Sunday, February 19, 2012

Creating and Managing Projects and Project Files in Autodesk Inventor®

TOPIC: CREATING AND MANAGING PROJECTS AND PROJECT FILES IN AUTODESK INVENTOR®

INTRODUCTION

As a digital prototyping application, Autodesk Inventor is, quite often, used for large-scale designs that might involve hundreds of separate design files including part, assembly, presentation, and drawing files. For Inventor to able able to easily locate or reference files, related files must be properly organized and linked together. This organization is easily done through the concept of "Projects."

A project is simply a group of settings that "defines the locations of all files associated with a project, including where design data are stored, where you edit files, how many versions of the file are retained when you save a file, Content Center configuration settings, and the project type. Project file information is used to locate referenced files."

As an example, you might have been given a contract to design or re-design a gas cooker unit. You would set up a new project that is probably called "Gas Cooker Design." You would assign the project location to a sub-directory of your "My Documents" directory called "Gas Cooker Design." (As you would see soon, Inventor helps you create directory with the same name as the project.) This way, all files generated during the design phase are stored in this "Gas Cooker Design" directory. It is also advisable create sub-directories for parts, assembly, drawing, and presentation files in your project directory. This is a good housekeeping skill. If your designs require image or spreadsheet files, you could also store them in sub-directories of the project directory.

A project definition is stored in a file whose file extension is ".ipj". So our hypothetical project might be saved in your file system (or hard disk) as Gas Cooker Design.ipj. This is called a "Project File." A project file created in say Autodesk Inventor 2012 cannot be opened by any previous version of Autodesk Inventor say Autodesk Inventor 2010. It's a good practice to backup design files and project files before migrating them to a new version of Autodesk Inventor.

OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, the reader should be able to:

  1. Describe the purpose of Projects.
  2. Describe the purpose of Project Files.
  3. Set up an Autodesk Inventor Projects.
  4. Edit an existing Project.

SETTING UP A NEW AUTODESK INVENTOR PROJECT

Now we are going to look at how set up an Autodesk Inventor Project File. To set up a new Project File, follow the following steps:

  1. On Autodesk Inventor, Click menu broswer button > Manage > Projects (OR) Ribbon > Get Started tab > Launch Panel > Projects.

    2. Figure 1

  2. The Projects dialog box is shown in Fig. 2.

    Figure 2
    On the Projects dialog box, click the New button (at the bottom). The Inventor project wizard dialog box opens.
  3. On the Inventor project wizard dialog box, click the New Single User Project radio button and click Next.
  4. In the Project File area > Name field, type the name of the new project, say Gas Cooker Design. The Project (Workspace) Folder and Project file to be created field are automatically filled.

    Figure 3
    The Project (Workspace) Folder can be redefined by clicking the button beside it. Click Next and Finish. Click Ok to close the message box.
  5. The Gas Cooker Design project is created as shown in Figure 4. The tick preceding the name of the project indicates that the project has been made active.
    When a project is made active, all designs are placed in the project folder that was defined during the project setup.
  6. Click Done to close the Projects dialog box.

    Figure 4

EDITING AND CUSTOMIZING PROJECTS


THE UPPER PANE OF THE PROJECTS DIALOG BOX

The upper pane of the Projects dialog box lists all the projects whose shortcuts are located in your ..../My Documents/Inventor folder. The following actions can be carried in the upper pane:

  1. Single Click: If you single click on any project name, you can edit the options for that specific project in the lower pane of the Projects dialog box.
  2. Double Click: If you double click on any project name, the project is set active or current.
  3. Right Click: If you right click on any project name, a shortcut menu appears with the following: Rename, Browse, New, and Delete.

    FIGURE 5
    1. Rename: Allows you to rename the project. Note that you cannot rename an active project.
    2. Browse...: If you have a project file that is not listed on the upper pane of the Projects dialog box, use Browse to browse to its location in system. Once the the project file is located and opened, a shortcut is created in your .../My Documents/Inventor folder.
    3. New...: This launches the Inventor project wizard so that you can set up a new project.
    4. Delete: This deletes the selected project. Note that you cannot delete an active project.

