IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Placing Component Productivity

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:34:27 EDT

Now I know some 2009 users got a little jealous that I showed one of my favorite new things in 2010 with the Direct Parameter creation, but here are some tips for both 2009 and 2010. If you are still using 2008 only the option noted below does not work in 2008.

First a little clarification for those having trouble with the terms Component and Part inside assembly files:

Part = any old standard plain jane Part (IPT)

Component = any Part (IPT) or subassembly (IAM) that is comprised inside an Assembly

Changing your Selection Filter to Part Priority allows the user to select any Part whether it is at the top or subassembly level. Choosing Component Priority allows the user to only select with the onscreen graphics items that are at the current level of the active assembly.

Placing Multiple Components at once

Often times I hear gripes that users do not want to drag and drop from Windows Explorer or have to continually go back and forth with the Place Component command to place a series of already generated parts into their assembly file. Well here is a faster way to accomplish just that.

Start a blank assembly and start either the Place Component or Place from Vault command.
Use Shift or Ctrl selection to grab all the components you want to put into the assembly.
The last component selected in this manner will become your Base component that is grounded to the assembly origin. (Tip, consider ALWAYS placing the base component explicitly so that you don't inadvertently place the wrong component at the origin)

Placing Multiple Occurrences of a Component

Okay Mark, that was pretty awesome, but what if I want more than one occurrence of a part and I don't want to have to go back and forth with that dialog box or Windows Explorer again? This is even easier. Once you have an item placed in your assembly simply find it in your model browser and drag and drop it into your graphics window.

Whoa, very awesome Mark, but what if I want that occurrence in the same orientation as the already placed occurrence? When I first constrained it, it took me a little bit to get it situated the way I wanted. Another good point my friends. In 2009 there was an Application Option included entitled Use Last Occurrence Orientation for Component Placement. This will place the newly dropped occurrence into the assembly in the same orientation at which the previous occurrence was constrained. If that last occurrence was deleted then it will use the occurrence previous to that one.

Until next time, may your components be oriented in the right direction!

Inventor Fusion: An Atomic Future on June 25th

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:27:42 EDT

More details were unveiled this week announcing that the Technology Preview will be released on June 25th on the Autodesk Labs website. I haven't spent a lot of time talking about it yet, so I figured now would be as good a time as ever. So let's take some time and discuss what this might mean to an Inventor user and the future of your interaction with the software.

Press Release

Fusion Getting Started Guide

Inventor Fusion FAQ

History Lesson:

Originally this was called project Freeway. I like the new name much better. It is much more indicative of what the technology is portraying in contrast to what some of its competitors are trying to blindside customers with. Project Freeway started about two years ago in a secret underground Autodesk bunker with the intent to make direct modeling easier for all parties (3D CAD jockey to unskilled manager and to new users). Productivity studies were taken about common modeling mistakes, missteps, overlooked steps and general interaction with some of the other new enhancements to Inventor. They concluded the following (this is the video watching portion of the lecture):

Why the late addition to the party?

This technology has been around with SpaceClaim, CoCreate and Siemen's ST for some time now, but what makes Fusion better? Why did they wait so long to announce the project and start showing it? Well, in true Autodesk fashion, they understand the amount of early adopters in the market is relatively small in corporate numbers and transition takes some time to new technology. They also listen to the gripes of the users of the other software that demos well, but in the end falls on its face. They also look at the other mistakes their competition makes in a quick rush to push a new feature, interface, or workflow. Just look at AutoCAD, how many different ways can you still use AutoCAD. AutoCAD still has the screen menu and classic interface in it even though the ribbon has taken over most Windows based systems.

So what's different here?

One word: Bidirectional. Some of the competitors have the history free environment and it does not reflect the parametric world. This is why some of those demo well, but in the end do not stand up to the power of Fusion. With Fusion you can go back and forth and Inventor will interrogate the changes made and create/rebuild the parametric history of a part. I also like the ability to dynamically change two parts in an assembly at once!

