IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Hydraulic, Pneumatic, and P&ID Schematics In AutoCAD Electrical?

Many of you know that AutoCAD Electrical does a wonderful job assisting in the creation and modification of Electrical Controls schematics. But did you know it can also be used to produce Hydraulic, Pneumatic, and P&ID schematics, as well? It sure can.
The Extra Libraries toolbar has been available since before it was even AutoCAD Electrical and those three Icon Menus continue to be available even now.


There is a fairly substantial set of symbols already available for all three. For symbols not provided, you can still create your own using the same Symbol Builder tool you are familiar with for Electrical symbols. Everything works like it does on the Electrical side, only you are dealing with Pipes/Tubing instead of Wires. You can even tie the Tags to the Electrical components using the WDTYPE and the WDTAGALT attributes. Check out the Extra Library Demo project for some examples of what is available.

 

 

 
Wow, all this in a tool you already have.

Funtime with Uncle Rusty - Rendering for VR - Stereoscopic Rendering with Autodesk Navisworks

Navisworks and VR Rendering

Most designers utilize Autodesk Navisworks to visualize and interact with their design before they commit to construction.  The digital mockup functionality of Autodesk Navisworks allows us to experience our largest designs with real-time fly-through and walk-through capabilities.  But, sometimes the flat “computer screen” interaction is not enough.  We want to actually step into our design and experience it as if we were actually standing in the digital environment we created. 

With the impressive advent of Virtual Reality this is now possible.  If you have the time and budget to commit to the project, you can utilize the advanced software supplied by Autodesk to load your Navisworks design into VR.  You could purchase a sophisticated and expensive VR rig complete with motion tracking controllers, a VR headset, and a beast of a computer to run it all.  But what if you don’t have the time or money to commit to the VR experience?  Don’t worry.  Navisworks offers a simple method to visualize your design in VR without missing a deadline or breaking the bank. 

Navisworks now allows you to render your design to a Stereo Panorama.  If that term is new to you don’t worry.  A Stereo Panorama is simply two spherical renders positioned slightly apart.  One sphere is dedicated to your left eye, and the other is dedicated to your right eye.  When you view this image through the proper optical headset, the effect makes your brain think you are viewing the design as if you’re actually standing in the model. 

Figure 1: A Stereo Panorama – Dedicated Rendering for Each Eye

 

Creating a Stereo Panorama with Autodesk Navisworks

To generate a Stereo Panorama with Navisworks is actually fairly simple.  You simply utilize the Render in Cloud command on the Render tab.  This will activate the cloud rendering dialog where you can define the type of render you want. 

Figure 2: Render in Cloud Command

Steps for Generating a Stereo Panorama:

• Navigate to the desired position in one of your Navisworks scenes.
• Start the Render in Cloud command located on the Render tab.
• In the Render in Cloud dialog…
  • Set 3D View to Current View
  • Set Output Type to Stereo Panorama
  • Set Render Quility to Final
  • Set Exposure to Advanced
  • Set the Width to the Maximum Value
  • Check the Email me option
  • Click Start Rendering
• Open the resulting render on Rendering.360.autodesk.com
• The Render on this page has a link to access the image on your smartphone.

Note:  This process does cost you some Cloud Credits but the result is really worth it. 

 

Viewing a Stereo Panorama – Google Cardboard

You don’t need an expensive VR rig to view these amazing stereo panoramas.  You only need to acquire a simple inexpensive Google Cardboard viewer.  The stereo panorama is viewed on your smartphone and your smartphone is inserted into the Google Cardboard viewer.  You can use an android or apple device, it works on both. 

The Google Cardboard viewer and your smartphone, allow you see your Navisworks design in clear 3D, as if you were inside the model.  The pan and tilt capabilities of your smartphone allow you to move and turn your head allowing you to view the 3D scene in every direction. 

