Once Slice (Graphics) at a Time.

Earlier in the week, I was working with some users. and on a fluke, I showed the 'Slice Graphics' tool.

I was surprised at how few of the users knew it was there. After all, I've known about it since I started on Inventor back on Release 4, right?

It was certainly not the fault of the users. They were experienced users who had been using all manner of CAD software for years.

How did they miss it? They had never known to look for it, and nobody had thought to show them.

A classic the users who know it assume everyone knows it, and the users who don't know it, don't know to look for it.

So without further delay, here's where the slice graphics tool is.

First you'll need to be in a part file, and have a sketch active.

Here I've got a part athat I'm going to create a groove on the inside face. I've already created a sketch plane down the middle of the part.


You can already see that the sketch plane runs through the middle of the part, and that trying to sketch the groove is going to be tricky.

I could switch to a wireframe view, but that's not really the point of the exercise! Aside from that, it may not always grant you the detail you need.

So instead, while the sketch is active, I'm going to right click, and choose 'Slice Graphics' from the context menu. Remember that if you don't see the option come up, make sure you don't have any geometry active, or that there isn't a tool (like dimension) still active.

Also note that the hot key for this is 'F7'


Choose the selection, and the part will be 'virtually' cut. Inventor doesn't actually cut the material away, it's purely a graphical. But it does let you see the inside of the part you're working on.


Now, you can use the 'Project Cut Edges' tool to project the silhouette of the part onto your sketch plane.

You'll find it on the Sketch Tab, indicated below. Notice the projected edges already shown below.


Now sketching, dimensioning, and constraining is conducted the same as you would in any other sketch.


In this case, we finish with a Revolve. And our groove is created. The slice will automatically 'Turn off' when the revolution is complete.




And that's it! Happy Inventing! Happy Memorial Day!

And thanks to Dad for all the years as air crew in the Navy. You earned that retirement.

New from the (Autodesk) Labs

Just a quick blog to show that Autodesk issued a new iCopy tool for on Autodesk Labs here:

iCopy on Autodesk Labs

I haven't had a chance to play much with it yet, but it looks like it could be a fine addition to the team!

As for me and my weekend. It was another great weekend at the Chino Airshow watching the warbirds take to the sky again.

I still think the sound of a P-51 Mustang running at full power is one of the sweetest mechanical sounds you'll ever hear!

Keeping Tabs on your.... Tabs (Inventor Release 2010)

As I've worked with Inventor, I've come to like the new 'Ribbon' interface. It can be challenging, but the more I use it, the more I like it.



One little trick I've found comes in handy when you have multiple files open.

If you right click on a tab, you can quickly access save and i-property options (among other options), without switching files. Nice for quickly saving a file, or copying and pasting I-properties!



Simple, but elegant!

In other news, we got our Space Pilot Pro for evaluation. Here's some pictures of it, and

And if you happen to make it to the Autodesk Launch Event tomorrow, look me up! I'll be there!

Finding my (Material) Type

It's getting late here in Southern California, and it's almost time for me to hit the sack, but before I do, just a little Showcase tip on a tool that's quickly become a favorite for me.

The tool (insert drum roll) : Select by material:

It's a fairly simple tool that will let you quickly change several items with one material assigned to anotehr material.

Let's start with this car as an example. I want to change the material on the body panels from one type to another. In particular, I want to change the color from red to a dark blue.



Sure, I could choose each panel individually, and select it by left clicking and holding down the shift key, but that' means a lot of different mouse clicks, plus the rotation to get to the panels on the other side of the car.

Tedious, to say the least.

But, there's another option. The body panels are all one particular material, and when this is the case, Showcase gives me a tool to speed the process up.

First, I choose one area (in this case a panel), and right click on it.

When the right click menu comes up, I choose 'Select All Objects with this Material'.


Once this is done, all objects with that material will highlight.



Once the objects are selected, you can bring up your materials tree by hitting the 'M' key.


