autodesk inventor series: product summary the truth about...

Autodesk Inventor Series: Product Summary

Design Your Complete Product Line

Capacity and Performance

With the capacity to design large, complex machines including tens of thousands of components, you don’t need expensive hardware. The segmented database architecture continues to increase capacity to meet your needs and is now faster than ever.

Weldments

With a built-in environment for designing weldments, it’s easy to model welds in 3D and improve quality by simulating weld preparation, welding, and postweld operations. Classify and model fi llet, gap, and groove weld beads as 3D solids. Automatically create 3D annotation based on industry or company standards, and automatically generate associative 2D weld symbols for documentation. Weldment analysis and reporting capabilities include bead volume report-ing and comprehensive interference detection of all solid weld bead types.

The truth about 3D: you still need 2D.

Autodesk Inventor® Series didn’t become the world’s number one–selling 3D mechanical design software by accident. It’s the industry leader because it consis-tently delivers the right tool for the job, helping you design your entire product line with one integrated solution. Autodesk Inventor Series includes Autodesk Inventor® 3D design software; AutoCAD® Mechanical, built on the AutoCAD® platform for 2D mechanical drawing and detailing; and Autodesk® Vault, integrated data manage-ment for securely managing work-in-progress design data.

Design accelerator functionality makes it easy to move from 2D to 3D with interactive tools that automate the creation of mechanical components based on real-world attributes such as speed, power, and material properties rather than complex geo-metric descriptions. So make the transition to 3D at your own pace, protect existing 2D investments, and work with the most DWG-compatible platform available.

Autodesk Inventor Series—the best selling 3D design software on the market.


Advanced Shape Description

Improve innovation by using ShapeManager. This purpose-built 3D modeling kernel has been fi ne-tuned for the demands of 3D users in manufacturing, seamlessly combining advanced shapes and complex sur-faces. Built on ShapeManager, Autodesk Inventor provides designers with a hybrid design approach, so solids and surfaces can be combined in one design for easy creation and editing.

Component and Feature Reuse

Save time with instant access to frequently used machinery content. Autodesk Inventor provides a library of more than 650,000 com-ponents that represent commonly used content, including nuts, bolts, and screws. Powerful tools include

• Content Center: A centralized location that enables innovative content management, customization, and publishing of custom content for single users as well as workgroups

• iParts: Provides table-driven libraries of component groups (for example, a car wheel iPart that can be tabled between 4-, 5-, 6-, or 8-bolt hole patterns depending on the vehicle it is placed on)

• iFeatures: An interactive interface for populating smart features like con-nector ports, sheet metal louvers, hydraulic ports, keyways, and more that you can drag right into the design

• i-drop® functionality: An easy way for you to incorporate parts that man-ufacturers post to the web by simply dragging them from your browser to the interface window

Sheet Metal

Design sheet metal components using specialized tools that allow for quick changes and instant drawing updates. A powerful set of tools enables you to create parts face by face, fl ange by fl ange, or by extruding special contours to design from a fl at pattern, form, or both. The software automatically associates bend allowances based on material and thickness while providing customizable bend tables for correct fl at pattern creation.

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Bill of Materials

Eliminate errors and save time by automatically generating and maintaining a consistent bill of materials (BOM) across assemblies, draw-ings, and presentations. The bill of materials functionality provides a single source for managing the assembly and subassembly structure of pur-chased and nonpurchased parts. Edit all BOM properties through a familiar, table-driven interface that allows virtual components to represent unmod-eled components (grease, paint, and so forth).

Parametrics and Adaptivity

Cut down design steps by making changes that propagate instantly throughout your design, incorporating design engines for para-metrics and adaptivity. This functionality helps you associate parts in a way that allows the change of one part to drive changes in associated parts.

Dimension-Driven Design

Now it’s easy to test multiple design concepts before defi ning the exact form and fi t, a faster approach than using AutoCAD software to lay out designs. Quickly sketch shapes without worrying about details, applying dimensions to drive the geometry to the desired shape.

