Happy voting!

When creating Inventor drawings, there is a great way to bring over 2D sketch information from the Inventor model. This works well if you have something like text represented on your Inventor model and want to see also have it visible in the Inventor drawing view.

To do this, open a part or an assembly and create a sketch with some text or draw a rectangle. Save the part and create a drawing with a drawing view of the component.

In the browser locate the view that you want the sketch to be visible in and expand the view to show the part or assembly that has the sketch.

Right click on the part or assembly and select "Get Model Sketches" to expose the visible sketches.

Thats it - you will now see all of the visible sketches for that part or assembly. You will also notice it shows them in the browser and you can turn off sketches that you aren't interested in seeing.

Take a look at what you can do with it.

Those of you that have an iPhone of iPod Touch may have enjoyed a previous post concerning the new SketchBook Mobile application available on iTunes. I received an email last week from one of our tech guys concerning a YouTube video he put together to show how you can use it with the Mobile SketchBook  application. I thought it was very interesting workflow and wondered if any of you found this type of workflow useful.

Take a look at this video and think of ways you might be able to use it.

Today is Windows 7 launch day and recently I have received questions almost daily if we will have Windows 7 support for Inventor 2010. I am happy to announce that a press release went out today regarding this.

Effective today, Autodesk will support customers using nine products including AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD LT 2010 and the Autodesk Inventor 2010 family of software, on Windows 7.

For the 2010 product line, Autodesk will support nine products on Windows 7. These products are Autodesk Inventor 2010, Autodesk Inventor LT 2010, AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD LT 2010, AutoCAD Architecture 2010, AutoCAD Electrical 2010, AutoCAD Mechanical 2010, AutoCAD MEP 2010 and Autodesk Algor Simulation 2010 software. Autodesk will support Windows 7 for most of its other products as updated versions are released.

The Autodesk Subscription Advantage Pack for Inventor® 2010 is now available in English with more languages to follow shortly. This set of enhancements offer new productivity tools, improved support for architectural fabrication, and easier-to-use simulation capabilities. 

New and improved tools simplify common tasks, such as dimensioning, inserting blocks, and multi-view creation, helping to boost everyday productivity. With more architecturally relevant content, annotations, and drawing options for designing architectural elements, Subscription customers can more easily share designs and documentation with clients and suppliers in the architectural, engineering, and construction industries.

In addition, the powerful simulation tools in Autodesk® Inventor® software have been enhanced to make it easier for users create and validate multiple design iterations. Simulation scenario setups have been streamlined, and the visual feedback and simulation results are now clearer and more customizable.

If you have an active subscription account, head over to the Subscription Center and pull down the Advantage Pack for Inventor 2010.

To see it in action, check out the YouTube video of our own infomercial king (Rob Cohee).

Did you know you can bring in an AutoCAD block into a sketch and keep it a block? Did you know if you had an AutoCAD nested block that it can be placed into Inventor as a nested block? Why would you do this you ask?

Let's take a look at the work flow and I think the last question will answer itself. First let's take a look at a concept layout from AutoCAD that is a block. I have three blocks (base, hinge & arm) that make up a block called assy.

Ideally I want to bring this into an Inventor part sketch and eventually turn it into a working assy. First select the AutoCAD block and RMB to select copy, then head over to Inventor to paste it. Start by RMB and select "Paste" and immediately RMB again to select "Paste Options".

Check the "AutoCAD Blocks to Inventor Blocks" so this it will keep them as a block in the Inventor sketch.

If you look in the Inventor browser you will see that it has brought over the same blocks nested together just as they were in AutoCAD.

From here you can add 2D constrains and see how this will move as an assembly before extruding anything. When it comes time to turn it into an assembly you just need to select "Make Components" from the sketch tab in the ribbon.

For those of you that will be attending Autodesk University (AU) this year, the Inventor Product Management team will be hosting a listening session and need your feedback. This session will be held Monday Nov. 30 at 1:00 and we are looking for several more Inventor users to attend.

We will be selecting 15 individuals to present future concepts to and ask for your feedback to help guide the direction of future Inventor development. If you will be attending AU 2009 and will be in Las Vegas Nov 30, please create / update your profile on the Customer Feedback Portal and complete the short AU Listening Session survey.

To access the survey, click on the link below.  If you have previously registered with the Autodesk Feedback Community, simply login using your username and password to be directed to the survey.  If you have not already registered, you must first create a user account.

https://beta.autodesk.com/callout/apply.html?callid={C5E83117-6722-4C12-A737-411CA3958F95}

I hope to see you there!

There are some great hidden shortcuts in Inventor that many of you probably aren't aware of. Many of these shortcuts have  been in the product since the early days of Inventor so they aren't tied to only newer versions of Inventor. Many of these shortcuts use the Shift, Ctrl or Alt key in carious environments. Take a look at the latest podcast and as usual, send feedback.

Don't forget to head over to iTunes if you want to subscribe and download these automatically when a new episode is available.

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Don't forget to leave feedback by adding a comment to this post or email me.

For all of you Mac users out there, Autodesk recently announced we will now support use of AutoCAD software, AutoCAD LT software, Autodesk Inventor Professional software, Autodesk 3ds Max software, Autodesk 3ds Max Design software and the Autodesk Revit software platform for building information modeling (BIM) on Mac OS X via Parallels Desktop. Autodesk added official support for these products on the Mac via Boot Camp earlier this year.

Head on over to the press release for more information.