I'll choose 'Blue Dark' as my color, and I can change all the materials (in this case Red) to another color (Blue Dark) at once.



It can expedite things quite a bit. And, while it grabs all materials of a given type, you can also use Ctrl + Left Click to deselect objects you don't want, and Shift + Left Click to add to your selection. This will let you fine tune the selection to get what you need.

At a little pizazz, such as tilts and a 'rakish' camera angle, and you're ready to go!



I know in the renderings I've been doing, it's a real time save for me.

Enjoy everyone!

Autodesk Showcase Viewer. Sharing Your Creations

My work with Autodesk Showcase has definitely immersed me in the presentation world. But as I've gone deeper into the artistic world, I'm learning more every day.

But there's been one question that comes up from time to time. "Is there a way that I can share my renderings with someone else? Or "How can someone else view my Showcase work?"

Of course you can save out files in an image format, such as a *.jpg, but that doesn't take full advantage of what Showcase can do.

So you might ask yourself, "Wouldn't it be great if there was a free viewer?"

And I'd respond, "I'm glad you asked! There's a free viewer available!"

You can download it HERE along with sample scenes. The viewer will let you rotate, change between alternatives, etc. You just can't edit the scene itself.

Perfect for taking your presentation on the road where a full seat of Showcase isn't needed!

And it's just cool to play with. ;-)

Here's a couple of screen captures from a sample scene from the site above. If you download the viewer, this is one of four scenes you can paly with.





That's it for now!

Jon
Out of work? Look for the Autodesk Assistance Program for help with free software and training.

Inventor RIbbons. That's Great! Now How Do I Use It?

The new Ribbon UI has been the source of some discussion. Is it good or bad. I'm sure there are a lot of opinions on the subject. The old interface has been around since at least R4 (when I started), and I'm all but certain goes back even sooner.

The opinions are varied, but speaking for myself, I like the new toolbar. I like the extra room it gives me for my model browser, and as I'm getting used to it, I find that I'm moving through the commands faster.

But, no matter what side of the discussion you're on, there's no denying that there's a learning curve.

Fortunatley, there's a 'Command Locator' that will help us find the new commands on the new Ribbon UI. Here's a video on how you can use it.


I'd recommend giving the UI a fair chance. I think once that initial learning curve is over, you'll come to like it.

If you do prefer the original UI, then not to fear, it's still available. Check out my older blog HERE on how to set it back!

Happy Inventing!

Out of work? Check out the Autodesk Assistance Program HERE for help with training and software to hone your skills.

Filling the Void. New Inventor R2010 Fillet Welds.

I've been aching for a chance to work on Camtasia again, and hears a bit of a new test. I wanted to show a new feature in weldments, the ability to fill a gap using the fillet weld.

So instead of taking screen captures and doing a lot of typing, I created a video and embedded it here. I hope this little tip is helpful! I'm hoping to get some more out in the future!



In other news! 3D Connexion announced the new Spacepilot Pro! a little on the pricey side, I gotta admit, but they're pretty cool!

You can check them out on the 3D Connexion website HERE! I especially like the new color screen. :-)

Happy Inventing everyone!

That's What Friends are For

With all the what's new in Inventor R2010, there's been a lot to keep track of. Definitely more than little ol' me can keep up with and post! Believe me, I've been trying.

Thankfully, there's more than myself just taking this plunge.

So I've pasted some links for some videos that the team has put together. I've watched some of them, (and even conducted one myself). Just watching my colleagues put up these recordings has taught me a ton!

Thanks to Mike and Javier! And thanks to Kanwar for being our narrator!

Inventor R2010 - What's New

Vault Workgroup R2010

Inventor R2010 - What's New + Sheet Metal

Note that we used gotowebinar to record this, and you may need to download and install their codec to see the videos.

