Solidworks vs Inventor -Difference between Solidworks and Inventor

The Inventor is a professional 3D CAD software that provides CAD users with features for handling projects in the realm of mechanical engineering, mold design and motion simulation while its adversary—in today’s article—was developed for use by Mechanical Engineers, Architects and Graphic Designers for modeling machine components, interior design and motion simulation.

SolidWorks is a design and development tool with 2D and 3D illustration/design capabilities amongst others whereas Inventor has a handful of neat features built into its default behavior so as to aid engineers by supplying the right information and analysis. To understand this better, let’s break the comparison down. Standards, analysis, documentation capabilities, motion-based calculations and collaboration tools are all well and good for both the industry giants.

Solidworks vs Inventor -Difference/Comparison between Solidworks and Inventor

Solidworks	Inventor
Solidworks is powerful 3d modelling software by Dassault Systemes	Inventor is own by Autodesk Compnay.
Strong import export capabilities : File Format supported are,ACIS, ACIS SAT, DWG, DXF, HOOPS META FILE, HPGL/PLT, IGES, IGS, JPEG, Parasolid, PARASOLID XT, PDF, PROE, SAT, SolidWorks, STEP, STL, STP, TIF/TIFF, VRML, WRL	File format Supported are: 3DS, DWF, DWG, DWS, DWT, DXF, PLT, SAT
SolidWorks (Dassault Systemes) still offers their versions with a lifetime license. You only need to pay once for but this does not include upgrades or maintenance.	Inventor (AutoDesk) used to offer lifetime licenses but no more. You now have to lease a license on an annual basis.
Solidworks on the other hand is Dassault System’s lower tier product. They can not afford to make it much better because it will rob sales of their top tier product Catia.	Inventor is Autodesk’s top tier product. Because of this Autodesk has an incentive to make it as good as they can. Every year they add more functionality
Solidworks will do the basics, but you will sometimes have to jump through hoops to get it done.	Inventor provides more advanced tools to get the job done.
Solidworks has an easier learning curve for the basics.	Inventor has a steeper learning curve, but is far more efficient once you learn it.
Solidworks has much more advance dimensioning tool: text formatting, additional symbols, additional comments, possibility to place comments under the dimension arrow.	Inventor requires on additional click for aligned dimension
Application: Aerospace, Automotive, Construction, Consumer Products	Applications: Engineering, Automotive, Construction