I've been talking to a lot of people of late about technical documentation and publications for things like service, installation & maintenance manuals, assembly\dis-assembly instructions and also health and safety training. Two topics that keep coming up with the different manufacturers I speak to are the length of time it takes to create technical publications and providing technical documentation in a more interactive and informative medium.
In many of the conversations that I have had, the technical documentation is the last part of the project and are mainly text based due to the complexities and time involved in adding images. All too often, the creation of the technical documentation is one of the reasons delivery dates are missed, this is down to the fact that these documents and instructions can not be produced until the design is finalised so they can only begin in earnest once the design is fully finalised. And if design decisions are being made on the shop floor during manufacture this means the manufacture is finished before the time the tech docs are being started, delaying delivery to the customer.
Using Autodesk Inventor Publisher allows manufacturers to begin the authoring of technical documents much earlier within the project, meaning delivery deadlines are much less likely to be missed.
The way we do this is by using the Digital Prototype data created within Autodesk Inventor, but because there is an associative link between the Autodesk Inventor model data and the technical documentation within Inventor Publisher, should there be a design change, the technical documentation is automatically updated. This allows a technical author\illustrator to begin their job of creating these documents much sooner and also get them finished sooner.
Using Inventor Publisher also gives the technical author\illustrator to create all of the images they would like to include within the tech docs without the need to keep having to ask the design engineers for screenshots of the design.
Inventor Publisher allows users to produce technical documentation in various formats for different uses and users. Inventor Publisher can automatically produce:
- Microsoft Word documents for printed instructions
- PDF for printed and interactive documents
- Microsoft PowerPoint for training presentations
- Vector graphics for use within desktop publishing applications
- Animations for interactive instructions and training
- Images for inclusion within other documents
- Mobile for use on Apple or Android mobile devices
Recently we have released a new Publish to Social technology preview which is free to download and use from the Autodesk Labs website, this gives users of Inventor Publisher the ability to publish technical documentation directly to your YouTube channel and/or Facebook page. With hundreds of millions of people using social media every day, connecting with customers using tools like Inventor Publisher with the Publish to Social tool allows manufacturers to quickly and easily make technical documentation available via an interactive and easily up-dateable medium. Have a watch of this new technology in action...
If you want to download the Autodesk Inventor Publisher - Publish to Social Technology Preview, just visit the website link below...
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_publisher/
And if you want to find out more about Autodesk Inventor Publisher, please visit the Autodesk website...
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=14640987&siteID=123112