You can get that HERE.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

(Ray)Tracing your progress

Not to sound like a broken record, but it's been busy as I crash course myself on Inventor and Showcase R2010. As a result, my blogs have been a little weak.

Nevertheless, here's a Showcase 2010 tip.

As I continue on my Showcase Adventures, I've learned a TON of things about creating compelling images. I have to thank all those who've taken time out of their day to teach me. I wouldn't be as far as I am without them.

Mostly, I've learned how far I have to go. :-)

One of the things I've been working with lately is ray tracing. If you're not familiar with what raytracing is, it's the process of 'tracing rays' (well 'duh'!). In essence, you're tracing the rays of light as they bounce from one object to another.

In this process, you'll see things like objects reflecting in other objects, and refraction of light passing through glass or another transparent material.

You can toggle it on or off by hitting 'R' on the keyboard.

But there's been a challenge in Ray Tracing that R2010 addresses.

When you raytrace in R2009, there's no way to tell if the ray tracing has finished it's calculation other than just your eye. Which, isn't always the best. Since raytracing can take a few minutes to calculate, a way of being able to tell when ray tracing is finished would be great!

In R2010, you can hit 'Y', or go to View>Ray Tracing Control Panel to turn on the control panel.

Here's an image that shows where to get it!


Here's a Hardware (standard) rendering image for comparison. Note that in this image, you can't see the reflection of the side view mirror in the fender (like you can in the Ray Traced image above).

Happy start to the new week!

Looking for a job? The checkout the Autodesk Assistance Program HERE for free educational software and training to keep your skills sharp and up to date!

Sometimes, it really is that cool!

Thanks to Shaun Hurley for Twittering this little reminder!

The show on the Discovery Channel, Doing DaVinci, has designers recreating Leonardo DaVinci's designs. If you catch the show, they're using Inventor to help recreate the designs! Probably not fair to Leonardo, but you have to admit, if he could, he probably would have used a 3D modeler to design his machines too.

You can read about Autodesk's participation Here.

You can also see the first episode on the Discovery Channel Website Here.

Happy Inventing!

P.S. If you're one of the many who've found yourself looking for work, the Autodesk Assistance Program can help you sharpen your design skills.

Get a free educational software license, as well as online training, and training assistance Here.

There's a Funny Icon in My Assembly Browser

It's been a little hectic of late with the new R2010 products. As with every year, there's a ton of stuff to learn.

But I found something in the category I call 'subtle, but significant'.

While working on a project, I noticed that one of my mate icons looked different.



My curiosity got the best of me, and I had to see what this little guy did.

It turns out that we've got a new mate icon that specifically identifies a mate axis, and differentiates it from one of the other mates.


Is it a huge earth shaking, revolutionary change? Probably not. But it's a nice little improvement that just makes things move along a little more smoothly.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Inventor R2010 - Ribbons! We Don't Want No Stinkin' Ribbons!

So now we're sitting with Inventor R2010, and the first thing you'll likely notice is the interface. I refer to it as 'Vista-ized', since with Windows Vista, we started seen the ribbons in Microsoft Office.

Last year AutoCAD went to this format in R2009. Even Snagit, which I use to take the screen captures you seen in this blog has gone to the ribbon.

Now, it's Inventor's turn.

For my part, I like the ribbon. I've gotten used to it, and once I got over that hump, it liked what they did. But for me to say that I didn't struggle with a learning curve would definitely be an exaggeration.

So if we need to go back to the 'Classic UI', here's how you do it.

First, bring up your Application Options

Now you'll see you applications screen, which is much like the same old one we saw before. Switch to the colors tab, and change from 'Ribbon UI' to 'Classic UI'.

Once you hit either 'Apply' or 'Close', Inventor will prompt you to close and restart.

Once you restart, Inventor R2010 will open up in the same layout we're used to seeing. Once you're ready to switch to the new interface, just repeat the steps and you can return to the Ribbon UI.

Enjoy everyone!

