'll get really far into a drawing and then it'll just freeze on me... Is there a way to make the program autosave like every 5-10 minutes?

[Robamobabob]

Amen, brutha. Personally, I hit CTRL+S about every 30 seconds. I don't even think about it, it's just comes as second nature to me now, and everyone should be that way, especially in CAD design.

 

Yeah, that's probably my problem... I'm so used to AutoCAD 3D autosaving, and recently switched to Inventor, so I still rely on the computer to autosave... big mistake on my part, as I just lost a drawing that took me hours.

[JD Mather]

Tools>Application Options and set Save reminder

[Robamobabob]

Tools>Application Options and set Save reminder

 

Thanks, JD.

[CAnnondale]

I love this 3D tool, even thogh I am just a new user of this tool. From an AutoCAD user I highly recommend using this as a 3D tools.

[Lazer]

I love this 3D tool, even thogh I am just a new user of this tool. From an AutoCAD user I highly recommend using this as a 3D tools.

 

What tool? your talking about Inventor or the new save option as said above by JD?

[mccann25]

This is pretty much just a RANT... please go easy if your gonna flame me... don't wanna turn it it into a full scale flame war.

 

Okay, so i'm not gonna claim to be a CAD expert of any degree, i've been drafting now for just over a year, spent 6 months+ working with Mechanical Desktop, and managed to learn crap loads in that time, and have spent the last 4months or so pulling my hair out with inventor... my biggest gripe is that everytime i tell someone how much better mechanical desktop is, they say "yeah.. well inventor is parametric"... WOOOPTY FARKING DOOO!! so far i've found that you need to put SOOOo much effort into constructing your model in such a way as to predict any changes your likely to make. otherwise when you change a dimension, your mate constraints chuck a spazz, and you spend the next 5 mins correcting your constraints... then if you decide to change something back, you do it all again... mechanical desktop on the other hand has simple commands... like MOVE... and COPY... and SUBTRACT etc etc... it means that if you decide to change a part, everything else is uneffected... if you want them to change as well... then you change them as well...

 

i have to admit, i admire the ability to use reference data in drawings, but the few advantages i've seen FAAAAR outweigh the disadvantages... i honestly can't see why inventor would be the prefered option over someting like Mechanical Desktop...

in Inventor customisation means learning VBA... mechanical dektop you learn LISP (took me almost 2 days to get the basics).

 

and another thing... is it just me, or is inventor the least stable program you've ever used??? i've had it crash on me HEAPS AND HEAPS of times when i'm doing stupid things like.. ZOOM, or... LINE... makes me wanna slam my head on the keyboard...

 

even the guys at work that have been using it for years curse it... i mean... HELLO... what about AUTOSAVE??? i've even had the computer crash when i was trying to save!!! meanwhile... if i use mechanical desktop, i can import dodgy SAT or IGES files, and then try doing operations like explode, and it'll just sit there chewing away until it's done... inventor on the other hand doesn't even offer similar operations...

 

and my final gripe... mechanical desktop allows you to work with 3DSOLIDS and PARTS... meaning you can manipulate solids SOOOOO much easier.... inventor only lets you do parts... and then not very well...

 

has anyone got solutions to my gripes? or gripes to add? am i the only one out there???a

 

 

I have over 5 years experience with AutoCAD and enrolled into College for my second Associate of Applied Science Degree to to learn Solidworks, but taking inventor was a prerequisite, so I am currently taking it now, AutoCAD is so much more user friendly than Inventor. I took a test the other night in class, and my circles that I placed on the object kept moving, after fixing them 8x they finally stayed in place. There is no Offset command in inventor, well there is, but it's such a joke when compared with AutoCADs offset command. I tried putting a hole in an extruded object a few minuets ago in inventor this stupid program wouldn't accept it, the checkmark was never enabled, and the chapter where holes are discussed didn't say one thing about how to accept a hole. I always type in my commands in AutoCAD, L for Line, Co for Copy, M for Move, TR for trim, but of course when you have over 5 years experience typing in commands in AutoCAD, your fingers move faster than your brain, so I tried to tr for trim in Inventor and OMG you end up lookign at your drawing as though you are an astronaut looking at the planet earth from outer space. I CAN NOT BELIEVE AUTODESK MAKES BOTH PROGRAMS. AutoCAD needs a lot of work in terms of programming cause it's just as bad as Microsoft Windows in terms of errors, but it's 10x more user freindly than Inventor. I hate Inventor 3 weeks into my 10 week class on this joke program.

[Bishop]

I think you might be overestimating AutoCAD's level of user-friendliness. I've periodically attempted to go back and figure out how to use it over the past several years and haven't made even the slightest headway with it. Inventor, on the other hand, feels like an extension of my own mind when I'm working with it. Things just seem to come almost instinctively.

 

So, while I do agree with you on one point - I can't believe AutoDesk makes both programs either - but I think we might have that belief for very different reasons.

[JD Mather]

... but taking inventor was a prerequisite, so I am currently taking it now, AutoCAD is so much more user friendly than Inventor... ....I hate Inventor 3 weeks into my 10 week class on this joke program.

 

Where is your instructor. Most of your frustrations sound like you weren't taught the program!

I teach AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks and Creo (Pro/E). I don't have any students who want to go back to AutoCAD.

You might start here http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/skillsusa%20university.pdf

 

AutoCAD 3D is pure torture once you know how to use a modern 3D CAD program.

 

The two programs from the same company - think of it like this, AutoCAD was started wayyy back in the last centure (sometime around 1985) at the start of the technology. Inventor was started years later (sometime around 1999) from a clean slate using what had been learned from more than a decade of CAD technology development by a variety of companies.

That baseline experience meant a fresh start without all the limitations from an earlier time.

 

One thing I have found, with your current attitude - you will never get it.

First thing you will have to adapt your attitude to learning a different way of doing CAD.

Get it in your mind - there are a lot of very bright users with far far far far more experience than you who will tell you there is something good there (in using Inventor) so maybe you just haven't found it yet.

[Lazer]

I always type in my commands in AutoCAD, L for Line, Co for Copy, M for Move, TR for trim, but of course when you have over 5 years experience typing in commands in AutoCAD, your fingers move faster than your brain, so I tried to tr for trim in Inventor and OMG you end up lookign at your drawing as though you are an astronaut looking at the planet earth from outer space

 

You can customize Inventor to match all the hot key you know and love in Autocad. Inventor is not Autocad and they both work in a very different ways. 3 weeks into Inventor is not a long time of learning, I suggest you take your time and practice.

I have been using Autocad and Inventor for 12 years and I am still learning both programs.

[jdporter]

crashing is not aprogram "feature"

"Save" is

[Dinochrome]

I just made my first formed sheet metal back-pan. Wow, that was easy.

 

Does anyone know how to un-suppress all of the browser items in the Model Tree at once? That would be nice rather than selecting them one-at-a-time.

 

Thanks,

Bill

[Dinochrome]

I did find I could hold down control and pick a bunch of "tree-branches" at a time.

[JD Mather]

Why were they suppressed?

Simply drag the red End of Folded marker up and down the tree as needed.

 

(and in addition to Ctrl key you could also Shift select first and last to select all in between)

[Lazer]

Dino, please start a new thread when asking questions, you have jumped on the back of a very old thread not related to your question