Autodesk Inventor® Hardware Web Site

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Last Updated
04/25/2008
Autodesk Inventor® Hardware Web Site

Welcome to the Autodesk Inventor® Hardware Web Site. Please click on the appropriate option.

Autodesk Digital Protyping information

Important Inventor Information:

  1. ALERT: Defect Number 964180 [MS Intillipoint mouse driver 6.10.155.0 is not compatible with Inventor 2008 SP1 ] Please use the older 5.5 driver or no driver at all.
  2. Open Graphics issue:When using DX10 (Vista), lines that should be solid may appear dashed. If the object is rotated, the lines will change from dashed to solid, to dashed. Workaround: Switch to DX9. The graphics vendors are working on this.
    1. Nvidia does NOT have this issue.
    2. ATI is working on a new driver.
  3. New 2009:
    1. Vista 32 & 64 has DX 9 & 10 support. Inventor will automatically detect the level of hardware acceleration on your card.
    2. XP can use OpenGL or DX 9 (Default). XP-64 only uses DX9.
    3. All configurations have OpenGL software emulation.
  4. NEW 2008:
    1. Direct3D :
      1. When using Inventor 2008 or newer, with Direct3D 9 or newer, any Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) certified graphics driver is certified for use with Inventor; no additional Autodesk Inventor certification is necessary. Most drivers will still be posted here for your convenience
    2. OpenGL:
      1. OpenGL is supported only on Windows XP when using a Certified OpenGL Workstation card (such as a Quadro or FireGL card) with a driver from this web site.
        1. The card vendors design Workstation cards and drivers for applications such as CAD. They also test Inventor with every new driver. They do not support cards designed for the game market (such as Radeon and GeForce) for use with Inventor. As a result, Autodesk can not support game cards for OpenGL.
        2. New OpenGL Certifications are only available by request from webmaster because OpenGL is now a Legacy functionality with limited support.
          1. If you are forced to use OpenGL because of D3D problems, please report your problems, so they can be fixed. See Reporting Requirements for the information needed by the Inventor team.
      2. New certifications always apply to older versions of Inventor.
      3. A certification for a released product always applies to all following service packs.
      4. OpenGL also requires the latest graphics database update.
  5. Notebook users: If you do not find a driver on our site, please obtain the latest WHQL certified driver from your notebook vendor. When used with DirectX 9 Graphics, this is certified. Do not attempt to use drivers from any other source. This does not imply OpenGL certification.
  6. Inventor LT users: Please use Inventor 2008 settings, database & graphics drivers.
  7. When changing to a different graphics card, it is highly recommended that you un-install your current drivers before installing the new card.
  8. 3GB switch on XP or Vista32: The graphics vendors have re-structured their drivers to use more Operating System address space and less application address space. You may have to use the USERVA switch (i.e.. /USERVA=2800) to move the 3GB boundary down. When running up against this boundary, please limit Inventor to 1 graphics window. Do not run any other applications that are not required, as each application takes OS resources that may not be available.See FAQ page for more information

Card Certification
Autodesk, Inc. has tested many workstation graphic cards and driver configurations.
Search for a card to find information and downloads for Autodesk Inventor® certified drivers.

Certification and Workstation Comparison
The comparison page shows system test results for Autodesk Inventor® running on various Workstations.

Graphics Database Files
This enables Inventor to properly use the driver.The update is required for OpenGL. For Direct3D it contains only workarounds for the few card/driver combinations that have a problem. As soon as these are identified, they are usually fixed.

Frequently Asked Questions
The FAQ page deals with number of common problems and provides troubleshooting tips.
New: Best Practices for stable graphics and performance