ASCENT Blog

NEW Home for the ASCENT Blog

We truly enjoy writing blog posts and sharing them. But that’s not all we do. Our new blog site lives on the ASCENT Resource Center.

The ASCENT Resource Center offers on-demand webcasts, sample chapters, brochures and more.

Content from our amazing technical team will continue! We hope you’ll join us: https://resources.ascented.com/ascent-blog

Are there shortcuts when it comes to learning CAD software?

By: Paul Burden

A shortcut implies a faster route to a destination or a quicker way to achieve a goal. Many people wonder if there a faster way to learn how to use CAD software. It’s a valid question when we are often tasked with multiple projects and tight deadlines…Is there a way to learn CAD software that is faster than attending instructor-led training?

I came across a Tweet recently that implied traditional learning, whatever that is, is “dead”! Not surprisingly maybe, this claim was made by someone deeply involved in the production of self-paced eLearning. I can see the benefits of self-paced eLearning, where someone develops CAD software skills without ever leaving the office or speaking with an expert. But… is there really no place for traditional learning? What about a combination?

For a variety of reasons, more and more companies and individuals are looking to self-paced learning methods as alternative options to instructor-led training. As everyone seeks the quickest route to develop skills and reach proficiency, demand has increased, and so too has the variety of options and providers.

This demand is driven by many factors. No one can deny it is costly to take someone away from the office and out of production for multiple days. The use of multimedia and interactive content is attractive and can be engaging. I also believe that software companies encourage the movement toward self-paced learning because it fuels the perception that they are modern and current and that their software is easy to use.

My own feeling is that self-paced learning with tutorial manuals and online resources can absolutely be a faster way to learn how to use CAD software for some individuals, in some circumstances. I also feel that there is still a place for classroom-based instructor-led training. This all comes down to the simple fact that we don’t all learn the same way. Call me a dinosaur, but I am, in fact, still a proponent of using instructor-led training for learning the basics.

Despite what CAD software manufacturers may want you to think, their software is complex, and for good reason. Whether I am designing a bridge or a pump, I want the design tool that I am using to be complex enough to create my designs, deal properly with any design changes I am bound to experience, and be able to incorporate the design alternatives I inevitably will want to consider without having to start over each time. To take advantage of the powerful capabilities the software is designed for, I need to have a solid foundation in the basic skills needed to use the software and a clear understanding of fundamental modeling strategies. I believe one of the best ways to build those fundamental skills is through interaction with experts and other learners where there can be dialog and an exchange of ideas. It is this real-time session that teaches modeling strategies, provides the ability to challenge ideas, gives the opportunity to ask questions, and invokes conversation. Interactions with the expert instructor, as well as with peers, in an instructor-led session makes traditional learning still incredibly effective and relevant.

I coach a youth baseball team despite not having played a lot of organized ball when I was younger, I had a lot to learn when I started out. Trust me, I used YouTube and other online resources a lot (and still do!), but what helped me to make sense of all the excellent information I found online was interacting with new and experienced coaches at clinics that I had the good fortune of attending.  I was overwhelmed when I started out. There are as many opinions on the proper way to hit a baseball as there are on the correct sequence of features in your CAD model. It was only after I began to discuss hitting techniques with experienced coaches and hitting instructors that I could digest the information and come up with approaches that worked for the players I coach.  For me, gaining a foundational understanding of the basic techniques and strategies in an immersive situation enabled me to make better use of the advanced and varying information I could access on my own.

While there is nothing wrong with exploring shortcuts, I do feel the fastest way to build the skills for using CAD software is using a combination of instructor-led training and self-paced learning with instructional resources (e.g., books, videos, eLearning, etc.). Go and interact with an expert to lay the foundation and then build on it with “non-traditional” methods. Working with an instructor doesn’t mean you need to be in a classroom for five days or that you need to be in a classroom at all. Many training providers have come up with creative ways to deliver live classes over the web, provide on-demand instructor support, and blend various methods into a learning offering.

-------------

Paul Burden is Director of Product Development for ASCENT – Center for Technical Knowledge. He has been in the business of technical training and support for CAD systems since 1995. During that time, he has led courseware projects for CAD and PDM software from most of the major developers of this type of software.

