Inventor Training

[Anonymous]

Hello all.

I would like to learn Inventor and have a question regarding the training courses offered through the authorised training centres.

I see some of them are offering Inventor Fundamentals training and some Inventor Professional training.

What is the difference between, and is there an Autodesk standard for these courses?

(I have almost 10 years experience with 3D including Autocad Plant 3D)

[mdavis22569]

It really depends on what you'll be doing with Inventor.

However I'd start out with the Inventor Fundamentals training first. Get the basic's under you belt.

How you planning on taking it?  College courses an option?

Mike

[ToddPig]

Do - purchase a "Mastering Autodesk Inventor 201X,..." by Curtis Waguespack

Do not - purchase books from SDC

[mdavis22569]

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Autodesk-Inventor-2016-LT/dp/1119059801

Paul Munford is now helping Curtis out ...

[Anonymous]

Michael; I'm planning to attend a course a local authorised training centre. They have a 3 or 4 day fundamental course.

How about online courses.

How good are they and how credible will it look on my CV?

[mdavis22569]

There are some good online courses..

A lot of good tutorials are built into Inventor too.

Look at YouTube and blogs on Inventor. Be careful on some of the YouTube videos (my opinion).  

I think doing the fundamentals from a reseller is a good start. 

[tahdesign1 · Accepted solution]

We have actually stop sending users outside for the training.

I do all of the in house training on our standards and vault use.

But for the nuts and bolts of software use we have started using online courses.

At AU last year I visited and spoke with ever company there supplying training.

This included the people making the material for the training courses that most of the re-sellers are teaching from.

What I decide to try was a company called Global eTraining out of Canada.

For the cost of sending 1 user to outside training I can get 3 users access to the Whole ADSK catalog of courses through Global eTraining for a whole year.

As an admin I can assign the course we want them to complete, see and report on there progress to upper management, and offer help if I see them having issues with the testing.

They can work at their own pace from anywhere on any device. So lets says an Inventor basics course states it is 45 hrs in length, we can tell them they must devote 2~4 hours a week to this course and i can produce a sch to that expectation. I then update this sch every week for their progress and report that with a progress report from the web site showing their moduls completed every week. So far this has worked well for us.

Also with this, outside of the training that we assign the user, they have access to the full library of all the ADSK training from the web site for a full year. So if they wish to go learn something like 3D Max design on their own time, they can. I just won't track that.

Anyway of you are considering online training it is worth a look, here is their web site

http://www.globaletraining.ca/

[Anonymous]

I ended up signing up for a monthly subscription on Lynda.com and so far the inventor courses there seems very comprehensive & professional !!

[tahdesign1]

So Linda.com looks very interesting in that it is a large library of training that I assume you get access to it all.

It appears to be a video based training if I am correct without exercises and test?

For the individual learner that looks great and something I would enjoy as a reference for learning new things.

However, with the online training that we are using I am able to assign the courses that my users must take and set goals for completion.

They must do hands on exercises and take sectional tests which I can see their progress on.

This allows to me report to upper management their users progress through the courses.

Once we purchase a subscription for a given user it is then enter into their goals and objectives for the year and becomes something that they are evaluated against successfully completing.

[Anonymous]

I am curious; what kind of business use Inventor and how do I get a job with them?

I come from oil&gas where the forecast looks quite dark nowadays and since robots are becoming increasingly hot I assume that I could use Inventor for mechanical design of these. Would that be possible or are there other programs that is more common (e.g. Solidworks++)?

Lastly, would for instance the robot industry require that you have some form of formal design education?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[mdavis22569]

Where are you located?   

I know a lot of people doing oil and pipe ... need a solid company, not one of the pop-ups.     

Robots are growing, we teach our own employees through an apprentice program we have. Each year we bring in 3-5 younger kids and teach/pay for etc their education in Mechtronics. 

It's growing here in Charlotte for that. We also have 300 German companies here.

[ToddPig]

My recommendation would be to learn Solidworks.  If you are interested in generating 3D designs and do have any idea what AutoCAD is, then you are better off with Solidworks.  Or perhaps, start with something new, and learn OnShape.  Very cheap way to learn CAD right now.  Inventor would be good if you have tons of legacy data at your company, and/or have experience with AutoCAD.  

[tahdesign1]

[Curtis_Waguespack]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

... are there other programs that is more common (e.g. Solidworks++)?

---

Hi vannmannen,

Learn them all, and learn to accept them without bias.

I've worked with, trained, and interviewed enough users over the years to see how people let their comfort for one program get in their way of using another effectively. And on the other hand, I've seen people who can use Solidworks, Inventor, AutoCAD, Creo, ... and anything else, and be just as effective. You want to avoid becoming the former, and focus on becoming the latter.

We all have our favorites, often its the one we used first, or longest, but don't let your comfort with one get in the way of you taking a job opportunity or learning something new.

Download the trial versions and learn to use them all if you have the time, etc.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[tahdesign1]

I totally agree.

I have always said they all do the same tasks in different ways.

You would hope through your career that you would be exposed to many along the way.

As an example of design career time line look at mine:

Ink on Mylar > IBM Cadam > DesignCAD > AutoCAD > Microstation > AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop > Inventor

And that time line only represents the majority used at different position. Mixed in there are going to be many others if the organization is large. I also have Solidworks seats and there are ProE and NX in the house as well.

You should look at the industry and level that you might want to enter also.

For machine design you typically have your mid range modelers: Inventor or Solidworks, etc

Where as on the larger product side of the house you might have you higher end modelers: ProE and NX, etc

[msklein]

I thought that PRO-E was replaced by WILDFIRE then CREO a few years back so their has been no updates say since 2005 or earlier. I also believe that CREO is now just a midrange modeler, let me know if I'm wrong.

[smokes2998]

With Regards to the oil and gas industry

know Onesubsea use Inventor / ACAD and has a large user base.

I know GE oil and gas Use Solid works.

Schumbergen Use Pro/e creo.

With regards to going to from oil gas to machine design you have to be really comfortable with designing  a lot of parts from scratch and not doing cookie cutter engineering which is what I call designing  to API17 and ASME Div VIII codes.

[msklein]

I'm from Houston, have done some fracking truck work, but not really a oil and gas guy. More capital equipment, electronics, aerospace (Satellite/Fighter black boxes), conveyor/automation, sheet metal/rack and panel guy. Last job was Rack mounted Ruggedized computer/file servers for Oil and Gas/Military. Temporally in KC right want to get back.
But back to my comment was about PRO-E now being CREO and it being also mid range modeler now.

[smokes2998]

PRO/E Became creo but it is classed as a high end modeller in the same league as  NX and CATIA due the specialized modules they have for the automotive and aerospace industry and cost.

[msklein]

I had done a Google lookup a while back and the cost looked on cheep side which is why I made the assumesun and thus the question. Saw list price at $15,000 but discounted price at $2,200 a seat, less than both solid works and inventor or even autocad.