In view of the problems existing in the traditional design method for the plane lift gate,such as complicated process,time-consuming and laborious,tedious change and inefficiency,we take the plane lift gate in the shiplock and waterway engineering of Cao’e River as an example to probe into the application of Autodesk Inventor in the establishment of three-dimensional model,the generation of mechanism transmission animation,the inspection of structure interference,the display of the center of gravity of the gate,and the two-dimensional engineering drawing. The result shows that the application of Autodesk Inventor software in the practical engineering can greatly shorten the design cycle,improve the design efficiency and accuracy,and may guide the design of other types of gates.