Tag Archives: Autodesk Inventor Tutorial

Inventor Tutorial – Layout Part Creation – Side Elevation – 3

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AutoCAB Inventor Tutorial – Image 01 - Inventor Tutorial Layout PartIn the last installment of this Cabinetmaking Inventor Tutorial, we created a couple parameters, sketched in the face frame profile, and dimensioned the new face frame using the new parameters. Today we will continue sketching. The features we will need to portray in this elevation slice are a top nailer frame, a back nailer, the back, the deck, the kick, and the face frame’s rails.

This unit will be designed to rest on a cleat on the wall in the back, and have adjustable feet in the front. The kick will be attached to the front legs with clips. I’ve never built one like this, but someone once described their shops build method as being very similar to this, and I thought it was a pretty elegant way to build a good cabinet without going broke –as so many cabinetmakers do every year.

Since we’re working our way around the cabinet in a clock-wise direction, we’ll get started today with the top nailer frame. The top nailer frame butts into the back nailer –which butts up against the back, so hopefully we can get to all of them. We’ll start by drawing a set of lines in exactly the same manor as in the last post in this Inventor Tutorial series…

 

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Inventor Tutorial – Layout Part Creation – Side Elevation – 1

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In this, the first Inventor Tutorial in the Automated Cabinetry Configurator Blogtorial Series, we will begin with the creation of the Layout Part’s elevation sketch –but before we do that, I should briefly explain how our model will relate to the 3D space we will be modeling in.

Inventor uses a Right Handed Cartesian coordinate system, whereby your base plane is XY with the Y axis pointing up towards the top of your monitor, the X axis pointing to the right, and the Z axis pointing out of the computer monitor towards you. The model would come out the same no matter which coordinate system is used, but we need to stay on the same page if you want to end up with a working model at the end of this blogtorial.

In the video below I will go through the steps of starting the first sketch in the Layout Part. This part will control the size and location of everything in this model…

 

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Inventor Tutorial – Shaker Table Arched Apron Option 2

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In the last post for this Inventor Tutorial, we went back in time in the model’s feature history and created the Cut Extrude features that will make up ¼ of the features needed to represent the arch feature option for the Shaker Table. In this post, we will be patterning these new features, and possibly dealing with the bracket issue.

First, drag the EOP all the way down to the bottom of the feature list. Then, double click the Apron A Mirror feature to bring up its dialog. Click on the Features selector arrow, then select the Long Arch Cut feature. You should get a highlight as shown below…

 

Inventor Tutorial Shaker Table Arches Apron Option 02 – Image 01 - Add the new cut to the existing mirror

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iLogic Tutorial – Automatic Board Configurator 01

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This iLogic Tutorial for automatic board configuration will show how to model and write the iLogic code that will automatically adjust the number and width of boards that make up the top of the Shaker Table.

To begin this iLogic tutorial, we will need to go way back to the beginning of the Shaker Table series to the first sketch in the table’s Layout Part, the Top Sketch. The first thing to do in that Top Sketch is remove the horizontal constraint between the center of the top and the Center Point. Just window select the point shown below, then hit delete…

 

 

Ilogic Tutorial Board configurator Image 01 - The point

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How-To Create Templates in Autodesk Inventor

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How to create template files in Autodesk InventorTemplates are a very productive way of reusing modified Inventor files. For example, LENGTH, WIDTH, and THICKNESS iPropertes for woodworkers that normally create cutlists. Or you can have a company standards FX part pre-inserted (something I do). If you only work with a certain material, your template file can have that material already applied. You get the gist.

 You can literally have hundreds of modified part, assembly, drawing, presentation, and weldment files that are preconfigured for a certain client, a certain work-flow, or what have you. As I told a reader In the comments yesterday, I keep folders of template files for specific companies that I subcontract for in an archive, and when I again do business with them, I drop their folder into the Inventor Templates folder and voila!

 

Creating new template tabs in Autodesk Inventor

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The Autodesk Inventor Default Setting From Hell

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Inventor Tutorial image showing the Parallel and perpendicular constraint optionIf you want to save yourself a huge amount of grief, there is a default setting in Autodesk Inventor that you should change immediately! The setting in question is the Parallel and perpendicular constraint for Constraint placement priority.

By default, Autodesk Inventor sets the constraint as mentioned above, to Parallel and perpendicular (as seen in the image to the right) as opposed to Horizontal and vertical –the other choice in the Application Options. This default setting can screw you up big time –but it all depends on what you design. We’ll get into that a bit more later, and I hope others will weigh in the comments  as to why they have the setting from hell enabled.

My first run-in with this setting happened while creating a three dimensional floor plan for a yacht I was working on (now called Ingot –back then it was Hull 503). Basically I was designing four stacked decks ranging in length from 150’ for the main deck to 30 feet or so for the fly bridge. It was a huge improvement over the previous designs created in AutoCAD in many ways, but a nightmare in others.

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