You might be thinking that there is no way a smartphone and some cardboard goggles can deliver a virtual reality experience, but you will be pleasantly surprised when you try it for yourself.  To convey the quality and immersiveness of this experience in a simple blogpost is almost impossible.  But I will admit to being slack jawed the first time I stuck my face in this viewer and looked at one of my layout designs.  To actually (virtually) stand amongst the models I arranged and designed was a truly amazing experience.

Figure 3: Google Cardboard

Sharing your VR Experience

The Stereo Panorama can be downloaded or accesses via link from Rendering.360.autodesk.com.  If you need to share your VR experience, all you have to do is simply email the link to your customer or collaborators. 

Figure 4: Links to your stereo panorama can be easily shared with anyone.

Conclusion – What Are You Waiting For?

The VR experience is much easier and affordable to have than you think.  So Grab yourself a Google Cardboard viewer and get to rendering on the cloud.    

I have included a few links to stereo panoramas that I have created.  Enjoy!

 

Bottle Factory - http://pano.autodesk.com/pano.html?url=jpgs/24353576-5047-44b6-a3a3-84f4fcc15ce2

Factory Floor - http://pano.autodesk.com/pano.html?url=jpgs/effba9a7-c291-46df-b6f4-2a33ab10021a

Chess Board - http://pano.autodesk.com/pano.html?url=jpgs/d5e3b8d3-e46b-4bf5-8faf-aeb607116ca5

Exhibit Floor - http://pano.autodesk.com/pano.html?url=jpgs/d0db5129-1e66-401a-a583-891c05b3de8f

Sub Bridge - http://pano.autodesk.com/pano.html?url=jpgs/e369ac19-495d-493f-bf37-5f37c983f924

 

 

Hardware Specifications and Autodesk Software

I have been asked countless times about hardware specifications and Autodesk software. The answer lies here…

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/system-requirements

But then more questions typically follow… should I buy this workstation or this one? Which CPU will perform best with Inventor? How many processor cores are really needed for Revit? Should I go with the eight core or the four core CPU?
Many times I have had to follow those questions up with questions of my own before answering. What software are you using? How large are your assemblies? Do you do a lot of rendering/FEA?
 
Let’s break each component down and discuss how it affects your software’s performance. But first let me clarify that I am by no means an IT expert in these matters. I am a humble power user who dabbles in overclocking. The following is merely the results of my own testing and research on the subject. If you see something wrong, please post a comment below.
 
Processor speed
You want the fastest processor your budget allows. On to the next question... But wait, where is the line? Is a 3.4 GHz really worth $300 more over a 3.2 GHz? How much faster is that really? Do a search on CPU Speed Comparisons and you will get many images of bar graphs. But the typical engineer really wants to know what those bars mean in actual TIME.

How much time is really saved by stepping up to a slightly faster CPU? That is a difficult thing to actually record. It would mean swapping out CPU’s on a single workstation and then performing a series of automated tasks in Inventor to ensure consistency. A better way to look at it would be in terms of percentages. After a quick search on newegg.com I found a few quad core CPU’s to compare. We’ll talk about cores in a bit.
 
i7 Quad Core 4.0GHz for $339
i7 Quad Core 3.5GHz for $317
i7 Quad Core 3.1GHz for $295
 
All else being the same, we can assume a difference in time to perform the same task from the clock speed of the CPU. So in this example the 3.5GHZ CPU would complete a task 12% faster than the 3.1GHZ. And the 4.0GHz would out perform the same 3.1GHz by 25%. So for $44 you would see a 25% increase in performance. Is that worth the cost difference? However, would paying an extra $100 to have a 4.2GHz make sense? That extra $100 would buy you almost a 5% increase in speed. Is that worth it? I’ll let you be the judge.
Now this was assuming all other parts of the workstation remained the same and we were only comparing clock speeds. Of course moving to the latest and greatest CPU usually involves a new motherboard what could slightly sway these simply calculations.
 
