Inventor 2018

[Chris-Draw]

I am a user since 1989 purchasing a full licence then in the days of a dongle! I continued to upgrade unitl 2018 almost thirty years. How can I upgrade now without it costing me a lot of money. Because I am retired and only use the software for my hobby of model railways? 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Chris-Draw wrote:

Because I am retired and only use the software for my hobby of model railways? 

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Get free personal license of Autodesk Fusion 360.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

[Chris-Draw]

Thanks for the reply, appreciated. Can you import all the old issues of Inventor 2018 DWG files and ipt. files into Fusion 360 and use them? I have only looked at Fusion 360 and see great things beign designed. Just wanted to ensure my legacy part files will still be usable.

[CCarreiras · Accepted solution]

Inventor parts to Fusion:

You can open the parts as solids, without any creation story. Feature Browser in Fusion is different.
Is similar to importing a step file into Inventor.

To open and see dwg files, you can use the free Autodesk viewers.

There's no upgrade from 2018 to new releases. 2018 version is not supported now.

[Chris-Draw]

Good morning, I have taken out the 30 free trial of Fusion 360. One other question. I see when I produce an STL file the size of the file is much smaller for the same part.

Does Fusion 360 produce the same high quality STL files that Inventor allows?

I'll make the same part from both before I decide but its important for my parts to produce good quality 3D prints

[CCarreiras · Accepted solution]

Hi!

I'm not sure, but most probably they will use very similar translators... but, give it a try.

[CCarreiras]

BTW, fusion will have the ability to edit STL files directly, while in Inventor, you have to turn the stl into solid, edit, and save it back to STL.

For bigger assemblies, using content center, drawings, part lists etc, Inventor will be better.

But... If your kind of task is 3D printing of isolated models, Fusion will be a nice tool.

Also, you can export to a 3D printer environment as Inventor can do.

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

@Chris-Draw 

Right click on the body and Save As Mesh for more options...

Edit: I see that the suggestion by @CCarreiras also offers the expanded options.

There is another way to export that does not offer the expanded options.

[Chris-Draw · Accepted solution]

Thank you again, I have made two simple identical files, one in
Inventor 504kb and one in Fusion 360 is 136kb. I'll print them soon just to
check.
I have been practising this morning with Fusion 360. I can see it's good.
It's a learning curve after so many years with all Autodesk products, I'm
glad I stuck with Autodesk since 1989.
I am at the moment holding off the button to purchase the 3 year
subscription!
Thanks All the Best Chris

[CCarreiras · Accepted solution]

The difference in size could be due to the STL exporting resolution. Check the export options on both sides.

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

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@Chris-Draw wrote:
Thank you again, I have made two simple identical files, one in
Inventor 504kb and one in Fusion 360 is 136kb. I'll print them soon just to
check.

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@Chris-Draw 

Nope.  Not identical unless you used the exact same stl output settings (these can be changed in Inventor and in Fusion 360).

Attach all of your files here for comparison (*.ipt, *.f3d and resutling *.stl files).

I set both outputs on High Resolution but did not check if sub-settings were identical.

It is important to get the setting right for the optimal quality.

I see one anomaly in my two versions that might also explain the difference in file size...

[Chris-Draw]

Good afternoon, I have produced 2 STL files from the same data, from inventor and from Fusion. Your solution to use make as a mesh etc. Worked really well, the files at within a few kb of each other. Thank you very much for your help.

I am now going to purchase Fusion 360!!

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

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@Chris-Draw wrote:

I am now going to purchase Fusion 360!!

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@Chris-Draw 
There is a link in Message 2 to get free personal license.

I think at the end of 30 day trial period you will be offered opportunity to sign up for the personal license.

For you use - I think that is the way I would go.