Likelihood to Recommend Autodesk Inventor is a great tool for students and faculty for engineering areas that don't require great precision or development of more thorough scientific results. Is you are conducting research, or deal with very intricate and complex systems I would recommend a more robust platform that complies more to industry standards.
Read full review MicroStation is THE program to use for roadway and corridor modeling. Most departments of transportation and municipalities in my region require that the models be delivered in the dgn format, so it is MicroStation or bust. It is an absolute pain to use some of the add-in features though. Things that are easy in other programs like making smart tables that update with the latest information usually necessitate the use of
Axiom or similar outside programs/add-ins. I design storm sewer systems, and it takes us 6 months to train up new hires on this software, because it is NOT intuitive. You need to know which buttons to press, since it is not designed to be easily command-based like AutoCAD
Civil 3D .
Read full review Pros The program is very good at simplicity. Each of the buttons, menus, and options has an explanation of exactly what the feature does, and even a more advanced description if you desire to learn more about what each one does. Autodesk Inventor is a very fast program. Everything renders extremely quickly and there are no delays when examining a 3D model, part, or assembly. This is especially useful when giving a presentation about a product or design, and you need to be able to show a concept to an audience in real time. The software has an extremely accurate simulation feature that lets users do stress analysis on a 3D model. It can calculate precisely where the stress concentrations are going to be in a particular model and even give you an accurate depiction of where the part could likely fracture and/or fracture during loading. Read full review Plethora of design alternatives to choose from right from design to completed models Detailed approach towards parametric, mesh and surface modelling Well integrated modelling workflows Intelligent parametric components with 2D and 3D designs Read full review Cons Inventor demonstrates a lack of fluidity in the process of transferring data between programs. Inventor shows some lack of sophistication that certain features that are readily available in other design software packages are limited in use in Inventor. Inventor can often have difficulty in creating models that show true color, as in blacks can come out as dark grays in certain renders, even when the material and appearance settings are the same from part to part. Read full review Some of the more complex models have had a few issues exporting. We've struggled with external consultants using the custom Autocad engineering tools, and it plays nicely with MicroStation. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Inventor continues to meet our enterprise needs. I don't see a need to change unless we change our business model significantly.
Read full review Usability It’s easy and very good for mechanical design
Read full review MicroStation is very hard to use for our newest employees. It is not intuitive, and you need to know where to find the buttons to perform the commands you would like to perform instead of typing in the commands like other similar modeling programs. Also, it has no good traffic turning add-ins. We continue to run ALL our turning in Autoturn, since this is not a usable feature with MicroStation.
Read full review Support Rating I'm giving the overall support rating a 5 only because I rarely have to use it. Trying to find the answer on the help pages hardly ever helps me because any problem I have is usually too deep for what the help offers. Given the popularity of Autodesk, I have always been able to find an answer online after doing enough looking!
Read full review We haven't had to use it for many years, so not able to comment.
Read full review In-Person Training I got the training during college, so mostly i learned on my own
Read full review Alternatives Considered When it comes to solid modeling, the bad choices died out years ago. So we looked at the total ecosystem and chose Autodesk Inventor because of the integration with Nastran, HSM (machining), Autodesk CFD, MoldFlow, and
AutoCAD . This means our legacy data (2D) is still a valid part of our design methodologies going forward, and we have the full breadth of engineering tools at our disposal. Other solutions in this space have similar offerings but not nearly as potent of a portfolio in total. It's worth saying that we do not consider Inventor in the same space as
CATIA or NX, but that the entire Autodesk portfolio (e.g. Alias, PowerMill, etc) includes a total toolset that exceeds these industry giants.
Read full review The only general purpose CAD program that you can compare MicroStation with would be
AutoCAD . MicroStation, in my opinion, is a superior product in every way but one. That one issue is that there are just more people who have and know how to use
AutoCAD than there are ones who know MicroStation. This makes
AutoCAD easier to get up and running for most firms.
Read full review Return on Investment Working on a project designed with Inventor provides a modular design platform that can quickly be configured or changed as required. This allows for the quick turn around time for the design and revision of drawings. We've used Inventor over the years (since 2013) and the updates and newly released versions of Inventor do not require re-training or restrict use. Autodesk follows an intuitive approach and users or designers who have worked on other design platforms like SolidWorks can transition easily to Inventor. Read full review MicroStation usage is primarily necessitated by our major client who also uses the program. Without using MicroStation there would be many times where we would not be able to provide our clients with what they need. Therefore, MicroStation has had an incredibly positive impact on the business I work for as its usage has continued to secure contracts. Read full review ScreenShots