3D Grips allow you to dynamically edit features using drag handles without having to edit numerical values – even when the feature is fully constrained.
	The Content Center offers users access to a wide range of standardised features and parts that can be quickly inserted into the part or assembly where needed. It also offers the ability to add customised entities which are most commonly used either by an individual designer or throughout a company.
	Image created in Inventor Studio which provides a set of rendering tools fully integrated with Inventor

3D Grips follow the direct modelling concepts that have been introduced into many 3D CAD applications over the past few years. The problem with parametric sketch/feature-based systems is that in many cases, once your features are parametrically driven, to make changes you are required to edit numeric fields, rather than the dragging and dropping interactions you use when first, roughly defining them. Within the context of Inventor, 3D Grips overcome this problem by allowing the user to dynamically edit (by dragging and dropping) both sketch and feature entities, without having to go through that parameter editing process. So how does it work in practice?

You can use 3D Grips on any feature you’ve created or inserted using the Content Center (more on this shortly). Essentially, you can create the feature exactly how you want to, either as an unconstrained feature or a fully parametrically driven one. Then, when you want to edit it, you simply select a face within the feature, right click and select 3D Grips from the context sensitive menu. This brings up a transparent shaded wireframe representation of the feature you’re editing. You’ll then be able to see small circles on each editable face (such as planar faces and fillets). Clicking one of these circles will place an arrow that allows you to drag that feature into the position you require. The system gives you numerical feedback about how far it’s moved, so you can place it exactly where it’s needed. If your feature is driven by dimensions, these will also update at the same time, or can be edited as well, without having to open and edit the underlying sketch. You can also snap faces to existing faces in the model by double clicking the target.

Content Center

Alongside the core, base level 3D Grips functionality, Inventor 10 sees a massive amount of work done to enhance the way in which you define and reuse 3D data – all of which is driven through the Content Center. This database takes the entire existing standard feature and part management tools and concentrates them into a single, efficient interface through which all your interactions take place. In the first instance, you have access to a library of commonly used geometric features that allow you to quickly drag and drop features into your model to create commonly used shapes and forms to save you having to create them individually. This includes a vast array of shapes (such as blocks, cylinders, jogs, keyways, tubes, cones etc), through to standard machined features such as pockets, pads and slots. Each of them can be dragged and dropped into your existing model to quickly create the basics of a feature. Each is parameterised, so you can either use the 3D Grips to size and position it, or edit the numerical values directly. Additional Dimensions can of course be placed to constrain the feature in the context of the existing geometry.

In addition to the standard features, there’s also a library of commonly used machinery design content, including nuts, bolts and screws (which has over 650,000 components). Also, if you’re an Inventor Professional user it also manages all the tube and pipe content. But aside from managing standard parts and features, Content Center is about giving your company a means to formalise company standards and ensure that your design team can access a common resource directly from within Inventor. You can add all manner of standard parts or commonly used features as you design them, either using standard Inventor parts and features or using iParts downloaded from the web. From within the interface, you can perform searches based on text, category as well as properties and the like. There is also a filters-based lister that allows you to refine your browsing to specific areas. Another feature that will be most useful is the favourites list, which you can populate with your most commonly used features and parts for quick access and reuse.

Although there is a massive amount of work within the Content Center, there are also a number of key updates to the generally applicable tools in Inventor 10. For example, the placement of holes has been rewritten, to allow you to define holes that are based on standard fasteners, and can be positioned with or without a reference sketch – as you can use two edges or concentricity with another feature. Of course, this information is then available when you create hole notes and hole tables, and these remain intelligently linked, so get updated in case of design changes.

Non-drawn parts & BOMs: For those working with products with anything above the basic level of complexity, the ability to extract a Bill of Materials from your 3D product model is a key benefit. This information is used all across the scope of Inventor’s functionality, from assemblies, through drawings and into presentations and as a result, you want to be able to ensure that it includes all of the information you require. From Inventor 10 onwards, you’ll be able to edit all Bill of Materials information through a table driven interface and this is consistent across all areas of the system and includes one key new piece of functionality – the ability to include non-modelling components. This means that your Bill of Materials can now include items such as lubricant, paint or even manuals, installation/service instructions, all of which are essential to an accurate BOM, but can’t be included in the 3D product definition.

Weldments

	The Hole definition and placement dialog has been revamped with the addition of thread and clearance holes, defined using standard fastener thread data. Also, hole placement doesn’t just require a sketch of centre holes. You can now also use a concentricity relationship or base placement on two lines.
	The Engineer’s Handbook offers Inventor users access to a digital version of the legendary Machinery’s Handbook.

