Waguespack

MASTERING

Autodesk

® Inventor® 2010

WaguespackJahraus

Create Full-Featured Digital Prototypes the Inventor Way Whether you’re designing airplanes, appliances, or industrial machinery, this complete guide to Autodesk Inventor 2010 shows you how to produce and manage build-worthy 3D virtual prototypes from the ground up. Inventor experts Curtis Waguespack and Loren Jahraus not only pack this reference with veteran insights and valuable engineering principles, they also cover topics that are rarely documented elsewhere.

You’ll receive a thorough grounding in basic concepts before moving on to a wealth of advanced topics for professional environments, including standard and sheet metal part design, the dos and don’ts of working with large assemblies, setting up professional workfl ows, effectively sharing data, and more. The book fully covers Inventor 2010 and Inventor Professional 2010, including newly enhanced simulation tools for motion and fi nite element analysis.

COVERAGE INCLUDES:

• Understanding the “Inventor way” of 3D mechanical design • Using the new interface effectively and productively• Transitioning from AutoCAD or third-party 3D design packages• Learning all aspects of part and assembly design, including sketching and modeling• Mastering advanced sheet metal design techniques• Exploring little-known strategies for large assemblies• Leveraging cable and harness capabilities, tube and pipe design, and

dynamic simulation and stress analysis features • Creating multibody parts and plastic part features

FEATURED ON THE DVDEnhance your learning with the innovative video tutorials for each chapter that highlight advanced techniques and best practices. You’ll also fi nd before-and-after tutorial fi les, interesting and useful Inventor utilities, and a fully searchable PDF of the book.

Master the Powerful New Inventor 2010 Interface

Discover Techniques and Tricks Not Widely Documented Elsewhere

Learn in the Context of Real-World Workfl ows and Work Environments

Delve into Advanced Design for Parts, Assemblies, Weldments, and Plastics

Use Inventor Studio to Create High-Impact Presentations

Enhance Data Exchange and Design Effectively Across Different Industries

ABOUT THE AUTHORSCurtis Waguespack is an Inventor Certifi ed Expert and an Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certifi ed Expert who has provided training, consulting, and support for manufacturing and design fi rms in industries ranging from aerospace to consumer products to industrial machinery. Loren Jahraus, P.E., is an Inventor founder. As an engineer, he has designed machinery for the food processing, material handling, and semiconductor industries.

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AutodeskInventor 2010

MASTERING

Curtis Waguespackwith Loren Jahraus, P.E.

Master Autodesk Inventor 2010, Inventor Professional, and Inventor LT™

Create 3D Models for Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Projects

®

®

Includes DVD

CATEGORYCOMPUTERS/CAD-CAM

MasteringAutodesk® Inventor® 2010

MasteringAutodesk® Inventor® 2010

Curtis Waguespack

Loren Jahraus, P.E.

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Senior Acquisitions Editor: Willem KnibbeDevelopment Editor: Denise Santoro LincolnTechnical Editors: Loren Jahraus and Curtis WaguespackProduction Editor: Angela SmithCopy Editor: Kim WimpsettEditorial Manager: Pete GaughanProduction Manager: Tim TateVice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard SwadleyVice President and Publisher: Neil EddeMedia Associate Project Manager: Jenny SwisherMedia Associate Producer: Josh FrankMedia Quality Assurance: Shawn PatrickBook Designers: Maureen Forys and Judy FungProofreader: Jen Larsen, Word OneIndexer: Ted LauxProject Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey StanfordCover Designer: Ryan SneedCover Image: © Pete Gardner/DigitalVision/Getty Images

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-47830-1

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Waguespack, Curtis, 1974-Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2010 / Curtis Waguespack. – 1st ed.

p. cm.ISBN 978-0-470-47830-1 (paper/dvd)1. Engineering graphics. 2. Engineering models — Data processing. 3. Autodesk Inventor (Electronic resource) I. Title.T353.W18 2009620’.00420285536–dc22

2009016261

Certain images and materials contained in this publication were reproduced with the permission of Autodesk, Inc. © 2009.All rights reserved.

TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley &Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission.Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, DWG, the DWG logo, and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks ofAutodesk, Inc., in the U.S.A. and certain other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2010. This book is part of a family ofpremium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combinepractical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consis-tently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for theindustry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you thebest books available.

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments andget your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this orany other Sybex book by sending me an email at nedde@wiley.com. If you think you’ve founda technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback iscritical to our efforts at Sybex.

Best regards,

Neil EddeVice President and PublisherSybex, an Imprint of Wiley

To Jennifer.— Curtis

To Penny, Edan, and Annie.— Loren

AcknowledgmentsThis book is a collaborative effort involving far more people than listed on the cover. Personally,we would like to thank our families, whose patience and understanding made this and all otherpursuits possible. Professionally, we would like to thank the co-workers, clients, customers, andfriends whose input and ideas have helped build the knowledge and experience that each of usdraws from in applying concept to practice.

A special thank you goes out to the Mastering Inventor 2009 team: Sean Dotson, Bill Bogan,Andrew Faix, Seth Hindman, Dennis Jeffrey, Shekar Subrahmanyam, and Bob Van der Donck, allof whom are true masters of Inventor.

Thank you to the team at Wiley: Denise Santoro Lincoln, Kim Wimpsett, Angela Smith, WillemKnibbe, Peter Gaughan, and Jay Lesandrini for their patience, focus, and professionalism, withoutwhich there would be no book. Your hard work and support have eased our efforts in turningideas into pages.

— Curtis Waguespack and Loren Jahraus

About the AuthorsMastering Autodesk Inventor 2010 builds on the strong foundation established by Mastering Inventor2009, which was written by a team of Inventor experts with a diverse and expansive pool of indus-try experience. Two members of the 2009 authoring team worked on the 2010 edition to updatethe existing content and add new content to cover the exciting improvements Autodesk made inthe 2010 release of Inventor. Here is a bit more about each of them.

Curtis Waguespack served as lead author on this book. He is anInventor Certified Expert and an Autodesk Manufacturing Imple-mentation Certified Expert. His experience designing construc-tion equipment, industrial machinery, and food service equipment,while working closely with the shop floor, has provided real-worldinsights into the requirements and demands of using Inventor inday-to-day design. Curtis has consulted with and supported manu-facturing and design firms whose industries range from aerospaceto consumer products to industrial machinery, each using Inven-tor in a specific way to meet the demands of their particular indus-

try. Aside from work, he enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors pursuing a varietyof interests.

Loren Jahraus, P.E., authored the chapters on Inventor design philosophy,sheet metal, assembly design workflows, functional design, and FrameGenerator. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison and attended the Universitat Stuttgartas an academic exchange student. He has designed a variety of machineryincluding an optical sorter for food products, an automated system to han-dle and monitor decommissioned nuclear weapons, and equipment to testcomputer chips. He is an Inventor founder and has designed functionalityfor part and assembly modeling, drawings, sheet metal, design accelera-tors, weldments, and Frame Generator. He also volunteers extensively to

help prepare the next generation of engineers. He has taught elementary-school students the SAEA World in Motion curriculum for eight years, he has mentored FIRST LEGO League and FIRSTRobotics Competition teams, and he is serving on the organizing committee for the 2009 SAE BajaWest Design Competition.

