ASCENT Blog

Accelerated Inventor Introduction Training

By Jennifer MacMillan

I recently had the opportunity to teach a class with our five day Autodesk Inventor 2014 Introduction to Solid Modeling training guide. I loved this opportunity as I really enjoy teaching and well… to be honest it gave me the idea for a new training guide. Within 30 minutes of starting the class I knew that I had an experienced group. Our “get-to-know each other” introduction was impressive. I had a group that had extensive 3D CAD backgrounds with a mix of CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, and Solidworks. My initial thought was, “this is going to be a tough one” and then I switched my tune and thought of it a perfect learning experience for me. One month later, ASCENT was pleased to announce a new three day Autodesk Inventor training guide: Autodesk Inventor 2014 for Experienced 3D CAD Users.

Throughout my class I took the opportunity to take a lot of notes on what they were asking, how fast they were getting through the exercises, and how I could compress the lecture/demo portion of my presentation. At the end of it all, (after finishing early and spending a lot of time teaching advanced material) I realized that what this group needed was an accelerated version of our standard five day training guide. My students clearly understood what the features could do, they just needed to know how to find the tool, and how to use it in the Autodesk Inventor software. Once they got used to Autodesk Inventor’s Interface, dialog boxes, and mini-toolbars they were off to the races.

As the developer, I knew that it was important to explain the intended audience to the ASCENT sales team. So I stressed the following in our course description…

“The Autodesk® Inventor® 2014 for Experienced 3D CAD Users training guide is intended to provide accelerated introductory training in the Autodesk® Inventor® software. This training guide can be used in a three day introductory training class and is designed for students that
have 3D modeling design experience with other 3D CAD software packages (e.g., CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, Creo Parametric, NX, or SolidWorks).”

This class leverages the experience students gain when working in other 3D modeling software packages and because of this, students are expected to get through the material at a more intense speed. Although, ultimately the same material is covered in the five and three day classes, students that do not have any CAD experience would have a difficult time keeping up with the accelerated pace.

As an instructor preparing to teach this new class, here are a few recommendations:

• The main difference in the two books is how sketching and modeling the basic features is taught. The content is different in the first book, so be sure and review it. The opening 6 chapters have been consolidated to 4 chapters.
• In the five day class, many topics provide students with the opportunity to do multiple exercises to ensure their understanding of the topic. In the three day class, many exercises are marked “Optional”. They are included, but are meant for after class work. Students should not be allowed to complete these unless they are ahead of the rest of the class. Once you hit an Optional exercise, move on.
• Use the Instructor Tools as a guideline for the timing.

Please let me know if you have any feedback (education@ASCENTed.com). We hope that you enjoy this new offering.

Jennifer

 

Creating Custom Coordinate Systems in AutoCAD Civil 3D.

By Michelle Rasmussen

In the imperial version of the Autodesk® Infrastructure Design Suite 2014: BIM Workflow for Roads and Highways training guide I wrote earlier this year, I had to create a custom coordinate system. This is used to  translate the data to an imperial coordinate system for those using the Imperial system of units. Although the custom coordinate system is included with the dataset that comes with the training guide, I thought some of you might benefit from understanding how that coordinate system was created.

 If a coordinate system has to be created and used in a file you wish to work with, you need to make sure that the coordinate system ports into the coordinate system library. However, if you do not have administrative rights on your PC, you will not be able to just port a new coordinate system into the Autodesk program coordinate system library. Instructors using this training guide should be aware of this if their classroom is set up such that students do not have admin right. If this happens to you, you have to create the coordinate system manually. Below are the steps to do this.

 

1. Open AutoCAD Civil 3D.

2. On the quick access toolbar, select the Planning and Analysis workspace , as shown below.           

3. On the Map Setup tab>Coordinate System panel, click the down arrow next to Create and select Create Coordinate System.

4. In the Create Coordinate System dialog box, select Create coordinate system definition. Click Next.

5. On the Specify the starting point page to Start with a coordinate system, as shown below.

6. In the Specify coordinate systems page, select Create a new coordinate system from an existing coordinate system, click the select button, and select BritishNatGrid (British National Grid (ORD SURV GB)), as shown below.

7. In the Specify project page, change the Code  by typing Feet at the end.  Then for the Unit, select International Foot, as shown below.

8. Click Next three times and click Finish.

What’s New in Autodesk Revit 2014? – Schedule Enhancements

By Martha Hollowell

Every year Autodesk smoothes out any kinks in the software, improves existing tools and adds new tools that improve productivity and accuracy.  I’ve already covered several of the user interface and selection upgrades here.

Since I’ve just finished working on the Autodesk Revit 2014 BIM Management: Template and Family Creation training guide (which includes schedules)  I want to step through the significant changes to modifying schedules that impact architectural, systems, and structural projects.

Schedule View Interface

You will notice a change the first time you open a schedule. The Modify Schedule/Quantities tab has been expanded to include many more options for the appearance and organization of the schedule as shown in Figure 1.

  Figure 1

Modifying the Schedule Appearance

Most of the new options fall under the category of setting up the appearance of schedule cells. You can modify each cell and add other rows and columns. Title and Heading cells can include both text and parameter (enclosed within <>) values as shown in Figure 2. Each cell in the title can have different text formatting and you can also add images to title cells.

  Figure 2 

Here is a quick run-down of the various tools. A few of them such as grouping headers and inserting rows were available in previous releases.

Parameters

Parameter values and options (as shown in Figure 3) can be set up by cell. In title cells you can use the Schedule and Project Information parameters. If you select a header cell the parameters match the type of schedule in which you are working. If you change this you are changing the field as you did in the Schedule Properties dialog box, in the Field tab. In number-based data cells you can modify the Format Unit or add Calculated values (formulas).

Figure 3

Columns/Rows

The options for Columns and Rows (as shown in Figure 4), vary according to the type of cell selected. You can Insert, Delete, and Resize title columns and rows. If you select a header column you can insert, delete, resize, and hide the column.

 
Figure 4

Titles & Headers

The more complex and extensive a schedule, the more it can help to modify the title and header cells, as shown in Figure 5 The title cells can be merged or unmerged. You can also insert images and delete the contents of title cells. Header cells can be grouped and ungrouped.

Figure 5

Appearance

The overall appearance of a schedule, including the text types used in the various cells, is set up in the Schedule Properties. You can also modify individual title and header cells using the options in the Appearance panel as shown in Figure 6.

 
Figure 6

A final important update for schedules is what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG if you remember that far back in computer time). When you layout the schedule in the Schedule View and place it on the sheet it comes in just as you created it. Now, if you modify the width of columns on the sheet, as shown in Figure 7, it also updates in the schedule view.

  Figure 7