Autodesk Manufacturing & Digital Prototyping Solutions

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!

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.

Autodesk Product Design Suite: Colours, Materials & Textures

Since the release of Autodesk Product Design Suite 2012 earlier this year I've been asked a lot about interoperability between the products int he Suite and in particular how colours and materials are transferred. With that in mind, and whilst updating one of my old modelling projects, I decided to run some tests and share them with you.

This is a model of my sons wooden fork lift truck toy which I originally modelled in Inventor R11 and have just updated it to Inventor 2012:

I have turned on the shadows but have not turned on ray tracing. All of the materials, textures and colours are the same as they were applied in Inventor R11.

This next screen-shot is the same data in Inventor 2012 but with the new ray tracing option turned on:

I was always impressed with the texture on the string, even back when I first modelled this back in Inventor R11 but now with the new ray tracing option in Inventor 2012 it looks even better, here's a close up:

I then decided to open the Inventor model into Showcase to see how the materials etc transferred across. The next two screen-shots show the model as it first comes into Showcase, and the second is when I turn the ray tracing on in Showcase and set options for the shadows:

I then did the same thing with 3ds Max Design, the first shot shows how the data comes into Max with the correct colours and textures, and the second shot is what I got by clicking on the Render option. I didn't do anything else other than ask 3ds Max Design to render the Inventor model I had opened:

I was then wondering how I could use the same data in SketchBook Designer but thought to myself that surely a sketch, paint and illustration tool would be used at the upfront phase of the design process for concepts, not after it had been designed - or would it?

In this case, I created a 2D drawing of the toy fork lift truck in Autodesk Inventor and opened the DWG in SketchBook Designer so I could add colour and produce some presentation material:

It was then really easy to duplicate the content in SketchBook Designer and produce further colour schemes and designs for consideration:

Because I used a DWG file to document the Inventor design the 2D geometry was recognised in SketchBook Designer as vector curves that can be edited using the vector tools available. These allow me to push, pull, delete, add points to curves, blend curves etc. All from the 2D geometry that originated in Inventor from the 3D model:

Finally, I wanted to make sure my 6 year old son could take apart and re-assemble the fork lift truck toy so inserted the data into Inventor Publisher 2012 (not part of Product Design Suite) so I could create some interactive assembly instructions for him. Once again, the colours and textures from the original Inventor model were shown in Inventor Publisher:

...and I could use the tools with Inventor Publisher 2012 to create the required technical line art documentation with a parts list:

...and then publish this to Inventor Publisher Mobile (availble free for Apple iOS and Android) so he could access the interactive assembly instructions wherever he is (with my iPad) and still see all of the colours and textures where applied:

Hopefully that shows exactly the work the Autodesk develoment team have done with the tools within Product Design Suite 2012 so that users can quickly and easily move data between the different applications within the suite (and products outside of the Suite) and not have to spend time re-applying colours, textures and materials.

If you're interested in how colour, materials and textures transfer between Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Revit Architecture you might want to read this post....

Autodesk Inventor: Quick Tip - Managing Parameters

Working with parameters inside Autodesk Inventor are an inherent part of developing the design, the parameters are used to store (amongst other things) the dimensional values for sketches, extrusions, fillets, chamfers etc. Whenever you input a numeric value for a sketch or feature, the value is stored as a parameter that can be re-used and edited at any time. To access the list of parameters, just click on the Parameters button on the Manage ribbon, or from the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) at the top:

By default, parameters are given an ID, starting at d0 for the first dimension created within the document and then named sequentially for every subsequent parameter created i.e. d0, d1, d2, d3 etc. Now as you have probably guessed by now, the more complicated your design, the more parameters you will have. You could end up with hundreds of parameters.

Autodesk Inventor gives the user the ability to change the name of the parameter so that it means something more valid to the user. When creating a dimension in a sketch just add the name as part of the input:

In this example, d0 will be automatically re-named to be listed as 'height' in the parameters list. It also means it's easy for us to re-use this parameter in other dimensions. In the example below we have typed in the parameter name as part of the equation:

Whenever we use a parameter name instead of numeric value, when the included parameters value changes, any sketch or feature the parameter is used in will automatically update. But what if you don't know the parameter name, well we can easily access a list of all the named parameters by clicking on the black arrow at the end of the Edit Dimension dialogue and then select List Parameters. You will be given a list of parameters to choose from and re-use:

One tip that I use is within the parameters dialogue itself, if you hover over a parameter name it will tell you in a tooltip which sketches, features and other parameters (as part of an equation) it is used in:

In the example above, the tooltip is telling me that the parameter lip_height is used within the parameter thickness (which you can see a couple of rows below lip_height) and also in Sketch1.The tooltip will also show us the name of any features the parameter is used within:

If feature(s) are renamed in the model browser to something more appropriate e.g. from Extrusion1 to Lip_Extrusion as above, the tooltip will automatically update to reference the new feature name.

