Best 3D render software for constraints within Inventor

[BrandManagement]

Context: I am involved in marketing and brand management and currently use KeyShot to render still images and animations for use on our website and in marketing content. (I have next to no experience in the 3D modelling side of the 3D animation work I do)

The issue I am finding is that KeyShot’s animation feature is very ‘linear’ and I find my self having to animate lots of parts separately to create what is, in real life at least, one smooth motion - I have seen my colleague play around with a 3D model of our product in inventor and can see that he is able to interact with the product and it behaves as it would in real life (referring mostly to hinges and dynamic/complex pivot points).

Question: Is there a 3D animation software where the model can inherit the interactiveness I have seen in Inventor? Making it easy, for example, for me to animate a 3D model of a bi-folding door (Example: opening cycle from 0:50 - 1:15 in this video -

)

As you can see that animation would be near impossible to get exactly right if I had to animate each panel, part and hinge separately, so I assume an answer to my problem lies some where out there? - any insight into this would be appreciated

 

[Alex Glawion]

There are many ways you can set up such rigs. I'm not entirely sure how your friend did it in inventor, but software such as Cinema 4D, Maya, 3dsmax, Blender etc all have options to rig something like this either through constraints/modifiers, or straight up armatures with IK chains (which is easily set up in just a few minutes and would solve the double door hinge seen in the video).

If you're looking to do this through actual physical collision sim (what I would expect from your "real life" note) I fear although this might work it's mostly jittery and not as easy to control as the other methods mentioned above.

I'd be curious how your friend did it in inventor, though, care to share a screengrab?