In the Machine

2D to 3D tool update on Labs

I have received many emails lately concerning the Inventor 2D to 3D tools availability for Inventor 2011. As some of you probably already know, there is a 2D to 3D tool available on Labs that takes 2D views from AutoCAD and positions them to easily create 3D models.

This has been available for several versions of Inventor although we just updated it for Inventor 2011. If you AutoCAD 2D drawings that would like to turn into 3D models, head on over to Autodesk Labs and download the Inventor 2D to 3D tool.

Welcome to Mesh Enabler for Inventor

Our good friends from Autodesk Labs have released a new technology preview tool called Mesh Enabler for Inventor. With this great little tool you can now import mesh data from Catia V4 and V5 files including CGR. The Mesh Enabler adds the ability to convert selected mesh features to Base features. The resulting base features can then be used for further operations including drawings and measurements. If you ever have a need to import Catia mesh models, head on over to Autodesk Labs and pull down Mesh Enabler for Inventor.

Inventor 2011 Review

Its always interesting to hear what people are saying about the latest versions of Inventor. As many of you are probably already aware, Inventor 2011 was released in March of this year and the guys over at DEVELOP3D recently released a review of Inventor 2011. If you are interested to hear what the digital and print editors of DEVELOP3D are saying about Inventor 2011 check out one of their latest posts concerning Inventor. 

Scale up those constraints

There are a few things options I typically change after installing a fresh new Inventor. I don't feel old enough to need to scale up my text and constraints but I like the look when they are larger. If you take a look at the following image this is the typical size of both text and constraints.

There are two separate options to scale them both up. Launch Applications Options from the ribbon and select the Sketch tab. From there we will first scale up the Constraints so bump up the value from 1 to 1.5 or 2.

The second area we will adjust is under the General Tab. Look for the Annotation Scale option on the right and change it from 1 to 1.5 or 2.

 

Simply apply and close the dialog to view you sketch annotations and constrains with the new setting.

Enjoy!

More great videos

Those of you that have followed me for for a while know I am a sucker for cool videos created with Inventor. More and more Inventor videos are getting posted on YouTube and other services with great tips and tricks  and other videos that just look cool. Over the weekend I ran across these two videos what were captured with Inventor 2011 with real-time graphics that I thought were worth mentioning - take a look.