In the example we have been working with 'lip_height' itself is actually equal to the parameter 'width'. But what happens if we change the names of the parameters?

Well if I change the name of the parameter called 'width', so it has a new name of 'depth', any parameter that uses that as part of an equation will be automatically updated, and any sketch or feature that uses that parameter will also be automatically updated. The screen shot below shows the parameter 'width' is now called 'depth', and the equation that contained 'width' now contains 'depth':

And we can see in the screen shot below that the sketch that uses these parameters has also been automatically updated:

So the final thing on managing and working with numerical parameters in Autodesk Inventor is how they are displayed within a sketch. You can select exactly how you want them to be displayed by right-mouse clicking in the sketch environment (ensuring you have nothing selected) and then choosing Dimension Display. The five options will change the way sketch dimensions are displayed:

• Value shows the nominal dimension.
• Name shows the dimension as a parameter name.
• Expression shows the dimension as an expression.
• Tolerance shows the tolerance for the dimensions.
• Value shows the dimension value, ignoring any precision setting

The 'fx' in the example above denotes that the value is a calculated value and not an input static value.

Autodesk Inventor: Keystroke References

I started using AutoCAD at R10 for DOS where keystrokes were the norm, and too be honest I still use keystrokes today in AutoCAD and Inventor to help me get done what I need to quickly.

The Autodesk Inventor Wiki has a list of the keyboard shortcuts but I thought I would update and share with you a printable version of the list of frequently used keyboard shortcuts in Autodesk Inventor:

• Download Autodesk Inventor - Keystroke References.pdf (243Kb)

The download is a 243Kb Adobe PDF document which will require the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view and print.

You might also be interested in a recent post by 3ds Max super-hero Jamie Gwilliam on his blog Jamie's Jewels where he has made available a printable guide of the 3ds Max keyboard shortcuts:

• Download Autodesk 3ds Max keyboard references....

Autodesk Inventor: Quick Tip - Degrees to Radians

We had a question come up on the Autodesk Inventor Facebook page recently and it's one that I have been asked a couple of times before so thought I'd do a quick tip - How can I change units from degrees to radians? So here you go...

If you're using the measure tool to measure between geometry all you need to do is click on the black arrow in the measure tool, select Dual Unit and then select the unit you wish to show. In the example below I already have Radians set as my default unit for angular measurements, so the alternative is Degrees:

However, if you want to change your default units so that you always use Radians rather than Degrees, you can do this quickly and easily with the Document Options.

First, just click on the Tools ribbon and select Document Options...

Then click on the Units tab and select the default units for your angular measurements:

Having this set to Radians will mean all angular dimensions within sketches and measurements (using the Measure tool) will be shown by default in Radians.

If you change the Document Options for your Inventor part template (standard.ipt) every new part you create will use Radians as the default angular measurement.

Autodesk Inventor: Quick Tip - Tolerances Part 3

Just like my favourite movie Back to the Future, all good things come in threes and here's the third and final installment of using tolerances in your 3D models with Autodesk Inventor.

So far we've had a look at adding tolerances to 3D parts so that the data can be re-used in the associative 2D drawings, but also how we can re-evaluate the 3D model based on the upper, lower and median tolerance to check things like fit and function.

This final part of the trilogy looks at how we can set general tolerance values to comply with company\project standards.

Many engineers and manufacturers work to general tolerances that are set either in company standards or at the beginning of a project. These tolerances are applied to all dimensions so that manufacturing are using the same tolerance values across all parts and features. Autodesk Inventor allows users to set general tolerances within the Document Settings and apply these standard values to the 3D model automatically.

First, go to the Document Settings option on the Tools ribbon...

And then from there just select the Default Tolerance tab....

The Document Settings dialogue allows you set default settings for the current part (.IPT) document you are in. The General Tolerance tab allows you to apply the tolerance values for each precision as well as export these values to your document iProperties.

