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(continued...) A graphical dialog and model preview aid the creation of inter-component constraints.
Partially constrained components can be dragged within their remaining degrees of freedom for interactive motion.
The drive constraint tool allows a single constraint to be stepped through a sequence of values to simulate motion.
Animated exploded views can be generated using integrated key framing tools.
Each explode step or 'tweak' is accessible for editing from the browser with movement trails that can be toggled on or off.
Once an exploded view has been constructed it can be saved out as an AVI animation or used as a drawing view.
Multiple presentation views can be created for each assembly but rather than being saved in the assembly file itself they are saved to a stand alone presentation file, thus increasing the number of associative files further.
The Design Assistant is available to help manage design files within Inventor or externally including options for 'where used' searches.
The Link Manager is used to minimise the risk of broken parts or lost dependencies when it is necessary to move, rename, or copy files.
There is however an unnecessary AutoCAD feel to the need to set paths for referenced files to be found within a model.
Microsoft's NetMeeting is supported in order to be able to create a remote on line meeting to collaboratively manipulate a model even if the other parties to the meeting do not have an Inventor license.
The second release of Inventor is more capable but still does not offer the complex 3D sketching or surface capabilities of the leading design centric modellers.
Being a less mature product the less obvious functionality such as the ability to write an STL file for rapid prototyping from an assembly is missing.
If Autodesk truly do need a non AutoCAD modelling platform, Inventor has probably been launched just in time to prevent defection while ground is made up.
In the meantime, Inventor does offer some Mechanical Desktop integration benefits but the trade off against the more extensive modelling capabilities elsewhere will largely be a matter of personal preference.