Autodesk Manufacturing & Digital Prototyping Solutions

Autodesk ForceEffect v2.0 now available

In November last year, Autodesk released a new simulation app for the iPad called ForceEffect, you might remember reading my blog post about it.

Last week, ForceEffect v2.0 was released to the Apple iTunes store for download and update with a number of new features added to the app. The new features include:

• iPod Touch\iPhone Support
• On-line Tutorials
• Distributed Load
• Set Weight
• Construction Line
• Autodesk Cloud Support
• Break Element

The #1 customer request was for the addition to add a distributed load evenly across an existing element and the #2 request was support on the iPhone and iPod Touch devices. ForceEffect v2.0 adds both of the #1 and #2 customer requests!!

The on-line tutorials can be accessed directly from within ForceEffect v2.0 and include videos of how to use the app directly within the app itself - so no need to leave the app watch the videos and learn about it.

Having access to Autodesk Cloud documents directly from within ForceEffect v2.0 means you can save your studies to Autodesk Cloud and access them from your laptop or desktop and re-use the data in your design development using tools like Autodesk Inventor or AutoCAD Mechanical. Alternativley, you can open documents you have saved to Autodesk Could into ForceEffect v2.0 to carry out a structural study.

If you've not yet downloaded Autodesk ForceEffect, it's free and downloadable from the Apple iTunes Store:

Click here to get Autodesk ForceEffect....

If already have ForceEffect installed on your iOS device make sure you update from the App Store.

Autodesk Manufacturing Community Invited to Vote for 2011 Inventor of the Year

Today we have kicked off the the official Inventor of the Year voting process. Autodesk is encouraging members of the Autodesk Manufacturing community to visit the community website and choose one of the 2011 Autodesk Inventor of the Month winners as Inventor of the Year.

The Autodesk Inventor of the Month program recognses the most innovative design and engineering advancements made among the hundreds of thousands of advancements users make using Autodesk Inventor software - technology that enables Digital Prototyping. A digital prototype helps users design, visualise and simulate product performance before it is built, helping reduce costs, speed time to market and enhance competitive advantage.

Community members will select the next Inventor of the Year by voting for the best of the monthly award winners from 2011. The company with the highest rating from community members will be named 2011 Inventor of the Year. Voting is under way and closes Feb. 29 at 5 p.m. Pacific time.

The Contenders: 2011 Inventor of the Month Winners 

January 2011: Valiant Corporation, a global provider of manufacturing solutions, uses the advanced dynamic simulation functionality in Autodesk Inventor to increase load capacity while reducing costs, and to minimize design weight while meeting customer performance requirements. In a recent project for The Boeing Company, Valiant designed and engineered a portable cargo loader 30 percent more efficiently. 

February 2011: Nitto Sangyo, a Japanese playground equipment manufacturer, uses Autodesk Inventor to develop Link Mini rocking toys. The toys are designed to be safer and more durable than standard commercial playground equipment. Eliminating reliance on physical prototyping shortened Link Mini development time by almost two months, reducing overall costs by nearly US$6,000 (500,000 yen) per product.

March 2011: Weatherhaven provides portable shelters, camps and systems for remote sites around the world. Using Digital Prototyping in Autodesk Inventor, Weatherhaven has significantly shortened product development time from concept to manufacturing, while reduced the number of more expensive physical prototypes typically necessary to explore and validate designs. 

April 2011: Federal Equipment Company, a supplier of specialized military replacement parts, used Autodesk Inventor to design an advanced elevator system for the U.S. Navy. The new system enables efficient transport of munitions on board new aircraft carriers. Testing is costly, but with the help of Autodesk software, FEC can simulate the elevator’s shock response in just one $400,000 test, enabling the company to quickly identify and fix potential problems and avoid often costly retesting.   

May 2011: Hawkes Ocean Technologies (HOT) designs and builds manned and remote vehicles for deep-ocean exploration. Autodesk Inventor enables HOT to create entirely new ideas and change the way submersibles operate, transforming them from “underwater balloons” to underwater crafts capable of flight. 

June 2011: Carousel Works is the world’s largest manufacturer of custom wooden carousels for zoos, parks and the world’s largest cruise ships, including Royal Caribbean’s “Oasis of the Seas” and “Allure of the Seas.” With Autodesk Inventor, Carousel Works marries old-world craftsmanship with 3D design, and creates its custom wooden carousels up to 50 percent faster.

July 2011: Pankl Aerospace Systems uses Autodesk Inventor LT software to more effectively manufacture helicopter rotary systems, increasing the performance and reliability of critical components, while significantly improving pilot and passenger safety. Autodesk software helps Pankl save time, reduce manufacturing costs and increase customer quality, all while operating at optimal performance. 

