Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Export a model in a neutral format and verify that file in (something else)? But then, how do you verify / calibrate that (something else)? It's turtles all the way down.

Maybe ask Autodesk for some sort of certification, but I bet somewhere in the 1-point EULA text is something along the lines of 'don't bother asking, pal'.

[#2]

Next they are going to ask you how you calibrated your calculator. This seems totally crazy to me.

[#3]

Thankfully we have never had to deal with this "calibration" question.

Thinking about this I've realized we do have something that could be used to verify the accuracy of our software.

We make a variety of parts that are waterjet cut from steel plate. Typical we produce our part and drawing in Inventor and then save a copy of the Inventor drawing as an AutoCad drawing. The AutoCad drawing is imported into our vendors waterjetting software to be used as a template.

The fact that the finished parts can be physically measured and found to be accurate should verify that our software is accurate. Of course I guess you have to take into account the accuracy of the waterjet process, which is pretty hig but like any manufacturing process not 100%.

Finally, I agree with the others that have stated that this is a silly question.

Richard in Houston

[#4]

CAD is all math. 2+2 will equal 4 no matter what means you use to calculate it. You can't measure math, you can't calibrate it, it just is what it is. Are you going to suggest that if you were to calculate 2+2 on a really mega-fancy pi calculating calculator that can go out to 2000 places, that 2+2 might actually come out slightly off from 4?

[#5]

2+2 = 4 only for civilian work, when you work for the government, then it equals whatever the committee formed to evaluate it says it equals.

[#6]

In that case, 2+2=5!