Using and Understanding Grounded Work Points in Autodesk Inventor Professional

Platform: Autodesk Inventor Professional

Level of difficulty: Beginners

Author: Ndianabasi Udonkang

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This is the last lesson in the series on using and understanding work features in Autodesk Inventor Professional. In this series we are going to learn how to use an important but often ignored tool called "grounded work point."

Overview

These are the other lessons about work features; check them out:

• Using and Understanding Work Points in Autodesk Inventor Professional
• Using and Understanding Work Axes in Autodesk Inventor Professional
• Using and Understanding Work Planes in Autodesk Inventor Professional

Grounded work points are one of the work features available in Autodesk Inventor. Grounded work points are just work points that are not parametrically attached to any model or component in your design. Ordinary work points are created by constraining them to faces, edges, or points on our models so that if the model changes, the work point will also update. However, grounded points are created relative to the coordinate system of the assembly or part i.e. they are created by specifying their X, Y, and Z coordinates with respect to the origin of the part or assembly. Grounded work points can be created in both part and assembly environments.

In Model Browser, a pushpin is attached to a work point to indicate that it’s grounded.

Creating Grounded Work Points

Method 1 - Creating a Grounded Work Point directly from the Grounded Work Point tool

This method creates a grounded work point directly from the Grounded Work Point tool. Here you will be asked to first of all select the vertex you wish to initially place the grounded work point on. Later you may redefine it by entering precise coordinate inputs.

Procedure:

1. On the Model environment, go to the Work Features panel. Click the drop-down arrow beside the Work Point tool and select Ground Point on the drop-down menu. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut ";"
2. 
3. Select a work point or vertex to define the initial position of the grounded work point.
4. On the 3D Move / Rotate dialog box, click Apply to accept the initial position and orientation and create the grounded work point
5. 
6. Before clicking the Apply button, you may want to rotate the grounded work point about the X, Y, or Z axis. To do this, click any of the axes on the triad and rotate it to the desired angle. The magnitude of the angle will be shown dynamically on the 3D Move / Rotate dialog box
7. 
8. You may also like to enter precise coordinate values for the grounded work point. To do this, click on the Redefine alignment or position button on the 3D Move / Rotate dialog box and enter the precise X, Y, and Z coordinates.
9. 

Method 2 - Creating a Grounded Work Point from an existing Work Point

This method is used to convert a work point to a grounded work point.

Procedure:

1. Locate the existing work point on the Model Browser.
2. 
3. Right click on the work point and click Ground on the context menu. The work point is converted to a grounded work point and a pushpin is attached to it on the Model Browser.
4. 
   
   
5. 

Let me know your thoughts about the lesson. Why is useful? Are they area to improve on? Is there anything I failed to mention? What about my methodology? Just feel free to tell and I will appreciate it. Contact me via ndianabasi.udonkang@gmail.com. Thanks and God bless.