I don't mind sitting in the back row of an airliner. Aircraft usually don't back into a crash.
Jonathan Landeros
This weeks technical blog is pushed off a bit due to training in Chicago this week.
It's going to like "drinking from a fire hydrant" as they say, but hopefully I'll come back with my head full of ideas. Some of them may even be good ones!
Seeing colors in fall is a unique experience. We only have three fall colors in Ca. Green, Brown, & on Fire.
It's fun, but it's also stressful and nerve wracking at the same time. There's datasets to test, information to accumulate, & presentations to tweak in an all out effort to get everything down.
One of those items I was taking a look at was creating a sheet metal emboss.
The Finished Emboss
It's been a while since I visited this particular item. It seems to come up, then go away for a while. But since this particular item has returned, I decided to "make hay while the sun shined", and create a video showing how you can go about creating a punch.
So far, this is the way I've found is easiest, at least for me. Others may have ways that they've found. I hope the video below gives you some inspiration.
For me, wish me luck at AMA! My next post won't be until after Wednesday, when the event is over!
Sometimes lessons come from the most unexpected places. One of those lessons was an invaluable schooling on how sheet metal parts are made. Not out of a book, or in a video. But from an experienced hand who's been doing it for decades.
A couple of weeks ago, while working my volunteer gig at Planes of Fame in Chino, Ca. I found myself talking to the DC-3 restoration crew.
The DC-3 undergoing restoration
The DC-3 at Planes of Fame is on the road to flying again, but needs to have some work done to it.
Tony, an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic started out working on aircraft in the U.S.Navy. He's been at it so long, some of the ships he's served on are museums now.
He's studying a door gusset that's come out of the DC-3's door.
The gusset's location
The gusset after removal
"This part is finished." He remarks confidently. "See here?" He indicates the ends of the part. "It's been drilled too many times." I can see three holes in the part where one should be.
There's a few extra holes that shouldn't be there!
There's an extra one here too!
But Tony's lesson is just getting started. "We're going to have to fabricate one." His eyes narrow as he studies the part. "The part is made out of 2024-T6, but the bend radii on the flanges are too tight. If we try to use T6 from the start, the part will crack. That wouldn't be good." He smirks.
"So what's the plan?" One of the curious volunteers among us ask.
Tony closes one eye and holds the part up, studying it. "2024-0 will bend to that radius, but we can't use in an aircraft structure. It'll have to be heat treated to T6 after the fact. We'll also have to be careful about how we cut our blank. We want to make sure our flanges are oriented correctly with the metal grain."
"Sheet metal has grain?" One of us asks. (I smile inwardly. This is an answer I knew!).
"Sure does." Tony remarks. "Almost like wood. If you bend along the grain, the bend has a better chance of cracking."
The collected few of us nod. It's been quite a lesson he's taught us. The wisdom of decades of experience, passed on with a casual confidence.
"Yup." Tony smiles. "In the English Wheel for the contours, bend the flanges, we'll leave a little extra on the flanges and trim them back." He makes a casual wave of his hand. "A thing of beauty."
Why relate this story? Because in our age of computer aided calculated nonlinear numerically simulated design, it's amazing to see somebody who is a true artisan of his trade.
I consider myself to have learned a valuable lesson. A lesson I'm going to take back to my computer aided numerically simulated world.
I'm bringing back a lesson on how parts are made in the "real world". And just as importantly, I've relearned a valuable lesson that to be a good designer, you have to understand how those parts are made.
So what are my "treasured" lessons?
Sure I knew sheet metal had grain, and I knew it could affect a part. But when I was designing sheet metal, we never considered it. Now, I know more than being able to repeat "sheet metal has grain", like a trained parrot. I understand how that grain can affect a part.
Heat treating was another process I "sort of" understood. I knew that T6 materials won't make tight bends without cracking. But because my sheet metal design work was done in mild steel. I never applied that understanding. If we had a tight bend, we just avoided the material that wouldn't make that bend. I never even considered having to use annealed material, then treating it after the fact. Now that an experienced hand has explained it to me, I feel silly not having considered this myself.
