"Anybody have any experience with autodesk and converting or would I be better off using a different program?"
over the past 20 years ive used a multitude of 3d progs, such as solidworks, inventor and pro engineer. I used proe for over 12 years and along with others, ran the scottish proe user group for a couple of years.
however, my favourite is inventor by a country mile....
it doesnt have the power of proe, proe is the most powerful by far... however the inventor user interface is excellent. real easy for new guys or people converting to it from one package
try using inventor and go to solidworks/proe and it can be painful..
solidworks feels a little too clunky for me,,, it feels like its been fudged together and loads of features just added together with no thought of the usability of the overall package..not sure if i am describing it the best,.. it just feels wrong... i know it here as cartoon cad, some call it cornflake cad.
inventor is my prog of choice and I have all three at home. however, everyone will have their favourite, its what your used to i guess, I just try and avoid solidworks these days.