5 Essential Tips for BEGINNER Autodesk Inventor users!

New to Autodesk Inventor? Here are 5 tips and a few honorable mentions for things you should probably know about before sinking your teeth into the 3D CAD world.
————————————
————————————
————————————
————————————
————————————
————————————

[NeilD]

Timestamps:
1:26 Tip 1 | Parts & Assemblies
3:24 Tip 2 | End of Part
5:35 Tip 3 | iProps & BOM Data
9:35 Tip 4 | File Locations
12:13 Tip 5 | Sketching Ideology

15:36 Honorable Mention 1 | Don't do too much too soon
17:02 Honorable Mention 2 | Program Settings
18:02 Honorable Mention 3 | PC quality
19:14 Honorable Mention 4 | Just play around! Experiment!

[chrisose]

"Just play around" is really the best way to learn almost everything. It is how I taught myself AutoCad (started with v12) and now Inventor (with the assistance of your videos). I actually had Inventor on my machine for a while before I forced myself to design a project with it. The hardest thing was trying to forget the workflow from AutoCad while working in Inventor since they are definitely different beasts.
That was just under a year ago and I am currently running 3 projects out of Inventor (I am writing this as I wait on a stress analysis on a big assembly to complete) and I switch between Inventor and AutoCad almost seamlessly. Though I do admit to doing more complex sketches in AutoCad then importing them into Inventor as the sketch tools in Inventor still feel clunky to me.

As always thank you for your hard work in sharing your knowledge.

[crazymancrazyman]

dude. I've been watching your vids for almost a year now, and holy crap it has helped me out sooo much. Last year in my robotics team we used a software called PTC Creo Parametric. IT SUCKS! I decided to CAD everything in Inventor because it was free for students and it felt more professional. I ended up just designing the various subsystems of the robot in Inventor and converted them into PTC files. I honestly couldn't have done it without your vids. Most if not all of the other inventor videos out there are either outdated or difficult to unerstand. Thanks!!!

[dennisrussell]

I am new at this, going to school for Mechanical Engineering and we are now studying and using Autodesk Inventor. I will have to admit that this is way easier to use than Creo Parametric. I love your videos and thanks for the tips.

[vincenzodirigano]

Awesome, thanks for bringing all this epic content.
Furthermore, I love the style a lot.

[mbhoward]

As usual, a great bunch of tips clearly explained. I’ll second the last honorable mention of just play around. For all the intensive classes you can take or the books you can read there’s no better way to get comfortable with the program than sitting down at the keyboard and start actually using Inventor. Click around, pick something you see nearby, and try to model it. I see you chose your laptop, for me, it was the clock on he wall. I found clicking the buttons and drawing served to reinforce the formal learning, as well as remove the initial ‘mystery’ around the whole program. Thanks again!

[niallms]

I'm just starting a new CAD job using Inventor and your videos have been extremely helpful. I have a background in Solidworks and I'm really enjoying using Inventor so far. Thanks for the great content!

[EB_]

This back-to-basics video is a great idea. I hope it becomes a series.

[martintruran]

The best presenter of anything, anywhere. Thanks. I'll bet you could even explain female logic!

[patrickredlich]

Great work Neil. I've learned a lot over the last 2+ years from your channel plus a lot of trying as you mentioned. But Tip4 is epic for my recent project. Thank you mate.
p.s mention the Patreon a bit more, I recently discovered it when I thought "there must be a way to donate this guy a drink or so" 👍

[kevin_delaney]

Dear have used Fusion with the "Capture Design History" and whatnot and I have legitimately been saying for....a solid (HA!) year that Inventor needs that feature....Mind...Blown...

I had to actually pause the video after that and let that sink in. I have wasted SO MUCH TIME!!! Hahaha. Good God, I wish I had known that sooner. That right there makes me think you really should make that 50 tip video haha. I know that isn't what you want to hear...but my brain just exploded and it is only the second tip...kinda nervous for the rest XD

File management is absolutely an issue for me, it is good to see how I should be doing that with project files.

One of the most useful lessons you taught me in your "Inventor in under an hour" video was to keep every single sketch as simple as possible. I remember trying to design the whole part in one sketch when I first started and it was just an epic fail. I find myself always saying to myself "Keep It Simple Stupid" (KISS) in your accent, "Keep your sketches as simple as possible, do not be afraid of a bunch of different sketches to shape the solid into the shape you want." Some of my sketches are simply triangles or a hex only to extrude a nut "pocket" or hex shape cut into a solid so I can 3D print a part and simply put a nut in and easily joint pieces together. A lot of my sketches are very simple and I tend to have quite a lot of them and it just makes designing complex parts so much easier when you learn how to think decompositionally. "Start with the end in mind." The number of sketches DOES NOT MATTER, use as many as you feel are necessary. Even to this day I try adding too much into one sketch, keep it simple, simple is brilliant.


I am not looking for individual support for my problems, just to be clear. This is a problem that I struggle with and I imagine if I struggle with it, I have a hard time believing I am the only one struggling the further into assemblies one gets. I know, I know, "Inventor is a hugely complex subject..." It is a massive suite, it really is. It is hard not to be intimidated and discouraged and/or disheartened by the sheer scale of the problem that is learning Inventor. In all seriousness, with how much time I spend in Inventor and how incompetent I still feel I am, I genuinely question whether three years in school is enough time. The certification exams require a minimum of what? 400 hours? I don't even know how hany hours I have in Inventor anymore. 400 hours is roughly a little over an hour per day, everyday, for one year. I easily have double, maybe even triple, that and I still feel grossly incompetent in Inventor. I would genuinely be so incredibly lost without your channel. Thank You so much for what you do.

On a side note, from one man to another, ya look damn good, no homo.

[JRF]

Thanks Neil- You always deliver great content in a clear manner, appreciated!

[leewaggers]

Great series of video's really helpful - cheers.

[luscus]

Whoops, should have added that I enjoy watching the vids and dream about being able to use Inventor. Thanks for the GREAT tips, tutorials and banter. MInd you I am a bit of a one eyed fan.

[lordgoader]

Great videos! So glad I found this channel. I have been using inventor about 4 months now every day at work. Is there any videos about creating IDW drawings from the IAM files? Cheers!

[jodybressi]

Thanks so much for your channel Neil. I'm hoping to do freelance Inventor like you do after I pass the certified pro exam. I was going to install a student version and was a bit worried I would need to invest in a better computer, but after hearing your advice about not fussing over hardware too much I've decided to just pull the trigger and do it. It's what I need for practice and get up to speed for the exam without spending the 2+ grand for a single seat. Appreciate you very much. Wish me luck!!

[aussieguy]

cheers mate, really appreciate your vids

[DB-gfkt]

You said that you designed the laptop you were working on, so I have a question about that. I want to remake certain objects in inventor as well, however, I have no idea how to see all the parts, I don't know how to measure everything. Do you find references online with all the measurements? Or how does this work? Because so far I've been creating objects with no clear or correct data, so I'm interested to see how to even start.

[michaelkellam]

Do you have an advanced I properties video?

[thorjarlberglund]

I cannot extrude my objects 2.5mm :D ? Tryuing with simple circle. I am normally using Rhino and its this should be easy