I'll truly appreciate the lessons I've learned. I hope there's a few more in my future!
One of the challenges I encountered was working with the storyboard. As I was moving from step to step, creating assembly (or disassembly) steps, I encountered an issue where I wanted to move a component. That part was easy.
The hard part was that in order to select the component I wanted, I needed to zoom into to the assembly. But the snapshot remembers that I did that, and creates a rotation I don't want.
So how do I get back to my original view? I could try to "eyeball" it, and try to match it up, but that would be tedious, and I would probably never be exactly right.
Fortunately, a tool called "Extract Camera" helps with that. By using this tool, we can extract a camera view from one snapshot, and place it on the current camera.
Right click on a snapshot and choose "Extract Camera"
It's great when you need to rotate your view to see something, then match it up to another snapshot.
It wouldn't be a blog post without a video, so hears the video to go with the post!
I'm afraid this is one of those weeks that I have to push my blog back a bit. It was a pretty intense weekend building some Autodesk Inventor Publisher videos, so a quality post was a pipe dream.
The good news is I did get some ideas for my next tip! Look for it soon. I'm hoping to have something by mid week!
This week I found myself working with Autodesk Inventor Publisher again. As I worked with it, I realized that each storyboard snapshot had it's own camera view set. So as you moved through to each snapshot, the camera was constantly zooming in and out.
In some cases, I liked it. In others, it was unnecessary, unless part of my goal was to give my views motion sickness.
I also wanted to change the material on some of my snapshots, but the materials are also set per snapshot. Hmm. I didn't want to have to click through each snapshot and set the material.
How to I affect all my slides at once?
So, what to do?
With a little bit of searching, I found the solution. If you right click on your story board, you can choose the snapshots affected by your action.
Here's the little gem!
Some of the choices I've come to like are:
Choose Selected Snapshots - Be sure to use the Ctrl+Left Click, or Shift+Left Click to choose your slide)
Choose All Snapshots - The "fell swoop" option
Choose Preceding Snapshots
Choose Following Snapshots
Give them a try! I think you'll find they help a lot!
And of course, here's a video to go along with what I've described!
While enjoying the day off for Labor Day here in the United States, I got to thinking about some of the settings I change right away on a new installation in Autodesk Inventor.
One of those settings is the "Repeat Command" option in Work Features.
The default behavior for Inventor when your placing a work plane, work axis, or work point is to place the work feature, then exit the command.
While many users like that functionality, I like to stay in the command until I exit with the escape key, or by right clicking and hitting "Done".
Fortunately, Inventor allows for this. While in the Work Feature command, right click and check "Repeat Command". From that point forward, the command won't exit until you tell it to.
Repeating a Work Feature Command
It's a nice little feature, and one not everyone knows about!
When working in an assembly, one of the tricky things can be trying to pick a narrow edge when using the mate constraint. Murphy's Law grabs you by the lapels, then shakes vigorously like a bartender shaking a martini.
You can pick every edge, sketch line, and point, but never get the face you want. If you're on your forth cup of coffee, you probably can't even hold your hand still enough to use the "Select Other" tool.
So now what? You could zoom in to the part so closely you feel like your reenacting the "extreme closeup" scene from Wayne's World. But that can get a little irritating.
You could hold your breath, grab your mouse hand by the wrist, and stick your tongue out the corner of your mouth until you can steady yourself enough to make the pick. But that just looks silly.
Or you could learn this trick I picked up from somewhere in my past. I wish I could tell you who showed it too me, but that recollection has fallen to the fog of Autodesk Universities past.
What's the trick? Instead of using Mate, choose Flush first. Why? Flush sees ONLY faces. It doesn't pick edges, points, or sketches. Only faces. Once you have your faces selected, switch back to Mate.
It's like it's own filter!
Using Flush to filter faces. Try saying that 5 times fast!
Give it a try. It's pretty quick, simple, elegant, and a lot easier than you might think.
Plus, you don't have to cut back on your coffee intake!
