Paper Business Cards - Going Extinct?

In the absence of light, darkness prevails. There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back. 
Professor Trevor Broom in the movie "Hellboy"

This isn't a post on CAD of any kind, it's just a "cool technology" post.  But every one of us has to be a proficient networker too.  So this is something just to share about a technology application I find intriguing!

***

Business cards...  Someday, I'll find a stack of them next to all my socks that have been lost in the dryer. 

In the past, I've always misplaced or lost them.  So I've learned to take a picture of them with my smartphone, then I throw the card away.  It works, but when you think about it, it's pretty wasteful.

Once upon a time, I had a Treo smartphone.  Compared to the current smartphones, that old Treo is like a black and white T.V.

In my day, we couldn't zoom with fancy finger gestures.  We had to squint!

But it did have one feature I liked.  I could beam contact information from one machine to another via an infrared port.   It worked great!

The downside was it only worked with other Treos.  But I missed the functionality of shooting my contact info from phone to phone.

 Lately, I've been hearing about this new app out there.  It helps you transfer contacts from one smartphone to another.  It seemed interesting.  But it was like a unicorn, rumored to be out there, but never seen.

Then, one day listening to the radio, I hear about this elusive app.  It's called "Bump".

Image courtesy of the Bump website

Tonight I finally downloaded it and installed it.  I haven't used it yet.  But I'm intrigued by it.  You bump your phone against another phone with Bump installed, and it transfers contacts, photos, even links to other apps from phone to phone.

Wow, what's old is new again!

The obvious downside is you can only use it between smartphones that have the bump app installed, but for me, I think it's worth having the option.

So I'll keep you posted on how it works out.  Sure, I may never use it and it'll just occupy space on my phone.  But maybe, just maybe, it'll save me a little bit of time, and save the world from wasting a little bit of paper!

Using the app?  Drop a comment and let me know what you think of it?  Maybe the next time you run into me at an event, we can pass virtual cards instead of paper cards!

Using Styles to Clarify Assembly Directions in Autodesk Inventor Publisher

“If everything else fails, read the instructions”
Unknown

When I have a little down time, I sometimes like to build my own woodworking projects inside the Autodesk tools, just to see how I might use the tools to help me with my own design challenges. 

 One of my projects I toy with is a "Saturday Table" that I found in woodworking book.

I've built up the assembly and drawings in Autodesk Inventor, archived the drawings in Autodesk Vault, rendered the files in Autodesk Showcase, and as a last step, I decided to make the assembly instructions in Autodesk Inventor Publisher.

The Saturday Table Rendered in Autodesk Showcase

Overkill you might say?  Probably.  It's not a complicated design, compared to the Autodesk Inventor's of the Month like Tolar Manufacturing, and 4th Dimensional Facade Solutions.

But even this had a lesson to teach me.

In the process of creating assembly instructions, I found that the screws to mount the table top where obscured by the table's aprons.  I could have rotated the view so you could see under the table, but I felt that would make it hard to see the screws and where they needed to go.

Gah!  I can't see where the screws go!

So I opted for another solution.  Inventor Publisher can change the color style  a part in a single snapshot, or step of the process.  So when I reached the step where the apron obscured the parts I needed to show, I just used the "Smooth Ghost" style.

Smooth Ghost might help!

This made the component transparent so I could see through it, making the screws and mounting rails easy to see without making compromises in my camera angle.

Much better!

 Then, I just switched the part back when I was done.

So here is the video on the full trick of the trade!  Enjoy!

P.S.  If you're looking for more videos on Inventor Publisher, check out the posts listed here!

Showing Total Mass on an Autodesk Inventor Drawing

May the Mass Times Acceleration Be With You.
Seen on a T-shirt

In a post a few weeks ago, I was asked "How do you show the total mass on a drawing?" 

I made some suggestions in the comments, but during a busy weekend, I decided to whip up this quick video tip. 

In short, create a text field, and insert the Mass property from your assembly onto your drawing.  You'll have the property and it will update when the assembly is updated.

Showing the property fields.