More Cores?
The most common question I get is really about the number of cores. A higher number is better right? If all else stays the same, yes. However too often I see people sacrifice speed to gain more cores. Most software is single threaded. We have multiple cores so we can continue to work on something else while a different software works though a complex process. And so that multiple things can run at the same time. Start your Task Scheduler and look at the active processes. At pretty much any given time, two or more processes are doing a little something. They don’t have to wait for a free possessor, they just grab a free one and run. When a piece of software uses ALL cores, and that software is actively working, your pc is pretty much dead in the water until that process finishes. Try doing a VLOOKUP on 150,000 rows of info against a different 150,000 rows of info and see what Excel does to your system. That process uses all cores and your pc comes to a standstill until the process completes. Quite annoying coming from someone who does a lot of VLOOKUPs. However the alternative would be for a single core to max out allowing your pc to work on something else but the Excel task would take 4 to 7 times longer to complete. I would like that even less.  
Currently some features in Inventor use multiple cores. (FEA, Drawing Views, Importing, and rendering) Most of Inventor uses a single core. So if you are not doing a lot of rendering or FEA work, a faster processor is better than more cores.

In the image below, Inventor is creating a complex pattern or loft. One of my quad cores is maxed out.
The orange line represents the Inventor processes CPU usage.

 
And here is Inventor rendering an image. Inventor is using all cores.

 
Hyper-Threading disabled/enabled
Anymore, Hyper-Threading is enabled on most CPU’s. I have been asked if disabling this feature would be better for general Inventor use. Hyper-Threading is simply a physical core acting as two cores. So a single core in your CPU splits itself virtually and then calculates two processes at once. That would effectively cut your core speed in half right? From my tests, I seen very little noticeable difference when disabling Hyper-Threading. Maybe I don’t understand how Hyper-Threading actually works.
From what I have read online, there is a slight improvement if not needing the extra cores. I’m guessing that by overclocking, I would be able to go to a much higher GHz with Hyper-Threading disabled.?? Anyway, here is a link to someone who did some actual benchmarks on this topic using Revit.

http://betterrevit.com/tips/hyper-threading-for-revit/

RAM
How much RAM is needed? Autodesk’s requirements list the minimum for Inventor 2017 at 8 GB with 24+ recommended for complex models or 1,000+ part assemblies. Ram is cheap and the easiest thing to add more of if needed. Keep that in mind.
When first starting out, you will not have 1,000+ assemblies for quite some time. Hold off on massive amounts of RAM and spend the money on one of the other components for now.

RAM Speed
Just like CPU’s, there is a large variation in speeds of RAM. The speed is measuring how fast the memory can transfer data to and from the motherboard. Again a quick search on newegg.com shows DDR4 SDRAM with speeds from ranging from 2133 to 3400 MB/s. Again go for speed over mass amounts of RAM. You should know that when the time comes to add more RAM, make sure the speeds are the same. If different speed cards are used, the slowest speed will be the speed of all cards. That is IF it works at all. RAM seems to work best if you keep everything the same brand and speed whenever possible. If you really want to understand RAM speeds, research RAM timings as well.

Hard Drives
The full install of Inventor is 40 GB (per Autodesk Requirements website) A TB (terabyte) should be enough for a typical workstation. The transfer speed of a hard drive is listed something like this… RPM 7200 6GB/S 128MB Cache. The RPM is how fast the disc spins. A faster the disc will allow info to be found quicker. The cache is how much info can be stored in queue before the hard drive is the bottle neck and the process must stop until that data has to be wrote onto the disc. The Gb/s is how fast data can be transferred to the motherboard… I think.
But then there are solid state drives. If you are looking at a new workstation, GET A SOLID STATE DRIVE! They are worth every penny in terms of time saved and overall performance. A typical machine will boot up in a few seconds with a solid state drive. Opening software will open just as quickly. A thousand part assembly will open in a faction of the time if opened locally from a solid state drive. Also there is no need to worry about file fragmentation with solid state drives and no moving parts.
Their prices are comparable to regular drives now only with less drive space.
 
