Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

Autodesk Inventor® Series didn’t become the world’s #1 best-selling 3D mechani-cal design software by accident. It’s the industry leader because it consistentlydelivers the right tool for the job, helping you design your entire product line withone integrated solution. Autodesk Inventor Series includes Autodesk Inventor® 3Ddesign software; AutoCAD® Mechanical, built on the AutoCAD® platform for 2Dmechanical drawing and detailing; and Autodesk® Vault integrated data manage-ment for securely managing work-in-process design data.

Because all this is combined in one package, Autodesk Inventor Series delivers arisk-free path from 2D to 3D. Now you can move to 3D at your own pace, protectyour existing investments in 2D drawings and knowledge, and know that you’reworking with the most DWG-compatible platform on the market.

The truth about 3D:you still need 2D.

Design Your Complete Product Line

Weldments

With a built-in environment for designing weldmentsand machine castings, it’s easy to model welds in 3D and improve quality by simulating weld prepara-tion, welding, and postweld and cast machining operations.

Advanced Shape Description

Improve innovation by using ShapeManager. This purpose-built 3D modeling kernel has been fine-tuned for the demands of 3D users in manufacturing,seamlessly combining advanced shapes and complexsurfaces. Built on ShapeManager, Autodesk Inventorprovides designers with a hybrid design approach, sosolids and surfaces can be combined in one design foreasy creation and editing.

Component and Feature Reuse

Save time with instant access to frequently usedmachinery content. Autodesk Inventor provides alibrary of more than 500,000 components that repre-sent commonly used content, including nuts, bolts,and screws. It also provides powerful tools such as

• i-drop® functionality: An easy way for you to incor-porate parts that manufacturers post to the web bysimply dragging them from your browser to theinterface window

Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

• iParts: Provides table-driven libraries of com-ponent groups (for example, a car wheel iPartthat can be tabled between 4-, 5-, 6-, or 8-bolt hole patterns depending on the vehicle it is placed on)

• iFeatures: An interactive interface for popu-lating smart features like connector ports,sheet metal louvers, and hydraulic ports thatcan be dragged right into the design

Sheet Metal

Design sheet metal components using special-ized tools that allow for quick changes andinstant drawing updates. A powerful set of toolsenables you to create parts face by face, flangeby flange, or by extruding special contours todesign from a flat pattern, from a form, or fromboth. The software automatically associatesbend allowances based on material and thick-ness while providing customizable bend tablesfor correct flat pattern creation.

Parametrics and Adaptivity

Cut down design steps by making changes thatpropagate instantly throughout your design,incorporating design engines for parametricsand adaptivity. This functionality helps you asso-ciate parts in a way that allows the change ofone part to drive changes in associated parts.

Dimension-Driven Design

Now it’s easy to test multiple design conceptsbefore defining the exact form and fit, a fasterapproach than using AutoCAD software to layout designs. Quickly sketch shapes without wor-rying about details, applying dimensions todrive the geometry to the desired shape.

Design Views

Boost productivity when working with large,complex assemblies by storing and sharing fre-quently used views and representations. Quicklyisolate specific parts or subassemblies to seewhat you want to see, when you want to see it.

Sketching

Create conceptual sketches of your designsusing a free-form sketching environment to create, connect, and reuse multiple sketches to build 2D layouts of design concepts.

Capacity and Performance

With the capacity to design large,complex machines including tens of thousandsof components, you don’t need expensive hard-ware. The segmented database architecture willcontinue to increase in capacity to meet yourneeds and is now faster than ever.

The creation and editing of large assemblydrawings will be greatly improved with anenhanced drawing manager. In addition, largeassembly drawings will benefit from new loadon demand functionality and Z-plane clippingcontrols for drawing view optimization.

Streamlined Placement of Holes

Improve productivity by automaticallycreating holes and hole notes that update auto-matically with changes. Streamline the place-ment of holes, independent of the sketch, usinga linear (place by two edges) or concentricmethod—and define hole parameters based onstandard fasteners.

Component Selection

Quickly focus on just the assemblycomponents you need for the task at hand. Withcomponent selection and isolation, you choosea specific assembly component and isolate yourview to focus only on that component and theitems within your selection criteria. Controlcomponent visibility to enhance assembly performance and speed up design tasks.Advanced component selection tools nowinclude the following:

• Select all Internal or External components.