Then in the last few weeks, I've been working with Autodesk Inventor Publisher, and talked about exporting video files from Inventor Publisher
Then one night, it occurred to me, and I had that moment that Gene Wilder spoke of so well.
Camtasia Studio for years. Inventor Publisher can export a video format. Why not combine the two?"
Using Techsmith's Camtasia Studio for editing my Autodesk Inventor Publisher video
So I did. Here's the result. It could definitely use some polish. But for a first try, it's not too bad (at least I think). I could probably add a few more bubbles, and tweak the narration a bit more.
Perhaps some of you out there in the "Cloud" can share some of your thoughts on how you might approach something similar?
In any case. Here's my video. Take a look, and let me know what you think!
I've got to put this weeks post off a day or so. I was fortunate enough to drive to Las Vegas for a good friends wedding, but not so lucky as to get back at a reasonable time.
Why? A see of taillights.
Why me?
The normally 4 hour drive ended up taking more like 7 hours.
So after getting home at midnight, I thought it best to save the post, and get to bed.
At long last, my next (and final, at least for now) video in my Autodesk Inventor Publisher series of videos! We're going to publish your Inventor Publisher data into "publicly" consumable format.
Those formats can be one of several. Microsoft Word documents, Adobe PDFs, Adobe Flash, Autodesk DWF formats, and even files for the Autodesk Inventor Publisher formats for iPhones, iPads, and Android mobile devices.
Example of an image Exported from Inventor Publisher
So the first thing we'll have to decide is what format is the best for the end user we want to supply. That will ultimately a decision based on the best format to send to the end user.
So far, we've seen how we can create the formats, adjust the timing of our instructions, as well as add annotations to the instructions.
In this video, we'll talk about exporting the instructions and finally get them distributed to the users who will be using them!
Another busy weekend has prevented me from putting together my next planned Inventor Publisher video. I promise to get one out as soon as I can.
I can at least see the light of day with my current projects, and I'm pretty sure it's not an oncoming train!
But on a "tangent blog", I thought I'd share an anecdote picked up from my volunteer work at Planes of Fame in Chino, Ca.
I recently began learning out to recover control surfaces in fabric. That's right. The old school cloth and fabric rudders, ailerons, and elevators.
My first assignment? Not a trip to the shop to get dirty. Start reading the manual. Get familiar with the process, so you know what we're doing, and why we do it.
After that, I finally after a couple of weeks, I got to start working on a real project. The rudder of a TBM Avenger.
The rudder of the Avenger looking from the bottom up.
The first thing I'm told before we start looking at it? "This is more art than science."
We begin working. Actually, they're doing more working, I'm doing more watching. But I'm learning the art of tugging, stretching, and; cutting the fabric to fit around the curved surfaces of the rudder.
As the project progresses, the team stands up and studies a compound curve. They discuss whether or not the material will shrink around a given bend when heated. If it should be cut instead, and if so, where it has to be cut, and how many cuts are required.
And if we cut the fabric, here, that's going to have an effect two steps down the line, so that has to be considered too.
It's an exercise in patience and planning.
So why would I put this in a blog? This is about CAD software, not about seventy year old warbirds.
I put it in here because the planning of the project is as important as the process, maybe even more important. Even the veterans of doing this have to check the manuals, stop and talk over a step in the process, and even step a way for a few minutes to pace around the hangar until inspiration comes. (These are referred to as "coffee breaks").
Starts sounding a bit like an implementation, or maybe an installation or software upgrade, doesn't it?
So that's where my observations are this week. A reaffirmation of all those times that I've wanted to charge ahead, get 'er done. All those times I've wanted to "make it happen" so we can get to happy hour and high five for a job well done.
The same rudder, a little bit closer now.
What did I learn from those guys stretching the fabric on a 70 year old Avenger's rudder? The experts know what they know, and they also know what they don't know.
Don't neglect your planning. And when you think the planning is done, self check yourself as you go forward. You never know when you may learn a better way to do things.