THE LOWER PANE OF THE PROJECTS DIALOG BOX

The lower pane of the Projects dialog box contains project-specific settings. Here you can edit the project type,

Figure 6

location, Style Library access permission, Workspace settings, Libraries, etc.

  1. Type: Defines the type of the active project as single user, shared, semi-isolated, or vault.
    1. Single user type is used when you work alone and all the files in your project are in one location, except for library locations.
    2. Vault type is used if the project will be executed by many designers who will have to check out files from the vault edit them and check them into the vault for other designers to be able to have access to them. You must have Autodesk Vault client and Autodesk Vault Server installed ( or have access to the Server) to be able to use the Vault type effectively.

  2. Location: Indicates the location of the selected project.

  3. Included Files: This is used to link other project files to the selected project file so that all files belonging to the linked projects will be available in the selected project. Select Included Files and click on the Edit button Edit button beside the lower pane to browse to a project file.

  4. Use Style Library: Defines the Style Library access permission of users of this project. Right click Use Style Library to access the various access permissions.
    1. Use Style Library = Yes uses the style library defined in the style library folder options. The library is writable so all designers can create and edit the styles and save them to the style library, replacing previous style definitions.
    2. Use Style Library = Read Only prohibits designers from saving new and changed styles to the style library. Library definitions cannot be replaced.
    3. Use Style Library = No prevents a style library from being used. Styles used in project documents can be accessed only through styles created with the Style Editor, imported into the document, or present in the document template.

  5. Workspace: Shows the location were your files are saved for the selected project.

  6. Libraries: Shows paths to locations of files that are referenced and used, but not modified as part of the project. Each project can have one or more libraries.

  7. Options: When expanded Options shows the Project-specific options
    1. Old Versions to Keep On Save: Sets the number of versions to store in the OldVersions\ folder for each file saved. The first time a file is saved in a project, an OldVersions\ folder for that file is created. When the file is saved, the prior version is moved automatically to its OldVersions\ folder. After the number of old versions reaches the maximum, the oldest version is deleted when a newer version is moved into the folder. Click the variable, and then change it to the maximum number of file versions to keep in all OldVersions\ folders in the project.

    2. Using Unique File Names: Specifies intent to create unique names for all files in the project (including the subfolder). Not applicable for library locations.
      1. Select Yes to indicate that no duplicate file names are used in the project. If a file is moved into the project, Autodesk Inventor searches through all editable project locations to find the file name, even if it was last accessed from a different folder.
      2. Select No to indicate that duplicate file names exist in the project. If No, and duplicate file names are found when resolving files, the Resolve Files dialog box opens so you can browse to the correct file to manually reestablish the link.

    3. Name: Shows the name of the project. Right-click Name and select Edit to change the name. The name updates in the Select Project pane, but does not update the folder name.

    4. Shortcut: Shows the name of the shortcut to the active project. Stores shortcuts in the projects folder. The project name is taken from the name of the target project file, not the name of the shortcut. Right-click the name of the shortcut, and then click Edit. Enter a new name. You can select Delete to delete the shortcut. The shortcut is deleted from the projects folder, but the project is not deleted.

    5. Owner: Identifies the project owner, typically the lead engineer or CAD administrator.

    6. Release ID: Identifies the version of the released project data. If a project is used as a library by another project, the release ID may be useful in identifying which project to use.

    7. Imported Components Folder Name: If you select to save imported component files to your Workspace, this folder is created and the component files are saved to it.

    8. Imported Top Level Assemblies Folder Name: If you select to save imported assembly files to your Workspace, separate from your parts, this folder is created and the assembly files are saved to it.

I hope you learnt a lot in this lesson. If you have a problem, please post a comment and I'll reply ASAP. Thank you.

Posted by at Sunday, February 19, 2012 3 comments
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WHAT IS AUTODESK INVENTOR?

TOPIC: WHAT IS AUTODESK INVENTOR®?

