In the Machine

Cadalyst Article on Adding 3D

I've just started writing a bi-monthly article for Cadalyst.com. The first one is on the age old topic of going from 2D to 3d. These days we really talk about adding 3D, since we know it's not like flipping a switch where one day you do all your designs in AutoCAD and another day you are doign everything with Inventor. This series is going to focus on some practical steps you can take to make sure you are successful with 3D, highlight what some customers have achieved in this area, and focus on some of the key benefits of using 3D for design.

You can read the first installment here: Inventor In Depth: Easing the Transition to 3D.

-Amy

First Official Autodesk Inventor Podcast

Welcome to our first official Inventor podcast. The podcast is a little under 12 minutes with various CAD news, events and a few Inventor tips.

Hope you enjoy the podcast!

Download MP3 podcast

Podcast Show Notes

News:
     Stock Car Speed Record

Events:
      Autodesk Vault & Productstream Overview

     Autodesk Inventor Webcast

Resources:
     www.sdotson.com
     www.Tenlinks.com
     www.cadforum.cz

Tips and Tricks:
      Discussion Group Question
      Display Parameters in Drawings

Stay tuned for future episodes!

Garin Gardiner

The Formula 1 Technology Challenge

Everyone loves race cars right? Well they are also a great way to get kids interested in science and technology. The US Finals of the F1 in Schools competition featured 55 teams of which over half used Inventor to design their mini-racing car. A team from Bloomsburg, PA won the 2006 Autodesk Inventor Award for the best designed car using Inventor. Naturally :-) this team also won 1st place in the competition overall. For more info on F1 in Schools go to www.f1inschools.us.

Amy

DWF Files from Russia

Our Russian team recently passed along some DWF files created by two of their customers. They are quite impressive! I've posted some picutures here and if you follow the links you can check out the real thing.

The first, from TEKHVAGONMASH is used in the assembly of frames for railroad cars.



The second, from ZORYA-MASHPROYEKT is from a combustion chamber of a gas turbine engine.




-Amy

Travel Woes

Where has all the time gone! You'd think with all the sitting around in airports I've done lately I'd be able to post more. My excuse is that I've been on vacation again and then off traveling. We were in Boston for a week visiting friends and family and for a change we actuallly took the kids into the city (see photos for proof). We also had to load up on Red Sox gear. Unfortunately our favorite team was out of town...



In Faniuel Hall, with one of the cows from the parade of cows.



My favorite bridge.

Now to the travel woes.... the night before we left Boston part of the airport tunnel collapsed killing a person. Thankfully our friends woke us up extra early so we could start our crazy expidition through downtown Boston to get to the airport on time. I don't miss big city traffic one bit! Apparently even weeks later there are still problems. When the accident happened they instantly needed to know a lot of the as-built details about that part of the tunnel and had to find out what other areas used the same construction practices. On a project of this size I can only imagine how difficult it was to locate this data.... naturally this all made me think of our Building Systems Division who works with customers to design, build and maintain these types of projects.

Last week I was stuck in SFO twice - both times trying to take the 8:10pm United flight to Portland and both times delayed by several hours. You'd think I would learn my lessson. The first time there was a power outage at LAX that had planes grounded for 3 hours and the next time they gave our plane to a bunch of people going to Alaska who apparently needed it more than we did! Also last week I had the pleasure of spending time in the Vancouver airport.... Which is actually a very nice airport except for one thing - MOVING WALKWAYS... they need some - we have some customers who would love their business! The walk from the US arrivals to the Canadian flights must be over a mile. And a tip if you are flying on British Airways and checking in in Vancouver - arrive early, very early. In all my years of travel I have never seen such a line- it went on and on ...

This week I am homebound and happy about it. Lots of catching up to do!

-Amy

Display Parameters in Drawings

Periodically I need to display a parameter from a part into a drawings that will update as the parameter changes. An example of this might be to display the Height, Width and Length of a part in a drawing.

Display Parameters in Drawings

Periodically I need to display a parameter from a part into drawings that will update as the parameter changes. An example of this might be to display the Height, Width and Length of a part in a drawing.



First I create the parameters I want to use and attach them to each dimension. I then create a drawing with the view/s necessary and activate the leader command. I then select an edge of the part I want to attach parameters to and notice it will pick up the component (part/assembly) that was selected.



I can then use Model Parameters or User Parameters depending on what the source drop-down is set to. Lastly, I select the parameter I want to use under the Parameter drop-down and select the Add Parameter icon to display it into Leader window. To display additional parameters in the same leader, I can repeat the same steps to add all three parameters I have created in the part(Length, Width and Height).



Garin Gardiner

Cadalyst Article on Functional Design

Check out this article by Kevin Schneider on Functional Design in Inventor today. It reviews some of the key capabilities and benefits including enhanced productivity by enabling you to focus more on design and less on geometric modeling.

-amy