AutoCAD Inventor Professional Software for FREE?

[mjncad]

I notice there are several tutorials on youtube for this prg. havent seen them yet but the previews look promising. hopefully they accelerate the learning curve for the beginner basics.
I've a most basic amount of hands on with autocad 2000 and the little I did see so far on youtube makes the inventor look quite similar for drawing with.

Although Inventor and AutoCAD are made by Autodesk, the two programs are very different in how you create a design and document it as a drawing. AutoCAD is an excellent drafting tool; while Inventor is an excellent design tool that is weaker than AutoCAD when it comes to annotating a drawing. But Inventor will create different orthographic views and sections automatically while in AutoCAD you have to do that work the hard way as if you were on the board.

I've used AutoCAD since version 9, and have seen versions 1.xx and 2.56. I'm currently using ACAD 2013; but given a choice of using Inventor or ACAD for mechanical design, I'll take Inventor. Given a choice of ACAD or Revit for architectural work, I'll take Revit. AutoCAD still excels at doing schemetic drawings like flowsheets and electrical diagrams.

I've used CAD since 1979 beginning with Auto-Trol, and have used AutoCAD, Microstation (UGG! I hate that program), Inventor, Revit, and 3DS MAX to do schematics and physical drawings for refineries, power plants, commercial grade buildings, presentations, etc.

Software companies and especially Autodesk sue unlicensed users routinely for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have over $20k invested in Autodesk and Carlson and would never risk having any non-licensed copies of software. They write the software code today where your computer will rat you out. My $ 0.02

Autodesk products routinely check in with the servers at the company when starting up to provide information on patches and other information to users via the "Communication Center." Many years ago a guy I worked with bootlegged company copies of AutoCAD for his wife to work out of their house doing drafting. Autodesk got wind of this and came down on the guy like white on rice.

No doubt that many folk would steal a copy from their company to use at home...
AutoDesk and Microsoft would love to go to a subscription service deal but a lot of schools have bucked at that notion...
We have over 65 seats here and it is quite expensive updating with each version...
I think that the educational upgrade per version is around $300 per seat...
Not chump change...
That is every year...
I started in 88 with version 9 using dos...
I'm and oldie...

Autodesk has pretty much forced users to go on the subscription model now. They are also on a kick of software suites where you get far more products than you can ever learn proficiently for a reasonable (reasonable has yet to be defined) price. The concept is to get as much of their product out there as possible to gain market share.

I've got the beta mac version of Inventor on my machine as they were giving it away this summer. Last used it 10 years ago as Mechanical Desktop. Pretty sluggish on my laptop.

Mechanical Desktop was AutoCAD based and was a mutt with fleas from what I heard. Inventor is a totally different animal.

so is this autodesk inventor (very similar to solidworks), or autocad (2d lines on a black background)? if it is inventor that would be awesome! if its autocad you should just go download DraftSight from dassault systemes(the makers of solidworks and many other programs). DraftSight is free and easy to use.

Inventor is very similar to Solidworks in operation, and when I tried demo versions of both programs in 2010 or 2011, I found Inventor to be less buggy than Solidworks. Inventor is far cheaper than Solidworks too, or at least at that time it was.

 

[boggen]

Anyone having problems downloading?
I've clicked the download button a few times to no avail.

for autodesk inventor, i gave up with "download now" and clicked the little arrow pointing down beside it, and then choose "browser download", then clicked "browser download" to get the file to download

 

[sparc]

I downloaded AutoCAD 2010 because it was the only one which said it would run on Vista and that's what I have on my laptop which is whereI wanted to install. On first run I see that ACAD 2010 is nothing like the previous version I am used to (ACAD 2002) in that the whole menu system has changed to be like that used in MS-Office 2007 and 2010 which I can't stand.

Is it possible to set up ACAD 2010 to look like and use a menu system like 2002 had? I do not like the ever changing menus and not being able to customize the menus as I could in 2002 and earlier versions.