Supplementing the display of mass in the parts list, you can show the data in all of its forms!

So once again, here's a video to show the steps in all their glory! 

News Item! Mentor Graphics & KETIV Technologies - A New Partnership

“It's wonderful to work with someone with mentor status.”
Madeleine Peyroux

Like a spinning figure skater pulling her arms in more tightly, our technological world spins faster and faster. 

New products appear that change the way we work, new workflows open up new frontiers, and even products like AutoCAD, which have existed for decades, are evolving to embrace this new world.

After all, it wasn't that long ago that "the Cloud" was something that kids looked up at, and argued if it looked like a turtle or a dinosaur. 

Recognizing that, KETIV Technologies is proud to announce their distributorship for Mentor Graphics.

As part of that partnership, KETIV Technologies can now fullfill your needs for PCB Systems Design, Cable Harness Design, and System Modeling. 

But what better place to get the full scoop than the official press release itself! 


                     Click here for the link & get the full skinny!  

Here it is in black and white! Click the link above for the link to the press release

Finding the Cross Sectional Area of an Empty Space

"Don't play what's there, play what's not there." 
Miles Davis

A question posed to me a few weeks ago was "How do you find the cross section of a void?"

The surface area of a part face is easy.  Just use the measure tool, and pick your face.

Getting the area of a face.  No Problem!

But how do you pick what's not there?

I remembered a word of wisdom passed on to me by an old fixture designer back in the first tool room I worked in.

"Sometimes the best thing you can do, is leave extra material on a part.  It gives you something to work with when you're building the part.  You can always cut it off later."

We could fill the gap with material, but that changes the part.  It adds volume we don't want.

But what if we combine that old fixture designer's wisdom with a little Digital Prototyping magic?

What if we use a boundary patch?

The surface used as a boundary

 Bingo!  A boundary patch would give us something to pick, but wouldn't change the the part volume.  Plus it can be suppressed! 

So here we are!  A video on using a surface to find the cross sectional area of a void!

These are a couple of ideas.  Have another!  Go ahead an throw down a comment! 

A Few News Items for the Weekend

There aren't enough days in the weekend 

Rod Schmidt

 Today is just a couple of quick "news items" for the weekend.

4th Dimensional Facade Solutions announced as the February 2012 Inventor of the Month

First, I'd like to raise a virtual glass to 4th Dimensional Facade Solutions, and congratulate them on being selected as Inventor of the Month.

Pretty amazing stuff!

They're using Autodesk Inventor to create some stunning facades for buildings.  It's pretty cool stuff!  Here's the link to read the article!

Autodesk 2012 Games Show Reel

These show reals never cease to amaze me.  From some one who played PacMan on the Atari 2600, it's amazing to see what can be done with the technology of today!

Personal Note: Weekend with a Warbird

As for myself.  Yes, I'll be hanging out with the warbirds again. 

This weeekend will be the Living History Event at Planes of Fame staring the B-25 "Photo Fanny".   Yes, it's fun, but it's also a reminder of what was done 70 years go, both with the technology of the day, and by the crews that built, flew, and maintained them. 

You'll likely see a tweet or two, and maybe even a video next week!

Photo Fanny in flight.  Courtesy Planes of Fame Air Museum.

A Guest Video - Sketchbook Designer, to Alias Design, to Project Falcon

“In a market that has been void of quality offerings with quality names attached this will be welcome.”
 David Menlow

Today's post is a guest video created by KETIV Technologies own Mike Prom. 

Mike is quite a guru in Autodesk Sketchbook Designer, Autodesk Alias Design, and the Autodesk Project Falcon add-in for Alias.

Here he shows how t concept for a truck cab can start in Sketchbook Designer, expand in Alias, and finally, be analyzed in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) to explore it's aerodynamic capabilities.

It's a great way to see how an idea can be conceived, and analyzed! 


Since Mr. Prom is the one bringing the knowledge, I'll step aside and like Mike take the virtual podium!

Thanks, Mike!

