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In The Machine is the official blog of the Inventor Product Management Team. It is a way for us to share Inventor news, interesting information about successful Inventor customers and partners as well as tips and tricks. From time to time we’ll also use the blog to solicit feedback from users via surveys. This blog is hosted by Garin Gardiner our Technical Marketing Manager.
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Antique Machinery
June 30, 2006 12:21 PMbyOn my recent vacation to Alaska I couldn't help but notice some of the 100 plus year old mining, logging and railway equipment. Much of it was cast iron and had developed a deep rusty color that was a stark contrast to the lush green environment. And most of it had largely been discarded in favor of more modern methods. Of course my kids had fun just climbing all over it.
Here is a water canon that was used to soften the earth so the dredging equipment below could be used.
One picture I wish I had snapped was of a big screen TV sitting in a plywood box inside a decommissioned lumber mill. It played a movie on the lumber industry in Alaska. The contrast was a bit hard to take.
-Amy
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Inventor in China
June 29, 2006 09:58 PMbySeveral members of our China team visted our Oregon offices recently and shared with us a great competition that Autodesk sponsors with the Chinese government.
This was the third "Autodesk Inventor" Cup Machinery Innovative Design Contest for Colleges and Universities in Beijing and was held at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology from June 10 to 11, 2006. This Competition was hosted by the Beijing Ministry of Education and sponsored by the Autodesk China. This contest aims to help college students learn about cooperation, improve their creative design skills, and engineering practice. One unique twist is that the students have to build an actual prototype of their invention. Entries were also focused on 'health and loving care'.
This pictures says it all.![Infosys_TopStory_Mao[1].jpg](http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/files/blog/amy/images2/Infosys_TopStory_Mao%5B1%5D.jpg)
-Amy
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Dynamically Edit 3D Splines
June 27, 2006 10:07 PMby Garin GardinerWhenever I make 3D splines I often need to adjust them to get the shape I want. I will frequently insert extra points into the spline and make the necessary adjustments. I use to use the 3D Move/Rotate command by selecting the point and right clicking to get a context menu with 3D Move Rotate. This works fine although you don't get a preview of the spline when you move the point this way.
I discovered a better way to do the same thing although I am able to get a preview of the spline. Select the point you want to move and right click to get the context menu. You can then select the Bowtie option and turn on the Handle. With the handle on select the same point and right click to get the context menu, now you can select Edit 3D Bowtie. You will see the same triad although now when you drag the point around you will see a preview of the updated spline.
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Success with 3D Webcast
June 15, 2006 02:29 PMbyOn Friday June 23rd we are participating in a webcast with Cadalyst editors Robert Green, Jeff Rowe and Bill Fane. They will be joined by one of our customers - Larry Schester a mechanical design supervisor at Gefit Livernois. They will be discussing their experiences using 3D and their success using Autodesk Inventor. My blogging partner Garin Gardiner will also be on hand for some audience Q&A. More information can be found here: www.cadalyst.com/successwith3D.
This webcast is actually a follow up to a supplement on moving to 3D that we did with Cadalyst, also called success with 3D. In this sort of mini-magazine, Lynn Allen discusses the process of moving to 3D and three different Inventor customer success stories are discussed. There is an e-version of the supplement on-line here: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/cadalyst0306adsup/index.php
-Amy
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Inventor Podcasts from Latin America
June 15, 2006 10:01 AMbyJeferson Stutz (one of my favorite Autodesk AE's and an accomplished musican) has started creating Podcasts. Of course they are in Portuguese so I couldn't quite understand all the content, but if you do you should be sure to check they out. They will feature weekly news about the Manufacturing market including AutoCAD, AutoCAD Mechanical, Mechanical Desktop, AutoCAD Electrical, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Inventor Professional, Functional Design, Vault, ProductStream and Streamline. Cad, technology, music and everything else between.
Just so you get an idea of how much fun Jeferson is and how passionate he is about Inventor... imagine him sky diving holding an Inventor box- I just can't locate the actual picture right now.
I'm slated to go to Brazil in August so I guess I had better brush up on my Portuguese.
-Amy
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Building Energy with Inventor
June 14, 2006 09:45 PMby Garin GardinerThis past weekend I was watching a few of my recorded shows on Media Center and was pleasantly surprised when I saw a 3D model in Inventor on the Discovery channel. I was watching the "City in a Pyramid" episode from Extreme Engineering where they are talking about building a city in a huge pyramid structure off the coast of Tokyo right on the ocean (this would be no small task).
City in a Pyramid
The small city would hold over 700,000 people and one of the big challenges is finding enough energy to maintain the city since it is in short supply in Tokyo already. One idea they came up with was to harness energy from the ocean to power the city. They had a quick video of a machine that a company had designed in Inventor that would transfer the energy from waves to electricity.
Wave machine in Inventor
If you get a chance to see a re-run, it is well worth the watch.
Garin
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Inventor Wish List Polls are Open
June 14, 2006 01:42 PMbyFor last few months we have been collecting wishes from our users via the new AUGI Inventor Wish List. Over 240 wish submissions have been received so far and now it is time to put them to a ballot to be voted on by the membership of AUGI. The voting is already in progress and will go on until the end of June. Going forward we'll vote 3 times a year and the results will be officially given to Autodesk at Autodesk University during AUGI's annual meeting.
If you are already a member of AUGI you can get to the ballot here:
http://www.augi.com/inventor/ballot.asp
And if you aren't, here is the link to join AUGI - it's free and only takes a minute
http://www.augi.com/join/default.asp
This is a great way to participate in the feedback process. So please get in there and vote for your favorite wish list submissions.
-Amy
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Back from My Alaska Vacation
June 13, 2006 11:19 PMbyWell I am finally almost caught up on laundry but way behind on my blog posts. I took another vacation- this time a week long cruise up the Inner Passage to Alaska. It was fantastic. We've never been on a cruise before and it really made me think that maybe in my next life I could be a travel writer and blog from all over the world - how much fun would that be!
I'd never been on a cruise or to Alaska and recommend it highly. We took the kids and it was also a great family vacation. For example here are my kids eating ice cream in the hot tub while my husband and I enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Something for everyone! Alaska is truly fascinating - so much culture and history - so few people and so much LAND.
We took a ride on a narrow gage railroad built in 1898. It's in Skagaway and is called the White Pass and Yukon Route. It was basically created originally to bring people to the Yukon territory in Canada following the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. Unfortunately when they got there most of the rush was over. It goes up 2865 feet and is just stunning. Hard to believe it was built with hand axes, hand-held drill bits, and horse drawn scrapers. The tunnels were a bit erie and thankfully we did not have to travel over the ancient trestle pictured below.
I took literally hundreds of photos and none do this beautiful land justice. I'll post more later after I catch up on some of the Inventor news that's been happening.
-Amy