Do You Notice a Draft? - New Drafting Tools in Autodesk Inventor 2012

“I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add.”
Gore Vidal

When there's a new release of Inventor, there are always the big, flashy items that go to the top of the list.

The Marking Menus, where the buzz is at!

For Autodesk Inventor 2012, marking menus seem to be the thing that has everyone buzzing. 

But sometimes I like to go on a bit of a mining expedition through What's New, and see what I can find that maybe isn't so flashy, and hasn't got the community buzzing.

One of those is some new additions to the drafting tool.  Now, in Inventor 2012, you can:

• Create a draft feature using a parting line (2D or 3D sketch) to position the start of the draft.
• Use separate angle values above and below the parting line or fixed plane.
• With Automatic Face Chain enabled, faces tangent to the selected face are included in the draft.
• Automatic Blending is available for adjacent faces that blend with a fillet or other feature. Turn on Automatic Blending to maintain blended geometry.
• Direct Manipulation controls are included with the Draft command. 

Is it flashy environments with Image Based Lighting?  Is it fancy Marking Menus?  No, it's not.

But it is part of some solid additions that can really help your daily workflow!

Here's a video showing some of the new draft tool!

Enjoy!  Happy Inventing!