For us, it's been a very busy couple of months. First we had several custom training classes. Then we had the Southern California Cad Summit (SCCS - like a one-day Autodesk University), and thanks to all of you who made the trip to San Diego we appreciate the effort. It was a fun day, the weather was fabulous, ate breakfast on the patio of the Convention Center, overlooking the San Diego harbor. I presented 4 classes this year (Frame Generator, Large Assembly Management, Vault, and Interoperability) - whew!
If you read one of my posts earlier this year I said keep your eye on interoperability, boy was that prophetic. Autodesk has a number of people dedicated to just that - making products talk to one another (apparently it is not as easy as we all could hope for). But for those of you interested, there is a lot going on and we should be hearing more on this subject soon.
Now we are poised to do AUGI's version Cad Camp. Same deal different logo.
And then, of course there is the ever present flow of new tools from Autodesk to look at, explore, test..... I will spend more time on these soon, but I have spent some time with a couple of new products from the Autodesk stable - PortfolioWall, and SketchbookPro - both very cool, fun tools with a totally hot interface.
come back soon - and feel free to make suggestions on future topics.
thanks, tod.wallace@uscad.com
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Recently, I was asked how to create a parts list for just the items on the screen. What was on the drawing was a design view of an assembly. Since I had not had a chance to talk about that in a while I thought I might take this opportunity.
First, we ballooned the view. Then placed the parts list, and of course the parts list contains all the parts in the assembly. Now comes the fun part, right-click on the parts list and select 'Edit Parts List' from the pop-up menu. In the dialog box that shows up click on the 'Filter Settings' button. In the 'Define Filter' window select the drop-down and from the list select 'Ballooned Items Only'.
If you are skipping the balloons, it is the same process just select 'Assembly View Representation' from the drop down menu.
More about Bill of Materials in the near future.....
First, we ballooned the view. Then placed the parts list, and of course the parts list contains all the parts in the assembly. Now comes the fun part, right-click on the parts list and select 'Edit Parts List' from the pop-up menu. In the dialog box that shows up click on the 'Filter Settings' button. In the 'Define Filter' window select the drop-down and from the list select 'Ballooned Items Only'.
If you are skipping the balloons, it is the same process just select 'Assembly View Representation' from the drop down menu.
More about Bill of Materials in the near future.....
Friday, May 2, 2008
The VIEW Cube
"What is it? Up in the sky? Is it the BORG?" No it is the new View cube.
If you have used Design Review or the DWF viewer you already know what it is, but it is making it's debut in Inventor 2009. Thats the good news (and there is more), the bad news is the demise of the 'glass box'.
The view cube will be a welcome addition to Inventor, with enough options to make all but the crustiest of users happy. You can click on the faces, and the model will re-orient to that view. You can also click on the corners for isometric views, on the edges for two face views. As you get close to the View cube a little house will appear, thats home, and will take you to the default isometric view. When you right-click on the View cube is when the real power starts to show, you can establish a new front view, establish a new 'home' view, change from orthographic view to perspective view. If you go into the options menu, you can change the location of the View cube, change it's opacity, you can even add a compass to the bottom of the cube.
Last, but certainly not least is..... put your cursor over the view cube, hold down the left mouse button and start to move, and the view cube becomes a 3D orbit tool.
This is certainly a thumbs up tool for Inventor 2009.
If you have used Design Review or the DWF viewer you already know what it is, but it is making it's debut in Inventor 2009. Thats the good news (and there is more), the bad news is the demise of the 'glass box'.
The view cube will be a welcome addition to Inventor, with enough options to make all but the crustiest of users happy. You can click on the faces, and the model will re-orient to that view. You can also click on the corners for isometric views, on the edges for two face views. As you get close to the View cube a little house will appear, thats home, and will take you to the default isometric view. When you right-click on the View cube is when the real power starts to show, you can establish a new front view, establish a new 'home' view, change from orthographic view to perspective view. If you go into the options menu, you can change the location of the View cube, change it's opacity, you can even add a compass to the bottom of the cube.
Last, but certainly not least is..... put your cursor over the view cube, hold down the left mouse button and start to move, and the view cube becomes a 3D orbit tool.
