How did you learn how to use Inventor?

[jpren]

Umm let's see. We had 2 computers and 4 students. I tinkered w/ Inventor 5 last year in my free time and this year I figured out most of the features by trial & error and some advice from a college student... either way, I wished we had more computers.

Inventor isn't hard to learn, the biggie is to know the shortcuts (easy ways to do otherwise complicated tasks). For example, importing CAD files properly w/o open loops, fiddling w/ the work planes, and using iParts (BIG timesaver)

After the animation deadline, my little Inventor group finally got the necessary machines so that all 4 of us can work. I wished we full time mentors who knew Inventor or a class in school that taught the software, however, we're very proud of our submission because it was a learning process of everyone and 100% modelled by students.

You can take a look at our submission at http://www.roboraiders.com/design/ It still surprises us that most teams couldn't find our submission from our homepage even though we uploaded the bulk of the site weeks before the Inventor deadline.

Enjoy!

JP Ren
Team 75 - RoboRaiders