And on that note, here's the aircraft that rudder belongs to. This video was recorded when it flew at an event last year.
In the last big post, we saw how we could adjust timing to get our time line to show the details when we need it. Now in this post, we see how to add annotations to the post, so we can make sure we include as much key information as possible.
By using annotations, value can really be added to files you export out to the end users!
Here's the video to go with it. Happy Inventor Publishing everyone!
This weekend was a busy weekend composed of my usual volunteer gig at Planes of Fame on Saturday, and taken technical test for the new 2012 releases.
I love exams! Don't you?
So instead of forcing out my next post at this late hour and putting out something half baked, I've decided to hold it back a day or two and make sure it's up to par.
Look for the announcement on my Twitter feed, or just check the blog a little later! The next post will be on creating annotations in Autodesk Inventor Publisher!
Of course, this is the first step of many we can take. We might intend to place these in a document format for a technical manual, or perhaps create a video that can be put on the web or a mobile device.
But before we send that data to whatever it's final destination is, why don't we use the storyboard to add as much critical information as possible, as well as make sure that the assembly shows all the information it needs as it comes apart and goes together.
The Inventor Publisher Storyboard
So in this week's video, we see how to add descriptions, and adjust timing in our storyboard!
I'll admit, I always thought Autodesk Inventor Publisher was a just a "cool program". The power of being able to create documentation was impressive, but I asked myself the question, "What does it do that I can't do using presentation files?"
Trust me. Creating exploded views are just the start!
I told myself, "I'll have to look into it's capabilities later on".
Then, time marched on. I found myself working on Vault, on Inventor, on Showcase. Every once in a while, I'd stick my head up and say, "I need to get back into Inventor Publisher." Then I'd put my head back down and carry on as I had before.
Nearly a year ago, I saw a presentation on Inventor Publisher's capabilities, and I finally "got it". I understood the power of being able to create documentation directly from your 3D model. It can create in in 2D pdfs, publish to a mobile device, you can even use it to create Flash movies! I get it! I get it!
I really facepalmed myself for not seeing it sooner.
Now, at long last, I've found the time (alright I'll come clean, I made the time) to take a deep look at Inventor Publisher.
The more I use it, the more I like it.
So I've decided to create a short series on Inventor Publisher. Here's the first installment, inserting a 3D model and creating a timeline in Inventor Publisher. We're just getting started. I'm going to add more in the up coming weeks!
I just got back from my July Snowboarding Trip. That's right, July snowboarding.
Even up there, I couldn't complete stop thinking about CAD, so between runs, while sitting at the watering hole, enjoying the sun reflecting off the slushy snow, I was thinking about CAD.
I wonder if there's a support group for that....
That's me, on the 4th of July at the top of Mammoth Mountain
What I'm going to blog on today isn't exactly earth shattering. I'm talking about Autodesk Inventor Publisher Mobile viewer.
First, what is Autodesk Inventor Publisher? Inventor Publisher let's you create technical documentation, from a 2D instructions in a traditional format, or in 3D interactive formats.
If you've never seen Inventor Publisher before. Rob Cohee does a nice job describing it here.
If you've heard of Inventor Publisher, then you probably have heard of the mobile applications Autodesk Inventor Publisher Viewer, available at no charge on the Apple Store and Android Market.
Once again, I'll rely on Rob Cohee's excellent work. It would be a shame for it to go to waste, and I didn't get a chance to create my own, being on vacation and all!
Wonderful! If you have Inventor Publisher, you can publisher them to your mobile device. The Coefficient of Really Cool pegs the meter at a 9+.
But now we get to the part of the story where I thought things got interesting.
I was talking to someone about Inventor Publisher Mobile, and they stated, "I'm not giving our shop, iPads. They're too expensive and we can't afford to have them get broken."
Fair enough! I think of how long an iPad would last in the restoration hangar at Planes of Fame. Probably not long.
Could you picture an iPad or Droid plummeting to its death off the top of this Avenger? I can.
But that doesn't mean that the mobile apps are immediately not an option. How many technical folks out there have personal Android phones, iPhones, or iPads we carry around?