This is certainly a thumbs up tool for Inventor 2009.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Inventor Bootcamp
Well, we just got back from the Big D - Dallas, Texas. Inventor Bootcamp was held in dallas last week, and despite the fact that it was grueling, there was also time for some fun.
The underlying story, if you were listening closely, was interoperability. Pay attention, you will hear more and more about interoperability in the near future. Of course, we all know about bringing AutoCAD data into the Inventor environment, and we know that in 2008 they offered us the DWG file format as an option for creating drawings. But what I think we are going to hear more of is other Autodesk products interacting with Inventor, and Inventor interacting with other products. Putting your Inventor models into Revit, etc.
Stay tuned.
The underlying story, if you were listening closely, was interoperability. Pay attention, you will hear more and more about interoperability in the near future. Of course, we all know about bringing AutoCAD data into the Inventor environment, and we know that in 2008 they offered us the DWG file format as an option for creating drawings. But what I think we are going to hear more of is other Autodesk products interacting with Inventor, and Inventor interacting with other products. Putting your Inventor models into Revit, etc.
Stay tuned.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Inventor 2009 Part II
Let's start at the beginning. Sketches. Some very nice features were added to the sketch environment, and I will get to part of them here.
Degrees of Freedom; you can highlight a sketch, then right-click and select Degrees of Freedom.
Thumbs Up; Just a nice little touch to make it easier to understand how to completely constrain a sketch.
Degrees of Freedom; you can highlight a sketch, then right-click and select Degrees of Freedom.
Thumbs Up; Just a nice little touch to make it easier to understand how to completely constrain a sketch.
Inventor User Survey
I am in the process of creating a very detailed survey, delivered in parts, relating to the usage of Inventor. This is strictly for U.S. CAD and it's designed to help us deliver bettter training, better blogs, etc.
So my question is do you think this is a good idea? Let me know - tod.wallace@uscad.com
So my question is do you think this is a good idea? Let me know - tod.wallace@uscad.com
Friday, April 4, 2008
Inventor 2009
So far I have only had a chance to take Inventor on a short trip around the harbor, and here are some personal observations.
I really like the new release, the people at Autodesk have done a good job (all-in-all), providing something for everyone. And I do mean everyone, there are things in there for the new user, to help them create better sketches, and things for the verterans and power users.
THUMBS (HOOKS) DOWN: the steering wheel has been implemented into Inventor. Some of you may be familiar with the 'steering wheel' from Design Review. But, to me, that little thing following you around, even in 'reduced footprint' mode is enough to make even the heartiest of souls paranoid.
THUMBS UP: here are couple of initial impressions. And more to come. First up; the ViewCube, a nice subtle addition to the interface. The ViewCube lets you pick a face, a corner, an edge, and your model re-orients based on your selection on the ViewCube. You can drag on the ViewCube and the model will re-orient (almost like orbit). You can right-click on the ViewCube (remember: right-click on everything) and a pop-up menu will appear, allowing you to create a new home view, a new front view, or change from orthographic to perspective. Next, and there will be more on this later, one of my real favorites, the ability to publish to the Frame Generator, and the bonus is that it can be done very easily.
More Soon !!!
I really like the new release, the people at Autodesk have done a good job (all-in-all), providing something for everyone. And I do mean everyone, there are things in there for the new user, to help them create better sketches, and things for the verterans and power users.
THUMBS (HOOKS) DOWN: the steering wheel has been implemented into Inventor. Some of you may be familiar with the 'steering wheel' from Design Review. But, to me, that little thing following you around, even in 'reduced footprint' mode is enough to make even the heartiest of souls paranoid.
THUMBS UP: here are couple of initial impressions. And more to come. First up; the ViewCube, a nice subtle addition to the interface. The ViewCube lets you pick a face, a corner, an edge, and your model re-orients based on your selection on the ViewCube. You can drag on the ViewCube and the model will re-orient (almost like orbit). You can right-click on the ViewCube (remember: right-click on everything) and a pop-up menu will appear, allowing you to create a new home view, a new front view, or change from orthographic to perspective. Next, and there will be more on this later, one of my real favorites, the ability to publish to the Frame Generator, and the bonus is that it can be done very easily.
More Soon !!!
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