Every time we design some piece of equipment that has motion to it, we need to show it in multiple positions. Is it OPEN? is it CLOSED? help me understand what this thing is doing?
These are all questions I am sure we have all heard from someone trying to assemble a design or someone from outside of the engineering department, who might not have the print reading savy of you.
Well let us all breath a bit easier now that we can create Positional Representations in Inventor.
We can use those to create overlay views right on a drawing view. This will help realy that difficult information a lot easier.
Check out my VIDEO here:
Enjoy,
Jim.....Another INCAT CAD Geek!
You can save both types of representation with a name and activate it for modeling tasks or select it for creating drawings, presentations, and derived assemblies. So which one makes sense. If working in large assemblies LOD has the advantage. This allows you to suppress components to save memory the negative is when adding a component to your assembly it automatically gets added to all LOD you have created. View Representations takes over there allowing you to lock each representation created so when adding components they can be added to the master without affecting the others but has no memory saving option. In a perfect world LOD with ability to lock representation would be great.
Check out my video of how to do this.
http://screencast.com/t/DYXT5X5F
Submitted by Dave of the INCAT CAD Geeks
Most of us get caught up in making very linear types of designs and everything is in nice neat rows and columns. HOW BORING ARE WE PEOPLE? Lets put some patterns into some parts that make people give us a "WOW!"
Inventor has the tools we need to make this today, we can put patterns onto a spline easily.
Check out the (2) quick videos on this funcionality.
Watch Video 1
Watch Video 2
I think it is so cool and just imagine the possibilties after you see it.
Enjoy,
Jim, another one of the INCAT CAD Geeks!
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
Well I was out on the road traveling and am a little behind in getting this post up.
So here it is. Like Dave's post earlier for a sheet metal cone, here is a straight tube that can be used for a holding tank or a pressure vessel. It will alow you to unfold it and get an accurate burn pattern. We can use a simple sketch and some construction geometry to create it.
Check out this video of how it works.
http://www.screencast.com/t/WFojaZYBBm
Jim
Another one of the CAD Geeks
Have you utilized the power of iFeatures at your company? If you have, you probably have created many shapes that you use over and over in your daily designs. Problem is, how do other designers in your company know how to place the objects? Worse yet, what if you forget how! No worries. Check out this short video on how to attach a word document that you can access when placing an iFeature. You can use it as a way of outlining the steps for easy placement.
Check out my video here:
http://screencast.com/t/WggErJOhkoC
Happy modeling...
John with the INCAT Cadgeeks
Yet another great example of what can be accomplished with Autodesk's DWG TrueConnect technology. Batch plotting or publish Inventor DWG drawings can now be done through the AutoCAD publish interface. This allows a single tool to be used for plotting both Inventor and AutoCAD based drawings.
One of the things that always bothered me about using work features in Inventor, when I first started, was that I had to keep going back to restart the command when I wanted to place more features. Well, as I always say, "it's a right click away" from what your looking for in Inventor. When you are in one of the work features commands, such as work plane, right click in the graphics window. There is an option to "Repeat Command". Toggle it on and the command stays active until YOU want to stop placing features.
Check out this link to see it for yourself: http://screencast.com/t/fNLTj4UA
I also show a way to create a work plane by creating two axis to define the plane....all in the same step. Inventor neatly tucks both axis under the work plane in the browser AND suppresses them.
John from the INCAT Cad Geeks
I had a customer ask me how to do a section view today. The kicker was that it was not an orthographic section view. It was a view looking at the end of a round part with a series of holes in it. They needed a full section through the view center and one of the holes. They were not sure how to do this, and not use a jogged section line.
Well I gave it some thought and came up with the solution and decided to post it here on the CAD Geek Blog.
Check out the video of it here:
http://www.screencast.com/t/MNpMwKokb
Enjoy,
Jim
One of the INCAT CAD Geeks
Back in Autodesk Inventor R6 we were given the ability to set dialog boxes to "roll-up" in order to more clearly see what your working on while making selections. When Inventor R2008 came out this command was hidden on a right click menu vs, the push pin icon from the past.
Here is a snapshot of the right click menu for this setting....
Check out a video of it in action here....