Autodesk Inventor is a design application developed by Autodesk Inc, USA. Autodesk Inventor is a Digital Prototyping software and can be used for part design, assembly design, creation of presentation views of assemblies, and creation of associative engineering drawings of your part, assembly and presentation files.

Autodesk Inventor is a 3D feature-based parametric modelling design application. Inventor is said to be feature based because each modification that is made to a component is regarded as a feature. So in a design workflow for a component, you would most likely make use of extrusion, swept, lofted, revolved, threaded, hole, rib, fillet, shell, and chamfer features . If you are also experienced with surface modelling, you would likely use features like sculpt, thicken, patch, and trim. These features that can be modified anytime during the design process with Autodesk Inventor. This is also a big distinguishing factor between Inventor and AutoCAD. In AutoCAD, it is difficult to edit modification made to a 3D model even with the availability of the SHOWHIST and SOLIDHIST system variables. For instance, I can change the diameter and/or depth of a hole that was created on a model at any time during the design stage. Learn more about Types of Features in Autodesk Inventor.

Inventor is also said to be a parametric modeler because the sizes of these features and their relationship with each other; the relationship of one part to another in an assembly; the forces, pressures, and moments applied for stress analysis; and the forces, torques, velocity, and acceleration applied in dynamic simulation environment are all parameters! These parameters are actively involved in controlling the shape and behavior of the part or assembly being created, and during simulations and visualizations.

Autodesk Inventor is a digital prototyping software. Digital prototyping provides engineers, designers, manufacturers, salesmen, and marketers the ability to design, optimize, validate, simulate, and visualize their designs digitally before it is built physically. Digital prototyping can also be defined as an integrated process that involves the gathering of design data digitally to generate products (models and assemblies) whose form, fit, and function can be tested, optimized and validated. With digital prototyping, you do not start by building and testing a physical prototype - a workflow that is now regarded as being very expensive and obsolete. Rather, you design the part or assembly in a computer, validate and optimize to reduce errors and correct likely problems, and visualize the model to see how it will appear when it is physically built. With digital prototyping, a designer can save the tremendous cost that is associated with the building of physical prototypes.

In Inventor, one is able to design a part or component. After designing it, you can open the design model in the Stress Analysis environment where you can apply real-life constraints (forces, moments, gravity, etc) on it to see if the component can withstand such loads. With the results, the designer is able to make changes until the components meet the design specifications. Also, the designer can open his assembly inside the Dynamic Simulation environment where he can apply joints between parts and forces to mimic real-life situations. So the designer is able to see how his assembly will performance in real time with respect to the applied parameters.

Most new users who are migrating from AutoCAD are usually confused at first and tend to misuse the tools in Inventor. This is because they do not understand the difference between designing with Inventor and AutoCAD. For example, while AutoCAD makes use of precise sketches for 3D modeling, Inventor makes use of parametric sketches. This means that the size and shape of the 3D model can be easily modified by changing the size and shape of the underlying sketch. Inventor stores values like the length of a line, the angle between two lines or the height of cylinder as parameters. It's also important to add that such parametric models created with inventor will automatically update once the any dimension defining it’s geometry is changed. Therefore Inventor could be said to be a dimension-driven parametric modeler. Learn more about sketches, parameters, and constraints.

There is associativity between all Inventor files that make use of any other Inventor file. For example, if a presentation file and drawing file are created based on a part file, the presentation file and drawing files will update to reflect any changes made to the part file at any time.

Apart from being able to optimize and validate designs, Inventor Professional can be used for creation of Weldment assemblies (that is assemblies containing parts that need to be joined together through welding processes e.g. frames). Inventor has another environment for creation of photorealistic images called the Inventor Studio. While the Presentation environment is used for creating exploded and animated views of one’s assemblies (which can be used by maintenance engineers during the maintenance of the machine). The Piping and Tubing environment is there to help you design your pipes and tubes faster and accurately. Imagine the tubes behind your refrigerator, Inventor can help you design that. As if those weren't enough, Inventor Professional also comes with an environment for Cable and Harness design. Now imagine all the complex interconnection of cables and harnesses under the hood (bonnet) of a car, Inventor can design those and still yell for more!

