In the Machine

Select Features

When working on a model, I often need to select a given feature in the graphics window instead of looking for the feature in the browser. There are a few ways to do this but the easiest way is to change the selection filter from "Select Face and Edges" to "Select Features". You will see the green icon next to the material selection across the top of the screen.

Once you have changed the filter to "Select Features" you can move over your model and see it highlight each of the features as you mouse over them. You can select a feature and Right Click to edit the feature all from within the graphics window.

You can also get to the selection filter option by holding down the Shift Key and selecting the Right Mouse Button while in the graphics window for faster access.

What iPhone applications are you using?

I know many of you have an iPhones, iTouch or iPad and are often playing with various applications. As many of you know, Autodesk has several applications from Inventor Mobile Publisher, AutoCAD WS, Fluid FX and SketchBook Mobile but there are other great apps that can be very useful when you are working on your designs. Below are a several that I have used in the past and think are great apps to look at.

Mechanical Engineer

Contains 130 formular needed by many Mechanical Engineers

 

Feed Rate Calculator

App for calculating feed rates and speeds for machinist

 

Convertbot

Great app that converts length, mass, time and much more

 

Inventor Publisher Mobile Viewer

Allows users to view 3D assembly instructions created with Autodesk Publisher

 

 

SketchBook Mobile

Professional Sketching app designed for the iPhone and iTouch

 

Tell us what apps you are using in the comments below.

 

Inventor Service Pack 1 is here

For those of you using Inventor 2011, Service Pack 1 was released Friday (Aug. 27). Head over to our Services & Support page to download the Service Pack and read the Readme to see all the issues that have been addressed by this service pack.

Official Autodesk Inventor Podcast Episode 42 - Using DWG files

I often get questions around importing/exporting DWG files with Inventor. Many of you have need to work with 2D DWG files between AutoCAD and Inventor and at times also need to open or save 3D DWG files. This episode is all around how to leverage DWG files between both AutoCAD and Inventor. I also use a great little tool that was recently updated on Labs to help take 2D drawings and turn them into 3D models.

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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.

A Brief Overview with Wiki help

A few weeks ago I posted about our new Wiki help system and now there is a great YouTube video from Lynn Allen on how to use it. This shows you how to use it and how you can set your own page up to share your own pictures, videos and tips.

 If any of you set up a page page with tips and images let me know. You never know, it might even show up on my blog.

For starters here are a few pages to check out.

• Paul Normand'sWiki page is full of great Tips, Tricks and cool links from Paul.
• Bill Bogan's page with useful tips and projects he has worked on.
• Inventor Studio Tips

Inventor on the Mac?

I often get the question if we support Mac OS X with Autodesk Inventor. A month or so ago I made the switch to a MacBook Pro as my standard laptop for work. Thats right, an Inventor Product Manager on the Mac. I am always looking for more power and had heard great things about the MacBook Pro (size to power ratio) so I picked one up. Since I still spend a bit of time running Inventor I needed a great way to use Inventor on my Mac and have been playing around a bit with the various solutions. Some of you may recall a blog post I did a few months ago around using Parallels 5. 

Depending on what I am doing I either fully boot into Windows 7 or I use Parallels to stay on the Mac side and virtually run Inventor. Since Parallels supports hardware acceleration, I have great performance for virtualization through Parallels and if I need extra power I will just boot up straight to Windows. This has worked great for me and something that we support for Inventor as well as many other Autodesk products.

If you have additional questions, here is an FAQ document that should help.

What's up with the New Feature Workshop?

Have you ever wanted to see what is new in the current version of Inventor as well as older versions? I often get questions about when various features were added into Inventor. Now you can get it from the Help drop-down and select "New Feature Workshop".

The New Features Workshop covers that last few releases for those of you that have skipped a release or two and want to get up to speed on what you have missed. It covers descriptions, illustrations and animations of each new feature in that particular version of Autodesk Inventor software. Links to online help and relevant tutorials are included below the feature entry.

Change What???

I am a big Vault user due to the many advantages I get  when it comes to managing my data. I know there are some of you out there that still don't use Vault (get on it ;) and I came across a great video from Ravi Kumar that you might find interesting. The video shows you how to easily edit the properties of several drawings at once through Design Assistant.

Thanks Ravi!!

Inventor Wiki - add your tutorial here

Along with all of the other great news you are hearing around Inventor 2011, several of our manufacturing products are now included in the new Autodesk Wiki Help Beta. What does this mean? It means that you can now add your own information for all the world to see (or at least other Inventor users).

 

This is also Google/Bing search able so head on over to your favorite search engine to help locate items from the help system. One note - since this a new system, many of the Wiki results are lower in the page until people use it a little more. 

Also one really cool item on the Inventor Wiki site is a new video added to help you learn about the new Direct Manipulation capabilities for Inventor 2011.

Head on over and check it out!!!