August 2011: Illini Prosthetic Technologies, a nonprofit organization, uses Autodesk Inventor to develop more affordable and more easily fitted prosthetic arms for below-elbow amputees in developing nations. Digitally exploring and refining its ideas, IPT provides access to affordable prosthetic care, helping amputees around the world regain use of their limbs, return to work and better care for themselves and their families. 

September 2011: PMB Façade, a Malaysia-based company, uses Autodesk Inventor to develop architectural façades for some of the world’s most astonishing buildings, including Qatar’s 43-story Al-Bidda Tower, also known as Tornado Tower. The ability to digitally simulate and predict real-world performance before construction has helped PMB Façade reduce material cost and waste by as much as 15 percent, and deliver projects up to 30 percent faster.  

October 2011: Kelly Racing, an Australia-based racing team, uses Autodesk Inventor to precisely design and validate new car components that give the team a racing edge. After a race weekend, designers modify existing car parts with Inventor, increasing traction and grip by as much as 8 percent, which leads to faster lap times and increased performance. 

November 2011: A-dec, a leading manufacturer of dental chairs and equipment, uses Autodesk Inventor to more effectively design and develop products, cutting time to market. A-dec also uses Autodesk software to generate user manuals and service guides for its popular dentistry products, enhancing usability and reducing translation costs. 

December 2011: Green Structures, a UK-based clean technology company, uses Autodesk Inventor and a range of other Autodesk Digital Prototyping technology to create award-winning energy-efficiency systems. The firm’s latest innovation, a heat recovery ventilation system called Ventive, provides a faster and less expensive alternative for retrofitting buildings with the latest green technologies. 

Click here to cast your vote....

About the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program

Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the users of Autodesk Inventor software, which takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation. For more information about the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program, contact us at IOM@autodesk.com.

60 Second Visualisation with Autodesk Showcase

I thought I'd share with you these couple of images that I created using Autodesk Product Design Suite.

The test jig itself was engineered by one of our US based customers using Autodesk Inventor and I re-used their dataset in Autodesk Showcase to create the images.

I didn't have to apply any colours or materials in Showcase, they were automatically applied to the model based on what was assigned by the design engineer in Inventor; and there was no rendering time as Showcase has a real-time rendering engine. All I did was set the environment, which is a 360 degree HDRI environment (High Dynamic Range Image) so contains all of the relevant lighting information, and then make a couple of tweaks to the camera angle.

So all in all, I spent about 60 seconds creating these images in Showcase:

You can find more images like these in the Autodesk Manufacturing Gallery on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/autodeskmfggallery

PS: If you noticed the new header image of the blog, you'll see why I created these images :-)

Autodesk Inventor Task Scheduler

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!

Audipak show off their use of Autodesk Inventor

One of my colleagues based in Holland sent me this video which one of his customers, Audipak, has produced to promote their products and business, and their use of Autodesk Inventor.

Audipak design and manufacture accessories and equipment for audio visual equipment such as flat screen TV's, projectors and audio equipment.

The company started out manufacturing protective flight cases for different audio\visual equipment but when the equipment they were protecting became bigger and heavier they started developing mechanisms to lift or erect the equipment from the cases.  From there on they moved on to developing more and more tools and products related to AV equipment, both for rental and for permanent use.

Innovation is key to Audipak in being successful in the fast changing world of AV, using Autodesk Inventor to develop Digital Prototypes of their products enables them to design new and innovative products for their customers.

Autodesk 2011 Design Visualisation Showreel

Grab yourself a cup of tea\coffee\juice\beer [delete as appropriate], turn the volume up, sit back, relax and watch some amazing work created by users of Autodesk software. This is the 2011 Autodesk Design Visualisation Showreel....

Best viewed in full screen mode........enjoy!

Working with external iLogic rules

My previous post on how to save multiple file formats automatically using iLogic prompted a question from one of our users here in the UK about where rules should be saved and how they should be added. As I was putting a response together I thought it might be a useful topic for others.

iLogic rules can be saved within the part, assembly or drawing file, these rules are then saved within that document and can be used each time that document is open.

You can save iLogic rules within your part, assembly and\or drawing templates so that any new file created using said template will already contain any of the standard rules you want users to use. This is a really good way of working as it means you can create your rules and then add them to each of the templates meaning they are always there for users to work with. If you need to update a rule, you can update the template and that rule will then be updated for all subsequent documents.

The other way of using iLogic rules is by using external rules, this is where the iLogic rules lice outside of the Inventor documents and are referenced by the user when they are needed. To add an external rule, it's pretty straight forward:

First, you can configure search paths for your external rules on the Tools ribbon within Inventor:

The iLogic Configuration tool is on the extended menu which to access you need to click on the black arrow next to where it says Options. 

