[Michael Hill]

PTC Creo is another piece of software worth looking at. It's a much more comprehensive piece of software than either Inventor or SolidWorks, and IMO, is probably used more widely in industry (SolidWorks may disagree). However, if you look for engineering jobs, many of them are looking for Pro/Engineer people. (Creo used to be called Pro/Engineer). Almost nobody in industry seems to be using Inventor.