SERIOUS SKILLS. Autodesk Inventor 2010 MASTERING Curtis Waguespack with Loren Jahraus, P.E. Master Autodesk Inventor 2010, Inventor Professional, and Inventor LT ™ Create 3D Models for Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Projects ® ® Includes DVD
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Waguespack
MASTERING
Autodesk
® Inventor® 2010
WaguespackJahraus
Create Full-Featured Digital Prototypes the Inventor Way Whether you’re designing airplanes, appliances, or industrial machinery, this complete guide to Autodesk Inventor 2010 shows you how to produce and manage build-worthy 3D virtual prototypes from the ground up. Inventor experts Curtis Waguespack and Loren Jahraus not only pack this reference with veteran insights and valuable engineering principles, they also cover topics that are rarely documented elsewhere.
You’ll receive a thorough grounding in basic concepts before moving on to a wealth of advanced topics for professional environments, including standard and sheet metal part design, the dos and don’ts of working with large assemblies, setting up professional workfl ows, effectively sharing data, and more. The book fully covers Inventor 2010 and Inventor Professional 2010, including newly enhanced simulation tools for motion and fi nite element analysis.
COVERAGE INCLUDES:
• Understanding the “Inventor way” of 3D mechanical design • Using the new interface effectively and productively• Transitioning from AutoCAD or third-party 3D design packages• Learning all aspects of part and assembly design, including sketching and modeling• Mastering advanced sheet metal design techniques• Exploring little-known strategies for large assemblies• Leveraging cable and harness capabilities, tube and pipe design, and
dynamic simulation and stress analysis features • Creating multibody parts and plastic part features
FEATURED ON THE DVDEnhance your learning with the innovative video tutorials for each chapter that highlight advanced techniques and best practices. You’ll also fi nd before-and-after tutorial fi les, interesting and useful Inventor utilities, and a fully searchable PDF of the book.
Master the Powerful New Inventor 2010 Interface
Discover Techniques and Tricks Not Widely Documented Elsewhere
Learn in the Context of Real-World Workfl ows and Work Environments
Delve into Advanced Design for Parts, Assemblies, Weldments, and Plastics
Use Inventor Studio to Create High-Impact Presentations
Enhance Data Exchange and Design Effectively Across Different Industries
ABOUT THE AUTHORSCurtis Waguespack is an Inventor Certifi ed Expert and an Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certifi ed Expert who has provided training, consulting, and support for manufacturing and design fi rms in industries ranging from aerospace to consumer products to industrial machinery. Loren Jahraus, P.E., is an Inventor founder. As an engineer, he has designed machinery for the food processing, material handling, and semiconductor industries.
www.sybex.comwww.sybex.com/go/masteringinventor2010 ISBN 978-0-470-47830-1
$69.99 US$83.99 CAN SERIOUS SKILLS.
AutodeskInventor 2010
MASTERING
Curtis Waguespackwith Loren Jahraus, P.E.
Master Autodesk Inventor 2010, Inventor Professional, and Inventor LT™
Create 3D Models for Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Projects
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorizationthrough payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the PermissionsDepartment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6088, or online athttp://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties withrespect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, includingwithout limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales orpromotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This workis sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professionalservices. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neitherthe publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site isreferred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or thepublisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further,readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when thiswork was written and when it is read.
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TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley &Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission.Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, DWG, the DWG logo, and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks ofAutodesk, Inc., in the U.S.A. and certain other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dear Reader,
Thank you for choosing Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2010. This book is part of a family ofpremium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combinepractical experience with a gift for teaching.
Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consis-tently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for theindustry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you thebest books available.
I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments andget your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this orany other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected]. If you think you’ve founda technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback iscritical to our efforts at Sybex.
Best regards,
Neil EddeVice President and PublisherSybex, an Imprint of Wiley
To Jennifer.— Curtis
To Penny, Edan, and Annie.— Loren
AcknowledgmentsThis book is a collaborative effort involving far more people than listed on the cover. Personally,we would like to thank our families, whose patience and understanding made this and all otherpursuits possible. Professionally, we would like to thank the co-workers, clients, customers, andfriends whose input and ideas have helped build the knowledge and experience that each of usdraws from in applying concept to practice.