Change View Orientation - A Drawing View from a New Perspetive

“Men and things have each their proper perspective; to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.”
François de la Rochefoucauld

Most of the components I work with in Autodesk Inventor are prismatic.  Basically, they are cubic parts with faces that are aligned with the origin planes. 

When the time comes to make drawings in from these parts, it's a snap.  I just choose my base view, and one of the faces lines up perfectly to create the view I want.

But every once in a great while, I've found that I have a component that breaks this rule. Maybe it was imported from another 3D modeling package, or maybe it's just not the normal prismatic part that I usually work with.

I go and I create a view, and the component just doesn't line up.  None of my "principal" options work when I try to choose a base view. 

For example, here's a 20 sided die I created once for a website many years ago.  It's got plenty of sides, but not one lines up in such a way I can create a base view from it.

20 sides and not ONE aligned to an origin plane!

Well.  Now what?

So what do I do?  Is all lost, so to speak? 


Would I be writing this blog if it was?

Inventor provides for this with a nice tool called "Change View Orientation". 

Change View Orientation to the rescue!

When this tool is chosen, a view opens up that allows me to use any of the viewing tools available in my modeler to orient my component. 

This opens up the available options, and provides a lot more flexibility in creating views.

Naturally, I have to create a video to go with that.  So here it is! 

Engineering Lessons from a Vacation - An Observation in Snowboard Bindings

“In the roots of snowboarding, duct tape was a part of snowboard technology.”
Gwyn Howat

 If you don't know already, I'm a snowboarder.  More than once, I've postponed a blog post because I was off at Mammoth Mountain, dropping in off Cornice, seeing if I could carve "just a little bit higher up" this time.

This post, is dedicated to a real life engineering lesson I learned while riding the many trails up and down that big Sierra Nevada resort.

Taken from the top of Chair 3 at Mammoth Mountain.  What a view!

I currently have two different boards I use, and the lesson I learned was about the differences between the two different styles of bindings each board has.

One board came with the bindings as part of a "package deal".  The other, I chose based on the recommendations at the store where I bought them.

By first board has traditional, "two strap" bindings.  Two straps cross your foot, and are ratcheted tight with two small levers.  This is probably the most common binding you'll seen a snowboarder using.

My "two strap" bindings.  The loose straps are circled in yellow

I like them because their easy to adjust.  If they're too loose, just reach down and crank the lever.   If their too tight, release the lever.

Of course there's a downside.  You may not have the exact same setting every time you get off the lift, based on how tight you lock them.  On top of that, they take a little time to get locked down.  So my skier friends are often waiting for me impatiently.   

The straps, circled in yellow, securing my boot.

My second board, has "rear entry" bindings.  In this type of binding, the high back (rear portion of the binding) drops down and you literally "step into" the binding.  The binding is secured by securing a lever that locks the binding to the back of your foot.

The rear entry binding in the "open" position.  Notice how the stiff back lays down so you can step into it.  The locking lever is circled in yellow

My skier friends (as well as myself), like this binding because it's quick.  I can get of the lift, step into the binding, throw the lock closed, and I'm ready to go.  No fussing with straps like in the traditional, two strap binding. 

The rear entry binding in the locked position.

With that being said, would this be the better binding? 

Some would say.  But this binding isn't easy to adjust on the fly like my "two strap" style binding.  Because of the design of the "rear entry" style, adjusting the binding means taking off the board, tweaking the binding, and trying it again.

So why have I even taken the time to write this?  You may not like snowboarding.  Maybe the closest you come to the snow are the ice cubes in your favorite drink.

I'm not catering to tell snowboarders to go buy one type of binding over the other.   I'm not even going to tell you which ones I prefer.  That's not the point of this post. 

The point is how I relearned a lesson that experience has taught me before.

You don't get something for nothing.

My "easy to adjust" two strap bindings means more time getting ready after getting off the lift.  My "faster off the lift" rear entry bindings mean I have to take extra time setting everything up, which I'm still working on after purchasing new boots.

In other words, each design had to give up something to gain advantages somewhere else.