 

[SPIKER]

SPARC:

Yes you can make 2010 look like 2002, using the tools and tool bar menu to "revert" back to the older tool bars turn them on and or create your own tool bars and then you can DOCK them back where you were used to having them.

the main menu tool bars and options menu are very helpful in looking up and the F1 HELP key is also much better than OLD versions. I use 2012 at work 40" hrs a week and as a Disabled Vet I wanted to try the 2013 ver at home. so far works about same as 2012 but only turned it on once.

 

[mjncad]

Sparc:

Look for a "workspace" called "classic autocad" as that will give you back the traditional toolbars and get rid of the ribbons.

 

[sparc]

Thanks everyone, I'll look for those settings.

 

[cschulz]

Hey Guys! Having trouble with this. I get the download and start the install but it fails. Ive turned off my firewall erased the temp folder and downloaded again with the same results. What am I doing wrong?

Chris

 

[Artisan]

Boy I dunno Chris, maybe look at the requirements and
make sure you have the HP to run it? If not then I know
AUTODESK has forums just like this place and they might
be able to help...

 

[mjncad]

Chris:

Sometimes Autodesk packages the downloads in multiple files due to the amount of disk space required for everything. If so, and you don't have all the files, the installation will fail. Also, as Artisan has mentioned, Inventor takes some serious horsepower, and the minimum requirements are just that...bare minimums that will frustrate the crap out of most CAD users.

 

[cschulz]

Thanks guys. Ill have to take a look tonight and see if I have what it takes. LOL


Chris

 

[boggen]

it might be part of actually downloading that is the problem. even with high speed internet, it takes a few hours to download. in that time if download gets interrupted, the download could come up as complete but not actually be completely downloaded. i use downloading software either Resume Downloads, Schedule Downloads, Accelerate for Faster Downloads - GetRight Download Manager or FlashGet(??)-Best Download Manager and use the "download through browser" for autodesk products. and get the file URL link into one of them downloading programs. that helps protect me from downloads not finishing all the way.

the download, seems to be just a exe file but actually a zip, or cab or like file. that extracts everything into temp folder. if the process of putting all the files into temp folder go smoothly and without errors. it might be your computer. you might need to try and run the "setup.exe" in the temp folder as an "administrator" right click on the setup.exe and then choose run as administrator.

with mnjcad, having enough ram, cpu, and the video card and hard drive space is critical, not enough and things start to puke there guts out. min system requirements for CAD / CAM software at times i think are a joke on some systems. and in that, need to beef up the computer even more to remotely run a CAD/CAM software without stuttering problems and constantly waiting for things to happen.

speaking of min, since i have been using autodesk inventor. i got 2 blue screens of death, and next restart of computer, windows 7 going to check to see if ram modules are working correctly. been taxing the system pretty hard. when i try to have other programs running at same time as autodesk inventor.

 

[mjncad]

I built my own graphics computer after Dell sent me a dud that I sent back. I put two Xeon CPU's in it, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of RAID protected disk space, and a mid-grade workstation (NOT gaming) video card in the thing. I run Windows 7, and it only does graphics...no email, no games, no cute wallpaper or screensavers. I have Xcel, Word, and Acrobat reader on it too. Some graphics programs have the ability to tie into Xcel, and I have Word in case I need to write long series of notes for the programs that have lousy built in text editors. Acrobat is there for any manuals that aren't in HTML format online. I have three monitors connected to the PC...a main 30" monitor, and two 22" monitors in portrait mode flanking the main monitor. One 22" monitor is for reading software manuals and tutorials, and the other is for putting menus, toolbars, model browsers (Inventor & Revit people know what those are), etc.

 

[cschulz]

Wow sounds awesome. It would great for Alias as it needs strong graphics. This is the program I use at work from time to time. Its not what I downloaded and after reading the requirements I had to step down to AutoCad 11. After going through all the steps to download and install it still failed. I guess Ill have to get on the forum and see what gives.