A special thank you goes out to the Mastering Inventor 2009 team: Sean Dotson, Bill Bogan,Andrew Faix, Seth Hindman, Dennis Jeffrey, Shekar Subrahmanyam, and Bob Van der Donck, allof whom are true masters of Inventor.
Thank you to the team at Wiley: Denise Santoro Lincoln, Kim Wimpsett, Angela Smith, WillemKnibbe, Peter Gaughan, and Jay Lesandrini for their patience, focus, and professionalism, withoutwhich there would be no book. Your hard work and support have eased our efforts in turningideas into pages.
— Curtis Waguespack and Loren Jahraus
About the AuthorsMastering Autodesk Inventor 2010 builds on the strong foundation established by Mastering Inventor2009, which was written by a team of Inventor experts with a diverse and expansive pool of indus-try experience. Two members of the 2009 authoring team worked on the 2010 edition to updatethe existing content and add new content to cover the exciting improvements Autodesk made inthe 2010 release of Inventor. Here is a bit more about each of them.
Curtis Waguespack served as lead author on this book. He is anInventor Certified Expert and an Autodesk Manufacturing Imple-mentation Certified Expert. His experience designing construc-tion equipment, industrial machinery, and food service equipment,while working closely with the shop floor, has provided real-worldinsights into the requirements and demands of using Inventor inday-to-day design. Curtis has consulted with and supported manu-facturing and design firms whose industries range from aerospaceto consumer products to industrial machinery, each using Inven-tor in a specific way to meet the demands of their particular indus-
try. Aside from work, he enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors pursuing a varietyof interests.
Loren Jahraus, P.E., authored the chapters on Inventor design philosophy,sheet metal, assembly design workflows, functional design, and FrameGenerator. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison and attended the Universitat Stuttgartas an academic exchange student. He has designed a variety of machineryincluding an optical sorter for food products, an automated system to han-dle and monitor decommissioned nuclear weapons, and equipment to testcomputer chips. He is an Inventor founder and has designed functionalityfor part and assembly modeling, drawings, sheet metal, design accelera-tors, weldments, and Frame Generator. He also volunteers extensively to
help prepare the next generation of engineers. He has taught elementary-school students the SAEA World in Motion curriculum for eight years, he has mentored FIRST LEGO League and FIRSTRobotics Competition teams, and he is serving on the organizing committee for the 2009 SAE BajaWest Design Competition.
Autodesk Inventor was introduced in 1999 as an ambitious 3D parametric modeler based noton the familiar AutoCAD programming architecture but instead on a separate foundation thatwould provide the room needed to grow into the fully featured modeler it now is, a decade later.Inventor 2010 continues the development of Inventor with assembly layout, plastic parts, andother productivity tools.
The maturity of the Inventor tools coincides with the advancement of the CAD market’sadoption of 3D parametric modelers as a primary design tool. And although it is important tounderstand that 2D CAD will likely never completely disappear from the majority of manufactur-ing design departments, 3D design will increasingly become a requirement for most. With this inmind, we have set out to fill the following pages with detailed information on the specifics of thetools, while addressing the principles of sound parametric design techniques.
Who Should Read This BookThis book is written with a wide range of Inventor users in mind, varying from beginning toadvanced users:
◆ Beginning Inventor users who are making the move from traditional 2D CAD design toInventor 2010. These readers will have experience with AutoCAD and an understandingof basic design and engineering concepts, as well as a desire to improve their skill set andstay competitive in the marketplace.
◆ Intermediate Inventor users who have gone through formal Inventor training during theircompany’s initial implementation of Inventor and are looking for more information on aspecific module within Inventor. This book also targets users looking for a desktop refer-ence to turn to when they come upon an area of Inventor that they do not encounter on aday-to-day basis.
◆ Advanced Inventor users who have mastered the Inventor tools they use over and overdaily but want to conquer the parts of the program they do not utilize during their normaldesign tasks. This book also targets advanced users who want to add to their skill set tomove up the ranks within their current company or want to expand their knowledge inpursuit of a new position with another employer.
