Autodesk Inventor vs. SketchUp

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Autodesk Inventor
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Autodesk Inventor 3D CAD software offers professional-grade 3D mechanical design, documentation, and product simulation tools. These blend parametric, direct, freeform, and rules-based design capabilities. Inventor includes integrated tools for sheet metal, frame design, tube and pipe, cable & harness, presentations, rendering, simulation, and machine design. It also features TrustedDWG® compatibility and Model-Based Definition capabilities for embedding manufacturing information directly in…
$300
12 days over 1 year via Flex pricing 100 tokens
SketchUp
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
SketchUp is 3D modeling software with an emphasis on usability. SketchUp is a Trimble product.
$119
per year
Pricing
Autodesk InventorSketchUp
Editions & Modules
Subscription - Monthly
$305
per month per user
Subscription - Yearly
$2440
per year per user
Subscription - 3 Years
$7320
3 years per user
Free
$0.00
per year
For Schools (free with G Suite or Microsoft education account)
$0
For Students
$55.00
per year
For Educators
$55.00
per year
Studio for Students / Educators (Desktop version)
$55
per year
Shop
$119.00
per year
Pro
$299.00
per year
Professional
$299.00
per year
Studio (Windows only)
$699
per year
Studio
$1199.00
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Autodesk InventorSketchUp
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAlso available for limited use through tokens on a Flex plan.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Autodesk InventorSketchUp
Considered Both Products
Autodesk Inventor

No answer on this topic

SketchUp
Chose SketchUp
Inventor is more for the manufacturing of complex products and Revit is more for large projects. Each of them has a different output so I don’t see them as direct competitors.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Autodesk InventorSketchUp
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of Product A and Product B
Autodesk Inventor
6.8
2 Ratings
4% below category average
SketchUp
-
Ratings
3D Modeling8.52 Ratings00 Ratings
2D Drafting6.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization6.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Parametric Design7.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing6.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Assembly Design6.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis5.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation6.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization and Extensions7.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Autodesk InventorSketchUp
Small Businesses
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.5 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.5 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Rhino
Rhino
Score 8.8 out of 10
Rhino
Rhino
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Autodesk InventorSketchUp
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(27 ratings)
8.0
(47 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(12 ratings)
8.5
(14 ratings)
In-Person Training
6.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Autodesk InventorSketchUp
Likelihood to Recommend
Autodesk
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.
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Trimble
SketchUp is great for individually studying options for building design. It is an awesome conceptual tool to be able to quickly model and manipulate a building to study different designs. It is not good for complex geometries, especially curves. Surfaces have a hard time registering and cutting into one another. It also eventually needs to go into Revit to be more realistic as it is not good as a documentation tool
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Pros
Autodesk
  • 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.
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Trimble
  • Quickly exploring solutions in 3D: We get a lot of "what if" and "what would that look like" questions. While hand-sketching and hand-drafting can be fairly quick, SketchUp allows me to quickly create 3D and 2D views of a detail or solution, change dimensions and materials in a flash, and show a client or installer the plan in minutes.
  • Creating professional design documents in LayOut: Projects of any scale need good documentation. Using a combination of SketchUp and LayOut, I can create a Design Intent Set, plans for permitting, a set for mechanical trades to mark-up, etc. Having clear, appropriately-scaled drawings with dimensions or notations is a must, and we don't always have the time or budget to get an architect involved!
  • Using live files to guide discussions: Not all clients are "visual" people, so opening their model and orbiting around their space in real time has been extremely helpful. Clients and trades enjoy the perspective views so much that we often include them in the full-sized drawing sets to give a good "overall" view of the project intent. For complex or tight spaces, sometimes un-rendered plans and elevations just aren't enough!
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Cons
Autodesk
  • most if it still runs on a single core. Please fix this
  • Crashes. In our experience, too many crashes. We have high end machines and crashes are way too common.
  • Autosave. I think it is simply unacceptable that Autodesk Inventor combines common crashes with no autosave functionality. We feel this pain all the time.
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Trimble
  • Ability to import Revit files and libraries.
  • Ability to export true curved vector linework. There are some workarounds, needs to be refined.
  • Create an OPEN MAPS connection. Since the split from Google, the source for high-quality aerials is limited.
  • Ability to dock all menus to the master window on a Mac
  • Ability to develop dockable menu trays on a Mac
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Likelihood to Renew
Autodesk
Inventor continues to meet our enterprise needs. I don't see a need to change unless we change our business model significantly.
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Trimble
We typically wait a few years in between renewing, as even older versions are powerful tools for modeling, and we make sure the amount of feature changes are worth the re-investment.
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Usability
Autodesk
It’s easy and very good for mechanical design
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Trimble
It is very user friendly and easy to learn. It's simplicity allows for a low learning curve so more people can learn it faster. The downside is that most schools are no longer teaching it, so many younger professionals come out of school not knowing it and knowing more complex software and they have a hard time "dumbing down" their skillsets
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Support Rating
Autodesk
I think the support for Autodesk Inventor is very good. The staff at our reseller were very knowledgable and able to walk us through problems pretty easily. The training we received was very good also. I will say that there were a couple of times we reached out to support with a question or challenge we had, and the support agent was not able to resolve our problem, and after touching base back we found out that there was not a solution for the problems we were experiencing. One of them was just how Inventor represents colors inconsistently at times, all things being equal. Another was that Inventor would not let decals on parts transcend to the assembly level. they just would not show up.
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Trimble
Sketchup is so intuitive; I can't recall ever looking for official support. However, there are many user forums online that can answer more questions. The usefulness of the online forums is, however, tempered by the fact that there have been many versions of the software under different ownership and support regimes, and thus finding the right information for the right version of the software can be a challenge.
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In-Person Training
Autodesk
I got the training during college, so mostly i learned on my own
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Trimble
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Autodesk
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.
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Trimble
We have not evaluated any other competing software to this one. I heard about this software from a friend who teaches how to use it. She showed me in just a few minutes and I was HOOKED. I saw immediately the possible help it would be to my business. Thank you.
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Return on Investment
Autodesk
  • 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.
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Trimble
  • It's good in the sense that you can quickly make a drawing and speeds up the design process. Not sure how to quantify that from a ROI perspective.
  • Also, good for editing an image after the fact. We can easily add a dimension that was forgotten in the original image.
  • Allows team members to understand a design easier than on other software platforms.
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ScreenShots