By Jennifer MacMillan
As a follow up to my Part 1 posting on what was new in ASCENT’s Autodesk Inventor 2016: Introduction to Solid Modeling and Autodesk Inventor 2016: Advanced Part Modeling training guides, this blog post covers the remaining standard Inventor training guides that have been or are about to be released.
Autodesk Inventor 2106 Advanced Assembly Modeling
As was previously discussed the majority of functionality enhancements in the Autodesk Inventor 2016 software affected the Advanced Part Modeling training guide. In this training guide I focused on the lecture content descriptions and making them clearer and to-the-point so that students can focus on what they need to learn to be successful when working with the tools. The only specific change to the training guide that was driven based on functionality changes, was in Chapter 13 Inventor Studio. The workflow when dealing with lighting styles was enhanced and all the content in the chapter (lecture and exercises) reflects the changes.
There were no 2016 software enhancements that affected iLogic. My main focus when updating this training guide was working through all the exercises and making sure they were clear for students. For example, in Chapter 9 Project Practices I cleared up some instructions that had students use custom snippets to convert user-parameters to a custom iProperty. In the 2016 training guide, students now use the standard snippet that is available in the software to do the conversion (much easier!!). The iLogic training guide is now released.
Autodesk Inventor 2016 Sheet Metal Design
The Sheet Metal Design training guide isn’t yet released; however, all my work is now complete so I wanted to share some of the changes you can expect to see. Keep an eye out for its release in early July. The following is a summary of the changes:
- A zero bend radius is now allowable. For new users that are just learning the Sheet Metal functionality, they would not otherwise know that you were previously unable to create a zero bend radius, so I didn’t incorporate this too much in the training guide. I did however, add a new Bend Radius discussion in the Sheet Metal Terminology topic in Chapter 1 and mentioned that a zero value is allowable.
- In Chapter 9 I have also modified the content on the A-Side Definition discussion. When introduced in 2015 you could explicitly define the A-Side or when you flattened the model it was assigned for you as a node in the folded model. In 2016 the A-Side is still pre-defined for you if an A-Side is not defined; however, the A-Side node is no longer automatically added.
- Multi-Body Modeling! Yes, you can now do multi-body modeling in a sheet metal model. An entire chapter (Chapter 12) has been dedicated to this new modeling workflow along with an exercise (shown below) to allow students to practice.
- The final change is in Chapter 14. When converting a part to a sheet metal part there is now an additional prompt that requires you to select a base face reference. Once selected this face is used to automatically measure the thickness of the model for you. The Sheet Metal Default dialog box is automatically opened and the Thickness value is updated with this measured value. Additionally, the Thickness from Rule option is cleared. If changes need to be made, they can be made.
I hope that this and my previous Part 1 blog helps you get ready for teaching with ASCENT’s Inventor 2016 training guides. Please let me know how you like the changes I have made or if you have any other suggestions or comments.
Jennifer