Technical Writing: Using Graphics Effectively

by Surya Nair (Technical Editor @ ASCENT)

Graphics are an integral part of technical writing. Graphics can be an effective aid to improve content clarity. Appropriately placed graphics can help break the monotony of text-heavy content to retain reader interest.

As technical documentation is increasingly being created for a more global audience, the use of graphics has gained even greater relevance in content development. Graphics speak a universal language and help transcend barriers of language to better communicate an idea.

At ASCENT, we consider the following when using graphics:

• Quality
• Integration with text
• Placement
• Editing to improve effectiveness
• Cross reference

Graphics Quality

Poorly designed graphics often diminish the overall quality of your content rather than enhance it. Therefore, make sure that the graphics used are of sufficient quality where the details are clear and easy to read. Also, ensure that all relevant details are included in a graphic.

Sometimes, visually appealing graphics without much relevance to the topic are used in marketing material or on websites to improve the aesthetic value of a page. In technical writing, using such graphics may detract from the objective to inform or instruct.

Consider the example below.

The screenshot on the right does not show the Tangency panel that is referred to in the preceding text. The screenshot on the left shows the Tangency panel and therefore improves context for the reader.

Integration with Text

Integrating graphics well with the text helps in effectively communicating an instruction. The examples below show how graphics and text can be integrated to complement each other.

Placement

The location of a graphic is based on the context as well as the page balance (text-image-white space ratio on a page). If you are referring to a graphic in the text, try and place it as close to the relevant text. For print content, it is ideal if the referenced graphic appears either on the same page or the facing page of the text reference.

In the image shown above, figures 7-4 and 7-6 are on the same page as their reference and figure 7-5 is on a facing page.

Editing Graphics to Improve Effectiveness

Often you may need to edit a graphic to draw the reader’s attention to different parts of the graphic. This can be done using numbering and/or highlighting using arrows, boxes, circles, or callouts.  

The example graphic below shows the screenshot of an interface where various screen elements are numbered, and cross referenced in a table.

In the following image, note how the red oval box circles the “Side Cut Profiles and Front Cut Profile sketches”. This helps to draw the reader’s attention immediately to the two options described in step 2.  When using highlights, it is best to choose a colour that provides sufficient contrast to the screenshot colours and stands out from the rest of the image.

Another editing technique is to blur or crop out irrelevant details in the graphic. This helps to improve the graphic's effectiveness in supporting the accompanying text.

Consider the example below.

The figure on the left is a screenshot of the entire window. On the right, a more appropriate cropped version of the same screenshot is used with only the details relevant for the instruction in step 1.

You can avoid lengthy or wordy sentences by adding a graphic that is appropriately marked up. Consider the two examples below to see how the mark-up on the graphics has helped to reduce the amount of text required.  

Cross Reference

In technical content that spans several pages, it is best to include a numbered caption and clear descriptive labels. This makes it easy to refer to the graphic, as shown in the example below.

In conclusion, a picture may not be worth a thousand words, but it can certainly save you many. 😊

To learn about ASCENT’s technical editing services, please email us at [email protected].

Technical Writing: Introduction to Using Plain Language

by Breanne MacDonald (Technical Editor @ ASCENT)

“A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended audience can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.”

This is a standard definition of plain language that was created by the International Plain Language Federation (iplfederation.org). More and more organizations around the world are adopting the use of plain language for all kinds of documents, including websites, training guides, and legal documents. They are recognizing the importance of producing communications that are easily understood by their intended audiences.

This may be especially true when writing for a technical audience, particularly when the goal is to teach new users software or design skills, as we do with our learning guides here at ASCENT. You want your audience to be able to understand your content the first time they read it.

There are extensive resources available for learning how to write using plain language, but I believe there are three main things you can look at to get started:

• Your audience and purpose
• The language you use
• Your document’s structure and design

 

Audience and Purpose

If your goal is to produce a document that follows plain language principles, the first thing you should do is look at your audience and the purpose of your document – before you start writing. Consider the age, education, skills, and profession of your audience. This will help you determine the appropriate vocabulary, style, tone, and reading level to use. It will also help guide you when you are deciding what to include in your document. What will your audience already know and what background information will they need to understand your text? What are they trying to learn or accomplish by reading your document?