In this case, it was ease of adjustment versus speed.  But that's not the only things that could be facing off when designing a product there are a few examples of design "ying and yang".

It could be:

• Gaining a technological edge but making a product more difficult to maintain
• Increasing a product's longevity by using materials that are more expensive
• Increasing product's capabilities but making it more difficult to use

That's the idea.  Of course this list goes on and on.

But the point is, design isn't always about making something better in every aspect.  Many times, something has to be sacrificed for a gain to be made elsewhere.

Is this bad?  Not necessarily.  It's just a fact of life.  As designers, we have to try to maximize the gains while minimizing the losses required to make those gains.  

As consumers, we need to recognize what capabilities are important, and which are not.

It's not always an easy answer, even as we face it every day.  For me it's which set of snowboard bindings.  But for others it could be a computer operating system, an economical car versus an SUV, the list goes on and on.

It's for each of us to decide, both when we design, and when we employ the design created by another.

I know for me, I'll think a little more carefully about which set of snowboard bindings I use!

Material Libraries and Error 1606. Not Friends at All

“From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.”
 Sigmund Freud

Once again, I've crept off to Mammoth Mountain to enjoy the long holiday weekend in the United States.  But true to my geeky nature.  I've still created a blog, albeit a short one. 

Looking at Crawley Lake from Chair 3.  Amazing view!

Last week I encountered an error I hadn't seen before.  An end-user was trying to install Autodesk Product Design Suite 2012 on their machine, but they were encountering the error below when trying to install Autodesk 3ds Max.

So what does this mean? 

The user, understandably frustrated, had also tried to install the Autodesk Showcase, and received the same error.

1606

So we tried running the installation again. It turned out that it wasn't 3ds Max that was having the problem.  It was the material libraries that were associated to 3ds Max were erroring out. 

That explains why Showcase would have the same problem.  It uses the same libraries.

So I resorted to any techies next weapon of choice.   I used Google.  That's right.  That Google. It's a great tool when casting a wide net.

What did I find?  There's a solution for this on the Autodesk website.  It looks like the material libraries had been installed before, than only partially uninstalled.

A quick trip to Add/Remove Programs, and we're up and running again!

So if you run into this error, double check those libraries.

It's a good trip to keep in your pocket as we maintain, and upgrade our Product Design Suite Products.

Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show 2012 & Something New!

Mobile blog #2:  Let's see how it goes!  :-)

Today was my day at the Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show in Anaheim.

It was a busy show, with lots going on with CAD software (like at the Autodesk booth) as well as with the 3D Prototyping booths around us.

My laptop ready to go.  Yep, I managed to sneak a warbird picture in there!

There was no shortage of 3D rapid prototyping available!   I love this stuff!

There was a lot of activity today.  I spent a lot if time talking about Autodesk Showcase, Autodesk 3ds Max, and of course Autodesk Inventor.  The whole time the Autodesk team was running presentations.

There was a lot of interest.  Most of all, it seemed like the black cloud of the Great Recession that had been hanging over us the last few years was but a memory.

Good news indeed! 

The team getting ready

And Mr. Mike Aubry goes on stage!

And in the middle of it all.... My Droid X chirps as an e-mail arrives in my inbox.

I open it up, quietly hoping its not disposed foreign royalty offering me untold millions to help them get their fortune out of "SouthNorthern Whatsitsplace". It's not. It's an announcement...

"Autodesk Design Review for the Android is now available". 

There's some other words in there. But it's those few that grab my attention.

With cat like reflexes I go to the Android market and begin downloading. After a few minutes of waiting, there's a glow & the sound of angels singing as the app installs.

There it is! In all its dwf-y glory!  Now you can view 2D and 3D files, as well as markup dwfs on the comfort of your Android based mobile device!

Oh.. .this is cool! 

Yep, pretty cool!

So if you've got an Android and you've been waiting for your own version of Design Review, wait no longer! 

Head over to the Android Market and get your copy!  It's free! 

A good show and a new app!  It's been a great day! 

Turn out the lights

The party's over!

