I used CAD professionally since the early '80's. Many years on the drafting board prior to that. First CAD was Intergraph, Expensive, ran on VAX computer, and was pretty much a glorified 2D drafting system, but quite an advancement on the pencil methods. Then a short time on CADAM, boy was that a mind boggling experience, hated it. The best step forward was Anvil 1000MD, a 2D mechanical design package that was absolutely great! If you had learned drafting on the board, this one was far and above the easiest to use, and did things just how you expected! (It is still available!). After using Anvil 1000 for a few years at three different companies, I had to learn Autocad. 8>( hated it a the start, it was far less intuitive than Anvil, which did things even an expert hired to help us transition from Anvil could not accomplish in Autocad. After two years, still hated Autocad. Next step forward was moving to 3D modeling, with Solid Edge. Grew to love it. Then I moved to another company using Inventor, learned it pretty quickly and grew to like it. After 6 years of Inventor, had to learn SolidWorks. Used that for about 3 years, and have it at home now since retiring, but would still take Inventor over Solidworks in a heartbeat! Inventor does many things well that Solidworks does not. I had a two page list of things I liked in Inventor far better than Solidworks, we had a Solidworks expert come in and help us, he was only able to show us how to do about half my list, some of it took more clicks and picks, but about half my list just cannot be done well in Solidworks. Some of it is pretty ridiculous that Solidworks has not seen the light. However, Inventor has gone to a subscription only mode, very expensive, and it you do not continue the subscription, all your work is pretty useless! When the subscription runs out, that is it! They no longer have any permanent licenses. 8>) My 2017 Solidworks still works great, and should continue to do so.
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