The iLogic Configuration dialogue allows you to add search paths for folders which contain your external rules. External rules are basically text files that contain the iLogic code and are saved with an extension of:

• .iLogicVb
• .vb
• .txt

You can see in my example below I have added the folder which contains all of my external rules:

Now that I have this configured, I can add a rule to my drawing by selecting the External Rules tab and the right-mouse clicking to Add External Rule:

By doing this, I create a link between the iLogic rule stored in my folder and the document I have added it into. I can run the rule whenever I want just by right-mouse clicking and selecting Run Rule:

You'll notice that I have options to Edit Rule, which will open the rule in the iLogic editor. I can reload from file, which is great for when a change is made to the iLogic code within the external text file; and I can also Open the folder the rule is saved in and finally remove\detach the external rule from the list.

The final part of this is that I can call an external rule from a rule stored within the document. I can add a little bit of iLogic code that I can have within my template file that references the external file and rule.

iLogicVb.RunExternalRule("save_as.iLogicVb")

You'll notice that I only add the filename of the external rule, I don't need to add the full path as setting iLogic Configuration to include the search path of my external rules takes care of which folder to look in (you can add multiple search folders too).

Why would I do this I hear you ask? Well, it means that users don't always have to attach rules when they need them but it gives flexibility should a rule need to be edited or updated - making the update within the external rule is quick and simple and will propagate to all of the documents the rule is linked to.

Using Inventor iLogic to Save multiple formats

Once you've finished your 2D drawing using Autodesk Inventor do you ever have to use the Save Copy As tool to save the IDW or DWG file as a different file format to share with colleagues, suppliers or customers?

The Save Copy As tool within Autodesk Inventor will allow users to save a 2D drawing in various different file formats such as AutoCAD DWG (2000, 2004, 2007 or 2010), JPG, TIFF, PDF, GIF, PNG etc. These formats help when the 2D drawing is to be shared with those who use tools like Adobe Acrobat Reader or Windows Image Viewer.

As a design engineer though, you don't want to spend time and effort using the Save Copy As tool to produce each of the different formats required for each 2D drawing.

Using Autodesk Inventors iLogic tools we can build a rule that creates these other files for you automatically, it requires just one line of iLogic code - yes, you read that correctly just one line of iLogic code!!

Have a watch of this video to see exactly how art the touch of a button you can save your 2D Inventor drawing and get all the other required formats 'free of charge':

Rather than typing the iLogic rule, here it is so you can copy & paste it:

ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(ThisDoc.ChangeExtension(".jpg"), True)

UPDATE: Using the line of iLogic code above will save the files in the same folder as the 2D drawing. If you want to save it in a different folder you can predifine the location using the following:

strFolder = "D:\files\" & ThisDoc.FileName(False) 'without extension

ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(strFolder & (".jpg") , True)
ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(strFolder & (".pdf") , True)

MessageBox.Show("All file formats saved", "File Save")

Enjoy!

First Post of 2012: Autodesk Inventor and Showcase

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.

Accessing Autodesk Vault Data via Webclient & iPad

This is the third part in a series of videos all about creating and sharing eco impact data such as end of life, CO2 footprint, energy usage etc that was created within Autodesk Inventor 2012 and then managed using Autodesk Vault Professional 2012.

In part one of the series, we looked at how we could create the eco impact data within Autodesk Inventor.

In part two, we looked at how the eco impact data we created in part one can be added to Autodesk Vault Professional and then managed with the documents and Bill of Materials of the product so that non-engineers can access and work with the data.

This final part shows how we can access all of the same eco impact data that is managed within Autodesk Vault Professional via the webclient and also a mobile device such as an Apple iPad (other mobile devices can also access the data):

So whats the point of this I hear you cry.....

As designers and engineers, we have a responsibility to think about material choices and regulatory compliance. We need to make sure that the products and solutions we design, engineer & manufacture are taking advantage of materials that can be recycled and to do this that we don't need our own personal power station to manufacture.

But more importantly, buyers, distributors and consumers are asking more questions about the products they buy, is it sustainable? is it recyclable? whats the CO2 footprint? what materials have been used? does it comply with regulations? - and all these need to be answered!

Using Eco Materials Advisor within Autodesk Inventor will give design engineers the ability to start the process of thinking about the eco impact of their designs much earlier. Once they have made decisions about the materials, manufacturing processes and finishes all of that eco impact data can then be shared and re-used by non-engineers without the need for them to do time consuming research.

The information is there for them, they can find exactly what they are looking for quickly and easily and then when asked those questions by distributors, consumers etc they have the data to hand, driven directly from the Digital Prototype.