Contents at a Glance

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii

Chapter 1 • Inventor Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2 • Data and Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Chapter 3 • Sketch Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Chapter 4 • Basic Modeling Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Chapter 5 • Advanced Modeling Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter 6 • Sheet Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Chapter 7 • Part and Feature Reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Chapter 8 • Assembly Design Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Chapter 9 • Large Assembly Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Chapter 10 • Weldment Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Chapter 11 • Functional Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Chapter 12 • Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Chapter 13 • Inventor Tools Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Chapter 14 • Exchanging Data with Other Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Chapter 15 • Frame Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Chapter 16 • Inventor Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Chapter 17 • Stress Analysis and Dynamic Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

Chapter 18 • Routed Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Chapter 19 • Plastics Design Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

Appendix A • The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Appendix B • About the Companion DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii

Chapter 1 • Inventor Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Moving from the AutoCAD Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Using the Inventor Graphical Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The Ribbon Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6The Browser Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Task-Based Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9The Model Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Learning the File Types in Inventor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Using DWG Files in Inventor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Creating DWG Files from Inventor Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Working with AutoCAD Files in Inventor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Creating a 3D Virtual Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Understanding Parametric Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Understanding Functional Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Understanding Solids vs. Surface Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Best Practices in Autodesk Inventor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Creating a Data Management Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Selecting the Proper Project File Type for Your Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Developing an Efficient and Stable Part-Modeling Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Developing Assembly Structure for Maximum Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Establishing Standards for Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Using Digital Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 2 • Data and Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Creating a Data Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Setting Up the Ideal Directory Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Preparing Parts for Reuse and Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Exploring Project File Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Creating the Project File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Creating Single-User Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Creating Multiuser Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 3 • Sketch Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Exploring the Options and Settings for Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Application Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Document Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

xii CONTENTS

Creating a Sketch in a New Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Creating a New Part File from a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Creating Lines Using the Line Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Understanding Sketch Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Using Degrees of Freedom to View Under-Constrained Sketch Elements . . . . . . . . 58Using Dimensions to Fully Constrain a Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Understanding the Save Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Making a Sketch Active for Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Using Construction Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Using the Polygon Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Creating Driven Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Taking a Closer Look at Sketch Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Tangent Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Perpendicular Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Parallel Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Coincident Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Concentric Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Collinear Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Horizontal Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Vertical Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Equal Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Fix Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Symmetric Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Smooth Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Gaining More Sketch Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Creating Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Creating Automatic Tangents with the Line Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Understanding Point/Center Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Projecting Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Learning More About Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Measuring Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Creating Sketches from AutoCAD Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Importing Existing AutoCAD Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Copying and Pasting Existing AutoCAD Designs into Inventor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Creating and Using 3D Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Creating a 3D Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Using the 3D Coordinate Triad and Precise Redefine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Exploring More 3D Sketch Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Chapter 4 • Basic Modeling Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Exploring Application Options and Settings for Part Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Specifying Global Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Specifying Document-Specific Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Creating Basic Part Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Simplifying Your Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

CONTENTS xiii

Creating a Base Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Creating a Second Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Creating a Sketch-Based Hole Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Creating a Rectangular Hole Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116Editing Sketches and Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118Repairing Features and Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Exploring the Extrude Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Extruding with Cut and Taper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Extruding with Intersect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Extruding Surfaces from Open Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Extruding Solids from Open Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Extruding with To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Extruding with To Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128Extruding with From To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Extruding Multibodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Creating Revolved Parts and Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Creating Revolved Cylindrical Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Creating Extruded Cylindrical Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Creating Threaded Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Creating Work Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Work Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Work Axes and Work Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Creating Fillets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Edge Fillets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Face Fillets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Full Round Fillets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Hole Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151Using the Thread and Clearance Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151Creating Holes in Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Setting Tolerance Values in Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Bend Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Chapter 5 • Advanced Modeling Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Creating Complex Sweeps and Lofts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Creating and Using Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Exploring Sweep Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Creating Loft Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Creating a Part Using Loft and Sculpt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Creating Multi-body Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172Creating Derived Parts and Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Creating Derived Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Deriving a Part File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Deriving an Assembly File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Modifying Derived Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Using the Component Derive Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

