This Month

Tips & Tricks
Inventor Tips
Enabling the 3GB Switch in Windows Vista
Using Inventor on 64Bit Systems
Creating Work Planes Using 3 Vertices
Using the Fillet Tool in Inventor 2008
Changing the Bend Direction in Bend Notes
Inventor's PI Parameter

AutoCAD Tips - Qleader in AutoCAD 2008

AutoCAD Electrical Tips - Installation Folder Structure of AutoCAD Electrical 2008

Downloads, Hotfixes, Service Packs & Other Issues

5 Mechanical Desktop hotfixes.

Tea Break

The surprising results of last month's competition and a new one for this month.

 News

Micro Concept Continued Expansion

Support Desk - We will be increasing our Technical team over the next couple of months by recruiting a new engineer to join the Support Desk. That is as soon as we can find a candidate with all the necessary skills and experience to provide the level of service you require. If you know of a strong communicator with a good knowledge of the engineering industry looking for a challenging and rewarding support role please ask them to send their CV through to us. Further details can be found at:

http://www.microconcepts.co.uk/index.php?area=5&screen=23&subPageId=1552

Back Office - Kerrie Braybrook joins us later this month as part of our back office team. Kerrie will be helping us with administration of our training centre and our contract services.
As many of you will know Emily Howe is now on maternity leave. During Emily's absence Dawn Barker will be taking over Emily's responsibilities for processing your orders. Dawn has been with Micro Concepts for over 12 years in a part time capacity in the back office team.

SolidWorks Translator Available on Autodesk Labs

Autodesk Labs is the development site for new tools such as utilities and translators. The latest translator to become available for download on the Labs site is a SolidWorks Translator. This translator also allows the opening of ProE and UG-NX files amongst others.

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/translator_add-ins_for_autodesk_/

Manufacturing Usability Program

Autodesk values its customer’s feedback and we would like to invite you to participate in Autodesk's Manufacturing Division Usability Program.  Through your participation, you will be able to influence the development of Inventor and other Autodesk Manufacturing products. 

Autodesk usability research focuses on how people interact with software.  The information gathered is translated directly into product design improvements, so your feedback makes a difference that can be experienced in the product.  Autodesk conduct several types of usability studies on an ongoing basis ranging from lab research to site visits.

To participate in the Usability Program you will need to provide some basic information by clicking the link below and filling out the survey.  You will be contacted to participate when there are appropriate studies that align with your interests.

Sign Up Today

Autodesk Inventor Podcast 15

From the official blog of the Autodesk Inventor Product Management Team In the Machine, comes this month's Autodesk Inventor Video Podcast.

Official Inventor Podcast Episode #15 - Pattern Tips - This was posted on 02/08/07 by Garin Gardiner of Autodesk.

 Tips and Tricks

 Autodesk Inventor Tips

Enabling the 3Gb Switch in Windows Vista 32 bit

Now that Inventor is supported in Windows Vista you may want to enable the 3Gb switch if you have 32 bit Vista. To enable the 3Gb switch on the Windows Vista operating system you will need to carry out the following steps;

• Right click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as administrator.
• At the command prompt type “bcdedit/set IncreaseUserVa 3072”
• Restart the computer.

To disable the 3Gb switch in Windows Vista

• Right click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as administrator.
• At the command prompt type “bcdedit/deletevalue IncreaseUserVa”
• Restart the computer.

Using Inventor on 64Bit Systems

When installing Inventor 2008 and Mechanical Desk Top 2008 on a 64 bit system you may notice they were installed in two separate folders. This is because there is currently no 64 bit version of Inventor, but there is a 64 bit version for AutoCAD based products. When installing, the setup will recognise if the system is 32 or 64 bit and run the correct setup. Both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of AutoCAD based products are included on the discs. Inventor will run on a 64 bit machine in 32 bit emulation mode (and access a maximum of 4GB RAM).