• Select all components in Camera View.

• Select all components in front of or behind a plane.

• Selection filter for Work Features.

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Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

Design Views

Increase productivity with large, complex assemblies by storing and sharing frequently used views and representations.Automate the incorporation of design viewsdirectly into assembly files, and take advantageof associative design views that are now sup-ported in presentation files.

Assembly Features

Help improve quality by simulatingweld preparation, postweld operations, and the machining of castings. Assembly featuresnow support revolve and sweep (to removematerial), fillet and round, and advanced hole termination.

Projected Sketch Geometry

Now you can create conceptualsketches of your designs. Toggle projectedsketch geometry between Normal,Construction, Centerline, and Reference settings.

Loft

Create more innovative designs bycombining advanced shapes and complex sur-faces. Take advantage of full-fidelity preview ofloft, and apply tangency conditions to loft rails.

Pattern and Mirror

Reduce the time it takes to duplicatethe features and parts used in top-down design.You can pattern and mirror work features (plane,axis, and point) as well as solid base bodies.

Positional Representations

Help improve quality by validating thepositional states of an assembly. Quickly createassemblies with multiple instances of a sub-assembly—each in a different position. For

example, you may need two representations ofa hydraulic cylinder in a subassembly—one inthe open and one in the closed position.

Styles

Work faster and ensure that the work con-forms to company standards with the ability tocontrol and instantly change the formatting ofan entire document. Styles make it easy to for-mat characteristics such as font size, color, stan-dards, and linetype. When you apply a style, allformatting instructions in that style are appliedat once. And you can configure a set of com-mon company styles for everyone on a projectto use.

Shape Propagation

Quickly create more innovative designsfrom existing shapes, and create new geometryby propagating existing contours when per-forming extrude and revolve functions.

Planar Boundary Patch

Combine advanced shapes and complexsurfaces by automatically creating planar sur-faces through edges of existing planar geome-try, enhancing your designs.

Flexible Assemblies

Minimize costly errors and improve overallproduct function by dynamically driving multi-ple instances of the same assembly throughindependent states.

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Create Quality Products with Fewer Revisions

Virtual Prototyping

Facilitate building more innovative, higher-quality products through rapid virtual designiterations. Autodesk Inventor offers an intuitivevisual design environment for working withparts and assemblies, which inspires interactivedesign simulation to resolve product functionbefore committing to a prototype or finishedpart. This way, you can simulate and testdesigns interactively earlier in the designprocess.

3D Visualization

Take advantage of constant feedback on com-ponent relationships in all design modes toimprove every aspect of your design before it’sbuilt. To assist in making the right design choic-es, view sketches, parts, and subassemblies inthe context of the design and assign realisticmaterials, textures, and lighting to your models.

Contact Detection Solver

Drag a component to collide with another com-ponent to validate the reaction between thetwo—a simple way to reduce errors early in theprocess and help improve product function.And it’s easy to drive assembly motion, provid-ing the ability to test and retest design function.

Interference Analysis

Cut costly errors and improve design manufac-turability with automated tools that test for partinterference, allowing the parts to be measuredfor proper fit. You can also vary the componenttolerance to validate manufacturing flexibility.

Physical Properties

Improve product design by utilizing real-worldproperties to build a virtual prototype of yourdesign. Parts and assemblies created inAutodesk Inventor carry physical property infor-mation such as center of gravity, material type,density, color, and texture—to help you makemore informed design decisions.

Associativity

Take advantage of automatic propagation ofdesign changes to reduce errors and speed timeto market. Associate parts and assemblies withdesign relationships, so that a change made to apart will be reflected in the assembly designand all associated drawing files. In addition, achange to the assembly will be reflected in theparts and drawing files. This means that if youedit associated components such as parts andsubassemblies, those changes will ripplethroughout all parts, assemblies, presentations,drawings, and related partner add-ins (such asCNC tool paths or finite element analysis).

Customizable Hot Keys

Save time with fast access to the commands you use most by defining your own keyboardshortcuts.

Pattern and Mirror

Quickly pattern and mirror 2D and 3D shapes in all design modes to create associative or nonassociative patterned copies.

