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Autodesk Releases Preview of Inventor Fusion for Mac

Tuesday April 17, 2012 1:24 pm PDT by Eric Slivka

Back in January at Macworld, we noted that Autodesk was planning to bring its Inventor Fusion mechanical design software to the Mac. At the time, the company promised the a free technology preview of Inventor Fusion for Mac would be available in the coming weeks, with an official release to follow later.

Autodesk today announced that the free software preview is now available for download and will remain active through January 1, 2013.

Inventor Fusion is a free technology preview that enables creation of designs through intuitive direct manipulation tools. Our aim is to set a new standard for Assembly design, giving users greater control over designs without sacrificing productivity. Hopefully this technology preview will make it easier to open and edit 3D models from virtually any source and incorporate them into new or existing designs (such as in Autodesk Inventor). Your feedback will determine if we are correct in our thinking.

The system requirements for Inventor Fusion for Mac include most relatively recent Mac Pro, iMac, and MacBook Pro models with specific graphics options from AMD, NVIDIA or Intel. Autodesk has, however, indicated that users may still have success running the software on officially unsupported systems.

The release of the Inventor Fusion preview for Mac is the second major Mac-related announcement for Autodesk this week, following the company's unveiling of Smoke 2013, an updated version of its professional-level video editing and visual effects software for Mac. Smoke 2013 will be launching "later this fall" at a price of $3,495 per license, a significant discount from the $14,995 pricing on previous versions.

Top Rated Comments

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Comeagain?

98 months ago

Don't know what makes MacRumors think it's good through January 2013...

"Please note: this version of Autodesk Inventor Fusion Technology Preview is programmed to expire on May 1, 2012."

Less than a month to try it out. Hardly worth the effort to learn it.

From the autodesk website.

AVAILABILITY

The Microsoft Windows compatible technology preview executable expires on May 1, 2012. The Apple OS X compatible version of the technology preview expires on January 1, 2013.

Rating: 3 Votes

L-U-R-C-H

98 months ago

Who gives a rip! Release 3ds max for Mac already!! It's 2012...we've been asking for it for years!! Get off your rear ends and actually release something worthwhile.

Rating: 2 Votes

ThunderSkunk

98 months ago

Thank you Adesk. I take back all those things I said about you.

Will purchase many seats.

Autocad is for documentation, Inventor is for design.

Rating: 2 Votes

derickdub

98 months ago

Eh, it's just Fusion. When will we see Professional?

I'm not really even a fan of inventor, I find myself using AutoCAD much more. Would love to see SolidWorks on OS X though.

Rating: 2 Votes

Pakaku

98 months ago

Semi-off-topic: I wish they'd release 3DS Max for OS X soon...

Rating: 2 Votes

schneik80

98 months ago

X11

Hmm, that is disappointing. I do not have supporting hardware to try this myself. Thanks for the report.

X11 is only required for the Autodesk Inventor Translator (.ipt and .iam).

-Kevin Schneider
(Autodesk)

----------

Personally, I think this is awesome. I used inventor (professional) for about 5 years, and spent real time on the other major platforms as well. In my opinion the interface on newer ADesk products is far superior to major competitors (ProE, solid works). I havent used the latest release of solid works or creo though (new job focusing on project management).

Price isn't awful either, although I think they could drop it under $3k and attract a larger user base...

To be clear there is not price announced. this Tech Preview is FREE to use.
All references to price in this thread refer to other software.

Kevin Schneider
(Autodesk)

Rating: 1 Votes

notanalien

98 months ago

Now we need to get SolidWorks on the Mac. Everywhere I have worked and anyone I know in the manufacturing industry uses SolidWorks, or is moving in that direction.

But having Inventor on the Mac is still a move in the right direction.

Agreed 100%. Most engineering firms use Solidworks (which is a NICE piece of software). I've run solidworks through bootcamp, but it will NOT run well in any virtualization (unless you're doing really simple parts).

If Apple could get Solidworks onto OS X that would be a MAJOR hurdle towards opening up Mac sales to hardware firms. Rebooting to bootcamp constantly just isn't a good solution in a serious engineering environment.

Rating: 1 Votes

appsforkids

98 months ago

Let me be the first or second to say, it's about time!!!

Rating: 1 Votes

GadgetGav

98 months ago

Rating: 1 Votes