Thanks Chris

 

[mjncad]

Chris:

Are you using a download manager software or browser download? I've never had good luck with the download manager software products, and I stick with the tried and true browser download.

So far I'm real happy with my graphics PC, and it was the first one I ever built from the ground up. I will probably build all my own PC's in the future now. The other nice thing about a roll-your-own PC is no bloatware that Dell, HP, and others love to pile on their products.

 

[cschulz]

Browser Download. Well I figured out the problem. When it would ask for name I would of course put my name in. Well it was looking at whos name the computer is named to which is my wife. So I left her name and it loaded right up.
Im planning on ordering a new desk top computer soon and would like add a cad program to it. What would be the minimums you guys would suggest for its build.

Chris

 

[boggen]

started hitting Newegg.com - Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, HDTVs, Digital Cameras and More! a couple days ago.

--100 to 250 for video card 1gig memory don't know about 2 gigs. to costly at 2 gigs. and by next year price will have came down 50 to 60 percent. gaming computers are top notch, but not always best for CAD software. there is a difference. between video cards for gaming, and CAD programs.
--200 to 250 mother board, something descent, and gets you into higher end mother boards.
--200 to 300 CPU, not top end CPU, that motherboard can take but a notch or 2 down.
--8 gig ram min might look towards 16gigs.
--pay for higher specs of a display (LCD or like) of a given size. trying to look at bunch of tiny lines and having a response time that causes lines to look blurry hurts the eyes, and give ya head-aches
--good power supply, not enough good clean power and system crashes.
--extra fans for case
--extra fans if needed for ram to video cards, to cpu, to motherboard chipsets, fans = cooling always good.
--computer case that allowed for good cooling. personally like a tad bigger computer case / tower. to make it easier to run wires. and install fans, to get good air flow around everything. vs creating hot spots.
--2 or 3 hard drives. 1 for primary operating system 2 in raid array, for backup purpose.

figure $1000 bucks, would get a descent custom built system, for myself. *not counting LCD displays* it may not be a business class, top of line computer, but enough power to do basic things. without waiting on things. exception when it comes to animation and simulation. those things are different story. and it always comes down to waiting game as computer crunches number from a couple hours to a couple days. or less ya got access to a server farm.

 

[mjncad]

Browser Download. Well I figured out the problem. When it would ask for name I would of course put my name in. Well it was looking at whos name the computer is named to which is my wife. So I left her name and it loaded right up.
Im planning on ordering a new desk top computer soon and would like add a cad program to it. What would be the minimums you guys would suggest for its build.

Chris

Chris:

Well that's a new one regarding the computer name thing hanging the installation. We can thank the Chinese software pirates for all this added stuff to legitimate software in order to protect intellectual property.

What CAD program are you thinking about? Some require more horsepower than others.

started hitting Newegg.com - Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, HDTVs, Digital Cameras and More! a couple days ago.

I got most of my components from Newegg as they had the best prices. My three Dell monitors I got from PC Nation (Computers, Netbooks, GPS, Components, Digital Equipments and Accessories - Buy Electronics for Less | PCNation.com) as their prices were cheaper than Dell's and had free shipping. Go figure.

--100 to 250 for video card 1gig memory don't know about 2 gigs. to costly at 2 gigs. and by next year price will have came down 50 to 60 percent. gaming computers are top notch, but not always best for CAD software. there is a difference. between video cards for gaming, and CAD programs.

I have 2gb on the video card; but wish I had more; but 4gb cards are very pricey. As Ryan said, there are big differences between gaming video cards and graphics (CAD) video cards. I have an ATI (made by AMD) in my DIY PC. I've had better luck with ATI than Nvidia.

--200 to 250 mother board, something descent, and gets you into higher end mother boards.