 

Language

The language you use in your document should be at a level that your audience will be comfortable with. Jargon should generally be avoided or, in the case of more specialized texts, clearly explained so that your readers will understand it. Use simpler terms where possible and be consistent with your terminology. This is especially important for our ASCENT learning guides as they can contain a lot of technical terms. We strive to be consistent throughout the guide while also making sure that the terms used are consistent with what is used in the software being taught. This ensures continuity for our audience and makes it easier to connect the concepts in the book to the software interface.

 

Document Structure and Design

It is also important to look at the structure and design of your document. Breaking information up into manageable chunks, using headings, lists, and bullets, and including images, diagrams, and other graphics can help your readers navigate through your document and makes the information easier to find and use. In our ASCENT guides, we use bullets, numbered lists, and lots of figures to make the text clear and easy to follow. You should also look at the organization of your document. Put the information in a logical order and start with what your audience will want or need to know first. (See how everything goes back to your intended audience? It’s an essential first step!)

 

Once your document is written, be sure to take the time to evaluate it to make sure it follows these plain language principles and is appropriate for your audience.

For a list of plain language resources or to learn about ASCENT’s technical editing services, please email us at [email protected].

My Five Fave New Features in Revit 2021

With all the uncertainty in the world today, it is refreshing to unwrap the new features of Revit 2021 to see what the Autodesk development team has come up with to make our lives easier in the way we design. With the release of Revit 2021, there are some pretty exciting enhancements and features. A few that stood out to me are highlighted below, but trust me, there are plenty more wonderful enhancements to explore.

Creating slanted walls – In previous releases, to achieve a slanted wall you had to either create a mass element or utilize profiles. However, you achieved slanted walls before, Revit 2021 now lets you create slanted walls with architectural, structural, or curtain walls by altering the Cross-Section property, then modifying the Angle From Vertical property with a negative or positive angle. In the image below, I show a slanted curtain wall.

Stripe rows in schedules – Previously, you only had the option to stripe schedule rows from the ribbon and only view them in a schedule view. In Revit 2021, you can visually simplify a schedule’s appearance by setting the stripe rows within a schedule’s properties, including setting stripe rows to start with the first or second row, modifying the highlight color, and select whether or not you want to show stripe rows on the sheet it gets placed on.

Schedules in Sheet view’s list – To manage which sheets your schedules are on, you can now expand the sheets and view schedules, along with views, that are on each sheet.

Modify 3D rebar hook rotation – To modify a rebar hook in previous versions, you had to go into edit sketch mode and modify the linework. In Revit 2021, a new enhancement to 3D rebar shapes allows you to rotate the 3D rebar hooks by specifying Hook Rotation At Start and End of the rebar within the rebar properties.

To learn more about ASCENT and what we can offer visit https://www.ascented.com/. 

What’s New in the AutoCAD® 2021 Fundamentals Learning Guide

by Renu Muthoo

I am excited to tell you about the AutoCAD® 2021 Fundamentals learning guide that is now available from ASCENT. This year, we focused on making the content more precise and effective while incorporating the new features and enhancements for the 2021 version of the AutoCAD software. I also gave a webcast about the new features in AutoCAD 2021; thank you to those of you who attended it. We have posted the recording on the ASCENT YouTube channel on the following link: New in AutoCAD 2021 webcast

This year’s changes include:

• The Quick Measure tool has been enhanced to include the area and perimeter.
• The Trim and Extend commands have been completely revamped.
• The Blocks Palette has been modified.
• A new Xref Compare command has been introduced.

The Quick Measure tool provides you with multiple measurements in real-time. In addition to displaying the dimensions, distances, and angles within a single command, the command now reports the area and perimeter of a closed area. As you hover the cursor around a group of objects, all the appropriate measurements are displayed. When you click inside a closed area, it is highlighted in green with the area and perimeter displayed near the cursor. You can also hold the Shift key and click in multiple closed areas to display the cumulative area and perimeter. This tool has been added to the learning guide along with the rest of the measuring commands in Chapter 9: Analyzing Model and Object Properties.

The process of trimming and extending objects has been changed in the AutoCAD 2021 software. Both the Trim and Extend commands have become intelligent commands. Once you invoke either command and hover your cursor over objects, the software automatically detects potential cutting edges or boundary edges. By default, the commands provide three different options for trimming or extending:

• Individual selection: The objects can be trimmed or extended by selecting them individually.

