[Andy A.]

VTC, my college, primarily uses Autodesk products, due to the institution that is AutoCAD among the architect types (who make up a huge portion of the students here). So we have a copy of virtually every single Autodesk product on every computer here at a flat rate. So it's economical for the college to stick with Inventor when they are already paying for it with the precious AutoCAD.

Recently, there was a big student push for Solidworks training (rioting almost). In New England, getting a job with out any Solidworks experience was getting very difficult. Inventor simply is not used in any industry setting around here. Solidworks, Pro/E and Catia have the lions share of acceptance, and Inventor is losing more every year. We where all getting scared of the possibilty of losing a job to someone less capabil but with the right program in their resume. Eventually, the school ponied up the money for 10 seats of Solidworks. No one was qualified to teach it, so we've only been playing with it and doing a lot of Inventor/Solidworks comparisons.

So far, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. I have both Inventor and a student edition of Solidworks running on my computer, and my preference is undoubtedly for SW.

Simply put, SW runs with fewer crashes, does a better job of anticipating my next step and blows Inventor out of the water with finite analysis capabilities (real time collision detection in an assembly! Brilliant!). I'll never do another assignment that requires face draft in Inventor again.

-Andy A.