Inventor 2010 is one of the most significant releases in the product’s history. With new assembly-based simulation tools and plastic part and mould design technology, Autodesk is moving closer to fulfilling its digital prototyping vision, writes Al Dean

Inventor now includes a range of features that automate the creation of common, but complex plastic features, such as lips/grooves, mounting bosses, and grills

Inventor began life alongside Mechanical Desktop but now reigns supreme as the flagship product of Autodesk’s Manufacturing Solutions Division. In the near decade of its development, the system has moved from being a standard 3D modelling and drawing creation tool into a comprehensive design and simulation system and is now showing signs of becoming a capable manufacturing solution as well.

Through a series of acquisitions (Moldflow, Solid Dynamics, Plassotech and Algor), the company has been arming itself with a range of technologies that are only now starting to be added to the Inventor Suite of products. All of this is particularly evident in this latest 2010 release, where Autodesk has delivered enhanced simulation tools and plastic part design technology into the core Inventor product, mould design technology for Inventor Professional and the new Inventor Tooling Suite (which we’ll be concentrating on this month).

In line with these new developments, and helping bring the new functionality together in one consistent environment, is a new user interface based on Microsoft’s ubiquitous Ribbon. The new Ribbon-based User Interface (UI) is going to come as a bit of shock to existing users as pretty much everything has been re-arranged and, excuse my language, ‘ribbonised’. Commands and operations have been moved from the left-hand portion of the screen and reorganised into discreet panels that run across the top of the UI. The good news is that the work done sees the system reorganised so commands and feature-sets are presented in a very logical and workflow-centric way. The standard panels present groups of commands for sketching, feature-creation, assembly modelling and draughting. There are also additional panels for system options and variables (such as window control and display settings) as well as a whole host of learning tools that are going to be invaluable as users settle into the new environment.

Tool tips have been expanded and give users progressively greater amounts of information about commands as they hover over each icon. There’s also a direct link to the help system found in the quick access bar at the top of the interface.

Alongside the new ribbon UI, there are some key new pieces of functionality that are worth a mention. Inventor users should already be familiar with the ViewCube, which has been introduced progressively into each Autodesk product to provide access to standard views quickly. Below this there is a short vertical strip of view manipulation tools that let users set views, shading, and toggle between orthogonal/perspective, among others – all located in a very handy place.

Now, that’s the new UI dealt with, let’s look at the new functionality. Inventor 2010 is a pretty comprehensive update, so we’re going to look at the product in stages. This month, we’ll focus on the new tools for plastic part design, then deal with other areas in the next issue. Ready? Let’s go.