You’ve read the overview and feel compelled to give Autodesk Inventor a try— where do you go from here? You have several options. Start by contacting your local Autodesk reseller (800-964-6432). Resellers have manufacturing experts on hand who will be happy to guide you to a solution that is just right. If you’d like to try Autodesk Inventor (for free!) before purchasing it, you can request a test-drive CD. Many Autodesk manufacturing resellers offer free seminars where you can see Autodesk Inventor running live.

The only way to purchase Autodesk Inventor is to purchase the Autodesk Inventor® Series. What does that mean? Well, this is the best news yet, because the Autodesk Inventor Series consists of AutoCAD®, AutoCAD® Mechanical, Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop®, and Autodesk Inventor® software! This gives you a chance to learn Autodesk Inventor while you’re still using AutoCAD. With all those products built into one package, you’re probably thinking it must be very expensive—not so! The Autodesk Inventor Series isn’t much more expensive than any one of those products.

Take Some Training
So you’ve bought the Autodesk Inventor Series; now where do you begin? Though this overview is enough to get you off the ground, I recommend taking the route I did—enroll for some hands-on training. I took an Autodesk Inventor class from a local Autodesk Authorized Training Center to make sure I had all the fundamentals under control. You’ll save lots of time and effort in the long run by learning design and modeling techniques from those who have already spent countless hours using the product.

Explore the Help System
It’s fantastic! I used many of the animations in the Design Support System to familiarize myself with the product and occasionally to get me out of a bind (the Constraints animation is my favorite!). We often forget to try the obvious help file while we’re learning. Give this one a try. The Autodesk Inventor team considered a robust help file to be a priority, and it really shows!

Read a Book
Even if you take a class, it doesn’t hurt to have a good book by your side for reference. There are many good Autodesk Inventor books out there. My personal favorite is Autodesk Inventor from the Top. The pages of my copy are dogeared and highlighted (and you could never get it away from me).

If I’ve done my job properly, you’re now convinced that Autodesk Inventor is not only robust but easy to use. A 3D modeler doesn’t have to be complicated to be extremely powerful. Give it a try. I believe you’ll never want to go back to AutoCAD again!

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