I've finally got round to posting my first blog of 2012!! But before I get into all of the Autodesk Inventor and Showcase goodness may I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year and hope that you had a great Christmas break. For me, it was a really good two weeks spent with friends and family.
So whats my first post of 2012 all about.......
Just before Christmas I had a question asking whats the best way to update the 3D geometry data in Autodesk Showcase if the design has been changed? If you take a design from say Autodesk Inventor, insert it into Showcase, apply your environment, materials, create shots, alternatives and storyboards - the last thing you want to do is have to re-create all of that if their is a design change within Inventor.
The good news is, you don't....and this is how you do it....
So here's the design of a glass coffee table in Autodesk Inventor that I want to visualise in Showcase for one a Sales colleagues to show a potential new customer:
I can insert the native Inventor geometry into Autodesk Showcase without the need for any translation and can set options for which Inventor Project file (.ipj) I want to use, and also the name of an assembly constraint that I wish to drive/animate:
In this case though, there are no moving parts and I just want add an environment, create some shots, alternatives etc that my Sales colleague can use to help sell the design during their meeting/presentation:
It might be worth noting that the materials, colours and textures that were applied within Inventor to the model are the same in Showcase - they are automatically translated.
Just as my Sales colleague was about to leave for the meeting with the new customer, there was a request for design change which I was able to quickly do within Inventor - but what does that mean for the work that I have done in Showcase? Well all you need to do in Showcase is go to File > Import > Import Status Window...
In the Import Status Window it will list the geometry that has been imported into the current window. Just right mouse click over the geometry you want to update, select Replace and browse to the updated Autodesk Inventor document:
Your geometry within Autodesk Showcase will be updated to show the new design changes that were made in Inventor but all of your materials, environments, shots, alternatives, storyboards will all remain intact and usable. There's no need to re-create any of them.
Both Autodesk Inventor and Showcase are part of Product Design Suite Premium and Product Design Suite Ultimate along with other applications.