The Sum of its Parts - Adding Column Values in Autodesk Inventor

“Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.”
Jose Ortega y Gasset

One of the questions that came up not that long ago was; "How do I add up the mass values for a component in a part list?  I want to show the total mass for several components,  instead of the mass for just one."

How to I get here?  Where the total mass of multiple components is shown.

It's not very difficult, but you do have to know where to look.  I still remember thinking, "That's it?!?" when I first saw. it.

But like so many things, you just have to know where to look.  So guess what I did?

If you're reading this, you probably can guess the answer. 

I created a video, and blogged about it.

So take a look at the video.  As always, I hope it's helpful.

And this tip doesn't just apply to Mass.  It applies to any field that might need summing up!

And before you take a look at the video, there's one more tip.  If you want to make this setting (or any parts list setting), part of your default, remember that you can add them to your Styles Library.

Perhaps I'll create a video for that as well, but that's for a later week.

Enjoy!

Just for fun. The Random Warbird of the Weekend

I like warbirds... A lot.
Jonathan Landeros

If you've followed my Twitter account, you know I like posting random pictures of one of the warbirds at Planes of Fame, where I volunteer on my weekends.

Now that I'm trying the mobile application on my mobile device, I've decided to share them here.

I know it's not related to CAD in any way, but these airplanes are still marvels of engineering.

Not to mention the stories of those that flew and maintained them.

So here it is.  Something done for the passion of doing it.

The first picture is the P-26 Peashooter, with the N9MB Flying Wing in the background.  Both the only examples of their type still flying.

The next.  A Lockheed P-38 Lightening sitting in the hangar undergoing maintenance to keep her in flying form.

I hope you enjoy them!

The P-26 Peashooter & N9MB Flying Wing

The Lockheed P-38 Lightening.

Using View Representations to Control Sketch Visibility in Autodesk Inventor

“We write frankly and freely but then we modify before we print”
Mark Twain

Last week, an interesting question was posed to me.  I want to show text on a part, but not on the assembly.  Can that be done inside Autodesk Inventor?

My first thought.....   O_o

My next thought?  How do we do that?

How to we turn off this sketch in the assembly, but keep it in the Part?

Then, I had an idea.  VIEW REPRESENTATIONS!

Will this work!  It sure will!

It works on camera views, component color, and visibility.....  visibility!  Why not sketch visibility! 

It's crazy..... Just crazy enough to work!

So I tried it.... And behold!  It works!

So here it is, a neat little trick that I hadn't even thought of trying!  Enjoy!

P.S.  If you'd like more information on Inventor's View Representations, check out my earlier blog posts.  It's in two parts.  So here is Part 1, and here is Part 2.

And at last, here's the video!

Copy Design in Autodesk Vault - Where I used it.

My hobby of not attending meetings about recycling saves more energy than your hobby of recycling.
John McCarthy

Over the course of the last few weeks of my copious spare time, I've been building up a chest of drawers in Autodesk Inventor.

As far as I've gotten so far.  The drawers are in blue.

In other words, a few minutes here, a few minutes there... 

Since I don't have a ton of time to devote to it, I have to make the best use of the time I have. 

So I use Autodesk Vault to manage the files that comprise this little side job.

It's almost like I'm working on a real project instead of just playing around with the tools! 

And, let me tell you, having those files in Vault came in handy!

The chest of drawers has three drawers that are are all very similar (the fourth opens as a desk, so it's quite different).  Only the height of the three drawers changes.  But they all have the same five basic components. 

1. A front
2. A back
3. A left side
4. A right side
5. A bottom

Each of these five components has its own piece drawing, plus an assembled view, and an exploded view.

Alright, I know some of you might be saying, "Do you really need all that."

My answer?  "No, I don't.  But this is one of those cases where I just can' resist the urge to overdo it a little!"

Okay, maybe I'm overdoing it more than a little.

But now I have these parts, assemblies, explosions, and drawings for every drawer..... So do I really want to recreate each one of those two more times?

An example of some of the documentation

The answer to that rhetorical question is, of course, a resounding NO!