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Using Nonlinear-Derived Part Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Working with Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Rectangular Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182Circular Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183Patterns Along Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185Spiral Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186Pattern Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187Dynamic Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Setting Parameters and iProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192Part Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193Assembly Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Adding Part Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Setting Global File Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198Using Standard Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Troubleshooting Failures with the End-of-Part Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199Step 1: Editing the First Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200Step 2: Moving the EOP Marker Down One Feature at a Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Chapter 6 • Sheet Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Understanding Sheet-Metal Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205Getting to Know the Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Starting with a Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206Creating Flanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210Adding, Removing, or Deforming Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Using Sheet-Metal Templates and Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218What Are Sheet-Metal Rules? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218Unfolding Your Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220Working with Styles and Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Authoring and Reusing Punches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224Exploring Punches and iFeatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224Creating Successful Punches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225Using Alternate Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226Placing Your Punch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Patterning Your Punch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Working with the Flat Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228Exploring the Flat Pattern Edit Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Adding Manufacturing Information to the Flat Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Using the Flat Pattern Definition Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Manufacturing Your Flat Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Using Sheet-Metal iPart Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231Consuming Sheet-Metal Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231Using Folded and Flat Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Modeling with Non-Sheet-Metal Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232Selecting Problematic Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Using Surface-Based Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

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Working with Imported Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Setting Yourself Up for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234Converting Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Annotating Your Sheet Metal Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234Creating a View of Your Sheet-Metal Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234Adding Bend, Punch, and Flat Pattern Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Harvesting Legacy Sheet-Metal Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Parameter Indirection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239The Hidden Tools of Harvesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Chapter 7 • Part and Feature Reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Working with iParts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245Creating and Modifying iParts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246Using iParts in Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Working with iFeatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257Creating iFeatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258Creating Punch Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Reusing Existing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266Copying Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267Linking Parameters Between Two Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267Copying Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Introducing Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270Configuring Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Using Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273Customizing Content Center Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276Publishing Parts to Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Chapter 8 • Assembly Design Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Understanding Subassemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285The Power of Subassemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Top-Down Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288Developing an Efficient Assembly Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289Layout Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Adaptivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293Creating Adaptivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294Removing Adaptivity from Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

3D Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296How Constraints Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297Types of 3D Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298Motion Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301Transitional Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

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Driving Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302Redundant Constraints and Constraint Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304Contact Solver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Assembly Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305Managing the Bill of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Parts-Level BOM Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306Assembly-Level BOM Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Assembly Reuse and Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313Copying Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313Using Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315Using iAssemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Chapter 9 • Large Assembly Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Selecting a Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327Physical Memory vs. Virtual Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32764-bit Systems vs. 32-bit Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Working with Performance Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331Working with Drawing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331Working with Model Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Working with General Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335Working with System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Large Assembly Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Working with the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Reducing Assembly Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Opening the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345Working with Large Assembly Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Managing Assembly Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348LOD Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348Substitute LODs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350Subassembly LODs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Simplifying Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354Removing or Suppressing Unneeded Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354Working with Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Chapter 10 • Weldment Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Exploring Weldment Design Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359Modeling Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362Exploring Cosmetic Welds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Creating Weld Beads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367Creating Fillet Welds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Creating Intermittent Fillet Welds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371Creating Groove Welds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

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Performing Machining Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375Exploring Weld Properties and Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Weld Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Groove and Fillet Weld Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Split Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Using the Weld Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380Understanding Bead Property Report and Mass Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381Creating Drawing Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Weldment Design Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383End Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Drawing Weld Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386Caterpillar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Generating a Bill of Materials and Parts List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Chapter 11 • Functional Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Geometric Modeling vs. Functional Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391A General Introduction to Design Accelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Design Accelerators Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393Design Accelerators Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394Design Generators and Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Bolted Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399Calculators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Gear Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408Key Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411Shaft Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414Cam Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420Spring Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Chapter 12 • Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Working in the Presentation Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431Creating a Basic Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431Creating Advanced Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Using the Drawing Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439Creating Templates and Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440Utilizing Drawing Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441Editing Styles and Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453Creating Drawing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459Annotating Part Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471Annotating Assembly Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490Working with Sheet-Metal Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497Working with Weldment Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501Working with iParts and iAssembly Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

