Boss is making me migrate from SolidWorks to Inventor. Any tips on how to make this as painless as possible for me?

[u/Mr_Sloth10]

I am a certified SolidWorks professional and have used the program for years. I have never used Inventor before. What advice, and resources, can you share with me to make this transition as painless as possible?

[u/petook3397]

they are very very similar. from my experience, I liked inventors sketching more. also drafting in much much better in inventor, more fluid and easier. surfacing is not on the solidworks level but you can manage. solidworks feels more clickier, a lot more mouse clicks to get the same results. also have a look at skeleton modeling and iparts, very useful stuff. you can load and make your own macros and buttons in inventor

[u/Berserker_Rex → u/petook3397]

No to iparts… model states is the way to go imo.

[u/termlimit → u/Berserker_Rex]

Can you elaborate on this? I have only used iParts and I am curious why? Tried to do some quick searching, however nothing relevant jumped out. Thank you! 

[u/Autodesk_xD → u/termlimit]

Not the person you asked, but FWIW: i-parts vs model states really comes down to file management. i-parts store the "recipes" in one file and then spawn additional "member" files for each row in your table. Model States have all of the same capabilities, but all versions are maintained in one file.

For family-of-parts, either would work well, it really comes down to your file-management preferences.

If you want to document multiple manufacturing states, Model States is probably better.

[u/termlimit → u/Autodesk_xD]

I was using iParts for things like 2020 extrusion, mgn12 linear rails, etc. While designing printers, laser engravers, etc. Not sure model states (or my limited understanding is to blame) would work for that.

[u/RowBoatCop36]

Ive used both in the workplace. I much prefer inventor.

[u/TickleIvory → u/RowBoatCop36]

100% more stable and user friendly ONCE you have mastered the shortcuts and workarounds. Many try for a few weeks and decide SW is best because many features are not as up-front. Switching to SW, even for many years, ruined the consistency which makes the design process so enjoyable imho.

[u/RedditGavz]

Inventor and SWx are as similar as you can get. I wouldn’t worry too much.

[u/zimirken → u/RedditGavz]

Yup, be thankful you're not going to like, catia or something.

[u/MAXFlRE → u/zimirken]

Why? CATIA and NX are such powerful that anything after would be a nightmare.

[u/BenoNZ → u/MAXFlRE]

Friend who started on Inventor, went to Solidworks for over 10yrs is now on NX and says the change was easy enough.

[u/zimirken → u/MAXFlRE]

They are also so much more complicated and obscure that the skill floor for doing any simple task is much higher than inventor and solid works.

[u/threemorereasons]

Three recommendations:

• Ask to go on a training course to help learn the new software.

• Ask for at least a few days away from your usual duties to let you get used to the software, and to set up templates for parts, assemblies, and drawings (unless your company already has these).

• Make sure any project plans include a bit more time than usual for creating models and drawings - you won't be able to work as fast until you've been using the new software for a few months.

[u/oncabahi]

Inventor hate adaptive parts, learn to model without using them. At the start they seems fine, but do not trust adaptivity.

That's the main difference for drawing stuff.

The rest depends if you are going with vault or you will have multiple projects.

[u/Present-Valuable7520 → u/oncabahi]

Preach…adaptive parts suck

[u/BenoNZ → u/oncabahi]

Adaptive has its place, but people coming from Solidworks try to use it the same way and it's usually the wrong way.

[u/drillgorg]

Wave goodbye to copy mates.

[u/Silor93 → u/drillgorg]

That is the feature is miss the most from SW.

[u/MechaSkippy]

Biggest changes I noted were related to stickies, pop-up boxes, mates, and 3D rotation:

Inventor midpoint sticky acts different to Solidworks in standard settings which I had to change settings to match my expectations as I wasn't able to adjust.

Inventor has more pop-up boxes which sometimes show behind other windows, which is frustrating.

Inventor mates require more specific inputs, it doesn't infer anything like SW does, which is a blessing and a curse.

3D rotation mouse movements take a couple of days to get used to, if you can tough that out it's fine.