2010 is here (at least for Inventor)

I take a week off in Mammoth and what happens! Inventor 2010 ships when I get back. But, in a lot of ways, it's like Christmas in March for geeks like me! :-)

I haven't had a chance to start playing around with it like I want to, but believe me, I'll be installing it as soon as I get my little hands on it!

You can start reading up HERE!

Look for some what's new posts soon.

As for me, I almost got snowed in at Mammoth! Here's a picture of my truck shortly before I started digging it out.

I also need to extend a thanks to Giro. I took one heck of a wallop on my (helmeted by Giro) head. Rung my bell enough to give me a 2 day headache and send me to the doctor for a checkup.

Fortunately, they said I'll be fine (at least what qualifies for me as fine)!

All I can say is that I just became the worlds biggest fan of Snowboard helmets!

Here's one more picture. It's me at the Mammoth Summit. It's 11,053 ft. Trust me, I got winded putting my bindings on!

Showcase and Mammoth Mountain..

So here I am at Mammoth Mountain. I'm relaxing and getting ready for my first day of snowboarding.

And yes, I'm blogging. Just tally that one up to being a geek.

Here's a quick tip before I cash in for the night.

This week I did a lot of work on Showcase, so here's a quick reference on Showcase.

I decided to share one of the tricks, but, since I'm in Mammoth, and I'm going to be vacationing. This is just a quick one.

Using Handles on a part.

When you have a part in Showcase, you can translate, rotate, and scale the part inside Showcase. See in the picture below I've selected a part, then hit the 'H' key to display the handles.

By using the handles, you can perform several actions on the part.

1) Click and drag along X,Y,Z arrows on the handles to translate.

2) Click and drag on the curved heads to rotate

3) Click and drag on the box next to the X,Y,Z arrows to scale allong that axis.

4) Click and drag on the center box to scale universally

5) Click ang drag on the plane to translate on that plane.


If you click on the head of one of the arrows (translation or rotation), you'll also get a dialog box that lets you enter a value.



That's the big stuff right now. I may post a picture or two from the trip up here. Just because this is one of my favorite places to visit.

Happy Inventing, while I'm vacationing I may post a picture or two of what's up here in Mammoth. It's definitely one of my favorite places to be!

(I) Logically Speaking, it Makes Sense

Lately, one of my treks through the Inventor world has been into iLogic, the rules based functionality that Autodesk rolled out to Inventor subscription customers.

It's been a very unique experience, mostly because it's been entirely brand new.

For those of us who aren't familiar with iLogic, picture being able to enforce rules and automate with simple lines of code. It's a way of capturing knowledge that extends beyond the dimensions and constraints of the model.

As I've been practicing, I created a quick example.

I just built a small part with threaded holes, and a matching pattern. I'm going to write some iLogic code that alternates suppressing the threaded and clearance holes together. However, we'll change it by selecting a pulldown from the iLogic parameters screen.

Here's our starting point. If you click on the picture, you can see the clearance and threaded holes (I renamed the features. This will help me in writing the code later).

First, click on the 'Parameters' button on the iLogic toolbar.

This is what the Parameters screen will look like initially.

Create a parameter named Hole_Type, use the pulldown (circled) to make the parameter a string, check the 'Key' check box, and finally, right click and choose 'Multi-Value' (this makes the parameter a list of selections).

Once the parameter is set to 'Multi-Value', a second parameter comes up. Type in the Clearance_Holes, and Threaded_Holes into the screen and click 'Add'. You can type as many entries as you need, but for the sake of simplicity, I'm only using two.

I hit 'OK', and the box closes. We'll use this later. Now I click on 'Add Rule'. I chose to name mine 'Hole Suppression'. Hit 'OK' to close this particular rule.

.

Now, we get down to the real business of iLogic, writing the code that controls the features. The code is written in the area indicated, and the 'Rules Syntax' tab provides a wizard to help you with the syntax of the commands.