• Freehand selection: Holding down the left-mouse button and then dragging over multiple objects or portions of objects trims or extends those objects in a single step.

• Two-point fence selection: Clicking two points to create a segment that passes through the multiple objects that are to be trimmed/extended.

The Blocks Palette provides a convenient location from where you can locate and insert blocks and drawings into the current drawing. The Blocks Palette can be accessed through the View tab>Palettes panel or by clicking Recent Blocks/Blocks from Libraries from the Insert Blocks gallery. The Blocks Palette has three tabs that provide you with all the blocks that are in the current drawing, all the blocks that were inserted recently, and the drawings that were inserted as blocks. Through the Libraries tab, you can now get a number of drawings as blocks into your Blocks Palette at once by selecting a folder that contains all of the drawings. The content and practices of Chapter 12: Blocks have been updated to incorporate the working of the new Blocks Palette.

A new Xref Compare tool has been introduced in AutoCAD 2021. When a drawing that is referenced in another drawing is modified, you can see the differences between the two versions of the drawing using the Xref Compare command. If the host drawing is open and the externally referenced drawing is changed, you are alerted by a balloon. You can click on the link in this balloon to compare the drawings or you can start the comparison from the right-click menu.

• Once you start the Xref Compare command, the host drawing is in Compare mode indicated by being enclosed in a blue border and the Xref Compare toolbar is displayed. The differences are enclosed in a revision cloud.
  
• The Xref Compare toolbar allows you to toggle various display options, change the shape and color of the revision cloud, and zoom to the previous and next comparison.

These are some of the changes in the AutoCAD 2021 software that are incorporated in the AutoCAD 2021 Fundamentals learning guide. The learning guide is sure to keep your teaching/learning experience up to date and relevant to the current software.

Civil 3D Fundamentals 2021: Course changes

The Civil 3D Fundamentals course is a four-day course covering all aspects of Civil 3D at a basic level. In addition to this course, there are also two specialized courses dealing with Civil 3D on a fundamental level:

• Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Land Developers (Grading)
• Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Surveyors

These three courses all cover the basics and there is quite a lot of overlap among the three courses.

Over the past two releases of this course, a lot of changes have been introduced, primarily in the order of chapters within the book and the folder structure of the dataset. Prior to teaching the 2021 course, it is recommended the instructors study the course to familiarize themselves with the location of various files and the new flow of the course.

The outline of the Civil 3D Fundamentals courses (Metric and Imperial) for 2021 has been adjusted to reflect a more realistic workflow.  The folder structure has changed to mimic a professional Civil project, either on a local area network of housed in a BIM 360 hub. 

Folder Structure:

Prior to the 2020 version, all files were stored in the Civil3D-Training folder within the Civil 3D Projects folder. 

For the 2020 release, various configuration files for assembly sets, various templates survey databases were moved out of the Civil 3D-Training folder.

For the 2021 release, the Civil 3D-Training folder was renamed to "Working" to mimic a typical BIM 360 project, as well as typical project found on local area networks within an office environment. Other data-management practices have been established with the introduction to a "Reference" folder for GIS data, point clouds, images and data-shortcuts. A "Plans" folder has also been introduced where the finalized plans reside, as well as the location for the Sheet Sets. A "Documents" folder is also present, although not used in the course.

Course Outline:

Whereas the folder structure had already gone through changes in the 2020 release, the course had remained the same as it had for prior releases. For 2021, this has changed. The course now emulates a more realistic workflow:

• Introduction to Civil 3D
• Establishing existing conditions
  • Survey
  • Surfaces
• Preparing a project for multiple team members
  •    Project Management (incl. templates and style management)
• Design development
  • Alignments
  • Profiles
  • Corridors
  • Grading
  • Pipe Networks (enhanced Pressure Pipes)
• Finalizing the design
  • Sheet Production, Sheet Set Manager (incl. sections)
  • Quantity Takeoffs
  • Visualization (new to 2021)

The introduction chapter is shortened and less technical. The topics of templates and style management formerly in this chapter have been moved to the Project Management chapter (formerly Chapter 2, now Chapter 4).

The point cloud section and the 3D solids extraction formerly in the surface chapter have been moved to the appendix. With regard to the point cloud, the Quary Park.rcs file is now a separate download for the dataset.

The corridor chapter now includes sample lines and material quantities (formerly in the QTO\Sections chapter), along with an exercise on using the Corridor Section Editor.

