Getting started with Mechanical Desktop

[LoisLaneUS]

I've used Architectural Desktop, Land Desktop and regular AutoCAD. I'm not being switched over to Mechanical Desktop because it's bundled with Inventor that everyone is being switched to, at my company. I need some tips and tricks and how it differs. Help?!

[JD Mather]

There is a rather good and lengthy book on getting started with MDT on your hard drive. Search for pdf files. If you can't find it holler back and I'll search for the exact name and location.

Having said that my next suggestion would be to not waste your time learning MDT. MDT has not been sold by Autodesk for several years (count the number of MDT threads here or the number of recent threads on the Autodesk website) and has seen next to no development during that time. It would take a substantial effort to learn the program. You would be better off using that time and effort learning a modern MCAD program like Inventor. Unfortunately the Autodesk documentation for Inventor is not nearly as comprehensive as the MDT documentation.
And if you try to use AutoCAD/MDT methods with Inventor you are going to be very frustrated. I strongley sugggest training.

I have found the AUGI website to be primarily AutoCAD and relatively little traffic. Go to http://discussion.autodesk.com for far more active support. You would seldom have to wait 90 minutes for an answer to an Inventor question rather than 9 days.