If Inventor is running on a 64 bit system there will be an icon automatically installed on your desktop called32 bit explorer for 64 bit Windows. When starting the system you will need to double click this icon to ensure you can access design assistant, pack and go and be able to view preview images in the open dialog box.

Creating Work Planes Using 3 Vertices

Continuing from the last couple of technical bulletins covering creating workplanes at angles to existing planes and faces, and creating workplanes tangent to curved faces, we now explain how to create workplanes using 3 geometry points or vertices in a model.

Workplanes created using 3 vertices can be used to create a new workplane using existing model geometry in a position you would normally not be able to create a workplane. A vertex can be an intersection between two edges, a centre point of an existing line or edge, a placed work point or a control point of spline.
In this example we will pick 3 such vertices to create the workplane:

Select the Workplane tool from the part features panel. In the model window 3 vertices will need to be selected on the model. Once two vertices are selected a preview of the new workplane will be seen when the cursor is hovered over any possible third vertex.

As soon as this third vertex is selected the new workplane will be created.
This workplane can be redefined by right clicking on it in the browser and selecting redefine, or another new workplane can now be offset from this or another workplane at an angle relative to this.

Using the Fillet Tool in Inventor 2008

There are a couple of handy options when using the fillet tool in Inventor, such as the Face fillet and the Full Round fillet, along with the standard edge fillet, whether it be constrained radius or variable. We will have a look at the Face fillet and the Full Round fillet options.

Face fillet allows you to select two faces to create a fillet between, and then specify the radius. This will allow filleting of faces the normal edge fillet would not be able to cope with. It will also fillet over any lumps and notches there may be in its path.

To create a face fillet select the fillet tool and change the type from Edge to Face. Then select two adjacent faces and enter the desired radius. In the example above Include Tangent Faces is selected hence the fillet will wrap around the whole part giving the results shown below.

The Full Round fillet will allow 3 faces to be selected and a fillet will then be created between the 3 selected faces resulting in one smooth fillet. For this to function the three faces, face set one , center face set, and face set two will need to be adjacent to each other.

Again selecting the fillet tool, change the type on the left to Full Round. Then select the three adjacent faces as the three face sets, face set 1, center face set, and face set 2. The fillet tool will then create a full fillet around the selected faces.

Changing the Bend Direction in Bend Notes

Once the edit flat pattern definition dialog box is active select 'Flip' on the right of the dialog box in the Base Face section. This will flip the base face to the opposite side of the flat pattern, so when a new view of the flat pattern is placed in a 2D drawing the bend directions will now be correct.

Inventor's PI Parameter

AutoCAD Tips

QLeader in 2008

You may be wondering where the QLeader command has disappeared to in AutoCAD 2008? There is a new multi leader command which supersedes the QLeader command to take advantage of the new annotation scaling options however it doesn't take its formatting from the dimension style. The old QLeader command is still available however which does still use the dimension style. You can either type in the command directly or customise the menu using the CUI editor and drag the Qleader command from the dimensioning commands section to one of your toolbars.

AutoCAD Electrical Tips

Installation Structure of AutoCAD Electrical 2008

When you install AutoCAD Electrical with the standard settings the files installed are split into many areas. The main executable files and static support files are stored under C:\ProgramFiles\Autodesk\acade2008 while the modifiable support files and database content are found in the Windows user area under C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\ ...

Main executable and Static support files.

The main program of AutoCAD Electrical 2008 is installed under the base folder C:\ProgramFiles\Autodesk\acade 2008. In here there will be all of the main program files.

Support and Data files.

The Support files are files that carry the potential of being altered by the user hence these are kept in the user area of the machine at C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data. This Application Data sub folder is usually hidden within Windows Explorer.

The Data files carry various database and project drawing files that can be altered by the user. This data will by default be in C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\My Documents and includes your project files, catalogue files  etc.

Further information on file locations can be found in the standalone installation addendum on the 2008 installation DVD along with much other useful information relating to the installation.

 Vault/Productstream