Learn more from Wikipedia and Autodesk.

Autodesk Inventor is mainly an application for mechanical engineering designers. Autodesk Inventor comes in various product lines including:

  1. Autodesk Inventor;
  2. Autodesk Inventor Routed System Design;
  3. Autodesk Inventor Tooling and Mold Design;
  4. Autodesk Inventor Simulation;
  5. Autodesk Inventor Professional.
  • Autodesk Inventor is customized to have only 3D mechanical design capabilities including standard part design, plastic part design, sheet-metal part design, assembly design, design visualization with Inventor Studio, design documentation, design automation, and design presentation.
  • Autodesk Inventor Routed System Design is customized to have all the capabilities of the standard Autodesk Inventor in addition to Cable and Harness design and Piping and Tubing designs.
  • Autodesk Inventor Tooling and Mold Design has all the capabilities of the standard Autodesk Inventor in addition to Tooling and Mold designs.
  • Autodesk Inventor Simulation has all the capabilities of the standard Autodesk Inventor in addition to design simulation and Finite Element Analysis (FEA).
  • Autodesk Inventor Professional has the capabilities of all the products mentioned above.

In conclusion, Autodesk Inventor wields a lot of power. Though the software might have some limitations (just has every other thing man does do), but the greatest limitation is in the user of the software. So maximize the potentials in Autodesk Inventor and change your world.

Find out more at Autodesk.

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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Understanding Autodesk Inventor User Interface

/**

*PROLOGUE
* I'm beginning a series of lesson tailored for my friends out there who are learning Autodesk Inventor from the scratch. The lessons are going to be arranged in sequence so that the reader can grow in confidence with each lesson.

*I'm assuming that the reader is new to the world of "digital prototyping" or is migrating from a non-Autodesk product. Whatever might be the case, I'm wishing you a happy learning experience.

*I would also encourage the readers to post comments about the articles. Comment about my methodology, content, useful, in fact anything on your mind. You are also free to suggest to me topics to write about. Thank you.

*/
PLATFORM: AUTODESK INVENTOR PROFESSIONAL 2011

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: BEGINNERS


AUTHOR: NDIANABASI UDONKANG

FOLLOW ME ON: Twitter | Facebook

TOPIC: UNDERSTANDING THE AUTODESK® INVENTOR USER INTERFACE

Hello! Welcome to the series of lessons tailored for our friends who are seeking for extra materials to enlighten them as they begin their journey into the interesting world of digital prototyping.

In this lesson, we are going to discuss the various parts of the Autodesk Inventor user interface with the aim of knowing their names and understanding what they do. This lesson is suitable beginners and even those experienced CAD guys who want to know the real names of the various components of the user interface.
At the end of the lesson, the reader should be able to:
  1. Know the names of the various parts of the Inventor user interface (UI), and
  2. Know the functions of the various parts of the Inventor UI,
This lesson is based on the interface of Autodesk Inventor Professional 2011 and is applicable to the interface of Inventor 2010 and Inventor 2012. Autodesk Inventor is a very large application consisting of so many modules or environment. The modules or environment available in your application depend on the type of Autodesk Inventor you installed. We have:
  1. AutoCAD Inventor Suite;
  2. AutoCAD Inventor Professional Suite;
  3. AutoCAD Inventor Routed System Suite;
  4. AutoCAD Inventor Simulation Suite; and
  5. AutoCAD Inventor Tooling Suite.
[The AutoCAD prefixes signifies that the Suite is bundled with both Inventor and AutoCAD.]
Also the interface might vary based on the current task being performed. Extra tools will be loaded into the application when you are carrying out routed system design, sheet metal design, simulation, or weldment designs.

Before we start, I advise that you download Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 to your local computer for easy reference. Simply right click on an image and select Save Image As.... Let's get started.

AREAS OF THE INVENTOR USER INTERFACE

Let's begin by discussing the various areas of the user interface. Fig. 1 shows the Inventor user interface when a part file is opened (i.e. the model environment). The figure has been divided into areas are numbered. A schematic of the interface is shown in Fig. 2.  The legend shows the names of the various parts.