Of course, while the creation of welding symbols is one part of the documentation process, those working with such forms will find that the new Weld analysis and reporting will assist in other areas, such as calculating weld rod usage, fabrication time, and bead weights. The system now has extensive reporting tools that allow you to generate a ‘physical properties’ report for each bead in the assembly, including the current weldment assembly and its child documents as well as weld information for each document including ID, type, length, mass, area, and volume. All of these can be exported to a spreadsheet.

Functional design

Functional Design is a term that’s been floating around for sometime and has been picked up by several vendors (such as Caleum and ImpactXoft) and appropriated for their own particular technology. In an Autodesk context, functional design has been taken and applied to the technology it acquired from Mechsoft last year and has started to implement within the Inventor products. That said it’s clear that Functional Design is something that’s going to eventually move outside of the Mechsoft products and looks to be guiding the development of some rather clever tools within Inventor. But, as we said, at present, Functional Design refers to the Mechsoft tools that have been pretty impressively integrated into the core of Inventor and are available to all users. While some users might already be familiar with the design automation tools we’re discussing here, the odds are that the vast majority are not, so we’ll take a look at them from basics and work through each area of functionality and how it can assist the product design and development process.

From almost anywhere within Inventor, you can access the tools you need, from either within the Design Accelerator or the Panel window (this isn’t switched on by default) to the right of the modelling window. This provides you with access to the three core areas of functionality. Firstly, the Engineer’s Handbook, which is intended to provide the CAD user with a digital version of the legendary Machinery’s Handbook, that fat little book that I’m sure is propping many a monitor in design offices across the globe. As you should be aware, this tome is filled with all manner of standard formulae, calculations, standard part and components and is an invaluable reference to anyone in the business of design and manufacturing.

Next, there are the Mechanical calculators and component generators. The Mechanical Calculators automate the design of welded and solder joints, bearings, plates, and brakes etc. Meanwhile the Component generators automate the design of components such as shafts, rings (such as seals and the associated grooves), gears, belt and chain drives, power Screws and springs. While this type of thing might be available in other systems, the difference here is that the processes are conducted using engineering and design language, rather than specifying geometric forms. Because the system has knowledge of the underlying calculations from the Engineer’s Handbook, you’re able to define a part (or assembly, such as a shaft) using standard forms and perform basic analysis to ensure that the item you’re designing will perform in the manner you require – and this is without recourse to any form of FEA analysis. When you see this functionality in action, it makes one hell of a lot more sense than the above paragraph probably does, so perhaps the best thing to do is work through a couple of examples of how this technology can be used and the benefits you can derive from it.

Shaft Generator: Once you’ve found and clicked the Shaft generator, you’re presented with a dialog that allows you to quickly build up the forms of your shaft with individual sections. Those available range from regular straight sections, faced off sections, lengths with keyways, slots and grooves (for locknuts and the like). Once you have your shaft in a workable form, you then can either inset the 3D model or use the calculation tools to ensure that it’s up to the job. Essentially, by using the calculation tools, you can load up you shaft from standard data and your knowledge of its use and inspect how it will perform in a wide range of modes, from bend, moment, torsion, deflection etc. Once you’re happy with the results, you can either generate a report about its design (which will be useful for traceability purposes) or skip straight to having the system build the 3D model within Inventor.

Once your shaft based is complete, you can then use the component generators to create the associated hardware, such as nuts, washers, keyways, springs and o-rings. Unfortunately, you have to create these separately using the standard parts within the Content Center and they also have to be manually constrained. When you consider the intelligent manner in which you define the shaft and the amount of design intent it has already captured, is a bit of a let down. It would make sense that adding an o-ring to a shaft that you’ve already told have a groove for an o-ring, the part would snap into place. That said, I’m told that Autodesk are working on implementing some new functionality that should make the entire process much more automated and intelligent.

Bolted Connection: The Bolted Connection component generator uses the same database of standard parts available throughout the system, but adds a wizard driven application to automate the creation of, well… bolted connections. The concept is that you build your assembly (without the holes or fasteners) as normal, then use the bolted connection to define the holes and associated hardware using a wizard driven workflow. As with many of the component generators, the system provides you with access to the Bolted Connection Wizard through a number of different areas, either through the Design Accelerator dialog, the Design Accelerator ‘in-window’ panel or through a single icon in the Assembly tools panel that most Inventor users will be familiar with. Whichever way you kick the process off, you start with defining the form of the bolted connection. This follows a pretty logical method, starting with the standard of parts you want to use (such as ISO, BSI, ANSI, JIS etc) and units you want to define them in (if appropriate). You then pick the bolt/screw type, and those available depend on the standard you selected. Once done, you then define the fastener stack, including washers, nuts and other hardware (such as pins). One of the most critical stages is the definition of the hole treatments and you need to define one of these for each part your fastener stack is gong to pass through. There are a number of options available such as countersunk or counter bored holes for machine screws and cap heads etc., as well as threaded holes (which automatically match the fastener you choose) and pass through sections. One point to note is that you can mix and match standards and considering how limited the BSI and ISO standard’s definitions are, you’re probably going to have to. Once you have it in a workable form, you then work through the positioning process.

