I have been using Inventor 4 for about 4 months. I have been seeing propaganda on 7. What exactly is different in version 7 and did they fix the memory gobbleing problems? Have they made parameters accessable across parts yet?
It's been a while since I saw V4, but you can transfer parameters across parts by ticking the check box next to the parameter in the parameter window and then deriving the part with the parameters you need into another part. Just don't import any of the geometry or surfaces unless you want them too.
I still don't have V7 yet (waiting on IT to install, but it includes a large number of features not included in V4. Weldements, decals, text embossing and engraving etc just to name a few. V6 ran slower than 5.3 for most people (myself included) and from what I hear on the newsgroup V7 has addressed many of the slow down issues. I don't think V7 has any new features over V6 and the files are interchangable between those two versions.
I've installed I7 and have been having some problems with total program crashes in assemblies, I'm talking connstraining the first (2) parts. It maybe something I'm doing wrong but I cannot figure it out. Others have been reporting the same problem. Thank goodness for groups like these. I guess I'll be calling Adesk for their money gobbleing support to figure this one out. I'm sure others are having no problems but this has been my experience. V6 had a video issue in its .idw files (at least for me). I called ADesk $65 dollar support and they couldn't solve the problem. They didn't charge for that particular call....How nice.