The Plan Production Chapter now includes section generation and using the Plan Production Section tool to include sections in the project Sheet Set.

The course finishes with a bit of fun. The final chapter covers the QTO topics and then gets into the Civil 3D multiview blocks and visualization.

Conclusion

The intent on this rather drastic reorganization is to get the folder structure to fall in line with professional practices and typical folder organization within BIM 360 projects, as well as have the course flow with a typical workflow of Civil projects. It is anticipated that this outline and structure will remain in place for the subsequent future releases of this course.

With regard to the other two fundamental level courses (Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Land Developers and Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Surveyors), they have already gone through major course outline changes in 2020 and for 2021, it is anticipated that the major changes in these courses will be only in the folder structure as has been done with this course.

 

 

 

Celebrating World Book Day

World Book Day, also known at World Book and Copyright Day, or International Day of the Book, is a global celebration of books and the difference that reading makes to people’s lives, young and old. This annual event was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote reading, publishing, and copyright.

First celebrated on April 23, 1995, this salute to reading and books has become an annual celebration in countries around the globe. The date of April 23 was chosen because in the year 1616 the famous authors, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. April 23 is also the date of birth or death for a number of other notable authors. 

This year, as most schools around the world are closed and people are staying indoors and social distancing, the significance of books for learning, stimulating our minds and bringing people together while still keeping them safely apart is especially meaningful.

We hope you are enjoying a good book - or more - this season!

 

Webcast follow-up: Maximize the Design Collaboration tools available in BIM 360

I want to thank everyone for attending my webcast on Maximizing the Design Collaboration tools. In the webcast I talked about and demonstrated the process of utilizing the BIM 360 Design Collaboration tools which is taken from our BIM 360 Fundamentals guide. This webcast was geared towards users who wanted to learn more about working with Design Collaboration within BIM 360. Topics that I covered in this webcast:

• Overview of BIM 360.
• Preparing your Revit models for BIM 360.
• Overview of the Design Collaboration module.
• Creating shared packages.
• Consuming shared packages.
• Reviewing and comparing design changes.
• Identifying issues within Design Collaboration.
• Establishing how Revit and BIM 360 will communicate
  (live vs. manage linking).

For those who couldn't attend we have posted the recording which you can view here:

Below are some questions that came up during the webcast:

Question: ­This is helpful, but is there a similar webex for Civil 3D design collaboration? 

Answer: In general, the functionality for Civil 3D is a little behind where BIM 360 Design is with Revit. We have covered this content in one of the chapters in our BIM 360 Fundamental guide. Thanks for the idea for a future webcasts.

________________________________________________________

Question: How to get started with BIM360. Should I start with BIM360 docs?

Answer: You can access BIM 360 from this link https://docs.b360.autodesk.com/ as long as you have a BIM 360 license that has been activated or you have signed up for a free trial. 

In order to access BIM 360 Design Collaboration, like I did was in my presentation you or the Account Administrator would need to activate a BIM 360 Design license and activate the Document Management (BIM 360 Docs) and Design Collaboration Services (BIM 360 Design). BIM 360 Design includes BIM 360 Docs as shown in the diagram below.

________________________________________________________

Question: Why do you have to sync and publish your model in Revit?

Answer: In Revit when you sync with central your model is synced with the central file stored on the Autodesk Revit server. Users who are working on the same model as you will get those changes much like they would if you were working off a local server on a file based workshared model.  The act of publishing the model publishes the model at its current state from the Autodesk Revit server to the BIM 360 server, this allows other teams access to your file provided permissions have been setup properly by your Project Administrator. This is also covered in chapter 4 of the BIM 360 Fundamentals guide.

________________________________________________________

Question: Do you have to consume in order to review an issue?

Answer: No, you do not have to consume a package in order to review it. In fact you may not want to consume the package at all based on the review. Also if you are reviewing the package and find an issue you can create an Project Issue from the Document Management module and assign it to that team to review and address. Project Issues are covered in Chapter 3: Analysis and Communication of the BIM 360 Fundamentals guide.

________________________________________________________

Question: Does Reload latest update to the most recent changes to the central model? or does it make sure that Design Collaboration has the latest published sets from their teams Doc's folder?

