Autodesk has announced that in lieu of the release of Windows 7 for PCs that it will support some of the existing product line as of right now! As of this posting there are no Service Packs or Hotfixes that require to be installed separate from the current build on your installation discs or existing service packs. These products include:
Inventor has the functionality to create proper weld symbols based on known industry standards. So when I got wind of a client of mine that wasn't using weldments and symbols properly I needed to educate them. First let's take a look at what they were using before I showed them the tools in Inventor
So what tools does Inventor have to remedy this documentation fiasco? First and foremost is the Weldment environment of Inventor which converts normal assemblies to weld capable designs. This is accessed by starting your assembly as a weldment with a weldment template or using the Convert to Weldment command on the Assemble Tab in the Ribbon (older version users will find this in the Convert menu). In this environment you can do many tasks on your designs but most notably are:
Creation of Assembly level Preparations (before the weld)
Creation of visible welded material (Fillet, Cosmetic, and Groove)
Creation of Assembly level Machinings (after the weld)
Weldment material can be uniquely specified
Creation of Weldment symbols that translate directly to drawings
Weld calculators to aid in design
Now for the issue at hand of proper weld symbol documentation, Inventor has the tools to create weld symbols during the creation of all three weld commands. During the command, each dialog box has a Create Welding Symbol checkbox that allows the user to describe what type of weld is being generated so that it can be easily referenced later on. Too many times will an engineer design a weld and then forget the exact details when they reach the documentation process.
This dialog box becomes a very dynamic tool for the symbol creation depending on what is selected. Usually the first item of business is to select the type of weld
If fillet weld linking is selected when generating a fillet weld, then the information in the dialog automatically maps to the designated areas of the symbol. Since Groove welds are much more dynamic in their creation process, this option is not available for them or Cosmetic welds.
Until next time, may your weld beads fill in the right direction
One of my colleagues referred to receiving new Autodesk product media like receiving new phone books in the mail. Being of a normally electric predisposition, I thought back a couple years to Autodesk versions of old. I scoured the office to find an old installation box and yes, they do look like phone books. In fact I sometimes visit clients that showcase their old installation boxes proudly like a wall of fame or a trophy wall of new features mastered.
Alas, these large boxes of old became obsolete. Why were they so big in the first place is a question you might ask if you are new to the profession and the software. In the past very large manuals accompanied the software. These gave way to electronic PDFs of that included material. So where is it now? Well if you search your Program Files directory you are sure to find them in there. Sometimes they are even linked to the Help system. I know crazy right?
For instance in Inventor 2010 you will find them here C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2010\Setup\en-US\SetupRes\Docs (You will find similar structure for AcadM and AcadE). This is actually a slight change from last year's release where they were here C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2009\Setup\Docs. This is mainly due to the introduction and hierarchy of the new language packs in my opinion. Language packs allow quicker to market production of the discs for different localities.
What do I find in this documentation? (Here are some examples)
Inventor
ADMCADMgr_14_0.pdf - Inventor Cad Manager's Guide
Adesk_Inventor_2010_GetStart.pdf - Very high level introduction to Inventor
AI_2010_RoutedSys_2010_GetStart.pdf - High Level Introduction to Routed Systems
AI_2010_Simulation_2010_GetStart.pdf - High Level Introduction to Simulation and FEA
CC_2010_Install_guide.pdf - Dynamics of Inventor's Content Center
CC_for_Inventor_2010_side_by_side_install.pdf - Guide for setting up side by side Content Centers for multiple versions of Inventor's data scheme.
AutoCAD Products
Acad_acg.pdf - AutoCAD customization Guide
Acad_acr.pdf - AutoCAD command reference
Acad_aug.pdf - AutoCAD user guide
ACAD_Elec_2010_GetStart.pdf - AutoCAD Electrical Getting Started Guide
ACAD_Elec_2010_UserGuide.pdf - AutoCAD Electrical User Guide
ACAD_Mech_2010_GetStart.pdf - AutoCAD Mechanical Getting Started Guide
ACAD_Mech_2010_UserGuide.pdf - AutoCAD Mechanical User Guide
I actually point users to some of these guides before training so they can get a high level overview of the software before taking the professional instructor based training that is so important to any good software implementation. I find the Inventor Routed Systems and the Simulation especially beneficial to anyone before they take the higher level training. After all, do you learn to drive a car after reading the owner's manual of the vehicle or after someone shows you the ropes and potholes in the road?
