FEA for slender material structures

One of the typical pain points in doing an FEA on long and thin models is that most automatic meshers will not create a mesh that will yield accurate results. A good example of this might be with trusses or similar structures.

Autodesk Algor includes a couple types of elements that can help us solve these situations. One is truss elements and the other is beam elements. These element types let us define the properties of the structural members in the design while only using line geometry to define the form.

Contributed by Ben of the Tata Technologies CAD Geeks.

CAD Geeks on the Road at AU 2009 - Part 1

This week a number of the CAD geeks will be in Las Vegas for AU 2009.

Please stop by the Tata Technologies booth #348 and say hello.

Below are just a few reasons to stop by our booth......for even more info and updates from AU consider becoming a Fan on Facebook

Tomorrow we will release more details of the Inventor CAD Geek Challenge you can do from your desk at work!

Electrical - In's and Out's of Surfer

The easiest way to move from reference to reference inside of electrical is taking advantage of the surfer command. This command has a lot more potential than you may use it for. Take a look at the video I put together of how surfer can be used.

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The definition - Moves from reference to reference across the project drawing set. You can surf on a component tag, catalog number, wire number, item number, or a report table cell containing any of these types of values.

Let's take a look!!!
http://www.screencast.com/t/NGU1OGNkZ
Created by Dave one of the Cad Geeks

All my favorite videos (Autodesk Manufacturing related)

If you have been following the CAD Geeks blog, there are probably some videos on YouTube that might interest you as well.

Autodesk has its own channel with many different playlists available. A few playlists that I have learned from are listed below.

Just make sure you switch to the "Player View" in the upper right after using one of these links.

Two minute tips in Inventor: http://www.youtube.com/user/autodesk#grid/user/5F0BF9F1949DCC2A
My favorite is the Direct parameter name editing two minute tip.

Lifecycles in Vault Workgroup: http://www.youtube.com/user/autodesk#grid/user/E90F2AD408C2ED29
This gives you a good idea of the lifecycle based security in Vault Workgroup and Collaboration.

Autodesk Inventor 2010 Demos: http://www.youtube.com/user/autodesk#grid/user/FB61F87E7D0D2DB4
Assorted vignettes of Inventor in action.

Inventor Ribbon Interface: http://www.youtube.com/user/autodesk#grid/user/B2E9B7E0943ABE53
How to get your hands around the new Ribbon interface.

Inventor Fusion Technology: http://www.youtube.com/user/autodesk#g/c/FBDEE001B06DC76C
Some technology I am looking forward to.

Contributed by Ben of the CAD Geeks

Panel Components - Mount and Group Codes

If you are a user of AutoCAD Electrical I am sure you are well aware of installation and location codes. If not a brief example is the ability to apply extra information to a schematic component to be used as a filter when generating reports, this is the most common example.

When we think about our Panel components we have two extra options available and that is the ability to add mount and group codes to our footprint data when working with panel layouts. They do not allow us to use them as a filter when generating reports for our panels but they do allow us to be use them as fields of information to be reported on when running a panel report for components inside of AutoCAD Electrical.

My example descriptions for each:

Mount - maybe a more defined location of a specific component like Back Plate, Left Side, Upper or Lower inside of a panel or control box.

Group - I think of this like being part of an assembly or kit inside of a design. Could be part of sequence of installation.

Again these are just my ideas please use as you will. Take a look at the short video below.

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Let's take a look!!!

http://www.screencast.com/t/N2M3NDAwMzY

Created by Dave one of the Cad Geeks