I have an ASUS server/workstation motherboard in mine that is capable of 2CPU's and up to 144gb of memory. I have 32gb of RAM on board.

--200 to 300 CPU, not top end CPU, that motherboard can take but a notch or 2 down.

If you can't afford one or two Xeon CPU's, look for a Core i5 as a bare minimum, or a Core i7.

--8 gig ram min might look towards 16gigs.

Go with 16gb as a bare minimum with your RAM.

--pay for higher specs of a display (LCD or like) of a given size. trying to look at bunch of tiny lines and having a response time that causes lines to look blurry hurts the eyes, and give ya head-aches

Get as big of monitor(s) as you can afford.

--good power supply, not enough good clean power and system crashes.
--extra fans for case

Get as many fans as you can to keep things cool. My Cooler Master HAF case has 5 fans. Add in the CPU fans, video card fan, and power supply fan; there are a total of 9 fans in my DIY PC.

--extra fans if needed for ram to video cards, to cpu, to motherboard chipsets, fans = cooling always good.
--computer case that allowed for good cooling. personally like a tad bigger computer case / tower. to make it easier to run wires. and install fans, to get good air flow around everything. vs creating hot spots.

I agree with Ryan about getting a large case to make it easier to build and work in plus the added volume allows air to flow better.

--2 or 3 hard drives. 1 for primary operating system 2 in raid array, for backup purpose.

I have two 1tb drives in a RAID configuration. I'm not a fan of splitting the OS onto one hard drive and the programs and data onto another hard drive. This worked fine when hard drives were dinky and the software space requirements outpaced the hard drive size. My reasoning for the RAID configuration is that hard drives have come down in price so much I question how much quality control has gone into the design and manufacture of the components. The new thing is SSD (Solid State Drives) that have no moving parts; but they are pricey right now; hence the reason I stuck with traditional disk drives.

figure $1000 bucks, would get a descent custom built system, for myself. *not counting LCD displays* it may not be a business class, top of line computer, but enough power to do basic things. without waiting on things. exception when it comes to animation and simulation. those things are different story. and it always comes down to waiting game as computer crunches number from a couple hours to a couple days. or less ya got access to a server farm.

Although my custom PC cost way more than $1,000 not counting monitors; I think spending a grand for a decent CAD PC is to be expected. The ironic thing is I built my DIY PC for about $1,200 less than a Dell that was comparably equipped. The other two vendors I looked at for comparable PC's were around $600 - $800 higher than mine. Ironic that Dell was the most expensive of the lot. Again, the choice of CAD program will dictate how much horsepower you need to build into your machine. At a bare minimum, I'd double the software manufacturer's minimum equipment requirements.

 

[cschulz]

I have 2 in mind. One is AutoCad Inventor Professional and the other is Alias. Its a program we use at work and is great for 3D modeling. But I also like to work in 2D to sketch with dimenions so to speak.

Chris

 

[boggen]

mnjcad, thanks for taking it easy on me. was expecting to get whooped pretty bad. as far as cost and specs for a Cad setup. entry level budget setup vs full blown business class computer.

a good statement of spending $5,000 bucks plus on a single software package. and then only spending very little on computer hardware to run the software. comes to mind. the multi core, cpu's the ram, and video card ram. are getting up there finally and at a lower cost. that basic small scale models doings are in eye sight. without causing a computer get painfully slow.

but larger models you get going, the more cash ya need to toss out for hardware. to keep up with you and your own skill levels. another thing is having multi software open at same time, myself firefox, autodesk inventor, excel, paint, windows explorer (file browser), notpad or word. calculator, all these extra programs open and running at same time start to eat up resources. multi-tasking at its finest, paying for extra ram, more cpu, more video ram. can help speed up multi-tasking. and keep everything working like it should. then when it is time to start letting computer start crunch numbers for animation video clip, or simulations, all those extra applications can be closed out, and all the power sent to crunching numbers.

