Inventor
From FIRSTwiki
Autodesk Inventor is a parametric computer aided design software package. A software license is provided to FIRST Robotics Competition teams by Autodesk, Inc. for use in developing, prototyping, and testing computer-based models of robots and robot assemblies.
The software's parametric nature allows designers excellent flexibility in making design changes through a set of constant and derived data. This means that, for example, changing the hole size or pattern for one part automatically changes or adjusts the mating hole size and pattern on an adjacent part.
Inventor operates around the concept of parts and assemblies. The user will begin by opening a new part file and face a 2D sketch plane. The user can draw many basic shapes, such as circles, rectangles, lines, and others. After the user has created the basic 2D sketch, the user selects "finish sketch" and is lead to a 3D environment that has an image of the 2D part they just created. From here, they are capable of selecting what operation they wish to do to their part. The options availible are: extrude, revolve, amd others. Once the part has had an operation performed on it, it becomes a "consumed" part, and other 3D options cannot be used (i.e. extrude, revolve) on the part again (unless an edit is needed). From here, the user has two options: if they are finished with their part, they may move on to an assembly, or they may use a sketch in order to create an addition to their part. A sketch is merely a 2D workplane that, once finished and viewed in the 3D mode, can be extruded, revolved, or any other operation Work planes may also be utilized in order to create sketches that are not directly on selectable planes on the existing part. Once the sketch is finished and consumed by the 3D option, yet another sketch can be used, and the process can be repeated until the desired part is achieved. This type of approach allows a person to easily build elaborately complex and accurate parts. Once a user is finished with the individual part, he/she may wish to combine it with other parts into a large-scale machine. The mode used to do this is called an assembly. In assembly mode, the user starts out with a blank 3D screen and can import parts into the space. Once the desired parts have been acquired, the user can begin to put together parts using constraints. Constraints are physical connections that are made between parts that describe how they fit together and move. An example would be a wheel and an axle. The first constraint would be an insert constraint, which would connect the wheel to the axle in such a way that the wheel would spin around thttp://www.firstwiki.net/index.php?title=Inventor&action=edithe axle. The second would be a flush constraint, which would line up the wheel with the axle, and could be offset so that the wheel could be located anywhere along the shaft. The result of these two constraints would be a wheel mounted on an axle (and able to spin) in a fixed position along that axle. The overall ease of use and relative power of the program allows for large machines to be accurately represented in a reasonable amount of time.
The software also has the ability to export part and assembly files to a number of standard three-dimensional model file formats, such as STEP and IGES, easily allowing Autodesk Inventor files to be imported into computer aided manufacturing software.
External Links
YouTube Tutorials
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