Interoperability with AutoCAD Mechanical

Speed up the design creation process andreduce errors through associative 2D and 3Dcollaboration. AutoCAD Mechanical can createdrawings of Autodesk Inventor part models.When the design changes in Autodesk Inventor,the AutoCAD Mechanical drawing automaticallyupdates.

Open API

Customize Autodesk Inventor for your specificenvironment. A well-documented applicationprogramming interface (API) will help you auto-mate your specialized workflows.

Assembly Mirror

Cut the number of steps required toduplicate and mirror complex assemblies. Whendesigning assemblies, it’s typical to have sub-assemblies that are identical but mirrored toreflect a right-side or left-side condition. Usingthe Autodesk Inventor assembly mirror func-

Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

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Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

tionality, you can define left-to-rights or front-to-backs to create symmetrical parts or sub-assemblies. The assembly mirror functionalitysupports assembly features, assembly patterns,welding preparation, automatic part naming,and machining with the ability to reuse stan-dard content.

Component Copy

Dramatically reduce the effort required to reuse designs with a flexible time-saving utili-ty for copying assemblies, subassemblies, andparts from previous designs. The utility includesautomatic naming functionality to create same-as and except versions of the design while maintaining the integrity of assembly constraints, iMates, Workfeatures, welds, andassembly features.

The Fastest Way to Production-Ready Drawings

Automatic Drawing Updates

To help eliminate errors and the need for manual checking, Autodesk Inventor associatesdrawing views to the original components. Soany change made to a part of an assembly isautomatically reflected in the drawing.

Automatic Drawing Views

Automatically create front, side, iso, detail, sec-tion, and auxiliary views—with automaticretrieval of model dimensions—to reduce thetime it takes to create drawings using traditional2D methods. Use a robust palette of dimension,annotation, and 2D symbols to quickly com-plete your drawing set.

AutoCAD Migration Utility

Improve your workflow and make the most ofyour AutoCAD data. Quickly import AutoCADdrawings and map layers into the AutodeskInventor environment as a completed assemblyor as a part for your 3D layout.

Reuse AutoCAD Drawing Templates

Speed the transition from 2D to 3D by usingyour AutoCAD design templates, including lay-ers, title blocks, and standards information.

Title Blocks

Create company-standard drawingtemplates more quickly. Improved editingallows you to

• Precisely input dimensional values to define title blocks

• Modify title block information using “stretch” functionality

• Edit title blocks in the context of your drawing

Standards

Quickly create production-ready draw-ings and ensure consistency with your companystandards. Modify standard settings as needed,mix multiple standards within a drawing, andglobally update drawings based on changes tothe standards.

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Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

Text

Take advantage of support forAutoCAD-like text tools. Freely rotate text at any angle, and justify text to meet annotationneeds.

Dimensioning

Speed drawing creation with the abili-ty to automatically center dimension text andedit extension line origins.

Section Views

Experience greater flexibility and control of section views with improved controlof the depth of a slice and new componentselection tools that allow you to predefine components on a per view basis when creatingsection views.

Associative Parts List

Generate and update an accurateparts list in a fraction of the time required bytraditional 2D methods. Part and subassemblyquantities are always kept up to date, and areinstantly organized and populated into a draw-ing parts list. Changes to the assembly (remov-ing a washer, for example) are associative, so theparts list is updated automatically. The parts listnow gives you the opportunity to override auto-matically generated materials and quantities foreasy creation of customized lists.

Layers

This is the first Autodesk Inventor versionto include layers, a powerful feature fromAutoCAD software. Speed the process of format-ting Autodesk Inventor drawings by creatinggroups based on layers with colors, linetypes,and visibility. Additionally, this capability makesit easy to map layers between the AutoCAD andAutodesk Inventor applications for easy import-ing and exporting of data.

Weldment Preparation Drawing Views

Deliver the completed drawing sooner byautomatically creating drawing views of compo-nent weld preparations. Autodesk Inventormakes the process productive.

Auto-Balloon Enhancements

When documenting assemblies, enjoysuperior control over automated balloon place-ment on assembly drawings.