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Sharing Your Drawing Outside Your Workgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Chapter 13 • Inventor Tools Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Exploring the AEC Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507Model Simplification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507Model Authoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508Model Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Using AutoLimits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510Creating AutoLimits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512Editing AutoLimits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

Using the Design Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515Using the Find Files Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517Using the Where Used Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518Renaming, Copying, and Replacing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519Using Pack And Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Using the Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523Using Style Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Using the Style Library Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524Using the Style Management Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Exploring the Supplier Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528Using the Task Scheduler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Creating a Task for Migrating Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530Performing Sequential Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532Performing Custom Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532Tweaking Multiprocess Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532Publishing DWF Files and Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Using iProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533Copying iProperties to Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535Creating Expressions with iProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536Working with the DA and iProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537Creating Design Property Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Using the Measure Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539Using Measurement Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539Measuring in Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

Participating in the CIP and CER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Participating in the CIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Participating in CER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Using Miscellaneous Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542Using the Autodesk Multi-Sheet Plot Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542Using the Add-In Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542Using the Project Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Chapter 14 • Exchanging Data with Other Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Importing and Exporting Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

CONTENTS xix

DWG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546Mechanical Desktop (MDT) DWG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549STEP and IGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550SAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Using Inventor File Translators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555CATIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556Pro/ENGINEER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557Unigraphics and Parasolids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558SolidWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560IDF Board Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561Placing Components from Other CAD Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Working with Imported Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562Working in the Construction Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562Editing Imported Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

Viewing DWF Markup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568Publishing a DWF or DWFx File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568Reviewing and Marking Up DWF and DWFx Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570Accessing DWF or DWFx Markups in Inventor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

Chapter 15 • Frame Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Accessing the Frame Generator Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573Exploring the Frame Generator File Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574Exploring the Anatomy of a Frame Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575Inserting Frame Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

Specifying a Structural Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576Changing the Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577Selecting Placement Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579Aligning Frame Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

Adding End Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584Miter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584Trim to Frame Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585Trim and Extend to Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586Notch Frame Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588Lengthen–Shorten Frame Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Maintaining Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Remove End Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Frame Member Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Refresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Performing Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Model Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Beam Calculation Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592Beam Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595Column Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596HTML Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Publishing Frame Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

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Authoring a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597Publishing a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Frame Assemblies and BOMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

Chapter 16 • Inventor Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Exploring the Inventor Studio Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603Creating and Managing Studio Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604

Exploring the Surface Styles Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605Exploring Lighting and Lighting Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611Exploring the Scene Styles Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617Composing and Rendering Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

Animating with Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626Using Animation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626Using Video Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635Rendering Video or Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

Chapter 17 • Stress Analysis and Dynamic Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

Introduction to Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641Conducting Stress Analysis Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

Static Stress vs. Modal Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642Simplifying Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643Specifying Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643Applying Simulation Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644Applying Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645Specifying Contact Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647Generating a Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649Running the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651Interpreting the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651Using the Result, Scaling, Display, and Report Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652Conducting Parameter Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

Conducting Dynamic Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657Working with Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657More on Working with Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661Working with Redundancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662Working with Environmental Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662Running a Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668

Exporting to FEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671Using the Dynamic Simulation Information in Stress Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673

Chapter 18 • Routed Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Tube and Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675Understanding Routes, Runs, and Assembly Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675Exploring the Tube and Pipe Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677

CONTENTS xxi

Placing Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682Creating Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682Exporting ISOGEN Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

Cable and Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685Creating and Placing Electrical Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686Creating a Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689Placing Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690Using the Cable And Harness Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692Placing Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693Placing and Editing Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694Copying Cable and Harness Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697Creating Nailboard Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699

Chapter 19 • Plastics Design Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

