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!
