IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Inventor Mate Constraint Puzzle Game

Picture this, I have two components and that have been created about the same time. They have holes that line up, they have matching iProperties, their Parameters are very close to each other, and they even have similar materials. Sounds like a perfect mate. Only with this we are not talking about two components getting married and settling down and creating patterns of themselves. Here we are talking about constraining two parts inside Inventor's Assembly environment.

Inventor's Assembly environment controls how parts interact with each other and the parametric relationships they share. One of the ways to put parts together in this environment is by using assembly constraints. If you are a veteran to the software, this might be common knowledge to you and you should skip to the next paragraph. For new users, especially those coming from an AutoCAD background, this may seem a little foreign. AutoCAD users normally place parts drawings together with other part drawings into a single assembly drawing by use of blocks, x-refs, or heaven forbid copying and pasting. Contrast that with Inventor which uses an assembly file (.IAM) to maintain external references to parts placed inside it rather than actually copying the parts into the file. This is a basically super x-refs to AutoCAD users because they require very little care and upkeep. This associative relationship is a very strong point to use parametric modelers in designs that require faster productivity of updating large amounts of files and just about anything else your Project Manager or Sales Engineer can throw at you.

For your enjoyment and educational prowess I have created a simple Inventor Mate Constraint Game which focuses on one of the main types of Assembly Constraints that can benefit new and veteran users. For new users they will learn some of the basics and for the veterans I have included a few extra tips that you might have missed during your professional or self-training. The game is actually quite entertaining while you are waiting for a meeting, on lunch, or have some extra down time to burn up.

//IQ Block

//IQ Block Game and Tips

You want my Parts List to look like what?

Some of the enhancements of Inventor 2009 have gone unnoticed by some users over the months since its release. One of the most notable is the option to format your exported parameters. This has a lot of usage in downstream workflows such as Parts Lists, Bills of Material, and even their export to metadata searches in Vault or Productstream.

Another enhancement was the option to edit your expressions in your iProperites into formulas and be able to modify them easier. The iProperty expression itself was introduced in 2008, but they used to be more difficult to modify.

//Custom Parameter Formatting and Expressions

I hope you enjoy this deeper look into Parameters and iProperties.

Until next time, may your mouse zoom in the right direction!

New Blogger and The BORN Technique

Welcome to back to IMAGINiT's Manufacturing Blog. As I transition from our previous poster, the illustrious Caleb Funk whose responsibilities with our company are never without request, I would like to make a short introduction of myself and then we will get to the fun stuff.

I currently rest my mouse in the Toledo office of our IMAGINiT Ohio offices. I am the proud father of two young boys Mason (2) and Merrick (5) and I am happily married to an outstanding person; my wife Misty. Don't tell her, but I used the sample flower from Inventor's tutorial files as an olive branch once after a disagreement and I told her I spent half the day on it.

My background is in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo and I haven't had an actual job in over two years. I say that because I do not see my work as just work. I truly enjoy the challenges and tribulations that come with software integration and education. Before finding my calling with IMAGINiT, I worked with many consulting firms and design houses focused mainly around the automotive market. With IMAGINiT I have been instrumental in the Professional Services area of our work and I have personally trained hundreds of engineers and professionals on the use of Autodesk software with a focus on the Manufacturing and Platform products such as Inventor, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, Vault, and vanilla AutoCAD. I also routinely aid in implementations, programming development, courseware creation, and support for our clients.

As far as this blog goes, the anatomy will be of the following:

• Showcasing emerging Autodesk technology relevant to the Manufacturing sector
• Autodesk Manufacturing Solution products tips, tricks, workflows, and best practices
• Neat topics and gizmos Engineers can appreciate
• Upcoming industry and user events

I also ask that if you would like to see a topic in the blog to feel free to send me feedback. I am open to questions, comments, and yes even snide remarks.

Enough about me and the blog now; How about some Inventor goodness? I thought since this is the birth of my new blog I would talk about the BORN modeling technique in Inventor.

What is the BORN technique you ask? Well thank you for asking. It is not to be confused with the Bourne Identity or Supremacy or even the Conspiracy. It is not a case of amnesia and then you wake up to find your can model a concrete grinder in Inventor without any other memories. The BORN modeling approach is actually a very simplistic idea but is taken for granted quite often. BORN stands for Base Orphan Reference Node and is essentially using your Origin features of your part file to construct and constrain your sketches and features. I cannot begin to tell you how many engineers I see that are self taught with Inventor that miss this rudimentary step in their design intent.

Let's break it down a little further shall we? I have created a whitepaper detailing out the understanding and use of the technique a little more. I hope you enjoy it and can share it with someone in your office that either "just doesn't get it no matter how many times you tell them" or new users that need to understand the space in which they are working.

Download The BORN Technique

Until next time, may your mouse zoom in the right direction!