IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Catia V5 Inventor Translator

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:43:41 EST

Catia V5 now imports natively into Inventor 2009 SP1 with the help of a new translator on the Autodesk Labs site. Now more than ever, save time from remodeling or dealing with tricky export translations. Available for import are the .CATPart and .CATProduct file types. I have included one for you to try out with the translator here --> Catia .CATPart.

What about export Mark? Well, Inventor will not translate out a Catia file yet. But don't rule out the tried and true .sat filetype that can be put in a large majority of software including Revit, 3DsMax, AutoCAD and all its flavors as a "dumb" solid.

Overall, this is great for those users who have mechanical designs or parts of their mechanical designs in Catia but need to somehow get them into their Autodesk product.

Which Version is it? Part 2 - Inventor

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:17:19 EST

Last week I brought you the AutoCAD releases and how to tell which version a file is for the program. This week we will look at Inventor files and the same information. Typically a majority of users create an email string of questions asking which version the program is. This is because like an extremely large majority of 3D modelers, the files are not intelligently backwards compatible and require native export and import to work in an older version of the software.

Here is a current list of the Inventor release versions. Inventor has a history that predates this back to 1995-ish, but these are the official releases.

Inventor R1 "Mustang" 9/20/99
Inventor R2 "Thunderbird" 3/1/00
Inventor R3 "Camaro" 8/1/00
Inventor R4 "Corvette" 12/1/00
Inventor R5 "Durango" 9/17/01
Inventor R5.3 "Prowler" 1/30/02
Inventor R6 "Viper" 10/15/02
Inventor R7 "Wrangler" 4/18/03
Inventor R8 "Cherokee" 10/15/03
Inventor R9 "Crossfire" 7/15/04
Inventor R10 "Freestyle" 4/6/05
Inventor R11 "Faraday" 4/6/06
Inventor 2008 (R12) "Goddard" 4/11/07
Inventor 2009 (R13) "Tesla" 4/16/08
Inventor 2010 (R14) "I know the code but I can't say or THEY will come get me" still in beta testing

If an older version such as 2008 tries to open a 2009 file, the software will throw an error "database scheme is newer than expected". New users of Inventor sometimes balk at this and scratch their heads since AutoCAD has been able to do this without problem. The difference becomes the great power of the 3D modeling commands and their parametric nature inside Inventor. Imagine a new command called "widget generator" is included in the new version of the software. A lot of programming went into this command that does not exist in the older version.

Q: So how can we possibly open it?

A: The user of the newer release must save it as an IGES, STEP (preferred), SAT, or other native export. The user of the older release can then open it and get a base solid without a feature tree but can see and use the part in assemblies. Feature Recognition from the Autodesk Labs website can actually allow the base solid to have recognizable features such as extrusions, fillets, revolves, etc.

Q: How do we check before trying to open it?

A: In Windows Explorer, right mouse button on the Inventor file and select iProperties. On the Details tab of this window, you will see a section that includes Version history through saves, creation build release, and last saved by release if it was migrated up and if it currently needs a manual migration.

Until next time, may your mouse zoom in the right direction.

Which Version is it? Part 1 - AutoCAD

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:46:13 EST

Did you know that if you open an AutoCAD drawing in notepad the first 6 characters are a code that tells you what edition of ACAD produced the file.

AutoCAD DWG Version History by Release for the past 20+ years

The first six bytes of a DWG file identify its version. In a DXF file, the AutoCAD version number is specified in the header section. The DXF system variable is $ACADVER.

AC1021 AutoCAD 2007/2008
AC1018 AutoCAD 2004/2005/2006
AC1015 AutoCAD 2000/2000i/2002
AC1014 Release 14
AC1012 Release 13
AC1009 Release 11/12
AC1006 Release 10
AC1004 Release 9
AC1003 Version 2.60
AC1002 Version 2.5
AC1001 Version 2.22
AC2.22 Version 2.22
AC2.21 Version 2.21
AC2.10 Version 2.10
AC1.50 Version 2.05
AC1.40 Version 1.40
AC1.2 Version 1.2
MC0.0 Version 1.0

AutoCAD 2008 can read DWG files back from AutoCAD version 2.0 released in 1984. Special thanks to Jason Tamas in our Adelaide, Australia office for dropping this one on me.

Until next time, may your mouse zoom in the right direction!

Frame Generator: Structural Shape Authoring Tool

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:32:25 EDT

Many companies and individuals require use of custom profiles. In Inventor 2009 software, users can publish their profiles to the Content Center for use in Frame Generator. A new Frame Shape Authoring tool has been developed to facilitate the publishing operations. The tool has the capability to prepare the custom profile for Frame Generator use. The feature affords complete control over the data displayed in the Frame Generator interface. This feature gives the user the necessary tools to add any custom profile to the Frame Generator.

Inventor 2009 addresses the needs of the many companies and individuals who use custom profiles. Examples of common uses include custom aluminum extrusions, dimensional lumber, profiled wood, rails, and miniature tubing. Inventor 2009 provides a new Frame Shape Authoring tool for defining and publishing user-defined profiles. The authoring tool affords complete control over the data displayed in the Frame Generator interface. All profiles, including user-defined profiles, are now managed in the Content Center.

I've authored a whitepaper on the new Structural Shape Authoring here:

//Structural Shape Authoring

Until next time, may your mouse zoom in the right direction!

Inventor: Designing Fun

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Mark Flayler) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:02:19 EDT

This one is for you campers out there. Here is a fun little piece of equipment you can make at home and provides hours of campfire and outdoor fun. This Marshmallow launcher will project a mini-marshmallow up to about twenty five feet. Make sure you let them stale up a little bit before using. If you plan on painting it (mine is camouflage green) make sure you use plastic primer on it. Also do not fully seal the pieces together as you will sometimes need to liberate a lodged marshmallow.

//Marshmallow Launcher Files and Documentation

Make sure you play nice now.

Until next time, may your mouse zoom in the right direction!