How many of you use the Autodesk Inventor Task Scheduler? It's one of those tools that in many cases only sees the light of day a couple of times a year - but it's got some great tasks in there can save you lots of time!
The Autodesk Inventor Task Scheduler is installed as part of the Autodesk Inventor 2012 installation folder and can be found in the Tools sub-folder on your Start Menu (along with some other cool and useful tools):
When you launch Task Scheduler there is a list of tasks in the bottom left corner, this is just a list of what you can automate using the tool. The pane at the top lists the tasks that you have run, the pane at the bottom shows the details of the selected task and the pane at the top right is a log of all tasks run:
To create a new task, just click on Create Task from the menu at the top and select the task you want to create. There's plenty of tasks to choose from, but a couple of my favourites are:
- Publish DWF files - automatically publish 2D & 3D DWF files
- Export Files - automatically export Inventor files to STEP, IGES, STL, Pro\E, Catia, DWG etc
- Shrinkwrap Assemblies - automatically create shrinkwrapped versions of your assembly models
- Sequential Task - create a sequence of any of the
That doesn't mean I dislike the others in the list, its just that these three have helped me out most of the years - in particualr sequential task!
Using sequential task you can group any number of tasks into one task for example:
- First you could use the Check-out from Vault task
- Then add Update Design to make sure everything is as it should be
- Then use Shrinkwrap Assemblies to simplify the data
- Then Publish DWF files of the 2D and 3D Inventor data
- And finally Check in to Vault
In one automated task you could have a package of simplified 2D & 3D DWF files that you can share with your supply chain.
Have a great weekend!