Answer: Within Revit from the BIM 360 node, clicking on Publish Latest updates the model from the central model stored on the Autodesk Revit server. Within BIM 360 Document Management, if you click on Update to latest this will update the published model to the latest version. 

Thanks again and don't forget to check out the BIM 360 Fundamentals guide on the ASCENT website.

 

Webcast follow-up: Using the AEC Collection Tools for Land Development Projects, Part 2

I thank everyone for attending my webcast on February 19th, 2020. This was the second part of a presentation I did at Autodesk University in 2019. Due to the length of the original I had to break the webcasts into two parts, the first part took place on January  22, 2020.

Here is a link to the Webcast follow-up blog I wrote for the first part: 

If you want to view the video for the the first part, follow this link.

In the second part of the AEC Collection Tools for Land Development Projects, we looked at three products:

Civil 3D
Revit 
Navisworks

I demonstrated how one can import an InfraWorks model into Civil 3D with minor amount of tweaking. Then I replicated the analysis, visual tools and conceptual work I had done in InfraWorks in Civil 3D to a more refined level for the design development stage. I created a Shared Reference Point file for Revit and then created a preliminary grading surface to be used in Revit. 

From Civil 3D I ventured into Revit where I looked at various design options. I brought different Shared Reference Point files into Revit and inserted the Topographies developed in Civil 3D. Finally I jumped into Navisworks and demonstrated its Quantification and Visualization capabilities.

 

To revisit the webinar, you may view the recording here. 

The webcast was prepared for:

Architects
Civil Engineers
Site Designers
Landscape Architects
Technicians

Topics covered in the webcast:

Importing an InfraWorks model into Civil 3D
Using Civil 3D as a design development tool.
Sharing surfaces and reference points between Civil 3D and Revit.
Using Navisworks for quantification and visualization.

These topics are covered in two of ASCENT's learning guides:

• Infraworks 2020 : Fundamentals for Conceptual Design & Visualization
• Civil 3D  2020: Grading

Webcast questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at: [email protected]

Looking to learn Inventor CAM 2D Milling?

By Jennifer MacMillan

ASCENT is excited to announce the release of a brand new learning guide: Autodesk Inventor 2020 Introduction to 2D Milling. This guide provides students, trainers, and industry professionals with learning content for Inventor CAM.

This guide focuses on how to use Inventor CAM to create 2D milling toolpaths. The 2D Milling toolpaths that are covered include Facing, 2D Adaptive, 2D Pocket, 2D Contour, and Drilling. Despite this learning guide covering only 2D Milling toolpaths, it will provide an excellent foundation on using the entire interface which remains consistent with the more advanced milling and turning operations.

Autodesk Inventor 2020 Introduction to 2D Milling begins with an introduction to the overall Inventor interface and explains how to manipulate your 3D model to change its orientation and view display. This introductory content was important to include for those users that may not have experience with Inventor but that will need to work with existing models in the CAM environment. Through a hands-on, practice-intensive curriculum, students will quickly advance to learning the key skills required to take a 3D model set it up in the CAM environment and assign the toolpaths needed to generate the CNC code required by 2D milling machines.

Topics Covered

• Navigate the Inventor software interface to locate and execute commands.
• Use the model orientation commands to pan, zoom, rotate, and look at a model.
• Assign visual styles to your models.
• Locate, modify, and create tools in the Tool Library.
• Set up machining operations using Inventor CAM.
• Create a Facing, 2D Adaptive, 2D Pocket, 2D Contour, and Drilling toolpath using the Inventor CAM interface.
• Use the Simulation option to visualize toolpaths.
• Import a tool library.
• Create a toolpath template.
• Post-process an Inventor CAM setup to output the CNC machine code required to machine a model. (not edit it)

As an introductory guide, Autodesk® Inventor® CAM 2020: Introduction to 2D Milling does not assume prior knowledge of Autodesk Inventor CAM, but an understanding of the CNC milling process is recommended. It is aimed for those using Inventor Professional with Inventor CAM Express (free add-in) or the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection that have implemented Autodesk Inventor CAM Ultimate (previously called Inventor HSM Ultimate). This guide will not provide instructional content on how to create 3D models using the Inventor modeling tools. Its focus is solely on generating 2D milling toolpaths once models are created. 

This new learning guide is now available for purchase on the ASCENT website and through Amazon.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Jennifer