I'm on a Droid!
I'm on an iPad!
Sure if you make components with "some assembly required", you can make the files available on your website. But what you don't do that?
To put it simply. I told this user to keep their options open. The shop is just one place you can use the mobile applications!
What if you have someone off site, in a different facility somewhere. Maybe they aren't "on the floor", but they need a quick reference of an assembly? Perhaps they don't have Inventor Publisher itself, and dealing with your laptop's boot time is a nuisance (I've been known to put something off because I didn't feel like waiting for my laptop to boot).
Then Inventor Publisher Mobile becomes an option. It's quick and it's interactive. You can zoom in on parts and inspect the assembly operations up close.
So the morale of the story? Don't limit yourself. Inventor Publisher Mobile applications just aren't for the shop. They're for anyone who can take advantage of them!
Okay, this post didn't quite come out at the end of the week like I promised. Last week got busy, with trips to Fresno, demos, and a million other little things taking up most of my time.
So finally, here's the post I've been promising.
In my last blog post. I showed how to hide the skeleton component when using Frame Generator. In that video, I used a phantom component to do so.
A very astute reader, Piou2fois, pointed out that even though the skeleton has been made a Phantom component, it's mass is still added to the overall mass to the assembly. This can result in an erroneously high number if you're using a solid as your skeleton.
Piou2fois pointed out that by using a Reference Component instead of a Phantom component, the skeleton's mass will be removed from the calculations and you'll get an accurate result for your overall mass.
Many a blog post has been inspired by a simple question. This post is definitely one that came out of the "How can I get rid of the skeleton model used for Inventor's Frame Generator."
Since the skeleton is part, by default, Inventor counts it as a component when we use it to make a frame with Frame Generator. Every frame created using Frame Generator has one.
This leaves us with an extra part, one that Inventor uses for it's purposes, but will never exist in the real world.
Wouldn't it be great if we could make that component a "ghost" component? Maybe like a "phantom"?
I'm playing on words, Inventor does have phantom components, and just like their name implies, they're intended to help us build our assemblies, but may not be part of the "real world" design.
In short, you can edit the Bill of Materials from the Assembly tab in your Inventor assembly, and change the BOM structure there.
First, edit the Bill of Materials
Then you can change the structure
Naturally, there has to be a video to go with it. So here it is! Enjoy!
And by the way! If your new to Frame Generator, Rob Cohee has some nice videos HERE on how to use Frame generator!
This weekend I was put forth the challenge to "Build a valve from this website, then use it in an Inventor Design".
I went to the website to get the specifications, and found that the company had already published their content for you to download, which is becoming quite common these days.
The downloaded valve
So why rebuild it? I'm sure you could make a case for having full control over the model, since you decide how it's built. But then again, why spend your time, and money, building another company's part if they've already supplied it? It might take you a couple of hours to build it, when you can download it in a few minutes.
So I decided to go ahead and download the part. Then show how you can publish it to content center, straight from the website. And many times, the part has all the accuracy you need for it's proper integration in the design.
So the next time you think about building a vendor part, make sure they haven't done the heavy lifting for you.
After all, isn't good engineering about not reinventing the wheel?
Like so many of us, I'm guilty of ignoring instructions.
When I installed Autodesk Vault 2012, I used the same migration procedure I've used for the last few releases. Surely nothing could change, right?
Wrong! I used Vault quite happily for the first couple of days. Then I needed to use the Copy Design tool.
Poof! I get this new error I've never seen before.
Hello. What's this?
Projects? I need to set a default project? Since when?
I finally break down and read the directions. As your typical male. This is difficult for me. As a matter of fact, I may deny this at a later date.
Well, since the new version of Vault allowed us to enforce a default project! If I had read the directions, I would have learned that!
So what does the default project let us do? It allows us to choose a project that is going to run our Vault. It helps prevent us from having file associations get confused, as can happen when multiple project files exist in Vault, and makes sure all our users are on the the "same page" as it were.