Remember, Fusion is taking two technologies and letting them work together seamlessly which is something some competitors just can't seem to figure out. This technology becomes enormously awesome when working with other people's data in a native format. Taking other's 3D base solids and easily working with them has been a long desire of many users.

Inventor Fusion website: www.inventorfusion.com

Autodesk Labs Website: labs.autodesk.com

Until next time, may models be bidirectional!

2010 Assembly Constraint Enhancements

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:00:00 EDT

I have to admit to a bad habit. I don't take the time to properly name my constraints as I create them so when it comes time to start tracking what is constrained I usually have to do some hunting around my assembly. Luckily, Inventor 2010 has made my life a little easier.

Visual Enhancements - When editing constraints the highlight for the selections involved in the constraint have been futhur clarified as well as the existing color match to selection. Color under Selection 1 matches highlight on the screen and so forth.

Constraint Names - A new application option on the Assembly tab enables the ability to show component names behind the constraint to better find the corresponding part.

Icon Enhancements - a new Mate constraint icon is used for axial aligning of conical or cylindrical surfaces. This does not apply to edges. This new icon is used to help differentiate between Mate types and requires no extra toggles.

Room for improvement - these enhancements have been great but another nice enhancement that I would like to see and does not currently exist is to have the option of naming the actual constraint during creation instead of having to go back to the browser and soft double clicking a rename. This is how I would imagine it and I have a local user to thank for bringing up the idea.

If you like this idea make sure you put it on the AUGI wish list (Link) or in turn vote for it when it becomes a valid wish.

Until next time, may your constraints selections align in the right direction.

Design Assistant Alternative for Simple Parts

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:25:05 EDT

Let’s say your an Inventor user charged with detailing 3 parts like the ones pictured (and while we are at it, let’s say that I am 6’4” and am as genetically blessed as Matthew McConaughey. It’s not true, but let’s just say it).

So, you have three brackets, bracket1.ipt, bracket2.ipt, and bracket3.ipt. Go through the normal steps to create a drawing and detail bracket1.ipt. Once the first one is detailed, here is how to quickly detail the others:

Exit the drawing. In Windows Explorer, copy the drawing that you want to use and paste it twice.
Rename the two pasted drawings appropriately.
Now, rename the first bracket model that was created. I usually do something simple like change it from bracket1.ipt to bracket1_temp.ipt.
Open one of the drawings that you copied/pasted/renamed. Because it still has the reference to bracket1.ipt, and bracket1.ipt no longer exists (because it was renamed), Inventor will prompt you for the file to substitute. Choose bracket2.ipt.

You should see your part change to the one selected. Some dimensions will have to be added to the new drawings, or maybe some will have to be removed, but the majority of it will be in the right place, and you just saved yourself from an afternoon of repetitive work. Now would be a good time to ask for a raise due to increased productivity.

That’s it! Repeat the steps for each of the parts, and don’t forget to rename the first .ipt back to its original name so its drawing will resolve.

This was pulled from the Caleb Funk archives. I will be pulling some old forgotten posts out of the archive every now and then. I actually like using Copy Design and Design Assistant, but it is always fun to trick Inventor too.

Until next time, may your iterations be in the right folder.

Inventor Parameter Productivity

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:49:35 EDT

I have been using Inventor 2010 for quite some time now, and I have to say one of the most beneficial enhancements has been in the inclusion of direct parameter naming to track all my design variables. It has been such a speed boost to be able to have my parameters named without having to go back and forth with the parameters box to change them and link them accordingly.

Parameters can be dynamically created in several places but normally anywhere with a user input dialog.

Sketch Environment - Create any dimension and in the Edit Dimension dialog enter the new parameter name and the equation or value

Feature Dialogs - anywhere there is an input such as Extents or Fillet Radius

Constraint Dialog - use for creation of easily referenced offset values for constraints

Another great advantage of this editing is that they are automatically available in the List Parameters fly out found in most input boxes.

Remember the rules for parameters though. They are case sensitive, cannot start with a number, and you cannot exactly duplicate them in a file.

Until next time, may your parameters be directly inputted!