Importing 3D Geometry into Sheet Metal

With 3D becoming more popular daily many companies are exchanging data in a 3D format and not to mention that the translators you find in the products these days also makes exchanging data easier than ever. Still there is a need to take that 3D data and bring it into the sheet metal environment to generate flat pattern layouts. Today we will take a look at using an iges file and the steps needed to use it within the Inventor sheet metal environment.

Video link:
http://www.screencast.com/t/OTI1MDc1ZT
Created by one of the Cad Geeks

Autodesk Inventor Translators - Batch Import and Export

As many of us are all aware the Autodesk Inventor product line comes with many great translators. We have found many companies today are switching to Autodesk Inventor as a primary design tool because of the powerful translators that allow them to import and export data from the so called high end systems. At the same time giving them the functionality these high end systems have at a much lower operating expense. With this comes the need to translate this data all at once or a batch process. Autodesk Inventor Task Scheduler allows us to batch process this data immediately or at a scheduled time. Lets take a look at the process and the file types Task Scheduler allows us to import and export.


Video Link:
Autodesk Inventor Translators - Batch Import and Export
Created by one of the Cad Geeks

Importing Alias files to Showcase

This weeks post talks about importing Alias data into Showcase as well as how easy it it to update your Showcase scene after changes are made to the Alias model.

Click HERE to watch the video

Created by Aaron... Your Alias CAD Geek!

Base Solids Editing in Inventor - Stretch Trick

One of the tricks I find most people are unaware of in Inventor is the ability to edit "Base" features in Inventor. Base features are what you normally get when you import a model from another CAD system or Step file. Many people have figured out that they can sketch on faces of a Base model to create additional features, but few know they can use something as simple as the "Delete" key to remove features while in the Base Editing mode (as detailed in a previous CAD Geek post). I just wanted to show an example of utilizing a work plane and streching a base solid to a wider variation. Take a look at this video for a quick example:

Watch Video Here

Contributed by Ben of the INCAT CAD Geeks

Industrial Design files directly read by Inventor!!

I have been asked over the years how to get data from Industrial design departments to engineering, and it has continually been a struggle. It typically required trying to import IGES data, or many times required remodeling the design in Inventor only to lose much of the artistic design intent. Since the difference between an average product and a great product lies in the details, Autodesk Labs has introduced an Alias Studio direct reader add-in for Autodesk Inventor. If your company struggles with bridging the gap between industrial design (product design) and engineering, then this workflow should be seriously considered.

The included image is an example of some data imported from Alias Studio into Inventor.

Here is the download at Labs:
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/alias_iv_trans/

Contributed by Ben of the INCAT CAD Geeks

New Options for Importing From Excel into a Sketch

Back in release 2008 of Inventor the ability to import from an excel spreadsheet was added but at that time it was only point data. Now with 2009 you have the ability to import that point data with two new options. You can have Inventor create line geometry between those points or spline geometry. This will work for x,y coordinates from a 2d import or x,y,z coordinates from a 3d import.Check it out

http://screencast.com/t/0O14gD4sd

Submitted by Dave of the INCAT CAD Geeks

Set It and Forget It!!!

You may have seen the infomercial or not, it rings a bell for me working those long hours completing task I just did not have time to complete at work, Task Scheduler to the rescue. This functionality gives me the ability to schedule common task when I am away from my machine. Task like: Migrating files, Updating a design, publishing dwf’s, printing, importing and exporting files, check into and out of vault, retrieving latest versions from vault and converting idw’s to dwg’s. Set up a single task or run multiples at once you pick the time and day.

Check out my video of how to do this.

http://screencast.com/t/JN7Cwz6CwL

Submitted by Dave of the INCAT CAD Geeks