Autodesk Inventor 2010: No Experience Required Book

Introduction xvii

Chapter 1 Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface 1

Inventor's User Interface 2

Application Menu 3

Quick Access Toolbar 4

Learning the Basics of Tabs 5

Get Started Tab 5

Ribbon Appearance 7

Learning to Use the Dialog Boxes 9

Buttons 9

Dialog Box Tabs 9

Context Menus 10

The Open Dialog Box 10

Shortcuts and the File List 11

Navigation Controls 12

File Display Options 13

Other Controls 14

Opening a File 15

The New File Dialog Box 16

More of the Inventor Interface 17

The Browser Bar 17

The Design Window 18

The Status Bar 19

Revisiting the Quick Access Tools 19

Working in the Design Window 21

View Tab 22

The ViewCube and the Navigation Bar 28

Document Tabs 29

Make Yourself at Home: Customizing Inventor 30

Application Options 30

The General Tab 32

The Colors Tab 32

The Display Tab 34

The Hardware Tab 35

The Drawing Tab 36

The Sketch Tab 36

The Part Tab 37

The Assembly Tab 38

Creating a New Work Environment 38

Project Files 41

Project File Manager Buttons 44

Creating a Project File 44

Using the Help System and Infocenter 49

Are You Experienced? 50

Now you can 50

Chapter 2 Building the Foundation of the Design 51

It's About the Design 52

Creating the Sheet Metal Housing 52

Sketching Tools 52

Sketch Constraints 58

Sketch Dimensions 62

Inventor's Sheet Metal Tools 73

Sheet Metal Defaults 73

The Sheet Metal Defaults Dialog Box 73

Creating a New Sheet Metal Rule 74

The Style and Standard Editor 75

The Contour Flange Tool 81

The Flange Tool 83

The Mirror Tool 88

The Hole Feature 96

The Punch Tool 99

Are You Experienced? 109

Now you can 109

Chapter 3Moving into the Assembly World 111

So, What's Next? 112

Developing a More Challenging Part 112

The Lofted Flange Tool 116

Output Options 117

The Face Tool 122

The Corner Round Tool 125

The Rip Tool 127

The Assembly Modeling Concept 135

Creating Assembly Constraints 137

The Constraint Tool 138

Working with Standard Parts 150

Are You Experienced? 153

Now You can 153

Chapter 4 Working with Solid Models and Weldments 155

Keep It Simple, Make It Work 156

Making Parts 156

The Extrude Tool 157

Building the Bearing Plate 159

Work Features 161

The Chamfer Tool 166

Weldments 171

Drawing Views 175

Beginning a New Drawing from a Template 175

Creating a New Template 181

Creating Base Views 182

Defining the Base View 184

Creating a Projected View 187

Creating Section Views 192

Detail Views 193

Creating a Detail View 194

Detailing Tools 196

The Center Mark Tool 196

Placing Dimensions in Inventor 199

The General Dimension Tool 200

The Baseline Dimension Tool 204

Hole/Thread Notes 205

Dimension Editing Tools 207

Associativity 212

Drawing View Associativity 212

Adding Another Sheet 214

Are You Experienced? 216

Now you can 216

Chapter 5 Working with the Frame Generator 217

Leveraging the Assembly 218

Building the Foundation of a Metal Frame 218

Restructuring an Assembly 222

Demoting a Component in the Assembly 222

Frame Generator 224

Building a Frame 226

Editing the Frame 229

Adding the Bearing Supports 232

Bolted Connections 234

Adding a Bolted Connection 234

Representations 248

View 249

Position 249

Level of Detail 249

Creating a View Representation 250

Selection Filters 251

Enhanced Highlighting 252

Are You Experienced? 255

Now you can 255

Chapter 6 Working with Purchased and Multipurpose Parts 257

Reusing Your Own Parts 258

iMates 258

Creating a Cast Part 262

Defining the Basic Shape 262

Adding Draft 266

The Fillet Tool 268

Derived Parts 277

Creating a Machined Handle 277

The Split Tool 280

Method 280

Faces 280

Remove 281

Supplier Content Center 286

Using Supplier Content 288

Modifying Supplier Content 295

Assembly Sketches 296

Creating the 2D Layout 297

Using the Named Parameter 304

Are You Experienced? 308

Now you can 308

Chapter 7 Functional Design Using Design Accelerators 309

Design Accelerators 310

The Bearing Generator 310

The Shaft Component Generator 316

The V-Belts Component Generator 322

The Sweep Tool 335

Type 335

Orientation 336

The Rule Fillet 340

Parallel Key Connection Generator 344

The Copy Object Tool 352

The Thicken/Offset Tool 353

The Unfold and Refold Tools 358

Are You Experienced? 364

Now you can 364

Chapter 8 Creating Contoured and Plastic Parts 365

Working with Plastic Parts 366

The Multibody Part 366

Building the Basic Part 366

The Shell Tool 369

The Shell Tab 370

The More Tab 371

Plastic Part Features 375

Making Components 381

The Replace Tool 383

The Loft Tool 385

The Curves Tab 386

The Conditions Tab 386

The Transition Tab 388

The Revolve Tool 396

The Circular Pattern Tool 400

The Rib and Web Tools 404

The Decal Tool 408

The Sculpt Tool 411

Sculpting the Power Knob 411

Adding the Text 413

Adding the Power Knob 416

The Grill Tool 417

The Boundary Tab 417

The Island Tab 418

The Rib Tab 418

The Spar Tab 418

The Draft Tab 419

Editing the Sketch 419

Adding the Grill 421

Adding Grills to the Assembly 423

Are You Experienced? 428

Now You Can 428

Chapter 9 Communicating Your Design 429

3D Is Just the Beginning 430

Advanced Drawing Views 430

Sketch-Derived Views 430

The Break-Out View 432

The Break View 438

Presentation Files 441

Creating an Exploded View 442

Editing the Presentation 445

Editing the View of the Animation 447

Creating an AVI File 450

Creating an Exploded-View Drawing 451

Assembly Annotations 452

Parts List 452

Balloon/Auto Balloon 454

Bill of Materials 458

DWF 460

Inventor Studio Overview 462

Getting Started 463

The General Tab 463

The Output Tab 465

The Style Tab (Realistic Rendering) 465

The Style Tab (Illustration Rendering) 467

Creating a Quick Rendering 468

Creating an Illustration Rendering 471

Scene Styles 472

Surface Styles 476

Working with Animation 479

Are You Experienced? 484

Now you can 484

Appendix A Keyboard Shortcut Guide 485

Appendix B Import and Export File Formats 493

Import File Formats 494

Export File Formats 495

Index 497