IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Importing an AutoCAD Title Block into Inventor

A common request I get is “how do I get my AutoCAD title block into Inventor?” 

First of all explode and clean up the original title block inside of AutoCAD. Put everything on a single layer as well.Scale it to actual paper size if needed. I made this one 2 ½” high.

Inventor 2014: Where's the Bill?

No, not for your Subscription Purchase Order for the new software, I'm talking the Bill of Material for your Inventor Assemblies.  In Inventor 2014, Autodesk did a good job of cleaning up the Assemble Tab in the IAM evironment to make the process for new and experienced users easy to get around in... but I think they really messed something up here.  Where is the Bill of Material command????

Well, its not gone, but its not as easy to get to as it was before either.  The command was moved from the Assemble Tab to the Manage Tab with Assembly Parameters.

Why?  I asked the same question to Autodesk Product Managers and I received a response that it wasn't reflective of the Tab it was on and another one said the CUI data must not have been as profound.  Well, I voiced my concern over this oversight and posted an idea to the Idea Station on the forums.  Please go there and give it a Kudos so they will move it back.  If enough people vote on topics in the Idea Station, Autodesk puts a higher priority on it.

Link to the Idea Station Post: Kudos it!

Until then, lets at least get it more visible in our current interface without having to jump around Ribbon Tabs.  We can simply add it to our QAT, or we can add it to the Marking Menu or Ctrl+RMB Marking Menu.

Autodesk Product Design Suite 2014

Its that time of year again, the birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and Autodesk is busy releasing new software.  If you haven't already checked it out, its probably in your Subscription Center waiting for your eager downloading to begin.  Word to the wise, its in there with Autodesk as a prefix now and not just the product name so don't be afraid to scroll down if you are looking for a particular product.

In this post we will take a look at what has changed in the Product Design Suite as far as Suite composition and what it means to you the user.

To begin with in the Standard Suite we now have Raster Design and the newly re-branded and super awesome reality capture product called Autodesk Recap.  You might need a graphics card update for your OpenGL on this one, its not DirectX like our beloved Inventor.  So what do these two products do?

Raster Design:

Make the most of raster images, maps, aerial photos, satellite imagery, and digital elevation models. With powerful raster editing and raster-to-vector conversion tools, AutoCAD® Raster Design software helps you to easily clean up, edit, enhance, and maintain scanned drawings and plans in a familiar AutoCAD® software environment.

Basically awesome for getting those old prints out of the file cabinet, digitizing them, and removing those unsightly coffee stains that might have accrued over the years.  Its not a raster to vector silver bullet though, so enjoy your testing with it.  At the very least, its great to get those old paper drawings in digital form in AutoCAD.

Autodesk Recap:

Autodesk® ReCap delivers powerful and easy to use workflow on the desktop and in the cloud to create intelligent 3D models from laser scans and captured photos. Rather than beginning with a blank sheet, Autodesk ReCap now enables any designer, architect or engineer to add, modify, validate and document their design process in context from existing environments.

This one is for you scanner folks out there that need to make some 3D models with your LEICA or FARO scanners to get the model in Inventor quickly and efficiently.  You see this used in the Manufacturing sector a little more with getting accurate as builts after a scan is taken of the installation of a piece of equipment or if you are given a scan to reference in your planning of the intial equipment.

So what's new with the Product Design Suite Premium?  Well, now you have Inventor Professional instead of just Inventor Routed Systems.  Yay! Now we get to use all of Inventor instead of begging the Ultimate users to get out of the software so you could run a quick FEA or Simulation as well as the ability to push to the cloud Optimization service.

And Ultimate?  Well we get a small update to Navisworks Manage instead of just Navisworks Simulate.  I always saw a lot of potential for just the Simulate product without having to go to Manage though.  The inclusion of the larger Navisworks grants users the ability to do clash detection with conglomerated models sets and points clouds from Recap though, so it does make sense.

Here is a feature list for quick reference...

On a personal note, I am still dismayed that Inventor Publisher is not in the Suite as well as the removal of Mudbox from everything but the Ultimate Suite.  Here's hoping next year or that the Inventor Publisher cloud technology preview shows itself sometime this year as something more than a tech preview.  Other things you will notice this year is that Inventor Fusion is not in the installer either, that because Fusion 360 has taken off quite well and is in a very rapid development cycle with a large beta test and ever growing community.  It always seemed odd to me that they would package a Technology Preview with the Suites in the first place.  Anyway, give Fusion 360 a whirl, it is using some really awesome technology that blows away the old Fusion.  You will see some T-Splines technology in there as well as some tech from the HSM Works acquisition for CAD/CAM (but its not there yet).