Attempting to learn all the tools in Inventor can be an intimidating experience, because of thewide range of task-specific modules available. It was the goal of this book’s authors to separatethese modules into easy-to-tackle chapters relating to real-world situations for which the toolswere designed, while also including chapters on general Inventor tools, techniques, and designprinciples.
xxiv INTRODUCTION
What you will learn The following pages will explain the Inventor settings while teachingyou how each tool functions. Just as importantly, though, these pages are filled with the tipsand techniques learned by the authors while spending years using, researching, and discussingthe tools that are Autodesk Inventor. You should come away from reading this book with asolid understanding of the capabilities of Inventor and a strong idea of how to tackle yourdesign challenges in the future, as well as an abundance of timesaving tips and tricks.
What you will need The files needed to complete the tutorial projects in this book areincluded on a DVD. Please consult Appendix B, ‘‘About the Companion DVD,’’ for moreinformation on getting these installed.
To install and run Inventor, you should consult the system requirements information found onthe installation media and ensure that you have a system capable of running Inventor competently.Autodesk recommends a minimum of 512MB of RAM and 1.5GB of available hard disk space forbasic educational purposes dealing with small tutorial-sized assemblies. An additional 1.8GB ofhard disk space is required to install Content Center. Note that these are the bare minimums torun the program, and you might see slow performance when executing operations that requireheavy calculations.
We recommend a minimum of 2GB of RAM for doing production work on moderate-sizedassemblies and encourage you to consider a 64-bit operating system with at least 8GB of RAM ifconsidering large assembly design. You can find more information about workstations specs andlarge assemblies in Chapter 9.
The Mastering SeriesThe Mastering series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers with intermediateand advanced skills in the form of top-notch training and development for those already workingin their field as well as clear, serious education for those aspiring to become pros. Every Masteringbook includes the following:
◆ Real-world scenarios, ranging from case studies to interviews, that show how the tool,technique, or knowledge presented is applied in actual practice
◆ Skill-based instruction, with chapters organized around real tasks rather than abstract con-cepts or subjects
◆ Self-review test questions, so you can be certain you’re equipped to do the job right
What Is Covered in This BookThis is what the book covers:
◆ Chapter 1, ‘‘Inventor Design Philosophy,’’ covers how to design the ‘‘Inventor way’’ whentransitioning from other 2D or 3D design applications.
◆ Chapter 2, ‘‘Data and Projects,’’ examines file structures and search paths and explainsproject file types and configurations.
◆ Chapter 3, ‘‘Sketch Techniques,’’ explores the principles of creating parameter-drivensketches for use in modeling features and parts.
◆ Chapter 4, ‘‘Basic Modeling Techniques,’’ conquers creating parametric features and build-ing 3D parts models.
INTRODUCTION xxv
◆ Chapter 5, ‘‘Advanced Modeling Techniques,’’ explores complex feature creation includingsweeps, lofts, and more.
◆ Chapter 6, ‘‘Sheet Metal,’’ covers how to create accurate sheet-metal models and flat pat-terns as well as how to create documentation and set up sheet metal styles and templates.
◆ Chapter 7, ‘‘Part and Feature Reuse,’’ examines the different methods for reusing parts andfeatures for maximum consistency and design efficiency.
◆ Chapter 8, ‘‘Assembly Design Workflows,’’ covers a thorough understanding of this keyconcept of Inventor design, including the use of assembly constraints, subassemblies, andmore.
◆ Chapter 9, ‘‘Large Assembly Strategies,’’ explores the tips and techniques to getting thebest performance out of your Inventor workstation and considers upgrade requirementsfor the future.
◆ Chapter 11, ‘‘Functional Design,’’ gives you a thorough look at this collection of Inventordesign accelerators and considers the difference between standard modeling and func-tional design.
◆ Chapter 12, ‘‘Documentation,’’ covers how to use the Drawing Manager and presenta-tion files to create both traditional, 2D annotated drawings as well as animated assemblyinstructions.
◆ Chapter 13, ‘‘Inventor Tools Overview,’’ examines this collection of Inventor utilitiesincluding AutoLimits, the Design Assistant, the Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard, styletools, and much more.
