Aero Design

Solidworks is amazing, parts, assemblies, testing, visuals, movies, drawings, it does it all. It is rather expensive, but if you do a one time stand alone license, then you have that forever and don't have to worry about the yearly license.

Inventor is a extremely poorly designed GUI and work flow CAD/CAM/CAE program. You'll go crazy using it compared to SOLIDWORKS!!! CATIA is the aerospace leader in field. Next would be Siemens NX.

Inventor is an excellent software for doing complex aero design. I've tried top down as well as bottom up design methodology. For the complex 3 dimensional shapes of aerodynamic models I'm finding the top down method works best. It allows for the most accurate and adaptable models and virtually eliminates the tedious process of creating assembly constraints.

You can no longer obtain the perpetual license. However maintenance updates for the perpetual license now cost more than the yearly subscription.

Flexible assemblies allow testing various positions of components. Positional representations fix positions for precise testing or creation of drawing views.

New versions allow different model states so you can have different versions of a part for various stages of construction. Or even use different parts altogether at different stages of an assembly.

It would be good to collaborate with you and compare techniques and ideas.

Inventor is certainly capable of doing complex aeronautical models...

Here's a Rolls Royce Trent 900 Nacelle design. The initial core engine design done by CATIAV5FTW using CATIA. The nacelle, thrust reverser, and pylon design are completed in Inventor.

I apologize for not having better renderings of my work. I concentrate on turning designs into reality rather than spending time on renderings. Here's a picture of the finished work.

And a cross section rendering.

Grabcad model

High Bypass Engine Nacelle

This Nacelle is modeled after the Trent 900 Nacelle as used on the A380. It is designed specifically for the 3D Printable High-Bypass Jet Engine by CATIAV5FTW (Chris Shakal). I used his model with minimal changes and substitutions. While most of his original design remains intact, some parts must...

There’s very little difference in the interface and capabilities when comparing Inventor with the other high end 3D solid modelers on the market today. That includes CATIA, Solidworks etc. if you have Inventor, use it. Especially if you already know it. The other softwares will not give you any advantage over what you already have. You would have to move into a completely different type of modeling software like Autodesk Alias to gain any advantage over any of these 3D modelers for what you’re wanting to do. Alias is designed for generating complex Class-A surfaces and is quite a bit more expensive. And you might still need something like Inventor (or Solidworks) to flesh out the models generated by Alias in the end.

In terms of pure capability, I’ve seen some incredible aero design done on some low end or even free 3D modelers. I’ve also seen some great looking models turned out on the likes of CATIA and Solidworks that are actually not up to par upon closer examination. The level of craftsmanship often has little to do with how fancy and expensive the tool is.

Again, Inventor is as good as any of them. If you’re having any difficulty doing aero design with Inventor then you’re also likely to have difficulty with other similar software packages. It may be that you need a little training or maybe you just need to rethink your methodology.

Thanks for your informative responses, I think I'll stick with inventor for the now then as it is the only software program I am familiar with however I am still learning. I'll try some more complex models with it for the now and see how it goes.

I'm interested in what you are working on. If I can be of any assistance please let me know. I've been working with CAD for 30+ years and 3D solid modeling for 20. But I only started doing aero design a few years ago and I had to completely change the way I did things. We are all constantly learning new things.

Feel free to share what you have and ask questions. There are many knowledgeable people here. Even the ones that don't use Inventor can provide a wealth of knowledge since the concepts are largely the same.

What is the exact answer???

IMO, it really depends upon what CAD/CAM/CAE program you start out with and get comfortable with. In terms of 3D programs, I started out with SOLIDWORKS in 2008, then Inventor, Pro-E and CATIA. From that point on, you draw an strong opinion. SOLIDWORKS and Inventor are closely related. However SOLIDWORKS has a larger user base and market share because of the intuitive nature of use. But both borrow usability from each other. I prefer SOLIDWORKS

Thanks for the offer, I've only been working with CAD for a few years so non of my work is that impressive but I'm enjoying experimenting with the program.

Totally agree. I primarily comes down to familiarity. Use what you already know. If you’re starting out then choose what is most mainstream. At this time that would be Solidworks.