Macworld 2012: Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac Coming
Autodesk was at Macworld showing off a new product for the Mac called Autodesk Inventor Fusion. Autodesk Inventor Fusion is an existing 3D mechanical design software on Windows, but will soon become available for the Mac for the first time.
Autodesk made headlines back in 2010 when they returned to the Mac platform after a two decade hiatus. Due to the success they've seen with their existing Mac products, the company will be bringing Inventor Fusion to the Mac.
In the next few weeks, Autodesk will be releasing a free Technology Preview for the program which will allow Mac users to download an early version and provide feedback. The final release will come at some point later. Inventor Fusion is meant to be an easier to use tool focused on mechanical design which incorporates physical properties of objects.
Autodesk® Inventor® Fusion is 3D modeling software that showcases intuitive direct manipulation capabilities for unrivaled ease of use. By uniting direct modeling and parametric workflows, Inventor Fusion offers the best of both worlds. Designers can freely explore complex shapes and forms while maintaining the underlying parametric history. Inventor Fusion makes it easy to open and edit 3D models from almost any source and incorporate them into your design, enabling rapid design changes without limitations.
The software will include seamless cloud access for storage, collaboration and web viewing. Autodesk has a Facebook page set up for Inventor Fusion and will be announcing the Mac download in the near future.
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3dsMax + Revit would guarantee Autodesk monopoly :) and make me happy.
Not me. The 3DSMax interface makes me want to pull out my teeth in frustration. It's kinda obvious that it's the result of 20+ years of tucking new features into whatever corner they can fit in into.
hummm i wounder if this will force other CAD software like Solidworks or Siemens NX to consider the Mac platform so that Autodesk does not end up having total monopoly.
As far as 2D ( CAD as opposed to solid modeling) I'm a bit frustrated with the high cost of AutoCAD which at this point is legacy software. AutoCAD has been riding that gravy train to long.
What Inventor Fusion can not is reference or link to other external files. Assemblies are all in one file.
You can import other parts and you can export parts for sharing but these are not links they are import and export operations.
-Kevin Schneider
Autodesk
This was on windows 7.
The benefit is in the seamless nature of mac os. Designing nice products on windows does not feel nice!
Virtual machines will only use as much ram as you allocate to them. If you're using a VM to run something as heavy as Max, then giving it 14GB out of 16GB will be enough to assure both it and the OSX desktop have enough breathing room to run decently. Provided, of course, that you're not running another heavy program natively underneath it.
I certainly hope so. I can't deny that Max is one of the most powerful editors out there. But damn, the UI is so chunkity, I'd almost consider even Blender to be better laid out and more user friendly these days.
The only problem is if they do restructure the interface, how much of it can they change while still keeping it familiar enough to be comfortable to those used to using it? I'd say this is one of the main reasons why Autodesk hasn't done it yet.
They could get away with a total revamp for CAD because, comparatively, it's a bit more minimalist. Max is a big fat huge beast with way too many knobs, buttons, and redundant features. But it's also quite a few peoples favorite big fat huge beast. You can't swap out and change too much without risking alienating them.
The only really good interface that can properly replace a complicated user interface like 3ds max is the ribbon ui. While some may not like it, after they adjust they end up liking it better. I am a big believer in the ribbon ui. I used office 2007 pretty soon after it came out and the adjustment period is pretty short and it makes the advanced options much more obvious to the user than the previous menu system did. There is a very good chance that this may happen as many autodesk programs have been in fact ribbonized in the past few years. Also doesn't hurt that the ribbon UI is much more touch friendly than the menu/toolbar ui.
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