What can't Inventor LT do?

While we can catalogue what Inventor LT can do, it's probably easier to explore what it can't do. First up, there's no assembly modelling - you're stuck with single parts. Sheet metal design is missing and there are no Standard Parts. Also, there's no access to the all of the add-in functionality within the Inventor Professional application. No Stress analysis tools, no dynamic simulation (which would be pretty redundant with single parts anyway), no tube and pipe or cable and wire harness design. Also, Vault isn't supplied and you can't use it with other add-in products.

Data exchange?

So what about compatibility with other variants of Inventor? Much of this is restricted by both the single part nature of the system. You can only read in Inventor part files - that means that it won't read Inventor assembly models (IAM), Inventor assembly drawings (IDW or DWG), Inventor sheet metal parts (IPT), or Inventor presentation files (IPN). Alongside this, Autodesk is keen to ensure that the compatibility with AutoCAD is mentioned in all of the promotional material - and this means the ability to open native AutoCAD DWGs from within Inventor LT, and copy and paste from AutoCAD. AutoCAD DWG is pretty much a given, but what is interesting is that, at present, it comes with certain formats for import and export.

As standard, Inventor LT will import STEP, IGES and ACIS (.sat) files. Standard export includes STEP, IGES, SAT, DW, STL as well as .JT data. Alongside this, you can also download an additional module for Inventor LT which opens up the import of UGS NX (.prt), Parasolid (both ASCII and Binary) Pro/Engineer data via both .prt files and the Granite related .g file format. It will also write out/export Parasolid and Granite (.g) files.

Other things to note are that Inventor LT cannot be installed on the same computer as a current Inventor 2008 installation (although it can be installed locally with Inventor 11 or earlier). The 'Labs' product will run until the beginning of May next year (2008).

Other notes

Inventor LT is not currently available for purchase. Should it become available for purchase, Autodesk anticipates that the suggested retail price will be approximately US$999, and customers who participate in the Technology Preview will receive special purchase incentives.

Conclusion

This is certainly a bold move by Autodesk. It looks like Autodesk has 'crippled' Inventor LT enough for it to not be a threat to existing or future sales of Inventor, yet the company has included more than enough to make it of use in the supply chain, or to get 2D users to join the 3D bandwagon. The most important thing is that the product is currently free, which is particularly impressive when you consider that this is only a beta product in terms of how customers use it, not in its code.

The only cost is that of engineers investing their time to learn the package. Autodesk's strategy removes nearly all the barriers to experiment with 3D and offers a tool that really could be of some value in multiple workflows. Hopefully it should be available for download in the UK soon. We will have a full review in the next issue.

http://labs.autodesk.com