More Generators

Although I've been doing a series on Design Accelerators, I wanted to touch on another aspect of auto creation and workflow with the Frame Generator. Today we'll take a look at why it's useful and time saving to create a frame in the context of an assembly using this tool. I'll point out a few things like using projected geometry to act as the skeleton and how you can quickly and easily make updates with your model staying intact....

WATCH VIDEO HERE

John with the INCAT CAD Geeks

Frame Generator - Out of the Box

Here is a little video about how to use tools in Inventor, such as Frame Generator, in a way that may not be apparent at first glance. Here I'm going to create the bracket shown at right by using Frame Generator tools. By thinking slightly out of the box, you may be able to use the tools you have in a manner that fits your design worflows.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

John with the INCAT CAD Geeks

Wouldn’t it be great to use custom shapes with Frame Generator?

Well now you can with a simple download utility available at http://labs.autodesk.com/.
If you have not visited this site it’s a must. There are many great utilities available for your use. Today I will cover the steps it takes to add your custom content to your Frame Generator library. So if you’re in need to work with extruded shapes or just unique shapes watch and learn how simple it is when using the customization tool. I will start with the shape of choice, constrained in my sketch and extruded noting which parameters/dimensions may need to be altered when selecting our material size using Frame Generator. Then I will proceed with the use of the customization tool to capture and define my new shape.

Check out my video of how to do this.

http://screencast.com/t/U8PwPs1c

Enjoy,

Dave Another one of the INCAT CAD Geeks

Working with Frame Generator Bill of Materials

Anytime I work with customers using the frame generator tool inside Inventor I am asked how to customize the information being displayed. An example of this would be that your company requires the part number to be the stock number and that you also need to display the total length of a given object for that part number. Today you maybe manually entering a part number and maintaining the proper length this can be time-consuming and error-prone task. With the use of simple expressions inside the Bill of Materials dialog box these task are made simple and automatic. The following illustrations show the before and after.

Check out my video of how to do this.

http://screencast.com/t/NpiyyU6yXh
Enjoy,

Dave Another one of the INCAT CAD Geeks