Okay, so you got a laugh out of the pranks I posted yesterday on April Fools day. Here is your kiss and make up material for those victims of yours.
Windows Theme - Gives Windows XP users a much needed new Microsoft Theme that is more in line with the Black color options of Office 2007 (Black and Orange Windows Zune Theme). If you never changed your Office 2007 color theme, you will find this option in the Application button on the Editor options or application specific options on the Popular subset.
Background images - Wonderful images for your desktop or handheld devices (Interface Lift)
PrntScrn and Alt+PrntScrn - Two of my favorite windows shortcuts; Use PrntScrn to capture the current full extents of your computer's screen; Use Alt+PrntScrn to capture your current active window that you are clicked in. Next week I will talk about my new software vice for screen capturing.
Cools sounds for audio - Okay, so maybe the sheep bah was a little out of hand on April Fools day but here is a site I frequently visit for free cell phone ringtones and miscellaneous small sound files that work well with the Inventor customization - Zedge
Until next time, may your pranks never come back in your direction!
Well today is April Fool's day. Hopefully you are not the fool today but the one doing the fooling. My somewhat playful nature with software and office pranks has let me amass several pranks over the years. Here are a couple Gems to get your co-workers a humorous boost, confused look, or a boisterous fury of profanities. I'll break these down by Hardware and Software:
Hardware
Keyboard Letter movement - Everyone has at least one hunt and peck keyboard typer in the office. Pry off a letter on the keyboard and move it to another location. Such as switching the U and I, C and X, or the comma and period keys. This makes for a funny sight.
Black Tape on Mouse - Put a piece of Electrical or Scotch tape on the bottom of the mouse over the laser. Users will unplug the mouse 10 times before realizing the tape is there.
Software
BSOD - Download and install the good old blue screen of death screen saver onto the user's machine. Set it to come on after 1 minute. Download it here: BSOD Screen Saver
Screen shot background - Take a screen shot (Alt+PrntScrn) of AutoCAD or Inventor and set it as the desktop background. Remove all icons for proper effect.
Constraint Audio for Inventor - See previous Inventomizations post here.
Background Image - Change the Background image in Inventor on the Display Tab of Inventor's Application Options. Consider saving a Part file as a JPG or BMP and using that so it looks like Inventor is stuck on the same part file and it won't rotate. When they open anther file it will look like the other one has not closed.
MTJIGSTRING - This one is for AutoCAD. Changing this value will change the default abc text shown for MTEXT to anything you want within a character limit.
UNDEFINE/REDEFINE - Undefine and Redefine commands in AutoCAD. Careful this one can be dangerous if your undefined too much. I have known users to Undefine the Redefine command.
Drafting Settings - Change the AutoCAD user's Dynamic input settings to Absolute instead of the default Relative.
Tomorrow I will post a kiss and make up post for you to impress the users about how you did some of this as well as some neat add ins to give your computer a makeover.
Until next time, may your pranks always be in someone else's direction
Autodesk is trying out something new this year in an effort to become more sustainable in their delivery of their software to clients. This is currently being tested out by subscription customers through the subscription portal.
Simply login and download your latest release of the 2010 software. Remember that you need a valid subscription login which typically belongs to the administrator of your in house CAD needs. **Some of the products are not uploaded yet and this functionality is only available in certain countries.**
Remember that the Subscription site also contains previous bonus packs for your existing software if you are not quite ready to install 2010 or if you have lingering projects in older versions. Expect iLogic to be upgraded sometime very soon and look forward to more bonus packs throughout the year.
Welcome back to the Manufacturing Blog for a large week of announcements. Autodesk released their information on the new Manufacturing Solutions Divisions 2010 product line. Above you find the links to various What's New documents and overview of the three new Vault programs. The 2010 products page and IMAGINiT Virtual Trade Show will be live later today as well. Since I am an avid Inventor user I will focus the rest of this post on the changes and enhancements with Inventor 2010.
