Inventor vs ActCAD

AutoCAD

SolidWorks Premium

AutoCAD LT

Creo

progeCAD 2010 Professional

Designcenter Solid Edge

Compare Inventor and ActCAD based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

SolidWorks Premium is the leading 3D design solution in the industry. It seamlessly integrates powerful design tools-including industry-leading part, assembly, and drawing capabilities with built-in simulation, rendering, animation, product data management, and cost estimation. 

SolidWorks will help you get work done faster and easier than before, using innovative phases of product creation to achieve a more productive 3D design experience.

Creo is an engineering CAD software that helps businesses optimize the entire product lifecycle using augmented reality, real-time simulation, additive manufacturing, and generative designing methodologies from within a unified platform.

Designcenter Solid Edge provides businesses with a range of modeling and simulation tools to address all aspects of the product development process. The software portfolio covers electrical design, 3D design, computer aided manufacturing (CAM), 3D printing, simulation, data management, and more.

Inventor is a Windows-based 3D CAD software that assists in 3D modelling through mechanical design, documentation, and product simulation tools. Professionals can create custom design configurations and automate repetitive tasks.

2D Drawing

3D Design & Modeling

3D Imaging

Animation

Annotations

Bill of Materials Management

Bills of Material

BOM Creation

CAD Tools

Civil

Collaboration Tools

Component Library

Configuration Management

Content Library

Data Import/Export

Design Analysis

Document Management

Drag & Drop

Electrical

For Architects

For Manufacturers

Item Management

Manufacturing Design Data

Mechanical

Modeling & Simulation

Multiple Projects

Reporting/Analytics

Rules-Based Workflow

Secure Data Storage

Version Control

Inventor

Windows

Instructor

The price, for education, is great. Also, I am very impressed with the user interface and the ease of use.

Electrical Engineer

Only downside is it does crash sometimes for no reason when opening step files.

Student

Inventor is a perfect tool for mechanical drawings as well as 3D mechanical models. Document production is  a very important ability of Invetor.

We used it mainly for R&D, in which we find it usable with some features earning a 'good' and even a 'very good.

Engineering Sales and Marketing Member

Really great as the designers have the great experience using this and create the ideas into 3D models and drawings.

Graduate Research Assistant

The visualization and rendering options offered in a well-built user environment was appreciable. This was quite advantageous for exporting visually good outputs.

Project engineer

Has a great deal of value in using all inventor products. The PLM system integrated with engineer works great.

Research Assistant

The platform is very memory demanding, so running the application on multiple computers caused it to crash or slow down.

Virtual Design Construction Estimator

It creates cleaner lightmaps for objects than many other programs and the built-in render engine is actually surprisingly good, negating the need to export and render elsewhere, saving time.

Corrosion and Materials Engineer

Overall the experience has been great and Inventor is almost a necessity for anyone who works with cad drawings. All drafters and engineers will want to learn this.

It has a good subscription program which makes it easy to scale as you need licenses.

In other words, it helps take the complex and break it down to where a manufacturer can get on board easily and quickly.

Engineer

Ease of use and Vault integration. Makes file management easy.

Additive Manufacturing Engineer

The fact that Inventor is easy to use is a huge plus.

I did not like the fact that the program crashes a lot, i would like an autosave function so if if does crash you dont loose your work.

Privacy and Data Protection Consultant

It takes some time to get the look and feel of Inventor and to be able to exploit all differents functionalities.

Inventor screenshot: Inventor assemble

Inventor screenshot: Inventor 3D view

Inventor screenshot: Inventor data exchange

Inventor screenshot: Inventor edit rule

Inventor screenshot: Inventor assembly

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Small Business

AutoCAD is a design and drafting platform which supports automated design tasks and offers features such as 2D drafting, drawing and annotation, 3D modeling and visualization, and more.

progeCAD is a 2D drafting and 3D Modeling CAD software that provides architectural firms with various features such as file conversions, data import/export, multi-grip editing, data extraction, image correction and more.

AutoCAD LT 2D drafting software helps you create, edit and share your 2D drawings. It is specifically designed for small design teams working in the construction, architecture, engineering and manufacturing industries.

ActCAD is engineering designing software for drafting 2D drawings, layouts, sections, and other engineering related drawings. The platform allows teams to manage 2D CAD drafting in architectural engineering, interior design, mechanical engineering, road and site planning, civil engineering, and site development projects

3D Modeling

Access Controls/Permissions

Architectural Symbol Library

Audit Trail

BIM Modeling

Design Modeling

Design Templates

Drafting

For AEC Industry

Image Editing

Landscape Design

Mechatronics

Multiple File Format Support

Offline Access

Presentation Tools

Real-Time Updates

Rendering

Sketching and Annotation Tools

ActCAD

Mechanical Engineer

Also the best thing is that you can transfer your licences from computer to another anytime, this will help you about the quantity of the licences you will need.

Director

Sometimes the select window misbehaves by selecting all. The cut selection, block convert and paste function sometimes deletes the selection.

ACT CAD is as good as any industry-standard CAD software. 1st of all the best price is its price.

Architect

I really liked ActCAD and it is certainly a good alternative at a reasonable cost.

Director Business Development

Customer support is great and I love not be burdened by annual subscriptions.

Architectural Designer

Cost is by far one of the best things about this software. It allows me to do the same things I could've done in other big CAD tools.

Quality Engineer

ActCAD solves this problem and has more than enough features to complete its purpose. I have seen quick updates and upgrades, so I am hopeful that it will continue to improve.

interior

Its Very Useful in my working, easy to use, value of money. Its fulfil my all requirement.

AutoCAD very useful for engineering students. It is very easy way to drawing.

Owner

Constant lockups on brand new computer, paperspace layout generation extremely slow, too many macros needed rewriting. Added time for all this simply was too frustrating and time consuming.

General Manager

We do Detail engineering and it is very much helpful.

civil engineer

The interface is very familiar and the tools it has, help work faster and more efficient.

President

DWG files are compatible with all other autocad based software. The software has steadily gotten better with each release, as has tech support.

2ndly it is easy for AUTOCAD users to shift to this software as the interface is close to AUTOCAD. The interface is easy to use if you are its 1st time user.

Sometimes tend to slow down. Initially New commands were hard to find because there are many of them.

The fact that there are not many videos online and it's quite hard to find resources and answers at-hock.

Inventor vs ActCAD Comparison (2026)

Inventor

ActCAD

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives