Two of the largest pushes in design methods in today's market is Digital Prototyping (wiki) and Building Information Modeling (BIM: wiki). Autodesk has been notorious lately for bridging technologies together that solve work flows that otherwise frustrate users on either end or create missing information in the overall picture leading to loss in deliverable time and less market exposure. So what is the best way to share this data between programs? Is there a silver bullet?
In the past when an engineer of a 3D modeling program shares his data with a BIM architect, the model is usually a .sat file and is always too much of one type of information and not enough of another.
Most BIM modelers do not need the complexity of the design, but just a rough representation that is correct to the engineered spec. These traditional .sat files contain no information of the engineered spec, but contain more edges and faces than the architect cares to see.
Why can't we have both? A simplified model and some information from the MFG about the spec we want. Enter Autodesk Inventor's AEC Exchange environment. This environment which is in all flavors of Inventor is able to create simplified models for BIM guys while at the same time containing some of the pertinent information needed for the spec. This is all managed in an file type called .ADSK (talk about branding). Below is an image of some of the available connections shown in the AEC Exchange environment inside Inventor. Here the manufacturer can specify different connections for use inside BIM products such as Conduit, Pipe, Electrical, Duct, and Cable Tray Connectors.
If you are a user of Revit MEP, AutoCAD MEP, or Plant3D. These connections mean something to you in a really awesome way. You don't have to guess where the correct manufactured connection is on the piece of equipment. For a user of Revit Structure, Revit Architecture you can still see these and line them up before handing it off to the MEP guys internally or externally. For AutoCAD Architecture users, you unfortunately don't get access to these connections, but you get the equipment views to create your work and can still line things up with a little more effort.
What about too many edges? That is where Shrinkwrap comes in. This technology was added to Inventor in 2010 and its inspiration was a third party add in called iShell which Autodesk purchased a couple years back. Its original intent was simplification for Intellectual Property protection in file sharing but has quickly become a integral part of BIM sharing. It essentially removes parts by size, patches holes, and fills voids to make the model more manageable inside the BIM programs as they don't necessarily work too well with detail and if not simplified can create model bloat.
Did I mention that because of the Autodesk unified Material library, your components in Inventor 2011 will carry over material color to these other products as well? In older Inventor and any other program that would create a sat file instead of an .ADSK file, the model would be a default gray color.
In case you need a nice chart to follow all this BIM and Digital Prototyping goodness, use this to start the conversations with the MFG and Building teams you interface with to bridge these gaps in design.
Download AEC Support for Inventor 2011 ADSK Files
Here is a summation video by Inventor Hero, not to confused with Guitar Hero, Rob Cohee (he plays on expert mode with one hand tied behind his back):