Design Views

Boost productivity when working with large, complex assemblies by storing and sharing frequently used views and representations. Quickly isolate specifi c parts or subassemblies to see what you want to see, when you want to see it.

Sketching

Create conceptual sketches of your designs using a free-form sketching environment to create, connect, and reuse multiple sketches to build 2D/3D layouts of design concepts.

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Streamlined Placement of Holes

Improve productivity by automatically creating holes, hole notes and hole tables that update automatically with changes. Streamline the placement of holes, independent of the sketch, using a linear (place by two edges) or concentric method—and defi ne hole parameters based on standard fasteners.

Component Selection

Quickly focus on just the assembly components you need for the task at hand. With component selection and isolation, you choose a specifi c assembly component and isolate your view to focus only on that compo-nent and the items within your selection criteria. Control component visibility to enhance assembly performance and speed up design tasks.

Create Quality Products with Fewer Revisions

Virtual Prototyping

Build more innovative, higher-quality products through rapid vir-tual design iterations. Autodesk Inventor off ers an intuitive visual design environment for working with parts and assemblies, which inspires inter-active design simulation to resolve product function before committing to a fi nished part. This way, you can simulate and test designs interactively earlier in the design process. And you can now easily create assemblies with multiple instances of a subassembly—each in a diff erent positional state.

3D Visualization

Take advantage of constant feedback on component relationships in all design modes to improve every aspect of your design before it’s built. To assist in making the right design choices, view sketches, parts, and subassemblies in the context of the design and assign realistic materials, textures, and lighting to your models.

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Contact Detection Solver

Drag a component to collide with another component to validate the reaction between the two—a simple way to reduce errors early in the pro-cess and help improve product function. And it’s easy to drive assembly motion, providing the ability to test and retest design function.

Interference Analysis

Cut costly errors and improve design manufacturability with automated tools that test for part interference, allowing the parts to be measured for proper fi t. You can also vary the component tolerance to validate manufac-turing fl exibility.

Physical Properties

Improve product design by using real-world properties to build a virtual prototype of your design. Parts and assemblies created in Autodesk Inventor carry physical property information—such as center of grav-ity, material type, density, color, and texture—to help you make more-informed design decisions.

Deliver the Design in Less Time

Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD Mechanical Interoperability

Get your products to market faster and with fewer errors using associative 2D and 3D collaboration between Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD Mechanical software. Just open AutoCAD Mechanical and browse through your current Autodesk Inventor fi les, choose a part or assembly fi le, and AutoCAD Mechanical creates a new linked drawing. When the design changes in Autodesk Inventor, the AutoCAD Mechanical drawing automatically updates.

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Associativity

Take advantage of automatic propagation of design changes to reduce errors and speed time to market. Associate parts and assemblies with design relationships, so that a change made to a part is refl ected in the assembly design and all associated drawing fi les. In addition, a change to the assembly is refl ected in the parts and drawing fi les. This means that if you edit associated components such as parts and subassemblies, those changes ripple throughout all parts, assemblies, presentations, drawings, and related partner add-ins (such as CNC tool paths or fi nite element analysis).

Design Accelerators

Move beyond sketching and constraints and accelerate design by working with parts that are based on mechanical relationships rather than geometric descriptions. Use the engineer’s handbook, mechanical calcula-tors, and component generators, part of the new design accelerator, to automate the process of creating parts and assemblies that are based on real-world attributes such as speed, power, and material properties.

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Engineer’s Handbook

With engineering theory, formulas, and algorithms at your fi ngertips, you dramatically reduce time spent on engineering research. This com-prehensive online reference and manufacturing knowledge base is easily accessible from anywhere in Autodesk Inventor.

Mechanical Calculators

Avoid costly rework and improve design effi ciency with easy-to-use online engineering guidance and analysis tools. A comprehensive set of engineering calculators builds on standard mathematical formulas and physical theories used in both design and validation of mechanical systems.

Weld and Solder Mechanical Calculator

Redoing weldments and soldered connections costs time and money. Use these calculators when you’re designing plugs, slot, spot and butt weld, and solder joints, and eliminate expensive rework. Analyze under static or dynamic loads for fatigue strength.

