Tag Archives: Autodesk Inventor

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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iLogic Code for Creating Min/Max Design Limits in Autodesk Inventor – 3

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In this post we will add the rest of the current parameters to the iLogic’s Form Editor so that we may blast through the rest of the min/max iLogic code. I’ll make this one as short as possible as I think you may have it down-pat by now. If not, use the comment box at the end of the post to get clarification.

 To begin this iLogic code writting session, we will go to the Forms Tab on the iLogic Browser, and right click on the Form 1 form we created in the last installment. Choose Edit, which will bring up the iLogic Form Editor. First thing to do here is drag all of the rest of the parameters over to the form. When that is done, grab a Tab Group tool from the Toolbox in the lower left, and place it at the top of the list of parameters you just dragged over. Now add another one somewhere in the middle of the pack. Now click on the Label 1 text and change it to Shaker Table. Now change the names of the tabs you just created to Main and Secondary. Now its just a matter of dragging the parameters and dropping them on top of whichever tab they will belong on…

 

iLogic Code Writing Tutorial Three - Image-01 - Add parameters to the iLogic Form Editor

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Inventor Material and Colors Creation Tutorial

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In this very basic tutorial we will be creating several new Inventor colors and a new Inventor material based on stock items found in Inventor’s extensive material library. There is far more that can be done via the Styles Editor, but we will just stick to doing what is necessary to make wood look realistic in Inventor. The only problem I foresee is that some of you may not have the correct permissions to proceed, but here we go regardless…

I will be using the Shaker Table from the Designing a Shaker Table with Autodesk Inventor tutorial as an example, so you may want to start with that if you haven’t already done so.

As I stated before, you need to check your permissions to make sure you have Read-Write capabilities. If not, you would be able to create the material and color, but they would be stored in the document that is open when they are created, and you will not be able to apply them to future parts. To get started, with nothing open in Inventor, click on the Projects icon on the Launch panel of the Get Started tab to bring up the Projects editor…

 

Inventor material tutorial image-01 - Change Autodesk Inventor's permissions to read write

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Inventor Tutorial for Designing a Shaker Table – 6 – Patterning the Solids

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Now for some fun stuff, the patterning of the solids that were created in the previous Inventor Tutorial. All of the patterning will involve mirroring, and all of the mirrors will use the models origin planes as their center –which makes for a very robust model…

..but before we get to the patterning, I placed the one “out of the box” so-to-speak detail to the piece. The chamfer on the underside of the top. I went with a ½” chamfer for now, but will likely tweak things a bit later. Most things are not written in stone in parametric modeling (if things are done correctly). The Chamfer is pretty self-explanatory. Click on the Chamfer tool, then either start selecting edges then size, or vice versa…

 

An Inventor tutorial showing how to cut the chamfer on the table top

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Inventor Tutorial for Designing a Shaker Table – 3 – Sketching More Stuff

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An Inventor Tutorial for sketchingWe left off in this Inventor Tutorial yesterday with the corner bracket drawn, but not constrained to the projected geometry. We’ll start today by projecting the other two lines that make up the square that represents the top of the leg, then window select all of the projected lines and click on the Construction icon on the Format Panel.

Making these projected lines construction lines will make sure they are not interpreted by the program as closed loops and thereby avoiding their auto selection when performing modeling operations that require same (such as extruding).

With that done, create a dimension between the inner point of the table’s leg and the back face of the bracket. Use the Bracket_Offset parameter here. To fully constrain the sketch (and get the bracket where it needs to go), use the Collinear Constraint tool to constrain each of the angled end lines of the bracket sketch to the closest line that represents an apron. The sketch should now look like this…

 

An Inventor Tutorial showing how to constrain sketch geometry
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Inventor Tutorial for Designing a Shaker Table – 2 – Sketching Stuff

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In the first installment of this Inventor Tutorial for designing a Shaker Table , we left off adding parameters that will be used in the Sub Top Sketch to create the table’s leg and two apron sections. The apron sections will be mirrored into full parts later, then all three will be mirrored to create 4 apron parts and 4 legs.

This sketch is very basic and should take very little time to complete. We are starting with only the Sub Top Sketch visible, the View Cube set to TOP, and zoomed in on the lower left corner of the projected rectangle. Activate the sketch by double clicking on it in the Feature Browser, then create a square in the general location where the leg will go (image below). Add the Leg_Width parameter to both sides of the square, and use the Leg_Inset parameter to position the square equidistant from the lines representing the corner of the table top…

 

Sketching in an Inventor Tutorial

Now, zoom out a bit and draw two rectangles in the rough location and size of the apron sections. Note that the apron sections will be drawn at about half length…

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