Graphics Cards
NVIDIA and AMD have a work horse line of graphics cards dedicated to our line of work. NVIDIA’s Quadro and AMD’s FirePro series.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro.html

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/workstation/firepro-3d

Basically you are looking at two things. Speed and RAM. Graphics cards have many processors. A faster processor will result in smother graphics with rotating/zooming. The RAM on the card comes into play when many objects are on the screen at the same time (large assembly/complex drawing views). Typically a subpar card will drop parts as a complex assembly is rotated. Those parts are then loaded back into memory after the rotation stops. Or when zooming waaay into a large assembly may cause Inventor to freeze for a moment. That would be the graphics card dumping/reading in new info into its RAM. More RAM may have prevented that. The bottom line with graphics cards would be to get the best one your budget affords.

 
But then we have the graphics DRIVER!
This is the one mistake I see over and over. AMD, NIVIDIA, and Autodesk all release specific drivers for Autodesk software. Don’t simply downloaded the latest driver expecting everything to work perfectly. Driver conflicts are one of the biggest causes of 3D modeling software crashes that I know of. Special drivers are released that only turn on the parts of the card that the software will use. They also turn off parts that the software will not use. Translated: your latest game may not run very well using these drivers.
Those drivers can be found here…

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?id=18844534&siteID=123112

I hope this helps with your new hardware purchase decisions.

2017 Expired Trial Version Expired - Quit Is Only Option

I have been living in an Autodesk 2016 world most of this year. Most of the customers I have been sent to assist this year are still on 2016. So I have spent very little time in anything 2017. When it first came out I installed it and was only in it a few times. I had never registered it. The one time I opened it, long after my 30 trial had expired, I was presented with the following broad assortment of choices... I could press Quit, or the X to close the dialog. Of course both closed the dialog and then Inventor. I tried AutoCAD Electrical and it did the same thing.

 
At the time, I simply uninstalled the software and continued using 2016. Later I installed 2017 for a support case and again didn’t register it. Earlier this week I tried to go back to 2017 and was hit with this same message. My 30 days were up and I could quit or exit. After some digging online if found this article.
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/AutoCAD-2017-fails-to-launch-after-install.html

This article is about a different dialog but I tried the options anyway and it worked. I was able to activate my software after following the steps in the trouble shooting article. On the next start of the software I was presented with this dialog.

 
And then I could Activate.

Easy Simplified Catalog Database – AutoCAD Electrical

I posted this before, back in 2013, but it keeps coming up. The user wants a simplified, or empty, default_cat.mdb.

The typical request goes something like this. “Stan is there a way to export all the parts currently in a drawing set into its own small database
because we use the same parts over and over, and the AutoCAD Electrical database is just too big to be searching over our network.”
 

 


This will create ALL of the family tables even if no catalog entries are needed for some of the tables. The default location is the active project file.
However this file could just as easily replace your default catalog.

If you want an completely empty database, simply do this from a brand new empty project file.
For some reason, this still leaves a large database file in place.



Now the PINLIST and TERMPROPS tables are still populated at this point but the database file size still shows as much too large. I found that after opening
it in Microsoft Access and using the Compact and Repair Database command, the file size drops to a much more realistic size.





Hope this helps

Working with multiple CAD formats in Fusion 360

A designer in today's world must deal with multiple CAD formats all coming together to accomplish a common goal.  Those formats are wide ranging and take various forms such as, SolidWorks, Catia, Inventor, or Creo to name just a few. Fusion 360 (Fusion) is changing the way we work and here's how. 

Have you ever had a boss or customer change their mind?  Typically when we receive an updated CAD files we would convert it over to a "dumb down" version of the software package we are using.  Then proceed to swap it out of the assembly and constrain it all over again (Of course excluding Inventor and the AnyCAD technology).  Not with Fusion. 

Here we have a spring that was designed in Inventor and while being used in Fusion. 

Once the design is updated in Inventor or other CAD package the file would then be sent back to the Fusion team.

The Fusion team would then simply right click on the design and import the new version of the spring. 

Fusion would then let the team know that the spring has been updated and the design needs to be refreshed.

Below is a list of file formats that Fusion supports and as always I hope this finds you well.