Using Plastic Part Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701Creating Thicken/Offset Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702Creating Shell Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703Creating Split Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704Creating Grill Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705Creating Rule Fillet Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707Creating Rest Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708Creating Boss Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710Creating Lip and Groove Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712Creating Snap Fit Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713Creating Rib and Web Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715Creating Draft Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

Appendix A • The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Chapter 1: Inventor Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721Chapter 2: Data and Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722Chapter 3: Sketch Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724Chapter 4: Basic Modeling Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725Chapter 5: Advanced Modeling Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727Chapter 6: Sheet Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729Chapter 7: Part and Feature Reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731Chapter 8: Assembly Design Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733Chapter 9: Large Assembly Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734Chapter 10: Weldment Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735Chapter 11: Functional Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736Chapter 12: Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737Chapter 13: Inventor Tools Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738Chapter 14: Exchanging Data with Other Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740Chapter 15: Frame Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741Chapter 16: Inventor Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

xxii CONTENTS

Chapter 17: Stress Analysis and Dynamic Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746Chapter 18: Routed Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747Chapter 19: Plastics Design Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

Appendix B • About the Companion DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

What You’ll Find on the DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751PDF of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751Adobe Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751Tutorial Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752Inventor 2010 Video Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752iProp Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752Make Transparent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752FeatureRename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752Using the DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Customer Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755

Introduction

Autodesk Inventor was introduced in 1999 as an ambitious 3D parametric modeler based noton the familiar AutoCAD programming architecture but instead on a separate foundation thatwould provide the room needed to grow into the fully featured modeler it now is, a decade later.Inventor 2010 continues the development of Inventor with assembly layout, plastic parts, andother productivity tools.

The maturity of the Inventor tools coincides with the advancement of the CAD market’sadoption of 3D parametric modelers as a primary design tool. And although it is important tounderstand that 2D CAD will likely never completely disappear from the majority of manufactur-ing design departments, 3D design will increasingly become a requirement for most. With this inmind, we have set out to fill the following pages with detailed information on the specifics of thetools, while addressing the principles of sound parametric design techniques.

Who Should Read This BookThis book is written with a wide range of Inventor users in mind, varying from beginning toadvanced users:

◆ Beginning Inventor users who are making the move from traditional 2D CAD design toInventor 2010. These readers will have experience with AutoCAD and an understandingof basic design and engineering concepts, as well as a desire to improve their skill set andstay competitive in the marketplace.

◆ Intermediate Inventor users who have gone through formal Inventor training during theircompany’s initial implementation of Inventor and are looking for more information on aspecific module within Inventor. This book also targets users looking for a desktop refer-ence to turn to when they come upon an area of Inventor that they do not encounter on aday-to-day basis.

◆ Advanced Inventor users who have mastered the Inventor tools they use over and overdaily but want to conquer the parts of the program they do not utilize during their normaldesign tasks. This book also targets advanced users who want to add to their skill set tomove up the ranks within their current company or want to expand their knowledge inpursuit of a new position with another employer.

Attempting to learn all the tools in Inventor can be an intimidating experience, because of thewide range of task-specific modules available. It was the goal of this book’s authors to separatethese modules into easy-to-tackle chapters relating to real-world situations for which the toolswere designed, while also including chapters on general Inventor tools, techniques, and designprinciples.

xxiv INTRODUCTION

What you will learn The following pages will explain the Inventor settings while teachingyou how each tool functions. Just as importantly, though, these pages are filled with the tipsand techniques learned by the authors while spending years using, researching, and discussingthe tools that are Autodesk Inventor. You should come away from reading this book with asolid understanding of the capabilities of Inventor and a strong idea of how to tackle yourdesign challenges in the future, as well as an abundance of timesaving tips and tricks.

What you will need The files needed to complete the tutorial projects in this book areincluded on a DVD. Please consult Appendix B, ‘‘About the Companion DVD,’’ for moreinformation on getting these installed.