Positioning the hole requires that you define a starting face for each hole section (essentially, each part it passes through or interacts with) and locate the hole centre. This can be done either using existing hole references (a bit pointless as you’d have effectively modelled them twice), by a two-edge reference (to define X and Y offsets) or by using a concentric relationship with another feature. Unfortunately, you can’t use your own sketches (containing points at the centre) and the system does have the limitation that you can only define one fastener at a time. Yes, you can include them in a component pattern to match other patterned features, but for more ‘non-uniform’ groups of fasteners, the ability to position more than one at a time would be a massive benefit. All of the bolted connections are fully editable, but you have to use the right click menu item to ‘edit bolted connection’, rather than just trying to edit the part properties.

Data exchange

As ever, data exchange is an important factor for many users and when working with a predominately solid-based modelling system such as Inventor, good data translation and repair tools are essential. This release sees much work done on the import tools that allow you to work with third party data to ensure that it’s in an optimal condition for further work. These tools manifest themselves in additions to the support for layers/levels in STEP and IGES files, which allow you to import multi-part STEP or IGES data into an assembly context, rather than a single geometric lump. For those working in a sub-contract environment where data often turns up with far too much information, then this tool alone will save a great deal of time sorting out the bits you actually need.

Once you have your data into the system, there are a number of new tools that allow you to correct any problems. The system includes automated surface healing, which can close gaps commonly found in systems which work to a different tolerance to Inventor. For more complex geometry import problems, the construction environment allows you to work with the sometimes disparate and broken geometry, to classify it as wireframe, surface, and solid. You can then analyse the data to reveal areas that need to be repaired, and then use new data clean up tools. These include the Intersect Faces tool (which is used to trim or break intersecting faces) and the Extend Faces tool (which is used to extend faces by a specific distance and to ensure intersection). There’s also the Edit Region tool, which is used to select regions within a surface and then heal the gaps. Finally, the old favourite, Reverse Normal, is used tool to flip the normals of a face.

MDT import: Alongside the work done to improve data exchange with third party applications, there’s also been additional work done on the importation of Mechanical Desktop files. Model and drawings from MDT can now be imported as parts, assemblies and drawings in Inventor and should maintain the original design constraints and drawing relationships. The ‘migration tools’ provide you with tools for automation drawing view creation and the ability to recognise model to drawing associativity for annotations, scenes, unit settings and such.

Draughting

	Shaft Generator Workflow
	Shafts are designed in a graphical manner, using common engineering language to define sections and functions. You can mix, match and edit your shaft in any number of ways, to ensure that it’s fit for the purpose it’s intended.
	Once your shaft design is in a workable form, you can use the built in design validation tools (which are based on standard engineering calculation) to ensure that it will perform mechanically as you expect and require.
	The results of the design validation tools allow you to inspect the performance of your shaft without even having to model it.
	Once the form of your shaft is complete (which might be an iterative process between design and validation), you simply ask the system to insert it into your Inventor assembly.

The work done in the last release with regards Positional Overlays has also born fruit in this release in the draughting environment. To assist in the documentation of an assembly’s potential motion, you can now overlay positional representations within a drawing view, to show an assembly at a variety of positions. These can also be dimensioned between, allowing you to document distances and angles within those drawing views.

The creation of holes and thread, as you’ll have already read, has been improved greatly in the 3D environment with much more efficient and standard-based methods of creation. This work has been followed through into the annotation and documentation tools, with both the creation of hole and thread notes as well as hole tables being greatly improved. In terms of hole and thread notes, you can automatically annotate extruded cut circles, voids in extrude-join operations, sheet metal features, circular sheet metal cuts, and holes in iFeatures. You can also now extract fastener clearance information from the model, override the hole quantity, modify the precision and tolerance of hole note parameters. Also, should you choose to step away from standard annotation methods, you can also use a custom thread designation for a thread note.

In terms of updates to hole tables, both the workflow to create them and the manner in which you can edit/adapt them to your purposes, have been enhanced. For example, with hole tables, you can define default format and options of the hole tables using a hole table styles (the styles dialog is central method for defining all of the various options throughout all of Inventor’s functionality). Also, you can use the Edit Hole Table dialog box to reset default style options for the current document. Contents of those tables can be formatted, sorted and arranged just as you require, including the ability to merge table tows and ‘rollup’ holes, numbering, and hole note information, so that the information is better presented for those viewing it downstream.