So what did I do?  I created the bottom drawer, in all it's glorious detail.  The components, the assemblies, the explosions the drawings.

Then, with all that checked into Vault, I fired up my copy design, and copied the components I needed, as well as the assemblies, explosions and drawings.  I even was able to make sure that I reused the drawer bottom for the other drawers.  Since it was the same component throughout.

Choosing the drawer parts to copy

So what's the big deal?  By using copy design, everything involved in creating the drawing was already done.

Sure, I had to resize parts, adjust some dovetails, and make sure my drawings still looked clean.  But I didn't have to recreate any assemblies, explosions, drawings, then dimension and annotate that drawing all over again.

So when all was said and done, the second and third drawer were finished in a fraction of the time it took me to create the first.

It ended up being a nice little time saver!  :-D

So if you need to duplicate similar components quickly, Copy Design might just be the right tool for the job!

So here's a video for Copy Design from back in the archives !  (Click here for the full post)

Tolar Manufacturing - Autodesk Inventor of the Month for January 2012

“Neither team has anything but pride to play for at this point, but our guys have got a lot of heart and they've shown me that all year.”
Jamie Keefe

Sometimes when you return from vacation, you find that something unpleasant has "hit the oscillating cooling device", and the day you took off is now getting made up in the overtime you're working to fix whatever has broken loose.

This time, when I returned from my snowboarding trip, I was greeted by something far more pleasant.

Tolar Manufacturing was announced as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month!

Tolar Manufacturing makes bus shelters for cities all over.  They're designed in Autodesk Inventor, and their presentations are shown in Autodesk Showcase.  They're storing all that CAD goodness inside of Autodesk Vault.

Example of a Tolar Bus Shelter rendered in Autodesk Showcase

Between using Inventor, Showcase, and Vault.  Tolar is able to design, present, store, and reuse all their data.  Inventor makes the data more robust, Vault allows the file to be tracked, located, and reused, and Showcase allows them to present the design intent to the cities that will be using their products.

It's a nice little engineering circle of life.

So why am I beaming with pride?  I helped set up their Vault, install their Inventor, and train them on Showcase.  It's really exciting for me to see where they've gone. 

Does that mean I was an indispensable part of the team?  That they "could have done it without me?" 

No, I just played my small part.  They took the tools, and ran with them.  The credit is truly all theirs.

I'm just happy that I got to play that little part!

So here's a video!  Not mine though.  This one is all about Tolar, and what they've been able to accomplish! 

Maybe it'll inspire all of us to look again and our tools, and make sure we're using them to their full potential!

On Vacation Today!

Hey, everyone!

I'm pushing this weeks blog post back a few days. 

I'm on one of my winter holidays up to Mammoth Mountain, Ca. 

I hope everyone has a good Monday!  I know I will!

This was my weekend! How was yours?

Creating Custom Content for Autodesk Inventor Content Center - Part 4 (Hint: Editing Family Tables)

“I won't deny there's some big changes coming down the road.”
Rick Higgins

In my last blog post on Content Center, I wrote about adding components to Content Center.  But just because the component is added, doesn't mean it's ready yet.

An image of the wood screw I placed into Content Center in my last blog

There may be fields to be added, removed, or changed.  You might want to add components to your tables, making more variations of your part available.

So this is a blog on how you can start making changes to your tables, expanding them and making them work for you .

In this video, I take the wood screw that I added to my Content Center in my last blog, and add some stainless steel variations, remove an unneeded column.

I'll also make one of the columns a "Key" column that will allow me to choose a Stainless Steel or Carbon Steel wood screw.

Placing the screw.  Nominal size, Total Length, & Material are my key columns.

I wish I could cover all the possible changes that could be made, but there's just too many to cover.  But the video should help get you started!

KETIV's 2011 Autodesk Manufacturing Academy Recordings are Out!

“Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded”
Virginia Woolf

At long last!  After much hard work, the bow tie on the 2011 edition of KETIV's Autodesk Manufacturing Academy!

The videos!  They're all up and ready for download!