To install and run Inventor, you should consult the system requirements information found onthe installation media and ensure that you have a system capable of running Inventor competently.Autodesk recommends a minimum of 512MB of RAM and 1.5GB of available hard disk space forbasic educational purposes dealing with small tutorial-sized assemblies. An additional 1.8GB ofhard disk space is required to install Content Center. Note that these are the bare minimums torun the program, and you might see slow performance when executing operations that requireheavy calculations.

We recommend a minimum of 2GB of RAM for doing production work on moderate-sizedassemblies and encourage you to consider a 64-bit operating system with at least 8GB of RAM ifconsidering large assembly design. You can find more information about workstations specs andlarge assemblies in Chapter 9.

The Mastering SeriesThe Mastering series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers with intermediateand advanced skills in the form of top-notch training and development for those already workingin their field as well as clear, serious education for those aspiring to become pros. Every Masteringbook includes the following:

◆ Real-world scenarios, ranging from case studies to interviews, that show how the tool,technique, or knowledge presented is applied in actual practice

◆ Skill-based instruction, with chapters organized around real tasks rather than abstract con-cepts or subjects

◆ Self-review test questions, so you can be certain you’re equipped to do the job right

What Is Covered in This BookThis is what the book covers:

◆ Chapter 1, ‘‘Inventor Design Philosophy,’’ covers how to design the ‘‘Inventor way’’ whentransitioning from other 2D or 3D design applications.

◆ Chapter 2, ‘‘Data and Projects,’’ examines file structures and search paths and explainsproject file types and configurations.

◆ Chapter 3, ‘‘Sketch Techniques,’’ explores the principles of creating parameter-drivensketches for use in modeling features and parts.

◆ Chapter 4, ‘‘Basic Modeling Techniques,’’ conquers creating parametric features and build-ing 3D parts models.

INTRODUCTION xxv

◆ Chapter 5, ‘‘Advanced Modeling Techniques,’’ explores complex feature creation includingsweeps, lofts, and more.

◆ Chapter 6, ‘‘Sheet Metal,’’ covers how to create accurate sheet-metal models and flat pat-terns as well as how to create documentation and set up sheet metal styles and templates.

◆ Chapter 7, ‘‘Part and Feature Reuse,’’ examines the different methods for reusing parts andfeatures for maximum consistency and design efficiency.

◆ Chapter 8, ‘‘Assembly Design Workflows,’’ covers a thorough understanding of this keyconcept of Inventor design, including the use of assembly constraints, subassemblies, andmore.

◆ Chapter 9, ‘‘Large Assembly Strategies,’’ explores the tips and techniques to getting thebest performance out of your Inventor workstation and considers upgrade requirementsfor the future.

◆ Chapter 10, ‘‘Weldment Design,’’ explores Inventor’s weldment modeling environmentand the weldment documentation tools.

◆ Chapter 11, ‘‘Functional Design,’’ gives you a thorough look at this collection of Inventordesign accelerators and considers the difference between standard modeling and func-tional design.

◆ Chapter 12, ‘‘Documentation,’’ covers how to use the Drawing Manager and presenta-tion files to create both traditional, 2D annotated drawings as well as animated assemblyinstructions.

◆ Chapter 13, ‘‘Inventor Tools Overview,’’ examines this collection of Inventor utilitiesincluding AutoLimits, the Design Assistant, the Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard, styletools, and much more.

◆ Chapter 14, ‘‘Exchanging Data with Other Systems,’’ shows the available options forimporting and working with solid models from other CAD packages.

◆ Chapter 15, ‘‘Frame Generator,’’ covers how to get the most out of this utility when creat-ing structural frames from Inventor’s library of common shapes.

◆ Chapter 16, ‘‘Inventor Studio,’’ covers this powerful tool set to create photorealistic imagesand animations of all your Inventor models.

