From SolidWorks to Inventor.

[Dave_Golden]

Good morning to all.  

I’ve been a SolidWorks user for over 23 years and recently transitioned to a company that primarily uses AutoCAD. While I’m comfortable with AutoCAD 2D, I’m now working extensively in Inventor 2026 Professional. To get up to speed, I’ve been watching a number of YouTube tutorials, but I’m looking for more in-depth resources or structured guidance.

Do you know of anyone—or any specific training programs—that could help bridge the gap between SolidWorks and Inventor? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Dave Golden

[kacper.suchomski]

Hi

Training programs are largely standardized. Simply search online for an Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC) in your area.

Another way is online courses (LinkedIn, Udemy, Coursera).

Manuals are even better (e.g. Ascent), but the process usually requires more time and commitment.

[swalton]

A previous employer had the local reseller send out a trainer for a 1/2 day session.  We sat at a workstation and had Creo and Inventor running at the same time.  I showed the trainer how I would do something in Creo and he showed me how to do it in Inventor.  

I found this to be very effective because I could ask the "why" questions that came up as the trainer showed me the Inventor workflows.

My current employer has a trainer come in to cover the workflows/features of each release.

[SMillsYS3X2]

Just my 2 cents on this, and to keep in mind as your finding the similarities between them. Both Inventor and SolidWorks are sports cars. But the difference is that SW has only 3 gears and doesn't care what speed you are going for each gear. Inventor has 5 and will absolutely grind it's gears if you go the wrong  speed for any of them.

Inventor is more finicky about how it's used, and is harder to trace down modeling errors. SolidWorks take a lot of computer power, and will just let you keep on working no matter how many error flags are on the model tree.