For the computer-aided design professional looking to create and simulate impressive objects and products in 3D space, Autodesk Inventor 2018 is one of the best tools to use. Intuitive usability and an expansive feature set make it a fast and effective solution for 3D design, and with new features released every year, it’s constantly evolving to meet new needs and offer new improvements to the old way of doing things.
With Inventor 2018, a number of important additions and changes were made to enhance the user experience. Curious about what was added? Here are some of the more notable changes.
New Annotation Features Could Come in Handy After CAD Courses
The design is only one step of a product’s longer journey, so making it as easy as possible to translate the design into production is a great way to promote efficiency and fast results. With new model-based definition features in Inventor 2018, it’s possible to add useful annotations to a design that can help other people interpret it. Information like dimensions or manufacturing notes can take some of the guesswork out of moving projects along, or could cut down on email chains between professionals trying to figure out what needs to be done.
While outside solutions that allow for these kinds of annotations do exist, they don’t work as well, or as simple, as this dedicated offering from Autodesk. For fun, try adding some of these annotations to projects you create with Inventor. Getting a little practice could come in handy once you begin your career.
Inventor 2018 Wants to Make it Easier to Collaborate With Everyone
Collaboration is something that Autodesk products tend to do very well, with teamwork capabilities included in the many pieces of these software programs. Sharing information or designs with people who don’t have access to the same version of an app, though, can be a little bit more difficult. Differences in features or file formats can make collaborating across software versions difficult, or even impossible. Given that not all businesses and professionals make the investment to keep up with the latest versions of new software, this is a problem that isn’t so uncommon.
With the 2018 edition of Inventor, a new feature called “AnyCAD for Inventor” looks to change that. It introduces cross-compatibility that allows Inventor 2018 and Inventor 2017 users to easily collaborate. It is also expected to be compatible with Inventor 2019, and possibly beyond, further extending the value of the new feature and improving your ability to collaborate after completing your CAD courses. Hopefully, you can look forward to features like this gradually making it easier and easier for you to share and work on designs with people all over the world, without the need for all of you to have the exact same version of the software.
Inventor 2018 makes it easier to collaborate across software versions
Revamped Search + Tabbed Browsing Make CAD Work Much Quicker
The Inventor projects you complete in computer-aided design training will often involve many different components, and it can sometimes be difficult to find and select a particular one when doing work. A revamped search feature in the 2018 edition of Inventor simplifies this process, making it easy to find whatever component you’re looking for, wherever it is in your design.
A tabbed browsing system has also been introduced, making it very quick and easy to sort through different portions of a model, through your favourites, through iLogic functions, and other useful information. It’s also possible to make separate windows for one or more of the different menus you want to browse, making it easy to set up the software layout in a way that works well for you.
While these might seem like small changes, the improvements to speed that they offer users will surely add up over time. It’s possible that these features will make a big difference to the work that you do in training and beyond.
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