Altair Inspire vs. Autodesk Inventor

This software is incredibly intuitive and really does provide a great finished product. The software runs relatively quickly and will usually throw an error right away, which is a nice feature. I didn't use the geometry editing parts of the software, but it looks promising to be able to edit files directly in the program.

Incentivized

Autodesk Inventor is well-suited for situations where you are creating 3D models of small, simple parts and assemblies. It is hands-down the fastest and most reliable way to get this done. When you are looking for a software that has many advanced features and controls to create an assembly of 20+ parts, you need to look for other software.

Incentivized

• Defining the actuators, pin joints, sliding joints is very easy.
• Defining a motion sequence is straightforward.
• The UI tends to make you follow a sequence of steps to be successful in doing a motion simulation and finite element analysis study on a design.
• The motion simulation results are automatically transferred to the FEA solver.

Incentivized

• You can make designs (CAD) and you can also manufacture them (CAM) and do not need an interface like Solidworks to recognize it in a CNC.
• Inventor is very easy to use to create realistic, solid designs.
• The software allows you to design and see where problems are in real-time.

Incentivized

• I think the tools to create CAD are a bit difficult to use. Consequently, it is now easier to develop the part in other software, which is bad since we need to use more than one tool at a time.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

Inventor continues to meet our enterprise needs. I don't see a need to change unless we change our business model significantly.

Incentivized

It is quite user-friendly as long as you have the computing power to download and use it. However, this makes it quite inconvenient if you are trying to access files on different devices, as Inventor has to be loaded on all of those devices. While the program itself works just fine, it would be much better for my application if it, or a version, were web-based and allowed users to access and modify projects from anywhere.

Incentivized

When I needed clarification on how do use a feature or best way to define the constraints for a design problem, the response was quick and solved my needs.

Incentivized

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!

Incentivized

I got the training during college, so mostly i learned on my own

Incentivized

Working Model, MathCad, Dynamic Designer, Algor, and Mathlab had poor UI's and poor ways to define actuator and motor motion profiles. The force results and vectors were not easy to input into the FEA software. SOLIDWORKS Motion does not have an excellent way to define a linear actuator or its motion profile. Altair provides a UI that guides you through defining your linear actuator or motor's motion profile quickly.

Incentivized

ANSYS is far more expensive and has a steeper learning curve. Autodesk has many flexible and scale-able licensing options that adapt to our institutional needs and IT infrastructure. Furthermore, it allows our students to have free educational software running in their own personal computers, allowing them to work at home and be more productive with it.

Incentivized

• In my personal opinion, we think that this product does not have any negative aspect that makes us feel very uncomfortable.

Incentivized

• We are working toward full engineering integration with Autodesk Inventor. This will remove most of the human error in our current processes.
• Production team is moving away from physical samples to using Autodesk Inventor models. This is a cost savings and helps us manage change better.
• Autodesk Inventor iLogic is allowing us to automate some of our engineering. This is proving to make one job 20% faster to complete with fewer errors.

Incentivized