Figure 1


Figure 2

1. APPLICATION MENU OR MENU BROWSER

Figure 3The Application Menu or Menu Browser is found at the top left corner of the Inventor user interface. When clicked on, it display a fly-out that with menus and tools for file operations. The fly-out is shown in Fig. 3.


Figure 4


As shown, we have the New, Open, Save, Save As, Export, Manage, Vault Server, Print, and Close menus plus the iProperties tool. Each menu contains tools with related functions, however, they all typical operate your files.  The Menu Browser also stores the a list of recently-opened files so that you can easily reopen a file. At the bottom is the Options button for launching the Application Options dialog box and the Exit Inventor button for closing Inventor.

HOT TIP: Double clicking the Menu Browser icon closes Inventor. Try it out!

2. QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR

The Quick Access Toolbar (Fig. 4) is strip containing tools that are frequently used during the design process. It is found at the right of the Menu Browser. Tools like New, Open, Save, Undo, Redo, Local Update/ Global Update, Selection Priorities, etc are displayed on the Quick Access Toolbar.


Figure 5


So you can save yourself some sweat by using the Quick Access Toolbar. The downward-pointing arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar can be used to load more tools on the strip.

3. THE TITLE BAR

The Title Bar (Fig. 5) is the by the right of the Quick Access Toolbar.


Figure 6


The Title Bar displays the name of the application being used and, if there is sufficient space, the name of the file currently being used.

4. THE INFO CENTER

The Info Center is found by the right of the Title Bar. The Info Center consists of tools that can be used to obtain information about Autodesk Inventor both locally and over the internet.


Figure 7


The tools available on the Info Center are the search bar, Subscription Center, Communication Center, Favorites, and Help. You can type in keywords into the Search Bar and hit enter on your keyword and Inventor will display topics, from the local help system, related to those keywords. The Subscription Center can be used by users who have subscribed for Inventor to access the online Subscription Advantage. The Communication Center is can inform the user about news, software updates, and blogs about Inventor. The Favorites tool is used to access your favourite or saved topics. When you search for an article with search bar, click the "star" icon by the right of the topics to add them to your Favorites list (See Fig. 7 & Fig. 8). The Help tool is used to open the Autodesk Inventor Help browser.


Figure 8

Figure 9

5. THE APPLICATION WINDOW CONTROL BUTTONS

These buttons are found at the top right corner of the Inventor Window, and are used to minimize, restore down/ maximize or close the application.


Figure 10

6.RIBBON TABS

The Ribbon Tabs (Fig. 10) are the found just below the first row (containing the Quick Access  Toolbar, Title Bar, and Info Center). The Ribbon is the user interface element that replaced toolbars in almost all Autodesk applications. The Ribbon is divided into Tabs, Panels, and Icons. The Ribbons Tabs are collections of Panels. That is each Tab contains a unique set of Panels. For example, when you are in the model environment, you will see, by default, seven tabs: Model, Inspect, Tools, Manage, View, Environments, and Get Started Tabs. When you click a tab, a set of panels is displayed which is different from those of other tabs.


Figure 11

7. RIBBON PANELS

Ribbon Panels are used to group Icons or tools that perform closely-related functions. The Model tab consists of the Sketch, Create, Modify, Work Features, Pattern, Surface, Plastic Part, Harness, and Convert panels. Each of these panels contains tools (represented by Icons) that are closely related e.g. the Sketch panel contains tools for working in 2D and 3D sketch environments while the Create panel contains tools for creating model features.


Figure 12

8. THE RIBBON

The Tabs, Panels, and Icons or tools make up the Ribbon (Fig. 12). The Ribbon is a very nice way of compressing hundreds of Inventor icons (tools) into a small area of the UI thereby freeing valuable real estate for your graphics area. The Ribbon can further be displayed in various modes to free even more space for those who are not satisfied with the present space. When you click on the downward-pointing arrow beside the last tab on the Ribbon, you can display the Ribbon in three modes:
  1. Minimize to Tabs,
  2. Minimize to Panel Titles, and
  3. Minimize to Panel Buttons (See Fig. 13).
Figure 13


Figure 14

9. DOCUMENT WINDOW CONTROL BUTTONS

These set of buttons are found at the top right corner of the Graphics Area (12) and just below the Ribbon. They are used to minimize, restore down/ maximize, and close the current file. See Fig. 1 & Fig. 2.