When you add a tick in the Use Standard Tolerancing Values option you will be able to add Linear and Angular tolerance values against a precision. Just select a precision from the Precision drop list and then type in the tolerance value you wish to apply to any dimensions using that precision:

You don't have to apply a tolerance for all precision values, you can add just the ones you use.

If you add a tick in the Export Standard Tolerance Values option, the values you input as standard tolerances will be exported to the iProperties of the part file you are in. Keep reading to see how we can use these values in our drawing:

Once the standard tolerance values have been set you can use them in your 2D sketches to apply the tolerance value using the Tolerance... option in the Edit Dimension tool. Just select the precision and make sure the type is set to default and the standard tolerance for that precision will be applied:

You can see in the example above that by selecting a Precision of 0. and having the Type set to Default a tolerance of 2.5mm (upper & lower) has been automatically applied.

In the example below I have chosen a Precision of 0.1 meaning the tolerance has been set automatically to 0.25mm:

So now we have applied the tolerances to our 3D part, when we come to create the detail drawings how can we make sure that all of the tolerance values are automatically annotated?

The fact that we selected to Export Standard Tolerance Values so that they are available in the part iProperties means we can re-use those values in the drawing. The way I do this is to create a Sketch Block which contains the following:

The <ParLinTol0> values are text values that are linked to the part document meaning the value will be pulled from the part documents iProperties. So whatever the standard tolerance values are in the part document, they will be automatically shown on the drawing. Having this as a sketch block in the 2D drawing means I can add it to any drawing, at any time to annotate the values automatically:

Adding the standard tolerance values and sketch block to your part template(s) will mean that every part and drawing you create will already contain the standard tolerance values and sketch blocks you need saving you having to apply them every time.    

Autodesk Inventor: Quick Tip - Tolerances Part 2

On Wednesday I posted an Autodesk Inventor Quick Tip all about adding tolerances to your 3D parts so that you can automatically annotate your 2D drawings with the tolerance data. If you update the dimensions and tolerances in the 3D model - the tolerance data automatically updates on the drawing! Today I'm going focus on using the tolerance data in the 3D part(s) to re-evaluate the parts and see how manufacturing at the upper\lower tolerance can affect fit and function.

Using the same part we used on Wednesday I have edited the tolerance values in the 2D sketch so that we can see the effect of re-evaluating the model using the tools in Autodesk Inventor...

To update the 3D part so that it using the tolerance values to size the part, all you need to do is open the Parameters dialogue.

The parameters dialogue includes a Tol. column which as you see above shows a yellow circle for all dimensions. This means all dimensions are currently set to their nominal value e.g. the dimension value you entered into the sketch. However, we can re-valuate all the dimensions in one go using the four options in the Reset Tolerance tools (from left to right):

• Upper Tolerance
• Median Tolerance
• Nominal Tolerance
• Lower Tolerance

Clicking on one of the options will set all of the dimensions in the parameters dialogue to the tolerance value:

You can see in the example above, by clicking on the Upper Tolerance option, the Tol. column now shows all the dimensions with a + meaning they are all now at their upper tolerance value. The highlighted values are the two dimensions I've applied tolerances to and if you look at the model value you can see that they are different to the nominal value - they now include the addition of the upper tolerance values I applied in the 2D sketch.

If I select the Lower Tolerance option, you can see in the screen shot below, all of the dimension values update to the lower tolerance values I applied in the 2D sketch:

So now we have reset all of the dimensions to the lower tolerance value I selected in the Parameters dialogue, lets see how that effects the 3D part:

You can see from the screen shot above the model is now smaller, if I measure the width of the part I can see that it is 223mm rather than the 225mm I applied in the sketch. This is because I have select to re-evaluate this model at the lower tolerance so 2mm has been taken off the width.

When we see the drawing detail of this, Autodesk Inventor shows in the annotation that the dimension has been re-evaluated by adding an underline to any dimension that has an upper, lower or median tolerance applied in the 3D part:

We don't have to apply tolerances to all dimensions at once, we can selectively choose which dimensions we wish to re-evaluate by selecting the tolerance from the drop list in the parameters dialogue. This allows us to mix upper, lower, median and nominal in different sketches:

Having 3D parts in an assembly that have been re-valuated at different tolerances gives us the ability to check for clashes and interference so we can see exactly how components will behave with each other when manufactured at different tolerances:

Thanks to Mike Watkins for the prompt to put these two posts together.