IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

AutoCAD 2013 - Command Line Gets a Face Lift

The AutoCAD Command line has been our guide to learning and using the software for years.  It has gone through minor changes over the years but it still remains a backbone of the software for many users.  Some users have turned it off completely withe advent of Dynamic Input and Heads Up Display with the ability to show the command line prompting beside the cursor.

AutoCAD 2013 introduces dynamic changes to command line which may have some turning it back on and others finding new uses for the tool.  First of all some things that did not change.  It is still a palette which you can size and move around the screen.  It has lost its ability to dock on the sides of the screen but it can still dock at the bottom and top of the graphics window.  Yes and the Crtl key still prevents it from docking.

Right out of the box it is a transparent free floating tool palette at the bottom of the screen show only one line.

Before we start customizing it, I want tell you about one of the nicest new features.  In past releases you had two ways to select a sub-command, type the letter that was capitalized, right click and select the sub-command from the context menu.  If you were using Dynamic Input you had a third method of tapping the down arrow key on the keyboard and selecting the sub-command from a list on the screen.  These all still work but now the capital letter in the sub-commands are hyperlinks so all you have to do is select them with your mouse and the sub-command is executed.  How cool is that!

Most of the comman line controls are displayed by touching the small wrench on the left side.  Transparency is one of these controls.  You can set the transparency for normal display and roll over with the mouse.  One thing you will notice, you cannot make the roll over value less than the normal transparency value.

The other controls include: Lines of Prompt History, AutoComplete settings, and the ability to go to the Options panel.  The small up arrow to the far right when selected brings up the command line history which most of us remember as an F2 toggle.  The function key still works as it always did but the dialog box is a part of the new command line.

The familiar Command: prompt is gone and is replaced by >_ symbol which displays the current running command icon.  If this symbol is selected a list of recent commands from which you can select and execute the command.

Last, you can drag the command line length by hoving over the right side edge and you can move the command line pallet by left click and dragging inside the far right end.

Factory Design Suite 2013 - Suite Enhancements

Autodesk relayed their new Product Suites today on their special media webcast. Here is the breakdown of the Autodesk Factory Design Suite which is geared toward the Factory Design centric users.  The updates to this suite are all about some common sense items that just weren't ready last year.  Amont these updates are changes to the interopability of the products in the suite as well as in Inventor the ability to quickly and effectively place factory assets in a digital model.

Bi-directional Associativity between ACAD and Inventor

Newly updated to the Factory Design Suite is the ability to have the DWG Overlay in Inventor to sync with the AutoCAD DWG to push changes from Inventor back to AutoCAD.  Inventor will already update the 3D model from the AutoCAD one, but this will allow for the users of 2D software to stay on top of their bids without having to re-export from Inventor or create another new Inventor drawing.

 

Factory Asset Warehouse

The new Factory Asset Warehouse allows users to more easily find and use their assets whether already downloaded or still in the cloud to use in their Digital Factory in both 2D and 3D.  This new warehouse also allows the users to even upload their designs for the masses to use so they can get more business for what they make as well as add to the community.

 

Factory Asset Variants

This was something of a pain for me in the past.  If I had different levels of detail or shrinkwrapped models of large assets (in order to help performance) I had to be VERY careful wether I dragged or inserted the model a specific way.  Now placement of the assests allows users to choose the variants for the placement of the asset.

 

Factory Asset Chain

This enhancement adds to the speed and productivity of placing similar assets in a factory layout to speed up the design time.

 

Factory Point Cloud

This technology is essentially the same as what was added to Inventor 2013 Series and Professional, however in Factory Design Suite you can also snap your assets to the point cloud for alignment and positioning with an As-Build point cloud or survey laser shooting.

 

Product Design Suite 2013 - Suite Enhancements

Autodesk relayed their new Product Suites today on their special media webcast. Here is the breakdown of the Autodesk Product Design Suite which is geared toward the Manufacturing centric users.

Suite Software Workflows

The 2013 Product Design Suite focuses on adding in application tools as well as workflow launcher of specified design tasks.  First introduced to the Autodesk Labs site, the Product Design Suite launcher has been included and can be customized depending on your type of work you do.

In application export commands for Showcase and 3Ds Max from Inventor have also been included under the Suite Workflow flyout in the Application Menu.  Assembly constraints are now also supported in this software workflow.

Changes to the Suites - this year care was given to enhance the Product Designer and Large Assembly Designer's life.  Focused tools were added for each persona of design.

Standard Suite Additions

Inventor!!! (Standard never had it before)

Premium Suite Additions

Inventor Routed Systems (Upgraded from Inventor Series), this subset of Inventor Professional focuses on only the Tube and Pipe and Cable and Harness portion of the Professional Suite to be in line with the addition of AutoCAD Electrical for interopability between the two programs. (video later in the post).