10. NAVIGATION VIEWCUBE

The Viewcube is a UI element that used for changing the views of the model in the Graphics Area (12). The Viewcube is a cube with hotspots at its vertices, edges, and faces. The hotspots are clickable and will pre-highlight when you hover the cursor over them. Clicking on any of the four faces of the Viewcube changes the view to the corresponding Orthographic views: Front, Back, Top, or Bottom. Clicking on the corners, or vertices changes the view to the Isometric views. You can also use the Viewcube perform Orbiting operations by clicking and drag it.

The Viewcube options can be accessed by right clicking the Viewcube. On the shortcut menu are tools for displaying the model in perspective or parallel projection.


Figure 14


Figure 15

11. NAVIGATION BAR

The Navigation Bar (Fig. 16) is found just below the Viewcube. It contains all tools for model navigation: Zoom, Pan, Orbit, SteeringWheel, and the View Face tools.


Figure 16

12.GRAPHICS AREA/ WINDOW

The Graphics Area (See Fig. 1 & 2) is the big space at the middle of the UI. It is the area where your models and drawing sheets are displayed. The appearance of the graphics area be set in the Application Options dialog box.

13. MODEL BROWSER

The Model Browser (Fig. 18) is a critical part of the Autodesk Inventor UI. It usually docked by default by the left of the graphics area. The Model Browser displays the features, components, parts, and other information about your designs. The model browser typical displays the features, components or parts according to the order they created (though they could be rearranged).

The model browser for an assembly file is almost identical to that of a part file but for its top row. At the top of the model browser for a part file, there are two buttons: Browser Filters and Find. The Browser Filters button is used to hide some details like Work Features, UCS, Documents, Notes and Warnings in the Browser. The Find button opens the Find Part Sketches dialog box that helps in locating and modifying sketch elements and features.

The model browser for an assembly file has four buttons: Browser Filters, Design View Representation, Modeling and Assembly Views, and Find. The Design View Representation button can be used for easily switch between user-created design views. The Modeling and Assembly Views button is used to switch between modeling and assembly views. A major difference between the modeling and assembly view is that the modeling view puts all the assembly constraints in a folder.


Figure 18


Figure 19

14. USER COORDINATE SYSTEM (UCS) ICON

The UCS Icon is found at the bottom left corner of the graphics area. The UCS Icon indicated the default directions or orientation of the default work axes (X, Y, and Z axes). The UCS Icon has three axes that are color coded with red, green, and blue. The red, green, and blue axis represents the X, Y, and Z axes respectively.


Figure 20

15. STATUS BAR

The Status Bar is used to display message, tips, or information to the user. It is found at the bottom of the UI. When the user is idle, the status bar displays "Ready" meaning that it is ready to perform any task assigned to it.


Figure 21

16. DOCUMENT SWITCHING TABS

The Document Switching Tabs are found at the bottom of the Graphics Area just behind the Model Browser. They are only displayed when more than one file is opened in Inventor (Fig. 22).


Figure 22


On the Document Switching Tabs are buttons for cascading, tiling, viewing, and switching between multiple windows.

17. CAPACITY METER

The Capacity Meter provides very useful information about the amount of memory used by Inventor. The meter has three indicators: total number of occurrences in the active document, total number of files open in the session, and amount of memory used by the session.


Figure 23


Fig. 23 shows a typical capacity meter from an assembly file. It indicates that total number of occurrences of components in the active assembly is 13, and there are 10 unique files opened in the assembly. The color changes from green to yellow when more than 60% of the memory allotted to Inventor is used, then red once 80% has been used.

So that is all. If you have any questions let me know.
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