Communicate and Manage Design Data

Autodesk Vault

Securely manage work-in-process designchanges with Autodesk Vault, integrated intoAutodesk Inventor software. Quick to learn anddeploy, Autodesk Vault coordinates the sharingof files among workgroups, controls versions,and is tightly integrated with all Autodesk®manufacturing design products.

Technical Illustrations

Quickly create technical illustrations, processsheets, training materials, part manuals, assem-bly instruction sheets, and videos to trainassembly teams on the manufacturing floor.

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Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

Import/Export Formats

Autodesk Inventor Series supportsindustry standard data transfer for importingand exporting design and drawing information,enhancing collaboration, and sharing withAutoCAD users, suppliers, and customers.

You can import DWG, DXF™, ProE®, SAT, IGES,and STEP files. Export part assembly files including SAT, IGES, STEP, STL, and AutodeskStreamline® online service. Export drawing filesincluding DWG (with full layer mapping), DWF™,and DXF files.

New support for AutoCAD 2005 featuresincludes importing and exporting file proper-ties, OLE scaling on import/export, and map-ping fields to MTEXT.

DWG compatibility has been expanded toinclude support for layers, text, hole, threadnotes, and bitmaps, making it even easier to col-laborate and share data with AutoCAD users,suppliers, and customers.

IGES Wireframe Import

The ability to import 2D and 3D wire-frames improves collaboration with suppliersand customers by reusing design data createdin other design systems. For example, you can

• Create laser and optic machinery from datacreated in optic design solutions

• Import wireframe data from 3D scanningdevices for reverse engineering

• Validate manufactured parts against the original 3D design from CoordinatedMeasurement Machines (CMM)

Autodesk Inventor View

Share designs with your extended manu-facturing team with full fidelity viewing andprinting of Autodesk Inventor files even forthose without the application. Nonusers canopen and print part files (IPT), assembly files(IAM), and drawing files (IDW).

3D DWF Publishing

Share design data quickly, easily, and effi-ciently with DWF (Design Web Format™) files.

Learn Easily, Deploy Quickly

Ease of Use

Autodesk Inventor offers the industry’s shortestpath to full 3D productivity. With a design envi-ronment featuring fewer, smarter commands,the software works the way you want to work.Highly visual feedback and gesture-based inter-activity responds intelligently to cursor move-ment to help you work more efficiently.

Advanced Help System

Speed the transition to 3D with contextual help.The award-winning Design Support System(DSS) provides browser-based support to quickly bring you up to speed and offers anelectronic infrastructure for easy learning.

Design Doctor

Resolve errors in your 3D model with highlyrefined diagnostic tools that recognize potentialdesign issues and recommend corrections.

Skill Builders

Speed learning through flexible access to up-to-date tutorials and best practices. Extendedlearning modules provide enriched online help,tutorials, and “show me” animations—with peri-odic updates available through the web.

Project Files

Help save time and secure projectintegrity when relocating design data. Projectfiles are automatically organized to track alldesign-related data. You can even find filesautomatically after changing their location on disk.

Network Installation

Speed up network deployment ofAutodesk Inventor, which can now be installedvia “network push” and which includes supportfor standard Microsoft® technologies, includingSMS and GPO.

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Autodesk Inventor Series : Product Summary

Autodesk Gives You More

Autodesk Consulting offers services that canhelp you streamline your business processesand get the best possible return on your invest-ment in Autodesk technology. Visit us atwww.autodesk.com/consulting.

Autodesk® Subscription is the easiest way tokeep your design tools and learning up to date.For an annual fee you get the latest versions ofyour licensed Autodesk software, web supportdirect from Autodesk, self-paced trainingoptions, and a broad range of other technologyand business benefits. For more information,contact your Autodesk Authorized Reseller orvisit www.autodesk.com/subscription.

Purchase or Learn More

Purchase Autodesk software through yourAutodesk Authorized Reseller. To locate thereseller nearest you, visitwww.autodesk.com/reseller.

To learn more about Autodesk Inventor Seriesand see a complete list of system requirements,visit www.autodesk.com/inventorseries.

Autodesk, Inc.111 McInnis ParkwaySan Rafael, CA 94903

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Streamline,Design Web Format, DWF, DXF, and i-drop are either registeredtrademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/orother countries. All other brand names, product names, andtrademarks belong to their respective holders.

© 2004 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.000000000000114260

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