Finally on the draughting-specific updates, this release sees improvement to the manner in which you both define and control Bills of Materials and parts lists within drawings. To ensure that items are numbered consistently across different drawings sheets and presentations, the parts list tables maintain complete associativity with the Bill of Materials. You also have a number of tools that allow you to edit your parts lists, allowing you to change properties, group items, sum rows, and visibility should you want to hide particular details. You can also add multiple parts list on a single drawing and create a parts list without a drawing view, so you could have a single sheet within a drawing file that just contains the parts list of a particularly complex product.

Task automation

The last update for the core inventor Series 10 I wanted to cover was the introduction of the Task Scheduler. Similarly to the tools found in both Windows and SolidWorks, these allow you to schedule tasks for those hours when you’re not using your workstation and have tasks to perform. You can now batch process File migrations (from AutoCAD, MDT and Inventor), assembly and drawing updates, print jobs, IGES and STEP import and export, DWF publishing, DWG import and export, check-in/out of files to or from Vault and any other user-defined tasks.

Inventor Studio

Now, one area that’s brand new to Inventor 10 is Inventor Studio. Autodesk has a rather large stake in the rendering and animation market with its recently renamed Autodesk Media and Entertainment division (formerly Discreet or if your memory is good, Kinetix – I think I have a mug from those days in the kitchen). But despite the wealth of knowledge and expertise within the company, there has never been a real rendering solution for Inventor from Autodesk – with the company preferring to push its Autodesk Viz or 3ds Max applications to those users looking to create photorealistic renders and animation. This has now changed with the introduction of Inventor Studio. Essentially, this a set of fully integrated rendering tools built directly into the Inventor interface, based on the mental ray rendering engine To gain an understanding of what it can do, let’s look at how you’d work through its use.

As ever, the starting point is your part or assembly model, as it’s this you’re rendering up. As with almost all rendering systems, there are key components to any rendering ‘scene’. The part geometry should already be complete or at a stage that you’re ready to do some visualisation. You also need to define materials, lights and the scenery/background.

On the materials front, the chances are that you’ve already done this using the tools within core Inventor, as this not only define the appearance of your parts within the modelling environment, but also the physical/material properties. If you haven’t done this or need to adapt them to specific purposes, this can be done through the Studio interface. Once done, you’re ready to create the rendering specific items. The good news is that a great deal of these parameters can be set by selecting them from the library of presets for both lighting set-ups and scenery/background. When you enter the Inventor Studio (available from the Application pull-down menu), you’re presented with an Inventor Studio panel that contains links to the dialog boxes for each. For example, clicking the Scenery icon brings up a dialog from which you can select from a number of pre-set scenes and backgrounds. The same is true of the Lighting dialog. Both scenes and lighting set-ups can also be created from scratch using the clear tools or you can use a pre-set to build a specific variation. The camera controls are also worth a note as they’re particularly easy to define – particularly when you use the Set Camera to View. This allows you to set-up the orientation of the model using the standard viewport manipulation tools then create a camera that matches that view. This is then available in the rendering and animation tools (more on these shortly). Once you have your model in position and the rendering requirements set-up, the final stage is to click the Render Image button. This provides you with both global controls over the scene as well as the image output, such as anti-aliasing quality (higher quality anti aliasing means more compute time) and image resolution. As with most rendering processes, you’re most likely to start with a rough, low-res renders, then commit to a higher-resolution when the scene is just as you want it. The benefit here is that because the various cameras are parametrically linked and editable, you can quickly store potential views and return to them to make minor modifications. Combined with the reasonably quick render times (or so we found), you can create some pretty compelling imagery in very little time.

In conclusion

This month we’ve simply run out of space to cover what else is new in the core Inventor Series 10 bundle. Next month we’ll be continuing our look at the core tools and updates made to both the document management system that underpins the Autodesk Manufacturing tools, Vault, as well as what’s new and improved in AutoCAD Mechanical – even squeezing in a look at the updates made to the Professional variant as well.

Looking at the updates we’ve covered here, it’s clear that Inventor is finally starting to come together as a product development system. The additions to core tools, such as modelling and draughting are going to be applicable to all those Inventor users out there, while new areas of functionality such as the Inventor Studio and the Functional Design are going to provide benefit to a great number if they choose to adopt them. The latter in particular [Functional Design] really points to where Autodesk is going with the next few releases. At present, the tools integrated into Inventor 10 are pretty much a straight port and tidy up of the core capabilities that Mechsoft already had available – that said, there’s even more to come from the acquisition (in terms of automated design) but the technology has yet to be implemented.

While Autodesk is in the game of mainstream modelling, the provision of these types of intelligence, engineering and design focussed tools is going to make the adoption of 3D design technology much easier, as a good engineer can leverage their practical knowledge to create the 3D forms, rather than concentrate on geometric modelling. I’ll save my conclusions for next month, but in the meantime, Inventor 10 looks pretty solid and should keep those users on subscription more than happy.