Plain Bearing Mechanical Calculator

Use proven, built-in engineering principles to optimize bearing life. This tool provides design and validation of loaded radial plain bearings working under hydrodynamic lubrication conditions.

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Plate Mechanical Calculator

When you validate design of plates, you can optimize performance. Calculate fl at plates using multiple supports and multiple load conditions and export charts of forces, moments, stresses, combined stresses, and defl ections.

Brake Mechanical Calculator

Automate and optimize brake system design to avoid failures. Cal-culate braking torque, forces, pressures, basic dimensions, and necessary time and revolutions for stopping for cone, disc, shoe, and band brakes.

Fit and Tolerance Mechanical Calculators

Gain insight on fi ts and tolerances and improve design quality. Analyze shafts and holes based on clearance, transition, and interferences, and calculate closed linear chains of dimensions in individual parts or assemblies.

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Clamping Joint Mechanical Calculator

Remove the guesswork from the design of clamp connections. Calculate and validate clamping joints (separate hub, one-sided hub, and cone joint) based on standard machinery practices.

Component Generators

Rapidly design, analyze, and create commonly used machine components based on functional requirements and specifi cations. Now you can create parts and assemblies based on real-world attributes and use conditions such as power, speed, torque, material properties, working temperatures, and lubrication conditions.

Mechanical Connection Component Generator

Boost your productivity through the automatic sizing, patterning, creation, and placement of mechanical connections. Create and validate mechanical connections based on industry standards for bolt and screw connections, pins, and pressure connections.

Shaft and Hub Component Generator

Rapidly design, validate, and create mechanical shaft and hub assemblies. Work in automated shaft and hub design environments to design, analyze, and create keyways, involute splines, straight-sided splines, cams, and bearings.

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O-Ring Component Generator

Speed creation of circular o-ring seals, and automate the creation of matching groove, making it easy to calculate, design, and place o-ring seals.

Gear Design Component Generator

Rapidly design, analyze, and create gear assemblies. Use this genera-tor to automate the design, validation, and creation of gear assemblies, and optimize their mechanical function.

Belt and Chain Drive Component Generator

Automate creation of chain and belt drive assemblies based on engineering requirements. Automatically generate chain, narrow V-belt, and indented-belt drive subassemblies. These generators automatically calculate optimal chain or belt lengths based on your design parameters, providing feedback for analysis.

Power Screw Component Generator

Automate the design, validation, and creation of drive screw assem-blies and components, to ensure optimum mechanical functioning.

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Spring Component Generator

When you automate spring design, you get predictable results. Select and calculate standard springs and optimize for loading conditions. The spring generator includes compression springs, extension springs, torsion springs, and Belleville springs and their placement conditions.

Feature Generator

Drag-and-drop shape libraries accelerate the transition to 3D model-ing by making it easy and fast to create and edit parts. Use the feature gen-erator to create fully editable Autodesk Inventor parts by simply dragging shapes from a library of standard geometry.

3D Grips

Grip editing is a fast and fl exible way to edit parametric parts. New 3D grips speed design change with intuitive sketch and model editing. Just select a grip and drag.

Assembly Mirror

Cut the number of steps required to duplicate and mirror complex assemblies. When designing assemblies, it’s typical to have subassemblies that are identical but mirrored to refl ect a right-side or left-side condition. Using the Autodesk Inventor assembly mirror functionality, you can defi ne left-to-rights or front-to-backs to create symmetrical parts or subassemblies. The assembly mirror functionality supports assembly features, assembly patterns, welding preparation, automatic part naming, and machining with the ability to reuse standard content.

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Component Copy

Dramatically reduce the eff ort required to reuse designs with a fl exible timesaving utility for copying assemblies, subassemblies, and parts from previous designs. The utility includes automatic naming functionality to create same-as and except versions of the design while maintaining the integrity of assembly constraints, iMates, Workfeatures, welds, and assembly features.

Customizable Hot Keys

Save time with fast access to the commands you use most by defi ning your own keyboard shortcuts.

