{"id":2073,"date":"2019-07-09T06:18:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T10:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robodk.com\/blog\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2024-11-18T12:15:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:15:04","slug":"inventor-plugin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robodk.com\/blog\/inventor-plugin\/","title":{"rendered":"Level-Up Your Robot Manufacturing with the Inventor Plugin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our new plugin for Autodesk Inventor gives you access to one of the world’s top CAD\/CAM packages, specially designed for manufacturing processes. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Autodesk Inventor is truly a superstar in the world of CAD\/CAM programs. According to the CAD Trends survey<\/a>, Inventor was the 3rd most used CAD package in 2018 after AutoCAD and SolidWorks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At RoboDK, we’re devoted to making your life easier whichever CAD system you are using. We already have a great plugin for SolidWorks<\/a>. Now, we’ve added Inventor to the list of software that works seamlessly with RoboDK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s look at what makes Inventor+RoboDK such a great paring for integrated, scalable robot manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Inventor?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you first look at Autodesk’s Inventor, it can seem a bit curious that it exists at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autodesk<\/a> is a world-leading software company which was founded in 1982. They soon became famous for their groundbreaking CAD package AutoCAD. Before the software existed<\/a>, the only way to do design products on a computer was to use a mainframe. AutoCAD brought that power to desktop machines for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time that Inventor was \u2026 well \u2026 invented in 1999, AutoCAD was a leader amongst desktop CAD software. It is still is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Autodesk decide to make Inventor when they were already top of the industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer to this question has a lot to do with why RoboDK is such a good pairing with Inventor, and it is best demonstrated in a story\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why RoboDK + Inventor is a Great Pairing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Jay Tedeschi was working at Autodesk in 1999 and was one of the first people to try the software that would later become Inventor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he told the Autodesk blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Jay recalls sitting at the desk and being given no instructions on how to operate the program in front of him. He asked, \u201cwhat do you do to start?\u201d <\/em>to which the developer said, \u201cwell, what do you think you do to start?\u201d<\/em> It was at this point that Jay began to understand the methodology that went into designing Inventor [\u2026] More than he had ever seen it before, these developers were designing the program to be intuitive for the end user.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Autodesk invested in building Inventor because it filled a niche\u2026 just like RoboDK fills a niche. RoboDK gives users the power to program any robot with ease. Inventor provides a very intuitive, scalable software specifically designed for manufacturers. At the time, SolidWorks was the leading software filling that niche and Autodesk wanted to keep its place at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Software Designed for Manufacturers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

AutoCAD is still the leading CAD package, but it isn’t perfect for all tasks. When you look at the two packages side-by-side<\/a> you can get a good idea of Inventor’s strengths for manufacturing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n