◆ Chapter 14, ‘‘Exchanging Data with Other Systems,’’ shows the available options forimporting and working with solid models from other CAD packages.
◆ Chapter 15, ‘‘Frame Generator,’’ covers how to get the most out of this utility when creat-ing structural frames from Inventor’s library of common shapes.
◆ Chapter 16, ‘‘Inventor Studio,’’ covers this powerful tool set to create photorealistic imagesand animations of all your Inventor models.
◆ Chapter 17, ‘‘Stress Analysis and Dynamic Simulation,’’ explores the simulation tools usedto analyze load stress and mechanism motion on your models.
◆ Chapter 18, ‘‘Routed Systems,’’ covers the cable and wire harness and tube and pipe envi-ronments and their uses in creating routed design layouts.
◆ Chapter 19, ‘‘Plastics Design Features,’’ explores the tools used specifically for plasticsdesign as well as the general tools used in specific ways for plastics design.
How to Contact the AuthorsWe welcome your feedback concerning Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2010. We want to hearwhat you liked, what you didn’t, and what you think should be in the next edition. Andif you catch us making a mistake, please tell us so that we can fix it on our errata page
xxvi INTRODUCTION
(available at www.sybex.com/go/masteringinventor2010) and in reprints. Please email us [email protected] or contact Wiley customer service at http://support.wiley.com.
Thank you for purchasing Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2010; we hope it helps you on yourway to happy and successful inventing, and we look forward to hearing your comments andquestions.
Chapter 1
Inventor Design Philosophy
In this chapter, we will introduce the concept of design the ‘‘Inventor way,’’ recognizing that manyusers of Autodesk Inventor are transitioning from the 2D world of AutoCAD or from one of themany other 3D modeling packages available today.
The change is not painful, provided you fully understand the concepts and workflows in creat-ing efficient, accurate models and drawings.
In this chapter, you’ll learn to:
◆ Use the Ribbon bar in Autodesk Inventor
◆ Utilize the Inventor Model browser
◆ Understand the various file types used in Inventor
◆ Understand basic principles of parametric design
◆ Understand the differences between solid and surface modeling
◆ Develop best practices for using Autodesk Inventor
Moving from the AutoCAD EnvironmentTo the experienced AutoCAD user, Inventor may seem extremely foreign and difficult to use.In actuality, Inventor is much simpler to learn and use than AutoCAD. The key to grasping theconcepts of part creation in Inventor is to set aside the methods of AutoCAD design and embracea new and more powerful way to approach computer-aided design.
AutoCAD was developed as a general-purpose drafting tool. Although there have been manyenhancements over the years, it is still basically an electronic drafting board.
Inventor was developed as a mechanical design tool. In Inventor, you focus on creating amodel of your design. Just like a machine is made of parts and assemblies, you create parts andassemblies in Inventor.
Many commands in AutoCAD are very specific. For example, there are different dimensioncommands for lines, angles, and circles. Inventor has only one general dimension tool that createsthe appropriate dimension based on what you select.
At the top of Figure 1.1 is the 2D Sketch tab that you use to create and dimension the sketchprofiles. Upon the completion of a sketch, simply right-click and then choose Finish Sketch inorder to allow the creation of a part feature. Once you do this, the Ribbon automatically switchesto the Model tab, as shown at the bottom of Figure 1.1.
When working with assemblies, the tool tab changes to the Assemble tab (as shown at the topof Figure 1.2). When you create a 2D drawing of parts or assemblies, you see the Place Views tab,as shown at the bottom of Figure 1.2.
2 CHAPTER 1 INVENTOR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
Figure 1.1
Top: the 2D Sketch tab;bottom: the Model tab
Figure 1.2
Top: the Assemble tab;bottom: the DrawingViews tab
As you can see, the tabs on the Ribbon change with every environment. With a task-based userinterface, there is no need to display every possible tool.
Using the Inventor Graphical InterfaceThe Inventor graphical interface might be different from what you’re used to in AutoCAD. InFigure 1.3, you can explore the entire Inventor window, which shows an assembly file open forediting.