AutoCAD Electrical

Navisworks Simulate

Ultimate Suite Addtions

AutoCAD Electrical

Navisworks Simulate

Large Assembly Review

This is perhaps one of my favorit new additions to the suite, primarily because it just makes sense to have it here.  With Navisworks Simulate, users can do VERY fast loading of large datasets for inspeciton and planning.  You can even do 4D time studies for asset installtion in facilities and the Navisworks viewer (Navisworks Freedom) is a free download to share what you have done in this program with stakeholders outside the engineering department or even the company in a very fast light, and complete 3D model.  More to come on this in the coming weeks on the blog. For now check out some YouTube goodness here (Naivsworks Simulate Intro) 

Inventor / AutoCAD Electrical Interopability

Last year I reported on the demise of the Inventor Routed Systems package (as far as being sold, not on functionality which still resides in Professional).  This year it seems to have made a comeback after its year long hiatus from licensing.  Now, last year I put it on a tombstone to showcase this, so only fitting, I do it to show its rebirth.  Behold, Zombie Routed Systems!

Now this part of the interopability is not new to 2013, in fact you have been able to do it for a couple years now.  This is really a highlight though since now you don't have to purchase Electrical seperately anymore.  Essentially you can share an XML file back and forth between the two softwares.  Electrical will read the XML and run the point to point wiring to connectors automatically, and Inventor can read it to automatially run and route 3D wires to connectors all the while making sure Reference Designators, wiretypes, and components are accounted for.  In fact I would argue that this was one of the first and best integrations of the Inventor product to and AutoCAD one, shame it wasn't in last years Suite.

 

In the coming weeks we will dig into the new products and Suite Workflows more and don't forget that if you want assistance in learning these new programs, we do have learning materials and public classes available at our network of training centers (largest amount in North America) as well as web based classes for those outside our normal areas for both Electrical, Navisworks, and the other suite products.

Inventor 2013 Product Announcement - New Features

Today, Autodesk released its hold on information regarding the next release of Autodesk Inventor and Inventor LT.  Focus this year has again been on user experience and productivity in the software.  With twice as many updates going into the sketcher than anywhere else in the update as well as other updates to Simulation, Frame Generator, Tooling, Part modeling, and the Drawing Manager.

This release sees a lot more updates to the user experience within the first 10 days of use as well including a new Welcome at startup with very well created walk through tutorials.

General & Interface Enhancements

This release sees a lot more updates to the user experience within the first 10 days of use as well including a new Welcome at startup with very well created walk through tutorials.  Addition of the Inventor Exchange website for free and small fee addins as well as the Autodesk 360 Cloud Documents integration brings more of what Autodesk has been working on with collaboration into light for the user.

Overall one of the most drastic and well deserved changes has been to the Material and Colors in Inventor having now been replaced with Material and Appearance libraries making it easier to work with materials and colors.  Check it out in the video below.

 

 List of ehnahcements to the interface and materials...

1. Enhanced Help Experience
2. Welcome Screen
3. Essential Videos
4. Interactive Tutorials
5. Create New File Dialog Box
6. In-Command Marking Menu
7. Context Sensitive Marking Menu
8. User Defined Marking menu
9. Overflow Menu
10. Enhanced Error messages
11. Default Application Options
12. User Preferences
13. Appearance and Texture Tools In-Canvas
14. Material and Appearance
15. Material and Appearance Libraries and Projects
16. Material and Appearance Access
17. Work With Materials and Appearances
18. Visualizations

Sketching Enhancements

Inventor's sketcher as I mentioned before as seen the most amount of updates to the system for usabilit as well as productivity.  A lot of enhancements were long time wishes of users such as the addtion of the Center Point Rectangle and the Arc Dimension.  For anyone doing 3D Sketing or work with Splines will also see some really nice updates.  Check out some of the highlights below in the video.

 

 List of Enhancements to the Sketching Environment

1. Origin Plane Display
2. Set Sketch Scale by the First Dimension
3. Create a Two-Point-Center Rectangle
4. Create a Three-Point-Center Rectangle
5. Dimension Arc Length
6. Dynamically Trim Sketch Geometry
7. Dynamically Extend Sketch Geometry
8. 3D Move/Rotate Direct Manipulation
9. 3D Sketch Mirror Command
10. 3D Sketch Properties
11. 3D Sketch Align to Plane
12. Precise Input in 3D Sketch
13. Control vertex Splines
14. Drag 3D Sketch Geometry
15. Equation Curves
16. 2D Mirror Self Symmetric
17. 2D Sketch Constraints
18. Add User Parameter to Text
19. Double-Click Sketch Text to Edit
20. Find Sketch in Browser Using a Sketch Dimension
21. Display of Fully Constrained Sketches
22. Measure to Midpoint of a Segment
23. Sketch Environment Status Bar
24. Associative Sketch geometry Projection

Part & Assembly Enhancements

The part and assembly side of the software did get some improvements, but mostly to the part side with new onscreen tools and informative error messaging.  Primitives for quick sold creation as well as End of Park marker updates also round out this update.  Click on the video and enjoy!

