Autodesk Labs 3D Annotation for Inventor

When first using 3D design tools such as Autodesk Inventor, I was surprised by the lack of annotation capability in the modeling environment beyond the ‘Engineers Notebook’…

…and I had planned to begin this article with a description of that very same, somewhat lame, Engineers Notebook …….. and how it (if fixed), the 3DA technology, and the Insert Object tool could be used to form a fairly decent model information system in Inventor —–but the mere act of trying to start Engineers Notebook locks up Inventor 2010 on my machine. Go figure.

Old School 3DA

A few years ago, I was tasked with communicating the more intricate details of some very complex marble designs with a vendor in Italy. The drawings we had given them were 2D AutoCAD and MicroStation drawings, and would typically generate numerous calls and emails for clarification, but even with that, there were typically quite a few costly errors.

In an effort to better communicate some of the more complicated areas, it was decided that I would model them in Inventor (it was deemed ‘too hard’ to model entire assemblies by CAD Management). Because the vendor did not yet have Inventor, I would simply grab screen shots of the model with the sketches visible and insert them in an email with a description. They looked very similar to this…

Note: I used a separate screen capture program to grab the images, but you can do so directly through Inventor. To do so, go to Application Menu>Export>Image, and save to an appropriate name & location.

…and solved a great deal of communication problems. The biggest drawback to this technique was control over what was visible or not. I didn’t want to see the profile line that was used to create the model (lime green above), as well as many of the dimensions.  The unwanted dimensions could be dragged into the solid to hide them, and the line color could be changed to blend in better, but time was always a factor. All things considered though, what you see above (when full size) along with notes in the email worked quite well.

The 3D Annotation Tool from Labs

The download and install of the tool went smoothly.  Upon restarting inventor, I had a new 3DA tab on my Ribbon as shown below…

On this new tab, all the way to the left there is a Activate 3DA button (blue) that fills the entire ‘Launch’ panel. This button needs to be pressed to activate the tools on the tab as well as view any Annotations that may have been previously placed.

 I think this panel is unique in Ribbon Interface usage, but It seems to work just fine. Those new to the scheme will find the behavior unexpected, but it may be just for the technology preview. It is very nice to be able to shut the feature off and have all of the annotations stay off —but I haven’t seen it in an Assembly where object visibility in Inventor is most problematic.

Lack Of Positioning Control

  It is currently impossible to position the annotation elements in any meaningful way. The technology is very close to useless until this is addressed. Inventor users would expect behavior along the lines of current annotations or an improvement on same, not a step backwards.

 Bizarre Behavior

I tried creating a drawing (2D) of the part shown below to see if there was any 3DA functionality that would translate to the drawing environment, but could find nothing. Upon going back to the model in the 3DA tab, the annotations changed in a fairly bizarre way. All of the annotations I paced yesterday and deleted earlier today had magically returned—– on top of the new ones created today. What a mess…

Missing Styles

Architectural and Fractional styles are absent in this technology preview —–which is to be expected this early in the game. I just hope they don’t  leave them out altogether as there seems to be little respect for non mechanical design features.

A Few Questions on Output:

• Will any of the information created in 3DA have the capability of being read directly by NC machinery?
• Will it be viewed directly by the end user i.e. machinist, carpenter, mold maker, brake operator, assembler, etc. as a DWFx?
• Will the information entered into 3DA port over to dimensionally challenged formats (paper drawings)?
• Will there be a tool to just grab an image of a PMI view (or whatever they end up calling it) to and attach it to an email?  

What is the intended output?

Final Impression

The technology preview seems to be well along the way, and looks to me like it will be included in Inventor shortly ——Inventor is way behind in 3DA capabilities, so I cannot see it being anything but the next version, but stranger things have happened

I realize that they are likely trying to make the toolset conform to ASME Y14.41-2003 Digital Product Data Definition Practices and possibly  ISO 1101:2004 Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS), but they also need to build in the capability to customize the tools to allow the creation of quick, legible design snapshots like the ones sent to the marble makers in Italy.  

Later…