Take better products to market faster and for less cost with the new paradigm in 3D design technology-Autodesk Inventor 7. The latest release of Autodesk Inventor delivers high-performance software for mechanical engineering and design that makes your design cycle faster, your data management easier, and your product development more affordable than ever.

A simplified user interface, an advanced help and support system, and built-in migration tools for AutoCAD users make Autodesk Inventor the easiest mechanical design software to learn and use.

• Simplified User Interface
  A design environment with fewer, smarter commands reflects the way you want to work. Highly visual feedback and gesture-based interactivity respond intelligently to cursor movements to help you work more efficiently.
• Advanced Help and Support
  The award-winning Design Support System (DSS) provides browser-based support to bring you up to speed quickly and gives you an electronic infrastructure for easy learning.
• Migration Assistance for AutoCAD Users
  The Design Support System includes a migration tool to help you move easily from AutoCAD® to 3D.

Superior Productivity

With the industry's best DWG compatibility, innovative shape description capabilities driven by the ShapeManager kernel, industry-specific tools, and proven large-assembly performance, Autodesk Inventor offers superior productivity to help turn your design cycle into a competitive advantage.

• Best DWG compatibility
  Autodesk Inventor gives you the industry's best DWG compatibility to help bring your AutoCAD® digital design data forward quickly and easily.
• Adaptive technology
  Autodesk Inventor eliminates the need to write complex equations to create assembly relationships. With innovative adaptive technology, you can capture design intent accurately, and manage and edit large assemblies more easily than ever.
• Autodesk ShapeManager 
  In November 2001, Autodesk dedicated a large team of developers with substantial experience in solid modeling and development of the ACIS kernel to create a feature-based modeling engine for Autodesk Inventor. The result: the Autodesk ShapeManager, a purpose-built 3D modeling kernel fine-tuned for the demands of 3D users in the manufacturing marketplace.
• Full Product Definition
  Design and capture a full product definition to use across your enterprise and throughout your product lifecycle. Autodesk Inventor helps you validate your design performance with virtual prototypes, create assembly instructions for manufacturing, and embed business intelligence in your model to help you determine manufacturing costs.
• Exceptional Large Assembly Performance
  Autodesk Inventor handles complex assemblies faster than comparable mechanical design software. You can build 3D adaptive assemblies without specifying parametric equations or relationships, and modify assemblies at any point, in any order, no matter how you originally constrain the parts.
• Industry-Specific Tools
  A range of tools for electro-mechanical and industrial machinery markets, including sheet metal design and unfolding, 3D path routing, and the weldment design environment, give you a powerful, flexible way to create and document your designs using your preferred workflow.
• Production Drawing Creation
  The most advanced tools for documenting 3D designs plus easy-to-use features and formatting flexibility help you produce drawings that meet your specific drafting standards faster than other 2D or 3D systems.

Smartest Choice

Get the best value in 2D and 3D design--and a risk-free migration path to 3D--with the Autodesk Inventor Series.

• Exceptional Value
  Only the Autodesk Inventor Series® offers the best of 2D and 3D technologies for virtually the price of Autodesk Inventor. You protect the value of your 2D software investment while you gain the simplest and lowest-cost path to the most current 3D technology.
• Complete Flexibility
  Autodesk Inventor Series eliminates the need to choose between 2D and 3D technology. With the series offering you can do more with your existing design data and protect your investments in AutoCAD®, AutoCAD® Mechanical, and Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop® software.
• Risk-Free Opportunity
  The Autodesk Inventor Series offers a risk-free way to keep the design system you use today while you learn the 3D design technology of Autodesk Inventor. With the industry's best DWG compatibility, you can use all your existing AutoCAD-based mechanical designs and easily move your data forward-so you control your technology transition, protect your software investment, and minimize disruption to your business.
• Complete Process Solution
  Find out how you can combine Autodesk Inventor with the Autodesk Certified Applications program, Autodesk Streamline® online project collaboration service, and Autodesk Professional Services to optimize your manufacturing process throughout your product life cycle.

What's New in Autodesk Inventor 7

The industry's best AutoCAD 2004 DWG compatibility makes your digital data reuse fast and simple and extends the value of your existing 2D designs. Improved DWG Import/Export capabilities group frequently-used commands and accelerate workflow. A new toolset makes it easy to specify AutoCAD data selection and gives you added control over your digital design reuse.

Autodesk Inventor ShapeManager delivers an improved toolset so you can import, create, trim and knit surfaces into complex surface or solid shapes. Strengthened surface-solids modeling capabilities expand the types of complex parts you can design.

Communication Center utilities give you customizable notification of software updates, Autodesk Subscription Program news and extension announcements, and product support information so you can maintain a robust environment for your design projects.  The CAD Manager Control Utility allows selective enabling, disabling, and configurations on a user-by-user basis.