What program is really recomanded?

[Kraftyman]

Greetings,

I just started to use Inventor - for the kids sake. I use SolidWorks almost every day and there are two things that will make it fast for anyone.
1) Keyboard short-cuts (an absolute must)
2) A good mouse with a center button.
By pressing on the center button you get the same functionality as the cube without having to move your mouse to the cube. It rotates and then zooms with the center button. I can spin any model and get to the view I need in less than 1 sec - it is just practice. If you plan on using SolidWorks, buy a mouse with a center button!

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Kraftyman

Greetings,

I just started to use Inventor - for the kids sake. I use SolidWorks almost every day and there are two things that will make it fast for anyone.
1) Keyboard short-cuts (an absolute must)
2) A good mouse with a center button.
By pressing on the center button you get the same functionality as the cube without having to move your mouse to the cube. It rotates and then zooms with the center button. I can spin any model and get to the view I need in less than 1 sec - it is just practice. If you plan on using SolidWorks, buy a mouse with a center button!

In fairness, Inventor has the same functionality (pretty much any CAD/CAM program I've seen uses the center button in the same manner).

[Molten]

I may be old school. But the cube kind of annoys me. I don't like things in the display other then the part. With this being said. If this becomes standard I hope they make it so it can be toggled off.

[mplanchard]

When parts start to get more complicated, I find myself using Normal To a particular face if I really want to sketch on an auxillary plane. I use the mouse and the ctrl keys. You can even customize your shortcut keys.

I saw an engineer working on a sole of a sneaker and watched his hands - it looked like he was playing a piano - there were 1000 features and his mouse rarely left the center of the graphics area. Marie