 |
This Month
AutoCAD Tips Vault/Productstream Tips - inventor DWF Settings with Vault 2008 Downloads, Hotfixes, Service Packs & Other Issues 1 Inventor 11 hotfix, 3 Mechanical Desktop 2008 hotfixs, 3 AutoCAD and LT 2008 hotfixs, 3 AutoCAD Electrical 2008 hotfixs and AutoCAD Electrical Service Pack 1, 1 Vault 2008 hotfix. See if you can resolve our Design challenge we have set this month. How many parts do you require to create the featured assembly? What is Functional Design? The value of functional design and how it can greatly benefit any company using it is explained in an article written by Dr. Andrew Aganost Vice President CAD/CAE Manufacturing Solutions at Autodesk. A combination of engineering and geometric modelling called “functional design” helps generate digital prototypes early in the design cycle, letting them be continually validated for form, fit, and function. Find the full article on our web site here. Inventor Part 2 Training Most things in life require constant tuning and polishing in order to perform to their best and your CAD skills are no different. Having established the fundamentals of Autodesk Inventor don’t sit back and let your skills stand still. With further training you can really start to get the most return from the investment you have made in your software.“There is little point in owning a performance car to only drive it around in first gear.” The Micro Concepts Part Two Inventor course will teach you how to use the powerful differentiating advanced functionality within Inventor, in order to significantly increase your productivity and hence get a much greater return on your company's investment. So come on a part two training course and accelerate your productivity in to that higher gear. For a summary of the course content and further information click here.
If you drastically change a model early on in the design process you will sometimes be left with pink dots or lines in sketches. These are usually caused by these drastic changes losing a an edge or vertex that a feature was referenced to. The feature cannot now locate the edge or vertex hence the pink dot or lines. These were then sometimes difficult to resolve or remove but with the reference constraint in Inventor 2008 it is now an easy task to clear these errs.
For example the following images shows a change to the profile of an extrusion that another feature was dimensioned. The dependent feature has lost the corner point of the base feature which the sketch geometry was dimensioned to.
The first step to resolve this is to locate the Reference Constraint, new in Inventor 2008. All projected geometry will now have a reference constraint. This can be found using F8 to show all constraints, however using F8 to show all constraints will show all constraints, cluttering your screen. To reduce the screen clutter we can utilise another new tool of the 2008 release of Inventor, Constraint Visibility. Constraint Visibility is activated by selecting it from the right click menu in sketch mode.
Once the constraint visibility dialog box is active all constraints can be deselected except the constraint called Reference.
Show all visible constraints in the active sketch using F8. This will now only show the reference constraints in the sketch.
This Reference constraint to the missing geometry can now be deleted by right clicking on the constraint icon in the tool bar and selecting delete. Once the constraint is removed press F9 to Hide all Constraints. You can also reset the Constraint Visibility settings to all visible if you wish.
We are now left with a green unconstrained point in the sketch. This point can be easily dragged into a new position and constrained, or snapped to an existing edge or vertex.
Once re-constrained or snapped onto an edge or
vertex the sketch can be finished and the error message from
earlier will be removed. Incompatible Units Error When Inserting a Custom Part in a Parts List When placing a custom tow for a part you wouldn't model in to in a parts list you may want to show a length or other quantity value. You may though receive a message in the parts list reading Incompatible Units Error.
To overcome this the units must be specified when
entering the value
for the custom part. This is because the cell has no designated
unit assigned so a
value of 25 for example will cause the Incompatible Units Error.
Arrange Sketched Symbols by Name If you have a number of sketched symbols in a drawing template and would like to arrange them in alphabetical order you can simply right click on the Sketch Symbol folder title and select Arrange by Name.
British Standard and Whitworth Additions to the Threads Database If you wish to use up stocks of old nuts and bolts you may have in your stores, we have put together a threads database containing British Standard, British Standard Whitworth and British Association threads to down load. Download the
thread.xls file and place in your design data folder. Making Existing Blocks Annotative If you have some existing blocks in AutoCAD 2008 that you would like to make annotative you can do this simply by following these steps:
Slow to Load XREF Drawings and Insert External Blocks In AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2008 it may be slow to insert XREF drawings and external blocks. This is commonly caused because the XREF or external block contains many custom annotation scales. To speed up this process the scale list should be reset by following the process below;
DWG TrueConnect 2007 Object Enabler The Autodesk DWG TrueConnect 2007 Object Enabler is a freeware application that you can use to view Autodesk Inventor DWG drawing files on any Autodesk product based on AutoCAD 2007, such as AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Mechanical 2007 and Mechanical desktop 2007. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9611377&linkID=9240618 inventor DWF Settings With Vault 2008 Another white paper from Autodesk, this time addressing DWF setting when using them with Autodesk Vault 2008. This paper will tell you how to control the settings for all DWF files created by Vault or Productstream using an xml file, which will eliminate inconsistency's in the DWF creation. DWF Settings in Autodesk Vault (pdf - 157Kb) Downloads, Service Packs & Updates New
Downloads, Service Packs & Updates released this Month.
Major service packs and fixes in bold. Inventor Inventor Suite/Professional 2008 Inventor Series/Professional 11 Mechanical Desktop AutoCAD Mechanical AutoCAD Mechanical 2008 Service Pack 1
Hotfix - Secondary User Windows Start menu launch error AutoCAD Electrical AutoCADŽ Electrical 2008 Service Pack 1
Hotfix - Secondary User Windows Start menu launch error AutoCAD
Hotfix – Secondary User Windows Start menu launch error Vault/Productstream "Migration of 'Vault' failed" error when migrating a Vault We celebrated Autodesk's 25th anniversary last month with a small trivia quiz to test your AutoCAD history knowledge. I am sure you all beat our score.
This month we are
setting you a small Design Challenge. The challenge is to model
in Inventor the following sets of Metric and Imperial Hex Keys
using just TWO part models!
If you're not sure on the functions needed to achieve this take
a look at the details of our Inventor Part 2 Training on our
website. |
Contact Details
|
Published by Micro Concepts Ltd Copyright 2007 Micro Concepts Ltd. All rights reserved. This Newsletter is provided by Micro Concepts and may be used exclusively for informational purposes by the addressee only.
www.microconcepts.co.uk I 01223 716200 |
