IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Deformed holes and constraints

I taught Inventor classes for years, and I have often said that I have learned much more teaching classes than I ever did taking them.  That is because at some point I had answered all of my own Inventor questions, but I had not answered everyone else’s questions.

This happened to me again last week.  The question was simple: What is the best way to constrain fasteners to holes in a curved sheet metal part?

 

 

The problem with a curved sheet metal part is that the holes are curved.  They are no longer true cylindrical holes, but are deformed into ellipses because of the sheet metal deformation.  The Inventor constraint tools do not recognize the ellipses as geometry to constrain to.  The Mate constraint does not even pick up the centerline.

I struggled with this for a while. Then I realized that I had to create some reference geometry to constrain to.

First, I used a tool that is not commonly used in sheet metal design: Surface patch.  This tool creates a surface using edges or loops.  I created patches for the square and the circular holes in the part.

Next, I created work points at the center of the patches using the “Center Point of Loop or Edges” option of the work point tool.

Finally, I created an axis using the Normal to a Plane through a Point option.  I could select the newly created surface patch and the work point as reference geometry.

Now I have a point and an axis, perfect geometry for using the Mate constraint to constrain fasteners into the hole.  This technique worked well with both the round and the square holes.  The video below shows the steps that I went through.

 

If any readers have a better technique, please share it in the comments below.

Vault Updates

Autodesk has used several methods of providing updates for their products.  In the past, our only option was to check a website to see what updates had been released.  That is still partially true.  For Vault, see the link below:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/vault-products/downloads#?cg=Downloads&p=Vault%20Products&sort=PublishDate&page=1

Some, but not all, updates are available through this link.  Note on the left side, you can filter the model year and then see updates (service packs) and hotfixes (other) listed on the right.

It has also been the case that Autodesk also released updates to the products through the subscription site, https://accounts.autodesk.com/Authentication/LogOn#username.  Within the subscription site, you can also find the updates and hotfixes.  These are accessed through the Product Updates link on the left side of the page.

I found it useful to use the filter on the right to look for the specific types of updates I needed.  In my case, open the filters, expand the products section and check the boxes for the vault product types.

     
This provided a more concise list of updates to review. 

As I reviewed these updates, it became apparent to me that they are all for the older versions of Vault, which takes this discussion in a different direction: the Autodesk Desktop Application.  For several releases now, Autodesk has included the Desktop App with most all of their products.  This tool provides a more automated way of updating their products.  Opening the application, there is a section for updates.

 

This method is quite easy to use.  It acquires administrator permission when installing the updates (those of you that have had them fail when simply trying to double-click a patch and watch it partially install and fail, unless run from an administrator command line window know what I mean). 

Going back to the subscription site, Autodesk has also quietly provided other enhancements to the product here.  I have a quick link for ‘Product Enhancements’ toward the bottom left of the web page. 

Sadly, I do not see a way to search or filter this page, so I just have to look through it, but it is sorted with the most current additions at the top.  At the time of this article, I found several updates that I was unaware of.  Most notable are updates 2018.0.1 and 2018.1 for the 2018 versions of Vault, the 2017.1 and 2017.1.1 updates for the 2017 versions, and the data standard for 2018 Vault Professional. 

In the case of the 2018.1 update, new functionality has been included with the fixes.  Shared Views are a new feature that allows someone within the organization to share read-only views of designs with others outside the organization through Autodesk Drive.  The shared view supports feedback in the form of comments and markups.   It is a fresh way to provide collaboration on design development.  Check out Autodesk website for more details.

You do need an active subscription and an account to access the subscription site.  Contact your IT or CAD manager if you don't have an individual account.  It is a good idea to periodically check the Product Enhancements section of your subscription site for other updates.  Maybe I should put a reminder in my calendar for a monthly visit . . .

Fall Cleanup...To Clone A Vault Server and Rename or Not to Clone A Vault Server and Rename.... That Should Not Be A Question!!!

Hello Vault Administrators, today we will discuss reasons why we should NEVER clone a production server that has Autodesk Data Management Server and or SQL installed on it and rename the server.

First, let us take a step back and see the working components of Vault: 

Vault consists of a server, which Autodesk Data Management Server (ADMS) and Microsoft SQL Server (SQL) get installed, and a client machine, which Vault Client gets installed.  The Vault Server has a Web Server and SQL Database and a Filestore.  When the client checks in a file into Vault the file goes into the Filestore and the property information known as metadata gets added to the SQL Database as records.  When the client checks out the file, the Web Server talks to the SQL Database and the Filestore and retrieves the file and correct metadata information for the file from the SQL Database and then sends it to the client to work on. 

As you can see there are many moving components that make Vault work correctly.  The ADMS gets installed on a server that could host the SQL Server software or you have the option of setting up a remote SQL Server where the ADMS Server can connect to the SQL Server.

Let's take a scenario, Myserver has ADMS and SQLServer installed on it, Myserver gets cloned for testing purposes and gets renamed to Myserver2.  Myserver is still running in a production environment but now Myserver2 when you log into ADMS console you will see not only a DB to Myserver2 but there will be a connection to Myserver.  If you see this, do not delete the Myserver, because if it gets deleted you are really deleting the production Myserver site. 

Best practice if you need to create a test environment is to create a NEW VM and take a backup from the ADMS console on the original server and restore it onto the new server.  This will allow you to test out your backups for disaster recovery and it will not conflict with renaming the server.

Lastly, I leave you with always check to make sure you ADMS backups are running, if you would like a great utility IMAGINiT has a Vault Server Utilities which monitors your backup and sends you an email letting you know that the backup has successfully ran or if it did not complete.  

Happy Admining :)