 

List of Enhancements to the Part & Assembly Environment

1. Primitive Shape Creation
2. Offset Base Solid
3. Change Appearance for Multiple Features in One Step
4. End of Part marker
5. Move End of Part Marker in the Feature List
6. Persistent Display Settings in Parameters
7. Window Select Area When selecting a Hole Center
8. Shell Command Direct Manipulation
9. Work Plane Direct Manipulation
10. Error Glyphs
11. Disable Construction Environment
12. Part View Representation
13. Assembly: Reuse Components in Assembly Mirroring
14. Assembly: Remove Internal Voids for Derived Components
15. Assembly: Alignment of a Frame member Through Geometry
16. Assembly: End Treatment Support on Curved Frame Generator Beams

Drawing Manager Enhancements

 Nothing really stupendous here, but overall a lot of little updates to make your life easier to create drawing models when inside of very large assemblies and make the drawing manager easier to work wtih.

 

List of enhancements to the Drawing Manager

1. Open Component Drawing File From Assembly
2. Delete Multiple drawing Sheets in One Step.
3. Copy Drawing Views to the Same Sheet
4. Disable Leader Snapping for Drawing Annotations
5. Cross Lines Clipping for datum Targets and Text
6. Insert Images of Five Types in Title Blocks
7. Show All Child Components in Parts List
8. Default Source Models for base Views

Inventor Professional Enhancements

Now that we got the all over Inventor Series updates out of the way, lets focus on Inventor Professional and changes in the higher level license.

Simulation now will perform analysis on thin walled components with new commands like Find Thin Bodies and Midsurface and Offset for shell elements of selected faces.  The Dynamic Simulation now also has an API for users that want to program more complex design and simulation datapoints as well.  On the performance side, multi-core mahcines will now see decreases in time both mesh generation as well as the solution phase of your simulations.

Tooling has been given some user requested enhancements including but not limited to, Virtual Sprues, the ability to machine the core/cavity into the mold plates, inclusion of surfaces from origin model, sprue bushing location and general perfomance updates like individually update the core/cavity without doing the whole mold update.

Interopability Updates

In general there were updates to the standard translators for newer versions of competing products, but the most ground breaking update has to be the ability to import point clouds (12 different types to be exact).

Updated Translations List: Download Inventor File Translations 2011-2013

AutoCAD 2013 - Inventor & 3D Model Detailing at its Best

AutoCAD 2013 increases your ability to create Inventor detail drawings in paper space.  The Drawing View panel has been replaced with a entire tab called Layout.  Located under this tab are numerous tools and functions to make detail drawing easier.

New Sectioning and Detail tools top the list of new functions.  The Section tools are located on the Create View panel and contain tools to created most any section view required.

The Detail tools are found on the Create View tab as well.

Each tool has a Styles Manager where you can create and save section and detail definitions for later use.  The drop down box allows for easy selection of the save style you wish to use in your drawing.

A view of the Section View Style Manager is shown below.  If you have used Autocad dimension style manager before, you will feel right at home.

AutoCAD 2013 continues to support dynamically linked Inventor parts, assemblies and presentation files but now allows the creation of drawing views from AutoCAD 3D models located in model space of the same drawing.

As before, all Inventor and AutoCAD 3D models are linked to the drawings making it easy to keep the detail drawing current using the view update tools.

AutoCAD 2013 new functionality makes detailing efficient, accurate and down right fun!

 

Inventor Drawing Tips: Geometry Enclosed Text

This tip is one of those that I didn't really know was a thing until I was asked for it.  In my past experiences I have never had a need for this type of documentation object, but who am I to judge?  We all know that most companies use ANSI as a guideline and have their own way of documenting and annotating their designs so when I was asked about this I immediately went to the out of the box tool that should perform this type of annotating.  I went to Sketched Symbol, but I ran into problems since the geometry created in the symbol would always have to be about the same amount of text and never quite worked out quite right.

So another out of the box thinker on the forums enlightened me to neat workaround...Balloon Overrides.  Not a bad approach if I might add.  You are able to attach it to geometry the same way you would a sketched symbol, but the software defines the bubble size for you instead of predefining it with a sketched symbol.  Simply right click on the balloon after placement and select Edit Balloon.