Pattern and Mirror

Quickly pattern and mirror 2D and 3D shapes in all design modes to create associative or nonassociative patterned copies.

Open API

Customize Autodesk Inventor for your specifi c environment. A well-documented application programming interface (API) helps you automate your specialized workfl ows.

The Fastest Way to Production-Ready Drawings

Automatic Drawing Views

Automatically create front, side, iso, detail, section, and auxiliary views—with automatic retrieval of model dimensions—to reduce the time it takes to create drawings using traditional 2D methods. Use a robust pal-ette of dimension, annotation, and 2D symbols to quickly complete your drawing set. Create overlay drawing views that illustrate various positional states of assemblies.

Automatic Drawing Updates

To help eliminate errors and the need for manual checking, Autodesk Inventor associates drawing views to the original components. So any change made to a part or an assembly is automatically refl ected in the drawing. And now Autodesk Inventor supports global updates of drawing resources like title blocks, borders, and sketched symbols.

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Associative Parts List

Generate and update an accurate parts list in a fraction of the time required by traditional 2D methods—virtually eliminating human error. Part and subassembly quantities are always kept up to date and are instantly organized and populated into a drawing parts list. Ballooning and item numbering are automatic. And now you have greater fl exibility in creating and customizing parts lists to meet company standards.

Reuse AutoCAD Drawing Templates

Speed the transition from 2D to 3D by using your AutoCAD design templates, including layers, title blocks, and standards information.

Styles

Work faster and ensure that the work conforms to company standards with the ability to control and instantly change the formatting of an entire document. Styles make it easy to format characteristics such as font size, color, standards, and linetype. When you apply a style, all format-ting instructions in that style are applied at once. And you can confi gure a set of common company styles for everyone on a project to use.

Communicate and Manage Design Data

Import/Export Formats

Autodesk Inventor Series supports industry-standard data transfer for importing and exporting design and drawing information. It enhances collaboration with suppliers and customers by enabling sharing and reuse of design data with other 3D CAD/CAM systems.

You can import DWG, DXF™, ProE®, SAT, IGES, and STEP fi les. Export part assembly fi les, including SAT, IGES, STEP, STL, and Autodesk® Buzzsaw® online service. Export drawing fi les including DWG (with full layer map-ping), Autodesk® DWF™ (Design Web Format™), and DXF fi les.

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Construction Environment

The new IGES or STEP construction environment simplifi es collabo-ration by enabling sharing and reuse of design data with 3D CAD/CAM systems. It includes tools for inspecting, editing, and correcting the data before use, making reuse of imported solids, surfaces, wireframes, and points easier than ever.

Import of Autodesk Mechanical Desktop Designs

Easy import of Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop® designs automates migration to Autodesk Inventor Series software. Reuse your Mechanical Desktop models and drawings as parts, assemblies, and drawings in native Autodesk Inventor format while maintaining their original design, constraints, and drawing relationships. Migration functionality supports automatic drawing view creation, recognizing model to drawing associa-tivity for annotations, scenes, unit settings, and more.

Autodesk Vault Integration

Integrated with Autodesk Inventor Series, Autodesk Vault makes data management more effi cient by organizing your design data and pro-tecting it from inadvertent changes. This easy-to-use data management tool makes work-in-progress data more accessible and reusable, while avoiding the versioning problems inherent in sharing fi les among work-groups. Most important, Autodesk Vault is tightly integrated with your Autodesk design applications, making data management much easier.

Technical Illustrations

Quickly create technical illustrations, process sheets, training materials, part manuals, assembly instruction sheets, and videos to train assembly teams on the manufacturing fl oor.

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Autodesk DWF (Design Web Format)

The Autodesk DWF (Design Web Format) fi le format enables all team members to easily and securely view 2D and 3D designs published directly from Autodesk manufacturing design applications. Use Autodesk® DWF™ Composer to easily review, mark up, and print designs. And all extended team members can use the free Autodesk® DWF™ Viewer appli-cation to review and print designs.

