SolidThinking Inspire is a design optimization analysis software that allows makers, product designers, and architects optimize their design for structural efficiency thus cutting cost and design time. The interface is very simple and easy to use the software doesn’t have a steep learning curve so beginners can be up and running in hours. SolidThinking Inspire comes packed with tools like Motion, Topology Optimization, Partition tools and much more that allows its user to easily and effectively optimize their designs. SolidThinking Inspire is currently owned by Altair Engineering, Inc.

Learning SolidThinking Inspire is an asset for designers and makers as it’ll help them optimize their designs without the need for an intensive design optimization process, it’s worth noting that Fusion 360 has a new feature for design optimization but it’s still in “preview” for now.

The aim of this post is to present and compare between free online sources that beginners can rely on to learn SolidThinking Inspire, the sources stated here are full-structured courses that beginners can follow along.

If you just want the bottom line (the road map to learn SolidThinking Inspire) and you don’t wish to read the entire article then go to the “Bottom Line” section at the end of the article.

Getting Started with SolidThinking Inspire from Scratch

Altair Website

Altair Website is the first free online outlet where beginners can start learning SolidThinking Inspire through video tutorials, you don’t have to register to have access to the training.

Structure: The training is just one webinar but it’s divided into 20 sections, each section covers an aspect of the software.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just select the section you’re interested in and the video will jump right to it.

Now the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The training is well-structured and organized for complete beginners.

Cons

1. The training covers an old release of the software though that won’t be a problem for complete beginners.

Verdict: This is an excellent free online outlet where beginners can start learning to use SolidThinking Inspire through video tutorials.

Eleation YouTube Channel

Eleation YouTube Channel is the second free online outlet where beginners can start learning SolidThinking Inspire through video tutorials.

Structure: The training is divided into 14 video lessons, each video lesson covers a certain aspect of SolidThinking Inspire.

Interface: Standard YouTube interface.

Now the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The training is well-structured and organized for complete beginners.

Cons

1. The training covers an old release of the software, though that won’t a problem for complete beginners.

Verdict: This is the best free online outlet where beginners can start learning to use SolidThinking Inspire through video tutorials.

SolidThinking Website

SolidThinking Website is the third free online outlet where beginners can start learning SolidThinking Inspire through a text-based tutorial, you don’t have to register to have access to the training.

Structure: The training is divided into 8 sections, each section covers certain tools and techniques in SolidThinking Inspire, there are some videos inside the text tutorials to give you an example of how the tool/technique works.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just click on the section you’re interested in and then select the lesson from that section and you’ll be directed to the page where the lesson resides.

Now the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The training is well-structured and organized for complete beginners.
3. The training covers the latest release of the software (2017 at the time of writing this post).

Cons

1. This is a text training which might be a problem for those who prefer video lessons.

Verdict: This is the best free online outlet where beginners can start learning to use SolidThinking Inspire through a text-based tutorial.

Bottom Line

The recipe for learning to use SolidThinking Inspire:

1. Eleation YouTube Channel is the best outlet for beginners to start learning SolidThinking Inspire through video tutorials.
2. SolidThinking Website is the best outlet for beginners to start learning SolidThinking Inspire through a text-based tutorial.

Remember that the first step is always the toughest step, and the aim of this post is to provide you with resources that will help you take your first step in learning to use SolidThinking Inspire.