Autodesk Inventor Adds Three Major Enhancements

Co-author: Kagan Pittman

Earlier this year, Autodesk announced that Inventor 2016 had 387 enhancements. Now, six months later, we met with Autodesk to preview their first update since their new subscriber licensing model.

With Inventor, Autodesk will be avoiding big chunky releases that are often disruptive and time-consuming to implement. It’s an industry trend. Microsoft is an example, moving Windows away from large updates and toward a system where smaller, more frequent updates are the norm. Like Windows 10, Autodesk subscribers will get the updates automatically.

“There will still be an Inventor 2017,” said Derrek Cooper, director of product management at Autodesk. “Customers will see the larger release in the spring and then quicker, agile updates throughout the year.”

Cooper narrowed down the latest update release to three main enhancements: Shape Generator, ForceEffect in Inventor and Electro-Mech Workflows.

Don’t Forget AnyCAD to Import Third-Party CAD

But before Cooper got to the three main enhancements, he reminded ENGINEERING.com of AnyCAD, introduced in the Spring of this year. Autodesk’s AnyCAD assures compatibility with other CAD software.

AnyCAD technology in Inventor lets an Inventor assembly include parts created from other MCAD software — without translation. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

Longtime followers of Autodesk will remember when Autodesk would not acknowledge that any other CAD software existed. Now, in the more enlightened Carl Bass era, Cooper goes on to mention not only other software by name, but also how Inventor will play happily with them all.

“We find that a lot of our customers work either in a hybrid environment of multiple tools and vendors, or they work with different CAD systems,” Cooper said. Inventor uses AnyCAD to bring in models into an Inventor assembly.

SOLIDWORKS and Inventor working side by side. In this example, AnyCAD has been used to bring a SOLIDWORKS part into Inventor to perform an FEA simulation. Results necessitate a change in the SOLIDWORKS part. Inventor user receives a message when that part has changed in SOLIDWORKS. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

For example, AnyCAD keeps a SOLIDWORKS part as a SOLIDWORKS part. Previously, Inventor users would translate the part and bring it in a “dumb” geometry. If the part were to change in SOLIDWORKS, the Inventor user may never know about it. If they found out, it would have to be imported again. AnyCAD, however, will give the Inventor user a notification if/when the file was updated, avoiding a second import.

“This was a broken workflow,” said Cooper. “This is not a translation. AnyCAD allows you to bring into Inventor not only Autodesk CAD files but also our competitors’ CAD files, and it remains associative back to their authoring tool.”

Now, just because a design engineer can open a third-party file type in Inventor with AnyCAD doesn’t mean that they can edit it. Intellectual property is protected.

Shape Generator for Part Light-Weighting

Shape Generator in Inventor tries to optimize the shape of a part. Progression shows initial shape created in Inventor (blue) to a Shape Generator shape (yellow) to a shape "smoothed" by Inventor (silver). (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

The Shape Generator tool can create an Inventor part by optimizing the part structurally for the given loads. Shape optimizing functions are useful with light-weighting requirements common to the aerospace industry.

“Shape Generator is purpose-built for light-weighting,” said Cooper. Shape Generator uses topology optimization based on the FEA solver, Nastran. However, just about all of Nastran’s sophistication stays hidden. The tool adds and removes material based on the load paths in the part until it comes up with a shape that satisfies the desired weight and/or strength.

Autodesk has managed to put Nastran inside Inventor as a design tool rather than a complicated FEA tool. “Users can enter in their parameters, material types and conditions and, with a few clicks, allow the software to do the rest,” added Cooper. “This makes Shape Generator really ideal for conceptual design.”

After Shape Generator is done, the result can be a lumpy shape. This is no doubt from the finite element mesh that has been allowed to add and take away elements locally. This could be sent to 3D printers to be made as is, or smoothed to be optimized for machining.

Unfortunately, unlike similar software (see article about Inspire), the Shape Generator will not take the part’s manufacturing process into consideration when creating the part.

Lumpy part that emerges from Shape Generator can be smoothed with Inventor. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

ForceEffect Adds Static and Dynamic Free Body Diagram Sketching to Inventor

ForceEffect has existed for years (see our First Look at ForceEffect Motion, as an app you would play with on your tablet. With ForceEffect, engineers can create and analyze free body diagrams. ForceEffect Motion has similar functionality but is used to create free body diagrams with dynamics.

Inventor’s newest release adds the functionality of ForceEffect and ForceEffect Motion, making it now available on the desktop.

ForceEffect, previously available on mobile devices, is now included in Inventor. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

“I can take a picture of a bike frame and sketch a frame on my mobile device, making connection points, like welded joints and pointing out forces, like where someone would sit,” Cooper said. “Instantaneously, ForceEffect calculates the reaction forces.”

In the past, engineers were limited to drawing such diagrams on paper, or more recently an iPad or Android tablet, then rebuilding them from scratch in their CAD software. Now, static and motion analysis such as Cooper’s bike frame can all be done inside of Inventor, where it can be developed into a 3D model.

Inventor users will also be able to access ForceEffect models created on mobile devices.

ECAD Imports Filters for Electromechanical Workflows

Electromechanical workflows have been historically clunky. An electrical or electronic design will typically take the form of a 2D schematic, with height measurements. This schematic is then thrown over the wall to mechanical designers and engineers to do their best.

A little better is the use of component libraries that contain shape definitions, useful to its mechanical design. However, the sheer number of electronic parts in an assembly can be overwhelming — there may be thousands.

Although, the design of the circuit board enclosure may need only a few components to establish the maximum volume needed, or clearance with other components. As a result, an analyst doing the heat flow analysis may only need the heat generating components or the bigger components that might affect airflow.

Inventor 2016 now contains filters to limit what components are brought into the assembly based on type, size, or location of the components. For example, setting the filter to a height greater than a few millimeters off the surface may prevent all surface mount components, which would be irrelevant to the enclosure or thermal analysis.

In addition, parts coming in can be identified and linked to Inventor’s library of parts. If the parts exist in an Inventor library, the engineer will have better access to physical descriptions than can be contained in an intermediate data format (IDF) file.

Inventor 2016 includes filters so mechanical designers can limit which components are imported. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

Thermal/airflow analyses made more accurate when electronic and electrical components are represented. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

To learn more about Autodesk Inventor and its newest updates, visit www.autodesk.com.