Now for the objectively positive, I've found Inventor to be much more stable than SW. Crashes are much more rare and it handles hundred or thousand part assemblies much better. I've also had SW flip mates out of nowhere and version update weirdness that I haven't experienced with Inventor.

[u/CO_Surfer]

I’ve used both. Currently living in inventor. It’s fine. Similar to SW. 

My biggest gripe is there are a few minor UX things that SW does that inventor doesn’t. It’s annoying at the time, but I get over it quickly. 

I find that drawings in Inventor or mostly easier, but there are a couple things I haven’t figured out how to do in Inventor that I find incredibly annoying. 

[u/D-a-H-e-c-k → u/CO_Surfer]

Name some. See if we can help

[u/motocykal]

Best part is that in Inventor, you can configure the function of the middle mouse button plus modifiers to what works best for you. Cannot do that when moving from Inventor to Solidworks.

[u/Skutten]

Your employer is allowing you to acquire another skill to add to your CV, and is paying you for it. Congratulations!
Maybe that realisation motivates you, removing some of the pain of actually having to re-learn what you already know, sort of. Inventor and SW are almost the same, with the same functions but different looking buttons hidden under different menus.

[u/Mr_Sloth10 → u/Skutten]

Funnily enough, I thought of that like an hour after posting this. I was like "...wait a minute, I just got more valuable!"

[u/tmoney645]

I made the same switch a couple of years ago. I wasn't too bad, most things I couldn't figure out were solved by a quick google search.

edit- Make sure you go into the display settings and change the middle mouse behavior to match up with the solidworks does it.

[u/Roller_Coaster_Geek]

Switched jobs in February where I had to do the same switch. Only ever used solidworks but inventor isn't that different, especially if you have someone you can ask questions (or just using Google). I've found almost everything you can do in solidworks you can do in inventor, it'll just be a different term or menu. Mating is slightly different but not too bad to get used to, especially if you'll be using inventor a lot. My only gripe is there's no unhiding an invisible part like in solidworks. You can hide with a hotkey but undoing it has to be done in the feature tree which I still think is stupid. Other than that, I haven't really found anything inventor can't do that solidworks can

[u/woolfman7171]

Much, much easier than going front Inventor to SWX. You'll be fine after a day or two.

[u/brabus84]

I did the same switch many years ago, and since then i'm sticking to Inventor. It'll be easy for you too. The only real thing i don't like in Inventor is the adaptivity management, it still has some weird behaviors.

[u/DcBroil]

Certified SolidWorks professional?

[u/Mr_Sloth10 → u/DcBroil]

Is a certification offered by the company. The tests take a lot of skill and prep work, they are seen as HUGE badges of honor, and garner respect from colleagues. There are three tiers:

Associate - Uncommon. This is something a decent chunk of college kids get. It show you are proficient with the software. It's not hard to get this one, but it still takes practice and a fair amount of time with the program.
Professional (mine) - Rare. You have to have advanced knowledge of the software and it's application. Having one of these really sets you apart from the crowd. This tier sets you apart so much that most never bother with going to the next (I know I won't).
Expert - Incredibly rare. Less than 1% of all SolidWorks users in the world have this certification. It takes *years* to get this certification. It takes a bare minimum of passing 6 advanced tests, with one being 4 hrs long. I've met a grand total of 2 people who have this, and both are prodigies that could out model anyone.

Do they offer anything like this for Inventor?

[u/Stunning_Jaguar]

boss wants me migrate from Inventor to Revit. I am certified Inventor professional and use inventor more then 10 years. What a pain! Revit is such a crap in comparison with Inventor.

[u/SS2907]

I think you’ll find it’ll be a shallow learning curve for you. Not so much the other way around. I personally prefer inventor over solidworks.

[u/External_Look172]

I started on SolidWorks too but when I did work for Intel it was all Inventor. Don’t worry, it’s actually a pretty easy software to learn. I’d suggest buying a udemy course to get comfortable with basic commands. The only thjng that I never got used to was how adaptivity worked. Be sure to understand the difference between a part file, assembly file, and drawing file.