Revit/Inventor/MEP _ New user needs help

[Anonymous]

Hello, everyone. I've been using AutoCAD for 20+ years. Our company, which is in the environmental air purification industry, is making the move to 3D and I'd really appreciate any help with the best place to start. We mainly build blowers and heavy industrial duct work (<1/4" thick) systems for factories. We have multiple AutoCAD software programs, including Inventor 2017, Revit 2018, MEP 2018 and others. My main question is: Which Autodesk product is best for our application and materials?

Thanks in advance.

[Secttor]

Hi @Anonymous

If you're totally involved in production I don't see any reason for choosing Revit which is mainly related to BIM. For production and high detail drawing Inventor should be optimal solution for your needs and models can be exported and transfered to Revit easily without any worries. 

You need to deliver high-detail sketches not 3D models with information behind which can be placed in projects, scheduled & so on.

Inventor also has real competitors on the market..take in consideration this.

[robert.klempau]

Hello @Anonymous,

I understand that you mostly use AutoCAD to create 2D drawings for production.

You want to move to 3D without losing the 2D drawings.

My advice is moving to Inventor. There you can create 3D product models using parts, generate bill of materials, create sheet metal, etc.

When you want to place those 3D models in a Building model where they use Revit, you can export the model to a ADSK file format that easily can be imported into Revit.

See this movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7_agbZM3Dw

You could import your blower models (ADSK files) into Revit and model the Duct work in the Building environment if a 3D BIM model is available.

If you create also ductwork and want to create NC files to produce the Ducts and Duct Fittings you could have a look at Autodesk Fabrication MEP.

There is also a good workflow from Revit to Fabrication MEP and back.

See this site: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fabrication-products/case-studies

You also can export your Inventor model to an IFC format so other BIM software can use your model.

See this movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX6pkaI3A6c

With Inventor, you can create sheet metal drawings.

See this movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBQkw2j3ei8

Investigate what your customers want and make a plan for moving to a 3D workflow.

Hope this helped a bit.

[bmoore]

Wow thanks!  That's great advice.  Most information out there is too general for my application, so I was looking for something exactly like this.  Thanks again!

[robert.klempau · Accepted solution]

Hello @bmoore,

Great, That is where we here for.

Helping others so they can move forward.