◆ Chapter 17, ‘‘Stress Analysis and Dynamic Simulation,’’ explores the simulation tools usedto analyze load stress and mechanism motion on your models.

◆ Chapter 18, ‘‘Routed Systems,’’ covers the cable and wire harness and tube and pipe envi-ronments and their uses in creating routed design layouts.

◆ Chapter 19, ‘‘Plastics Design Features,’’ explores the tools used specifically for plasticsdesign as well as the general tools used in specific ways for plastics design.

How to Contact the AuthorsWe welcome your feedback concerning Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2010. We want to hearwhat you liked, what you didn’t, and what you think should be in the next edition. Andif you catch us making a mistake, please tell us so that we can fix it on our errata page

xxvi INTRODUCTION

(available at www.sybex.com/go/masteringinventor2010) and in reprints. Please email us atinventormasters@gmail.com or contact Wiley customer service at http://support.wiley.com.

Thank you for purchasing Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2010; we hope it helps you on yourway to happy and successful inventing, and we look forward to hearing your comments andquestions.

Chapter 1

Inventor Design Philosophy

In this chapter, we will introduce the concept of design the ‘‘Inventor way,’’ recognizing that manyusers of Autodesk Inventor are transitioning from the 2D world of AutoCAD or from one of themany other 3D modeling packages available today.

The change is not painful, provided you fully understand the concepts and workflows in creat-ing efficient, accurate models and drawings.

In this chapter, you’ll learn to:

◆ Use the Ribbon bar in Autodesk Inventor

◆ Utilize the Inventor Model browser

◆ Understand the various file types used in Inventor

◆ Understand basic principles of parametric design

◆ Understand the differences between solid and surface modeling

◆ Develop best practices for using Autodesk Inventor

Moving from the AutoCAD EnvironmentTo the experienced AutoCAD user, Inventor may seem extremely foreign and difficult to use.In actuality, Inventor is much simpler to learn and use than AutoCAD. The key to grasping theconcepts of part creation in Inventor is to set aside the methods of AutoCAD design and embracea new and more powerful way to approach computer-aided design.

AutoCAD was developed as a general-purpose drafting tool. Although there have been manyenhancements over the years, it is still basically an electronic drafting board.

Inventor was developed as a mechanical design tool. In Inventor, you focus on creating amodel of your design. Just like a machine is made of parts and assemblies, you create parts andassemblies in Inventor.

Many commands in AutoCAD are very specific. For example, there are different dimensioncommands for lines, angles, and circles. Inventor has only one general dimension tool that createsthe appropriate dimension based on what you select.

At the top of Figure 1.1 is the 2D Sketch tab that you use to create and dimension the sketchprofiles. Upon the completion of a sketch, simply right-click and then choose Finish Sketch inorder to allow the creation of a part feature. Once you do this, the Ribbon automatically switchesto the Model tab, as shown at the bottom of Figure 1.1.

When working with assemblies, the tool tab changes to the Assemble tab (as shown at the topof Figure 1.2). When you create a 2D drawing of parts or assemblies, you see the Place Views tab,as shown at the bottom of Figure 1.2.

2 CHAPTER 1 INVENTOR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

Figure 1.1

Top: the 2D Sketch tab;bottom: the Model tab

Figure 1.2

Top: the Assemble tab;bottom: the DrawingViews tab

As you can see, the tabs on the Ribbon change with every environment. With a task-based userinterface, there is no need to display every possible tool.

Using the Inventor Graphical InterfaceThe Inventor graphical interface might be different from what you’re used to in AutoCAD. InFigure 1.3, you can explore the entire Inventor window, which shows an assembly file open forediting.

Figure 1.3

The complete Inven-tor screen in assemblymode