===============
here soon enough i am going to start feeling the pain of the current machine 4gig ram, 512mb video card. intel E5300 when it comes to "assembling" the SSTT (sideway snake train tractor) in larger assembly files. starting to notice little bit of slowness now. but is so min i barely even notice it, though expecting that sluggishness to be seen. as SSTT gets more built and put together.

moving larger 2D sketches with "move command in inventor" i am already seeing a large time between clicking button and seeing stuff being rendered of were i want to place it.

==============
with mnjcad statement of spec's i would really adhere to, vs what i noted on specs. at moment i think i barely clear min specs of what inventor requires on current pc.

 

[mjncad]

I have 2 in mind. One is AutoCad Inventor Professional and the other is Alias. Its a program we use at work and is great for 3D modeling. But I also like to work in 2D to sketch with dimenions so to speak.

Chris

Chris:

Inventor Professional is a full blown 3D modeling, engineering and simulation program and requires more horsepower than good old AutoCAD. I have Alias as it came with the suite of software products that Autodesk markets these days as part of their subscription program to gain market share. I've fired up Alias; but haven't used it. From what I hear it's good at design modeling organic shapes; but isn't an engineering tool like Inventor is where Inventor can do FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and other analysis functions. I haven't figured out how to properly use the analysis aspects of Inventor; but it's great for modeling once one gets use to the non-AutoCAD workflow. AutoCAD is long in the tooth; but is still a great drafting program.

Based on what you want to use, a $1,000 CAD PC is probably going to be a bare minimum. Don't be surprised if you start seeing the cost hit $1,500, $2,000 or more for a decent mid level CAD workstation.

mnjcad, thanks for taking it easy on me. was expecting to get whooped pretty bad. as far as cost and specs for a Cad setup. entry level budget setup vs full blown business class computer.

a good statement of spending $5,000 bucks plus on a single software package. and then only spending very little on computer hardware to run the software. comes to mind. the multi core, cpu's the ram, and video card ram. are getting up there finally and at a lower cost. that basic small scale models doings are in eye sight. without causing a computer get painfully slow.

but larger models you get going, the more cash ya need to toss out for hardware. to keep up with you and your own skill levels. another thing is having multi software open at same time, myself firefox, autodesk inventor, excel, paint, windows explorer (file browser), notpad or word. calculator, all these extra programs open and running at same time start to eat up resources. multi-tasking at its finest, paying for extra ram, more cpu, more video ram. can help speed up multi-tasking. and keep everything working like it should. then when it is time to start letting computer start crunch numbers for animation video clip, or simulations, all those extra applications can be closed out, and all the power sent to crunching numbers.

===============
here soon enough i am going to start feeling the pain of the current machine 4gig ram, 512mb video card. intel E5300 when it comes to "assembling" the SSTT (sideway snake train tractor) in larger assembly files. starting to notice little bit of slowness now. but is so min i barely even notice it, though expecting that sluggishness to be seen. as SSTT gets more built and put together.

moving larger 2D sketches with "move command in inventor" i am already seeing a large time between clicking button and seeing stuff being rendered of were i want to place it.

==============
with mnjcad statement of spec's i would really adhere to, vs what i noted on specs. at moment i think i barely clear min specs of what inventor requires on current pc.

Ryan:

I'm glad you didn't think I was beating up on you as you made valid points and excellent observations in your posts. I spent about $3,000 on the PC not counting monitors, and I consider my DIY PC a mid level workstation as I could have spent a he!! of a lot more if I went with the fastest XEON processors and loaded the motherboard to the gills with RAM, and got a top of the line video card. I spent more than I had intended to; but that's always the case it seems. Unfortunately it's easy to spend other people's money on computers just as it is with tractors. :laughing:

In any case, between your posts and mine, I think Chris is understanding that software on the order of Inventor, Alias, etc is horsepower hungry and the average Best Buy grade computer is not going to run those programs very well.