Autodesk Inventor vs. Figma

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Autodesk Inventor
Score 8.0 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…
$305
per month per user
Figma
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Figma, headquartered in San Francisco, offers their collaborative design and prototyping application to support digital product and UI development.
$144
per year
Pricing
Autodesk InventorFigma
Editions & Modules
Subscription - Monthly
$305
per month per user
Subscription - Yearly
$2440
per year per user
Subscription - 3 Years
$7320
3 years per user
Professional
$144
per year
Organization
$540
per year
Starter
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Autodesk InventorFigma
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 InventorFigma
Features
Autodesk InventorFigma
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of Product A and Product B
Autodesk Inventor
6.8
Ratings
5% below category average
Figma
-
Ratings
3D Modeling8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
2D Drafting6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Parametric Design7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Assembly Design6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis5.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization and Extensions7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Autodesk InventorFigma
Small Businesses
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.9 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.9 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Rhino
Rhino
Score 9.1 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Autodesk InventorFigma
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
5.1
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
6.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Autodesk InventorFigma
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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Figma is a solid design tool to craft the UX design concepts/solutions for digital products. For printed marketing materials such as brochures, marketing flyers, press releases, etc, other design tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign might make more sense to use for those use case scenarios.
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Pros
  • 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.
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  • It's efficient, very efficient. Many things that take multiple clicks on other platforms can be completed in less than half the clicks, for example.
  • Alignment of objects is fast, accurate and easy as red line guides appear when moving objects around.
  • Autolayout ensures a balanced visual experience and aligns with CSS grid systems.
  • The ability to specify a grid and use it. For example, a 2pt or 4pt or 8pt grid.
  • Components and the ability to create a design system speeds up future work tremendously and creates design and brand consistency.
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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.
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  • Animated prototyping.
  • Tappable overlaid layers - bugs on fixed components, such as an app navigation footer in a prototype
  • Swapping a component but retaining inputted copy or imagery.
  • Performance on prototypes to work better in UserZoom - having to delete hidden layers manually, optimize images, and streamline the file, in general, is time-consuming
  • Folder structures - larger teams need multiple layers of folder structure to help find things.
  • Branch performance - we need better, more user-friendly solutions to get designs to merge better.
  • Branch performance - branching with the option to choose which pages you want in the branch without deleting each page you don't need.
  • Default sharing options need improvement.
  • Responsive ratios' in prototyping without having to recreate pages.
  • Better collaboration with Jira to bring in links in the design mode not just dev mode.
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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.
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Figma is a pretty cool tool in many areas. My team almost uses it on daily basis, such as, brainstorming on product/design topics, discussing prototypes created by designers. We even use it for retrospectives, which is super convenient and naturally keeps records of what the team discusses every month. Furthermore, I do see the potential of the product - currently we mainly use it for design topics, but it seems it is also a good fit for tech diagrams, which we probably will explore further in the future.
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Usability
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.
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It's easy to use for designers who are familiar with design terms and functions from Photoshop and Illustrator. However, non-tech and non-designer collaborators have a hard time figuring out how to leave comments and apply changes, compared to other online design tools like Canva and Squarespace. Even simple drag-and-drops and rearrangement of certain blocks become too complicated due to uncommon functions like Hug and Lock.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
The only regret I have is, its not available when there is no internet
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Performance
No answers on this topic
I think its great, As there are many other software or systems which can be integrated with it as plugins or API's
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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!
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I haven't used their support lately but in the past, they had a chat that I used often. They often responded in a few hours and were able to give a satisfactory solution. I would imagine it's less personal now but the community has expanded drastically so there are more resources out there to self serve with a bit of Google magic.
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In-Person Training
I got the training during college, so mostly i learned on my own
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In-person training has its own benefits - 1. It helps in resolving queries then and there during the training. 2. I find classroom or in-person training more interactive. 3. Classroom or in-person training could be more practical in nature where participants can have an hands on experience with tools and clarify their doubts with the trainer.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
Online training has its own merits and demerits - 1. Sometimes we may face issues with connectivity or the training content 2. The way training is being delivered becomes very important because not everyone is comfortable taking online training and learning by themselves. 3. With the advancement of technology online training has become popular but there is a segment of people who still prefer class-room training over online one.
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Alternatives Considered
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.
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I learned UX Design using Sketch and my team was using Sketch when I joined. We no longer use Sketch, and therefore I cannot compare its current functionality to Figma, but at the time of our switch, Figma just had more advanced capabilities- better collaboration, auto-layout tools, prototyping, etc. From what I can tell, it remains best in class for UX Design tools.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
I think this is great and as I mentioned at ADP we use Figma extensively whether by designers, researchers or content writers
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Return on Investment
  • 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.
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  • Allows us to get funding for further phases of the project (which is uncountable)
  • Well, it lets us show off when needed due to well suited UI-oriented character
  • Easily approachable by anyone (browser use)
  • User friendly interface
  • More advanced cooperation requires some of the users to have a license
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ScreenShots