Autodesk Inventor
Shares rank 19 of 27 CAD software by recommenders
People recommend Inventor for its good constraint solvers and for being easier for beginners to pick up.
People recommend Inventor for its good constraint solvers and for being easier for beginners to pick up.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good constraint solvers
“Autodesk Inventor, Fusion, etc. have good constraint solvers.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Parametric CAD in Rust” “constraints meant that I didn't need to do this at all”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “OpenSCAD is kinda neat”
Other CAD software people recommend
The four most recommended other CAD software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeCAD | 199 | 95 | 68% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| OpenSCAD | 173 | 87 | 66% | 12 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
| Onshape | 65 | 21 | 76% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Autodesk Fusion 360 | 60 | 37 | 62% | 12 | — | — |
| Autodesk InventorThis page | 7 | 2 | 78% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Solidworks, Fusion, Inventor etc still outclass FreeCAD”
“Inventor -> Easily outclassed by NX/SolidEdge, Solidworks/CATIA and Creo”
“Inventor has Spur Gear Component Generator”
“Autodesk Inventor, Fusion, etc. have good constraint solvers.”
“which I find to be far easier for beginners to pick up”
“constraints meant that I didn't need to do this at all”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.