Use Work Features in Inventor, Part 2

Posted July 25, 2007

by Community Admin1

When you properly implement work features in Autodesk Inventor, you can create virtually any type of complex geometry through the use of 2D and 3D sketches. Part one of Use Work Features in Inventor, focused on workplanes; this time, we will discuss work axes.

Work axes

We normally think of a work axis as a straight object representing the centerline of a cylinder. However, you may create a work axis in virtually all geometry using various selection methods.

To follow along with the examples in this article, please make sure that you have downloaded the exercise files from part one of this series. If you have a copy of Inventor that is older than version 9, you will have to create examples similar to the ones provided. In your version of Inventor, you will open workplane1.IPT.

Creating a work axis by the point method

You may create an axis by selecting two vertex points on an object, as shown in Figure 1.

Creating a work axis by the face/line method

You may create a work axis by selecting the endpoint of the sketched line and a face. Alternatively, you may also select the sketch line to create the work axis. See Figure 2.

1. Create a sketch on the brown face of the example part. Draw a diagonal short line away from the origin. Finish the sketch.
2. Create a work axis by selecting an endpoint of the sketch line and then the desired face. Selecting a face perpendicular to the sketch will produce a different work axis.
3. You may also create a work axis by selecting the sketch line only.

Creating a work axis by the face/point method

You may create a work axis perpendicular to a planar face, intersecting with a point, by selecting the vertex point and then the face. See Figure 3.

Creating an in-line work axis

You create an in-line work axis by selecting edges, vertex points, and faces in conjunction with using the right click in-context menus available within the work axis command. In the illustration in Figure 4, if you select the top edge (1) before you right click, you will create a work axis on the selected edge. However, if you right click and select Create Plane before selecting the edge, you can continue to select faces points and edges to create the desired work axis in the proper location.

Create a work axis by selecting options from the right click menu.

1. With the work axis command active, right click and select Create Plane. Pick the top front facing edge.
2. Select the front curved face as shown below.
3. Select the midpoint of the curved edge of the same face.
4. The work axis is created perpendicular to the brown face at the midpoint of the arc at the top of the face.

Notes: For more information on the potential options that you may encounter when dealing with work axes check out the excellent video tutorials within the Inventor 2008 help files. You can also view the videos on work axis creation and explore all of the available options for work feature creation within the Inventor help files.

The final part of this three-article series will explore the work point options and describe how to combine all three work features to provide total control over work feature creation and placement in Inventor.

Dennis Jeffrey is an Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert, Autodesk Implementation Certified Expert, and a five-year instructor at Autodesk University. He is the author of Creative Design With Mechanical Desktop and Creative Design With Autodesk Inventor, and a new book is scheduled for Spring 2008. He is releasing an online version of Creative Design With Inventor 2008 in September 2007.

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