Next, choose a shape override if need be, and then start typing in the override area the information you need to put in the bubble.  This will be single line, no carriage return text, anything else you should probably put in a notes section on the drawing anyway.

Whoa, wait Mark, what about an individual part?  Surely this wouldn't work on a single part with no BOM or Parts List to speak of?  Young grasshopper, pull up a CAD mouse and pay attention.  You can absolutely do this.  Simply start the balloon command and select your part, it will prompt you to create a simple BOM for just this part and if you really wanted to, you could also put a single parts list down.

There you have it, an geometry enclosed leader with a perfect fit for you text.  Your only downside is you cannot delete the leader coming off the object, it must remain there.

Now, what if you want a different Inventor iPropety to be in the balloon other than lets say Item Number.  Maybe you want Part Number in your balloons or perhaps a custom iProperty you use for tracking in Vault as well as your Bill of Material?  Well that's easy, simply create a new balloon style and link that value in.

Inventor of the Year 2011

Autodesk announced the winner of the covenant award of Inventor of the Year.  Last year the winner was Sean Dotson's company RND Automation and the year before that was our very own client Dynamic Structures which currently graces the box media of the Autodesk Manufacuting Portfolio of softare.  This year the winner went to the UK based company Green Structures which participated in the Autodesk Clean Engery program for software (they basically get it for free).  The winner was chosen by the Manufacturing community through a public voting process.  Looks like being green is still quite an awesome thing to vote for.  Kermit would be proud.

Green Structures uses a fair amount of manufacturing design software as well as building products.  Perhaps their most significant usage of software comes from the analysis side with Autodesk Simulation to perform building cooling analysis with Revit models as well as Inventor models.  See below for the full press release.

Autodesk Names Green Structures as Inventor of Year for 2011

Green Structures Speeds Development of Innovative Heat Recovery System

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., March 8, 2012 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) has named Green Structures as the Autodesk Inventor of the Year for 2011 for developing the Ventive energy-efficiency system that is ideal for building retrofits.

Members of the Autodesk manufacturing community from around the world chose the U.K.-based company by voting on the community website. Green Structures uses Autodesk Inventor software and a range of other Autodesk Digital Prototyping solutions to transform the way energy systems are planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated within the built environment. The company was originally named Autodesk Inventor of the Month December 2011.

As a member of the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program — an initiative that provides Autodesk Digital Prototyping software to emerging and established clean tech companies — Green Structures is an innovator in passive heat recovery ventilation and thermal energy storage systems.

Thomas Lipinski, founder, managing director and CTO of Green Structures said, “With access to the same world-class Autodesk professional software as some of the United Kingdom’s largest manufacturers, we have strengthened the quality and professionalism of our design process. It is an honor to receive this award and be recognized for our work by the Autodesk Manufacturing Community.”

The firm’s Ventive heat recovery ventilation system works with existing chimneys to channel air and heat. This system contrasts with current mechanical heat recovery ventilation systems, which require that complex ductwork be installed throughout an entire building. Ventive can be installed in less than 30 minutes, providing a far faster and less expensive alternative for retrofitting buildings with the latest green technologies.

Green Structures relies on Autodesk Inventor, as well as Autodesk Ecotect Analysis software, Autodesk Simulation Multiphysics software and Autodesk Revit Architecture software in its product design and development. Access to Autodesk design and simulation technology provided a more controlled environment to test designs, helping to make the design process less costly, faster and with less guesswork.

Autodesk Simulation Software Saves Time and Money

Green Structures accelerated the prototyping process for its Ventive heat recovery ventilation system through the use of Autodesk Simulation software to digitally simulate wind tunnel tests and perform heat transfer analysis, saving on physical testing costs of approximately $1,550 (£1,000) per day. Autodesk reseller Envisage helped provide training and support to enable Green Structures to more quickly implement Autodesk Digital Prototyping software in the design process.

Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Design, Lifecycle and Simulation at Autodesk said, “We join the Autodesk Manufacturing Community in congratulating Green Structures for its standout application of Autodesk software to transform energy systems.”

About the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program

Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the users of Autodesk Inventor software, which takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation. For more information about the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program, contact us at IOM@autodesk.com.

About the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program

The Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program supports the efforts, innovations and environmental advancements of clean technology pioneers, providing world-class software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas through Digital Prototyping. Clean tech companies in North America, Europe, Singapore and Japan are invited to apply to receive up to $150,000* worth of software for only $50. Access to a collection of Autodesk industry-leading software includes up to five licenses of Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate, AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite, Autodesk Simulation Mechanical, Autodesk Inventor Publisher and Autodesk Vault Professional software. Get more information.

About Green Structures

Green Structures is a UK-based clean technology company working within the built environment to develop commercially attractive low-carbon building solutions. For additional information, visit www.greenstructures.co.uk.