Autodesk Inventor System Requirements and Optimize Performance Settings

Challenge

In order to run Autodesk Inventor 2010 what system requirements do I need and are there settings I can adjust for optimal performance.
 

Solution

For general part and assembly design (typically fewer than 1,000 parts):

• Microsoft® Windows Vista® (SP1) (32-bit or 64-bit) Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate Operating System(1,2,3)or  Windows® XP Professional (SP2 and SP3) or Professional x64 Edition (SP2) Operating System(1,2,3)
• Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, 2 GHz or faster, Intel® Xeon™, Intel® Core™, AMD Athlon™ 64, AMD Opteron™, or later(4)
• 2 GB RAM minimum(5)
• Direct3D10, Direct3D 9 or OpenGL capable graphics card(6,7)
• DVD-ROM drive(8)
• Microsoft Mouse compliant pointing device
• 1280 x 1024 or higher screen resolution
• Internet connection for web downloads and Subscription-aware access
• Adobe® Flash® Player 10(9)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 through 7.0
• Microsoft Excel 2003 through 2007 for iComponents, thread customization, and spreadsheet-driven designs

For complex models and large assemblies (typically more than 1,000 parts), Autodesk recommends a system meeting the following specifications:

• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (SP2) or Windows Vista 64-bit (SP1)
• AMD64 or Intel® 64 processor
• 6 or more GB RAM
• CAD workstation-capable graphics card

Notes

(1) For installations of Inventor 2010 with local content libraries and/or Autodesk Vault 2010 access. Please see the Autodesk Data Management system requirements for remote server installations for sharing content libraries and/or Vault data between multiple-users.

(2) Inventor 2010 and AutoCAD Mechanical 2010 applications are each provided both as 32-bit applications and as 64-bit applications for installation and use on the corresponding operating system only. Autodesk Vault Explorer 2010 is a 32-bit application for installation and use on either a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system. (Both) The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of these applications are all provided together on the installation media.

(3) Autodesk Inventor/AutoCAD Mechanical design applications and Autodesk Vault must all be the same language on a given computer. English versions of these applications will run on any language operating system. Versions of these applications in other languages will run on operating systems of that same language.

(4) Autodesk Inventor 2010 has been optimized to take advantage of the SSE2 extended instruction sets supported on Pentium 4, AMD Athlon 64, and AMD Opteron processors. Inventor 2010 will not install on computers that do not support SSE2. Several utilities are available on the Internet that report CPUID, including supported instructions sets.

(5) Autodesk recommends settings that allow Microsoft Windows to manage virtual memory, as needed. There should always be at least twice as much free hard disk space as system memory (RAM).

(6) Please refer to the Autodesk published graphics card information.

(7) OpenGL graphics hardware acceleration is available only in legacy feature support mode by Microsoft for Windows XP Professional only. Direct 3D is not recommended for use with Windows XP 32-bit with the 3GB memory switch on.

(8) Inventor 2010 is available only on DVD media (or electronic download in some situations). CD media is no longer available. DVD-ROM drive is not required if installing using electronic download. However to accommodate the installation files, you will need 9 GB of hard disk space and an additional 16 GB of space for temporary files created during the installation.

(9) The multimedia learning components of the Inventor Help system require that you have Adobe Flash Player 10 installed. If it's not already installed, download it from the Adobe website.

Optimize Performance Settings:

• Swap file size – Set the swap file size both minimum and maximum to double the amount of RAM you have.  (To locate your Swap File Size go to Start>Control Panel>System>Advanced Tab>Performance Options>Select Change.)
• Graphics Card – If you are using an existing graphics card make sure that it is certified and that the driver is on the certified list.  Of course if you are not experiencing any issues I would not suggest any updates of the driver.  For more general information regarding graphics card information visit here.
• Display – Disable any screen savers and remove any desktop images.

What KETIV is using for laptops:

Dell Precision M90
Intel CoreDuo T2300E, 1.66GHz 667Mhz 2MB L2 Cache, Dual Core
4 GB of RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M
80 GB Hard drive
Windows XP Pro

Of course this might not answer all your questions so if you are a KETIV client, we will be happy to answer any other questions you may have at  866.465.3848.

For printable pdf version click here.