I have links above to our Virtual Trade Show (where you can see demonstrations and talk with Sales and Technical personel), Product Pages, and the Technical What's New documents. To say that this release is a large one is an understatement. I haven't seen this many new features since the early days of AutoCAD.
Here is a sampling of items to check out in the What's New document:
New Design Methods: Plastic Part Design, Multibody Design, Layout Design
New Capabiltites: Inventor Tooling, Assembly Level FEA, Drum Cam Generator
Enhanced: Interopabilty, User Interface, Bill of Materials, Weldments, Licensing, iFeatures, Sheet Metal Design,
New Commands: 6 commands for Plastic Part Design, three new panels full of commands for Mold design, 4 sheet metal commands, actually I lost count; too many to mention
What I wanted to really talk about are two new product offerings, and some hot button topics weighing on my and possibly some of your minds. You can expect more of the What's New material to pop up here in more detail throughout the coming weeks along with all my other material as well. I also have some links at the bottom of this post that pertain to 2010 in some way as well.
Inventor Tooling Suite (formally Inventor Mold) - New!
Now I have been extremely lucky to have been playing with this for about two months prior to Hopper Beta3, which is about two months longer than other resellers and I have to say I am very pleased about where this software has come from over the last two years. Yes, two years. That is how long this software has been in development. It was formally called Inventor Mold during its beta and usability testing in China and Latin America. It is far superior to Pro-E's and Catia's offering and is also an Autodesk product unlike Dassault SolidWork's third party add-ins. To give you an idea of the power behind tooling I was given a part by one of our Application Engineers and was asked to create a core and cavity for them. They were frustrated because the complexity of the part and the nuances of using derived components. After half a day they gave up and passed it to me. I finished it in 4 minutes with Tooling and even allowed for isotropic shrinkage (see below). Tooling can accomplish a lot more robust modeling because it has access to higher level ASM (Autodesk Shape Manager) functionality than previously available in Inventor.
Plastic part to Core and Cavity in less than 4 minutes
Here are some of the other features of Inventor Tooling:
Automatic Drawing creation (yes you read that right)
Automatic Core and Cavity Design
Pattern Parts for Family Molds
A Mold Boolean Command
Runner, Gate, and Cooling Channel, and Side Core Design
Moldflow plastic flow analysis tools
Mold Content Center for Mold Base components
Use or modify standard ejectors, lifters, sliders, sprue bushings and locating rings
Ribbon and Classic Interfaces - Enhanced!
The Ribbon has been added to the interface with the temporary option to revert back to the Classic UI. I thought it was a big enough topic to write a whitepaper on it.
Love it or hate it, Microsoft drives the PC world, either jump on or get left behind. Autodesk took a look at the human side of things this round and decided to ease the user into the Ribbon if they still had concerns, but I recommend jumping in feet first if you already have Office 2007 since you are already getting used to the interface.
The magic eight ball says this will not last forever. But it is nice to have a software company that at least warns you of eminent change unlike some of the competition. Actually I visited a client this week that had Vista 64 bit machines and 8 GB of RAM but had not yet moved to Office 2007, when I mentioned the Ribbon I got a blank stare. I am glad these companies will be able to have a transistional period.
Inventor LT Suite - Official Release!
Well it looks like the labs download of Inventor LT is finally coming to fruition. So everyone who got the free candy for the past two years, it looks like it will be time to pay the piper. Inventor LT has been a great no-cost tool for users to learn basic part modeling and that was the original intent of the labs offering. Pretty quickly Autodesk learned that companies wanted a low cost solution from the full Inventor Suites for certain personnel and tasks so they allowed usage of the product in commercial settings and multiple languages.
Inventor LT benefits:
Low price Inventor offering vs other suites
Part Modeling design and Documentation
Inventor Studio Rendering
Import and translation of other CAD formats
So where does this benefit come into companies now that they have to buy it? Inventor LT is perfect for several tasks. I especially like the first one since I know companies that have a seat of other pricey software ONLY for translation.
Use it as a translator for other CAD data (now with Catia!)