It can be set in Tools>Administration>Vault Options
Setting the Default Project at an administrative level
Now that it's set, I like this tool. It helps me keep things more consistent, and predictable. But the first time I saw that error, it was unnerving indeed!
So what is the moral of the story! Read the directions! You'll avoid surprises!
Here's a video on my experiences with this particular function!
Last week I showed a video on how to create Positional Representations in an Autodesk Inventor Assembly. But did you know that you can also show those Positional Representations on a drawing as an overlay view?
An example of a Positional Representation Overlay on a shaded view.
It comes in handy when you need to show alternate positions, such as extended vs retracted, or open vs closed. Inventor will even create the overlay as reference lines for you, and you can dimension to either positional representation, so you can show the dimensions of each position.
It's a really hand way of bringing things full circle!
I found out that Service Pack 2 for Autodesk Inventor is out today. You can download it from the link: HERE
Installing is usually pretty easy. But there are a few things to know before you get started.
There are different Service Packs for 32 bit and 64 bit installations. Make sure you download the correct one for your operating system
Autodesk Inventor Service Pack 2 is an "Incremental Update". Translation: You'll need to download and install Service Pack 1 before installing Service Pack 2
If you've installed the Subscription Advantage Pack, there's a different Service Pack 2 for you.
Don't worry, they're all located at the same link above. It's just a matter of knowing which one to get.
If you don't know the answer to any of the above questions, you can check at at Help>About Autodesk Inventor
Finding the "About" screen
You'll see this dialog box come up, and this contains a lot of information about Inventor's current "Build".
Autodesk Inventor information screen. Note the "64 Bit" & Build Numbers
I've circled the Build Number and 64 Bit areas of my screen. These are the ones worth noting.
Are you wondering which build number corresponds to which Service Pack level? Autodesk has a tech document at the link HERE. It's a great reference to help you out.
Lastly, if you try to install the service pack, and you get this error:
This isn't as scary as it looks. Typically, the "Wrong Version" or "Missing Program" the Windows Installer is referring to is caused by one of the following:
You're trying to install a 32 bit patch to a 64 bit system
You haven't installed Service Pack 1 yet
You're trying to install a Subscription Advantage Pack SP2 on a system that doesn't have the Advantage Pack installed, or vice versa.
That's it! Once you know the tricks, it's pretty straight forward!
I have discovered that I can sometimes have a memory like a steel sieve.
Not that long ago, I was teaching in class, and the question came up: "How can I show alternate positions, like fully extended and fully retracted, inside Inventor.
"Positional Representations are perfect for showing exactly that." I say. "I have a video for that!" I continue triumphantly.
Those of you who've been in a class, or in one of my presentations have probably heard me say that.
Sometimes I even imaging myself in that "Captain Morgan's" pose.
I go to locate my video, and suddenly I feel a bit sheepish.
I don't have one. I must have never created the video I swore I had created!
So, in order to rectify that particular situation, here you go, a video on creating positional representations in Autodesk Inventor.
I'm not a Visual Basic programmer. That much is apparent pretty quickly. I can create a dialog box in VB, but it can be a process of determination winning over skill.
Now, in Autodesk Inventor 2012 iLogic provides the ability to quickly create a form (read dialog box), without having to be a Visual Basic genius.
So one night, I sat down and tried creating a form on a Inventor 2011 template I created.
The template changes the joints on the end of a wooden board from a tenon (tabbed) joint, to a regular joint.
All I can say is that I was amazed at how easy it really is. I had it done in a few minutes.
I'm not joking, it really is that easy.
Here's my finished form. I'm not kidding. Less than 5 minutes!
So here's the video everyone. Don't be intimidated by it!
Subtle, but significant. I've used the term before.
I like to use it for tools that don't necessarily have a lot of flash or pizazz, but are good steady tools that are really useful when needed.
One of these 'hidden gems' of a tool is the ability to attach sketches to your drawing views, and then have them keep their orientation relative to those views, even when the views are rotated.
So did everyone get that?
It's tough to describe in a few words, so here, of course, is a video.