Autodesk Inventor View

Share designs with your extended manufacturing team with full fi delity viewing and printing of Autodesk Inventor fi les even for those without the application. Nonusers can open and print part fi les (IPT), assembly fi les (IAM), and drawing fi les (IDW).

Content Center

Access the content you need—when you need it. The new Content Center gives you fast and easy access to a unifi ed database of components, simplifying creation, reuse, and management of all company content. Enhancing and expanding the standard parts library, the Content Center provides innovative content management, customization, and publishing capabilities for both individual users and workgroups. In addition, you get

• A robust graphical utility for accessing and publishing user-defi ned con-tent (parts and iParts), an intuitive editor, and a powerful search tool

• User-defi ned views of content, including access to commonly used components (favorites)

• A centralized content repository with access controls and an automated library update notifi cation utility that notifi es you of changes in the assembly and provides a refresh option

• Access to all Autodesk Inventor® Professional tube and pipe content

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Task Scheduler

Automate repetitive tasks and boost your productivity with the new task scheduler. Schedule single or multiple (batch) automated tasks such as

• File migrations from AutoCAD, Autodesk Mechanical Desktop, and Autodesk Inventor software

• Assembly and drawing updates• Print jobs• IGES and STEP import and export• DWF publishing• DWG import and export• User-defi ned tasks

Autodesk Inventor Studio

Reduce prototyping costs by creating high-quality photorealistic renderings and animations. Improve communication by quickly illustrating concepts for presentations. With Autodesk Inventor Studio you produce state-of-the-art rendering and animations directly in the design environ-ment. Now you have streamlined access to this specialized and typically expensive functionality without having to learn a separate application.

Learn Easily, Deploy Quickly

AutoCAD Migration Utility

Improve your workfl ow and make the most of your AutoCAD data. Quickly import AutoCAD drawings and map layers into the Autodesk Inventor environment as a completed assembly or as a part for your 3D layout. In addition, the software automatically senses AutoCAD units on import.

Ease of Use

Autodesk Inventor off ers the industry’s shortest path to full 3D productiv-ity. With a design environment featuring fewer, smarter commands, the software works the way you want to work. Highly visual feedback and ges-ture-based interactivity responds intelligently to cursor movement to help you work more effi ciently.

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Autodesk, Inc.111 McInnis ParkwaySan Rafael, CA 94903

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Design Web Format, DWF, DXF, and i-drop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product off erings and specifi cations at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2005 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.000000000000115021

Advanced Help System

Speed the transition to 3D with contextual help. The award-winning Design Support System (DSS) provides browser-based support to quickly bring you up to speed and off ers an electronic infrastructure for easy learning.

Design Doctor

Resolve errors in your 3D model with highly refi ned diagnostic tools that recognize potential design issues and recommend corrections.

Skill Builders

Speed learning through fl exible access to up-to-date tutorials and best practices. Extended learning modules provide enriched online help, tutori-als, and “show me” animations—with periodic updates available through the web.

eLearning

Flexible access to tutorials and best practices makes learning fast and easy. A valuable component of Autodesk® Subscription, eLearning provides a continually expanding curriculum of convenient, targeted train-ing exercises.

Subscription Services

Get instant access to the most up-to-date support information and training materials. Through the Subscription Aware feature, Autodesk® Subscription members can now access subscription services, including support and training, directly through the Help menu.

Autodesk Gives You More

Autodesk Consulting off ers services that can help you streamline your business processes and get the best possible return on your investment in Autodesk technology. Visit us at www.autodesk.com/consulting.

Autodesk® Subscription is the easiest way to keep your design tools and learning up to date. For an annual fee you get the latest versions of your licensed Autodesk software, web support direct from Autodesk, self-paced training options, and a broad range of other technology and business ben-efi ts. For more information, contact your Autodesk Authorized Reseller or visit www.autodesk.com/subscription.

Purchase or Learn More

Purchase Autodesk software through your Autodesk Authorized Reseller. To locate the reseller nearest you, visit www.autodesk.com/reseller.

To learn more about Autodesk Inventor Series and see a complete list of system requirements, visit www.autodesk.com/inventorseries.

autodesk inventor series: product summary the truth about...

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