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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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What's New with Inventor 2009 (Article 1)
February 29, 2008 04:10 PMby Garin GardinerArticle #1 Sketch ProductivityAutodesk Inventor 2009 offers significant increases in productivity especially in the core design tools that many of you use every day. We’ve listened to you when we put this release together and these improvements are a direct result of your input. One great example is the sketching environment.It’s widely accepted that parametric sketching is an excellent mechanism for capturing design intent. It turns otherwise dumb lines, arcs and circles into intelligent objects that relate to each other through dimensions and constraints. Because of this intelligence, users save valuable time when they need to modify the Digital Prototype.
Since many of you spend a significant part of your time in the sketching environment we continue to invest in making their experience easier and more productive. Key enhancements include:
- New Degrees of Freedom display that uses red arrows to show the how each sketch element can still move if additional constraints are not added to the sketch
- Enhanced Trim and Extend tools that simplify operations in complex sketches
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New streamlined constraint icons that greatly reduce on-screen visual clutter
AutoCAD-style sketching in Inventor
But what if you’re still experimenting with different designs concepts?Adding too many constraints too early in the design process can sometimes limit productivity as users spend more time modifying constraints and less time exploring different design options. This is one of the reasons many users like to do concept design in AutoCAD.Constraint Options in Inventor 2009With Inventor 2009, you can now choose when and how to use constraints. Technically referred to as Constraint Inference and Persistence, this change simply means that you can now control whether to use the constraint engine while sketching and whether or not the resulting constraints are saved with the sketch. Users moving to Inventor from AutoCAD can start simple and progress to full parametric sketching as soon as they are ready.
More to come later!
Garin
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Frame Generator Tools (Video Podcast Episode 21)
February 21, 2008 05:51 PMby Garin Gardiner
Wednesday February 20, 2008 - Episode 21 Podcast Show Notes
This episode we create frame members with Frame Generator inside of Autodesk Inventor 2008. We cover the ability to use 2D and 3D sketches as well as solid geometry. I also sneak in a few enhancements to Frame Generator inside Inventor 2009.
Zune - coming soon
Don't forget to leave feedback by adding a comment to this post or email me.8 Comments | Add CommentIn In the Machine > Podcast, Autodesk Inventor
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Parameter Linking and Tolerance
February 20, 2008 01:16 PMby Garin Gardiner
I wanted to cover a few tips this post that will cover linking parameters from one part to another (great for skeleton modeling) and show how your model can update with tolerance. Let's take a look at how we can easily link parameters from one part to another. First we will create a part that has a few parameters in it that we want to use in a second part. Notice I have a parameter called ID and OD and I have selected Export Parameter.
You can then select a second part and activate Parameters to link various parameters from the original part. Select the link button, change the file type to ipt / iam and select the part you want to link the parameters from.
You have now linked the parts together so any change to the first parts parameters will update any part you have linked the parameters into. Now lets add tolerance to the model one part at a time. Notice the two parts assembled together before I apply any tolerance to the model.
I want to apply tolerance to each part and set the upper/lower tolerances in the 3D model to detect any interferences. Edit a part you want tolerance applied to and edit one of its sketches. Select the dimension you want the tolerance applied to and right click to select Dimension Properties. From here you can apply the type of tolerance and the actual value for each dimension. In the following example I have applied a tolerance to two dimensions.
Once I have set up my model with the various tolerances, I can then adjust the model to the min/max of the tolerance per component to make sure I won't have interference issues. While in the assembly I will activate one of the parts and activate the Parameters dialog. Notice I have the option to adjust each dimension individually or globally to the Upper, Median, Nominal and Lower tolerance. I will set my first part to Lower and my second part to Upper to see clashes in my design with these tolerances.
Nominal Setting
Upper tolerance on inner cylinder and Lower tolerance on outer cylinder
This won't solve all of you tolerance issues although this is a great tool to manage a handful of components that you are concerned about.
Enjoy!
Garin
2 Comments | Add CommentIn In the Machine > Autodesk Inventor, Tips, All
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World Press Day - Inventor 2009
February 13, 2008 12:15 AMby Garin Gardiner
Want to see what was going on at World Press Day? Today several of us were showing new features to the press and I wanted to share a little of what they were able to see. I am sure you will hear more the next few days about more of the new features in our design products so keep an ear out.
For more information take a look at a few posts from Autodesk World Press Day.
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/
Enjoy!
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Are You a Student with Great Ideas?
February 7, 2008 11:00 AMby Garin Gardiner
If you are a student and would like to build something, take a look at the latest challenge. You never know, you could win an Xbox 360, full version of Maya 2008 and more. Hop on over the Student Challenge site for more details to download software and start designing.
www.autodesk.com/buildsomething
0 Comment | Add CommentIn In the Machine > Announcements, Autodesk, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Inventor Professional, News
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Help Make Simulation Better!!
February 6, 2008 11:11 PMby Garin GardinerThe other day I was talking to our Simulation Product Manager (Ravi Akella) and he was just finishing up a survey to collect information to help the simulation team know what many of you are looking for in a simulation package. As many of you may remember, Autodesk acquired PlassoTech in August 2007 in order to enhance the simulation and optimization capabilities in Inventor. Our goal is to make it easier than ever to simulate, optimize and validate a complete digital prototype.
If you presently use a simulation package or would like to in the future, take a few minutes (really) to fill out this quick survey to help us create the most capable and easy to use tools for Digital Prototyping.
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Beta 3 Available
February 4, 2008 11:08 AMby Garin Gardiner
For those of you have been beta testing the next release of Inventor, Beta 3 past posted on Friday. If you are participating in beta testing, head on over to "My Feedback Portal" and pull down the latest beta. For those of you that want to become a beta test take a look at an earlier post to sign up.
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