Here's a the code I created. You can type it, double click on code in the 'Rules Syntax' area, use the buttons at the bottom of the screen, or use any combination of the three. If you have a line of code that's already similar, you can even use copy and paste commands.

The code in the window controls the suppression. Here's a quick key of what the code does.

If Hole_Type = "Threaded_Holes" Then ==> If the mutli-value is set to "Threaded_Holes" then...

Feature.IsActive("Threaded_Hole") = True
Feature.IsActive("Thread_Pattern") = True
Feature.IsActive("Clearance") = False
Feature.IsActive("Clearance_Pattern") = False ==> This code sets the Threaded Holes to calculate, but suppresses the clearance holes

Elseif Hole_Type = "Clearance_Holes" Then ==> States that if the 'Hole_Type' Parameter is set to "Clearance_Holes" Then..

Feature.IsActive("Threaded_Hole") = False Feature.IsActive("Thread_Pattern") = False Feature.IsActive("Clearance") = True Feature.IsActive("Clearance_Pattern") = True ==> This group of code inverts the previous section. This is a great place to use that copy and paste I was talking about!

End If Tells iLogic we've got all the selections we need.

With that finished, we can return to the iLogic parameters and change our multi-value settings. Now the rule controls the selection.

One final note. The first thing you might say (as a matter of fact, I did too), is 'I can use I-parts for that'. You'd be right of course. I-parts can do exactly this. So why go throught he effort of writing this code, even if it is simple?

I think this really comes into play for templates. IYou can easily create new parts from these, and not have to worry about things like proxy files that I-parts require. iLogic grants a level of flexibilty that I-parts aren't able to easily achieve, especially when the configurations get more complex.

Don't get me wrong, I think I-parts are a great tool. For things like library parts, I think they're a great solution, and I'll happily use them in that capacity.

So that's the first in many things. Look for more info as I go deeper into this, and my other, worlds.

More on Filters! Making Selections Easier.

Just this Friday, someone asked me how you could quickly edit a part in a sub assembly without going through the multiple edits required to get to edit the sub, then the part, then the feature, etc.

As a result, I created this video showing an example of how it might work.

I hope everyone finds it helpful.

Bear with me, I've now upgraded to Camtasia for videos. So far, it's proven to be a great tool, but I have a ton to learn about it!

How Do You Like Your Part List? Filtered, or Unfiltered?

Things have been busy lately. There are days that I feel like I should put that in the fine print. But then again, I don't have any fine print. :-)

This time, I thought I'd mention something that's new to Inventor 2009, but may still not have received the fame it deserves.

Parts list filters.

The part list filters (like their name implies) filters the items visible in the parts list by the following criteria:

• Assembly View Representation (Design views for those of us who remember that far)
  
• Ballooned Items Only
  
• Item Number Range
  
• Purchased Items (Designated in the Assembly BOM)
  
• Standard Content (i.e. Content Center Components)
  

For this example, I'm going to use the 'Ballooned Items Only' option.

At the start, I have the parts list placed on our sheet. I've ballooned the parts I want to show on this view and placed my parts list.

But the parts list shows all the components in this assembly, and while this may be desirable in some circumstances. This isn't one of those cases.

In order to rectify this efficiently, I'm going to right click on my parts list, and choose the 'Edit Parts List' option.

Once in the parts list, choose the Filter Settings button.

The Filters Settings dialog box pops up, and now you can choose your options, and set your filter. Click the green check to commit it, or the red 'X' to remove it (in case you make a mistake). For this case, I'm choosing Ballooned Items.

Once the options are selected, choose OK and close the box down.

While still in the part list editor, you can already see the effect of the filter.

Hit OK again, and the parts list will update to reflect the filters you've created. That's it!

P.S. if you add a new balloon, the part list will update automatically to add the item you've ballooned.

In other news. The first announcements for what's new in the Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions has arrived. Click here to check it out!

Happy Inventing!