So if you've attended the classes presented by the the KETIV technical team, or even if you didn't attend, and want the benefits of the course materials.  Take a swing by the session archive and download all the materials!

Click HERE for the link to download the materials!  

Fire away and start eating up some bandwith!  ;-)  You can even download the 2010 and 2009 materials too!

I hope those who attended took some useful things away!  Go

I hope to see you all, (and a few more) at the next 2012 KETIV AMA!


And as a trailer for the movie, here's a sample of the classes on Autodesk Showcase, so you can get an idea of what's available!

Special thanks to Tolar Manufacturing for providing us with some great real world samples to use in the session!

Autodesk Showcase Part 1 - Importing Models




Autodesk Showcase Part 2 - Changing Environments



Autodesk Showcase Part 3 - Assigning Materials




Autodesk Showcase Part 4 - Changing Materials




Autodesk Showcase Part 5 - Adding Lights

Creating Custom Content for Autodesk Inventor Content Center - Part 3

 “Then memorize it, practice it, personalize it and then you can easily customize it for success, ... The Boy Scouts have it right: Be prepared - always.”
Steve Walsh  

In my blog last week, I described how to setup Autodesk Inventor's Content Center Libraries so they could components could be written to it.

Now with the custom component created, I'll take the next step and show how you can publish an iPart to the read/write library that was created earlier.

An example of a part that's been published to Content Center

When published to Content Center, a custom component places into Inventor just like a component that shipped "in the box" with the product.

Placing a custom part into an Autodesk Inventor Assembly

This can help centralize components, keeping things manageable from one place instead of several.

Special thanks to Charlie Bliss's website.  Where I got the iPart I used for this example.

When creating these components, I would recommend one thing.  Make sure that you test the library out a couple of times before you "release it into the wild".  I've found that I'm never 100% happy with my first result, and make a couple of changes before I'm ready to let it go.

So double check, it's a lot easier to fix it before you let other designers get their grubby little hands on it!

And to get all the details, here's a video for you to check out the steps!

And don't forget to click here for the final part of this series, Part 4!

Creating Custom Content for Autodesk Inventor Content Center - Part 2

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Jorge Luis Borges

In my last post, I talked about Content Center.  Mostly what Content Center is, particularly with respect to Desktop Content Center versus Content Center running through the Autodesk Data Management Server Console.

But the long term goal of this series of blog post is to publish content to a custom library of our own creation.

So for our next step, I'm going to create a short blog post on creating those custom libraries.

The libraries that come with Autodesk Inventor are Read Only.  So you can only use them, you can't modify them, or add to them. 

In order to be able to make additions and modifications, you need to create a Read/Write Library.

The first thing to know, is if you're using Desktop Content, or Vault Content.  The libraries are created in different places for each.

I'm using Desktop Content Center

With Desktop Content, go to the "Get Started" and choose "Projects".

Choose "Configure Content Center Libraries.  A new screen will appear that will allow you to configure the libraries for your project.

Now you're ready to create a Read/Write library

Select "Create Library", and a new Read/Write Library will be added with the name you enter

Creating the Read/Write Library

Important!  Make sure the new library is checked!  If it's not, the library won't be available to the project!  This, needless to say, makes the whole point of creating it moot.  

Custom Library Created.  Note that it's checked! This makes it available for the project to use!

I'm using the Autodesk Data Management Console (Server)

We'll need to access the server, and have administrative rights to the Autodesk Data Management Server, so be ready to bribe the I.T. staff or Cad Manager if necessary.

Once you've gained access to your server, right click on the Libraries folder and choose "Create Library".

Creating the Library Folder

A new Read/Write Library will be added with the name you enter.

New library selected!

Note that just like above (with Desktop Content), you'll need to make sure the library is checked in the project!  If not, it won't be available!

Make sure you make the libraries available! 

So that's getting the stage set to create the read/write library for your Content Center.  Now we're ready to start adding data to the Content Center!

That will be the next post here!  Creating Custom Content for Autodesk Inventor Content Center - Part 3