Use it for your support staff to create studio renderings
Use it for interns/employees to just create/detail parts
Use it for an AutoCAD user to transition to Inventor
Use it for an intern/employee to translate legacy work
I also heard through the grapevine that Inventor LT will have a bundling option with AutoCAD LT to get both programs at a very decent price. So you could do all your 3D modeling in Inventor and then detail it in AutoCAD LT if you really wanted to. All the small tool shops stalling to go to 3D have just been given a lifeline if you ask me. Nothing eases the transition like value packaging. And how many of those toolshops would love to have Inventor LT to translate all their Catia, Pro-E, SolidWorks, NX, and other file types without having to buy a sear of each of them or an expensive standalone translator?
Now carries the AutoCAD moniker - New!
Yes, Autodesk Inventor is now AutoCAD Inventor. Now I have spent years telling customers that Inventor is not AutoCAD, but with AutoCAD starting to blur the lines with the 2010 Parametric Drawing (which looks eerily like Inventor's sketching system) and 3D free form modeling, I can understand the relationship more. There are roughly 5 million AutoCAD users out there and they need somewhere to go after 2D loses its luster. Having the AutoCAD branding on Inventor and seeing the sketching system in AutoCAD can ease the apprehension between staying behind in the market and becoming a best in class manufacturer.
From the way up north comes an AE with superior Autodesk Data Management skills. Michael Thomas from our Saskatoon, Saskatchewan office in Canada created two great white papers on Vault topics for us this week. Mike is PSE and ATC certified and was one of the first to complete IMAGINiT's TakeAIM certification. With over 10 years of Autodesk software experience and his strong communication skills, he is highly regarded within the industry.
This first one is a great white paper for those wishing to get the most data and productivity out of their Vaulted files even if they are Word, Excel or PDFs.
Excerpt: So you have implemented Autodesk Vault (or Autodesk Productstream) and are in the process of adding files to your Vault. You know that when files are placed into the Vault, properties of these documents become search able. The Autodesk website describes it this way "Quickly search through design and related information to find and reuse existing design information. Productstream enables advanced searching by automatically extracting and indexing the complete contents of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and AutoCAD files."
The Autodesk Data Management solutions provide the ability to vault ANY file and organize your data to suit your design processes. The vaulting process automatically extracts document properties (such as title, author, descriptions & material) and can index file contents (i.e. text) contained within the document. Using this extracted data you can search any available property (using either basic or advanced searches) improving your ability to find valuable design data, making it easier to re?use and avoiding re-doing work.
This second one is a great white paper for new user of data management programs to understand the literal differences in what is meant by a Version and a Revision, what should constitute both, and how Autodesk Data Management can help.
Excerpt: When creating data there are times when you need to maintain a history of the document to see what has changed over the evolution of the document and why it was changed. Maintaining the history of the document provides the ability to go back to a previous copy when something was changed inadvertently or the change did not make improvements compared to how it was previously. In some instances you may want to go back to a previous copy to be able to work on the exact version that was provided to a customer or vendor.
At the simplest level you could keep multiple copies of a document, labeled in a fashion to identify versions and / or revisions. The file would be labeled with the appropriate version or revision #. The issue with using multiple copies of a document is that it requires self-discipline to properly maintain the copies, which could lead to mistakes.
Until next time, may your iFilter search in the right direction!
Did you know that if you open an AutoCAD drawing in notepad the first 6 characters are a code that tells you what edition of ACAD produced the file.
AutoCAD DWG Version History by Release for the past 20+ years
The first six bytes of a DWG file identify its version. In a DXF file, the AutoCAD version number is specified in the header section. The DXF system variable is $ACADVER.
AC1024 AutoCAD 2010
AC1021 AutoCAD 2007/2008/2009
AC1018 AutoCAD 2004/2005/2006
AC1015 AutoCAD 2000/2000i/2002
AC1014 Release 14
AC1012 Release 13
AC1009 Release 11/12
AC1006 Release 10
AC1004 Release 9
AC1003 Version 2.60
AC1002 Version 2.5
AC1001 Version 2.22
AC2.22 Version 2.22
AC2.21 Version 2.21
AC2.10 Version 2.10
AC1.50 Version 2.05
AC1.40 Version 1.40
AC1.2 Version 1.2
MC0.0 Version 1.0
AutoCAD 2008 can read DWG files back from AutoCAD version 2.0 released in 1984. Special thanks to Jason Tamas in our Adelaide, Australia office for dropping this one on me.
Until next time, may your mouse zoom in the right direction!
