Inventor – Creative Design With Autodesk Inventor 2010/2011™

I am very pleased to announce that I am working with Dennis Jeffrey at Tekni!

He has assembled a team of experts to create the new Web Based training series titled Creative Design with Autodesk Inventor 2010.  Many training programs just ‘throw the information at you’; we (authors)  don’t want a repeat of the status quo, non-intuitive and inflexible methods sometimes employed.  We are developing a complete training course focused on real world application, and a start to finish methodology.

The Creative Series is designed to give the student a better sense of direction and confidence. Students work at their own pace and receive mentoring when needed.  Furthermore we have spent a great deal of time focusing the lessons around solid ‘real world’ design practice. Details, notes, and exercises detail why certain steps are counter-productive, and what can be done to create more efficient and flexible designs.  As the students move from one lesson to the next, they will have developed an awareness of some things that could go wrong in the current lesson, and are conscious of these while studying the steps.  This allows the student to gain more self-confidence as they verify that their cultivated concerns were substantiated. 

While nothing can replace real world practice, this course was designed to put the student a step ahead of the basic (and some advanced) problems that traditional lessons can’t identify.  The result is with designers and engineers that have more self confidence about applying solid design practice in their workplace, what to do when something does go wrong, and how to use that knowledge in an adaptive way at your company.

Tekni web site

I have spent numerous days on each of my segments in the series, going through each portion and applying the lesson to the examples provided.  I focused my troubleshooting skills on creating powerful examples that work well and are easily adaptable.  Bulleted lists of commonly known issues and new insights are furnished in the lesson so that the student gets the benefit of past and present research and adaptations.

The Creative Design series is scheduled to be available by the end of 2009, but we will begin releasing packaged segments earlier.  Check in with us in the mean time as things become available.

Civil 3D – 2010 where the …. did it go?

Ok.  The interface is nice.  I have had the pleasure for years of using a context based interface in Inventor.  Civil 3D had had a slow migration of this in some parts of the application as well.  There are times when, no matter how nice the interface is, you just can’t find something.

Here’s a good example.  The edit menu->FIND.  I used this a great deal to search and replace information.  I use some * and keywords to index things in borders and text paragraphs when I don’t want sheet sets.  Find will replace the keywords at the tail end of the job, when I have more information.

It’s not there.  What gives.  Here is a nice help feature to get you going.

Where Is My Command?

Go to help, and in the huge list of options (apparently they were prepared for a lot of questions…. I wonder, maybe they checked out the forums.

…the journey to the Mothership

Welcome.  ようこそ。

AU 2010!  Yeah, well I’m back and already looking forward to next year.

Tekni is still giving away promotions for the new 2011 courseware.  Register before 12/31 deadline to get a chance to win.

Don’t forget the supportive folks at Autodesk University, Autodesk Certifications, Civil3d.com, BIM on the Rocks, and Tekni.

If you want to see something, please post to the Civil3D or Inventor product pages.  I will continue do my best. みんあさんがんばれ。

Civil 3D – Part Builder Part 7

Back to Part Builder Part 6

In the last session we created the Structures in the Civil 3D environment.  In this session we will modify the configuration to add the slopes to a list, in order to change the structure to be consistent with the corridor side slope.

Open up Wingwall Sloped in Part Builder.  Since we have something that hopefully works, let’s save a new part.  This way we have both.  “If it aint broke, then don’t try and fix it”.  Let’s try Wingwall Variable Slope.

Pick the ‘Save As’ button on the toolbar. The ‘Save Part Family As…’ dialog will appear allowing us to change the Chapter, Part Name, and Part Description.  Leave the chapter as Inlet-Outlet-Custom, cut change the Name and Description to Wingwall Variable Slope.

Hit OK.

Right Click Size parameters and select Edit Configuration.

 

Civil 3D – Part Builder Part 5

Back to Part 4

Ok, it’s been awhile.  Everyone knows I am studying for the test, but I feel so bad for all the people who have been emailing me about the series.  I will run through the ‘Homework’, and then complete the configuration session soon hereafter.

Homework Review

We left off with your homework, which was to transfer the Toe plane out, and complete the transitions. I’ll recap it as I run through.

Create the Toe Plane, Offset from the Right Plane a distance of ‘(bHeight-bThick)*bSlope’.  Insert the Anchors.

Don’t forget the model parameters for the offset distances.

 

Civil 3D – Part Builder Part 4

We will pick up where we left off from Part Builder Part 3.

Open our saved part “Wingwall sloped” from the last session.  Adjust the view so that you have something similar to the following image:

It’s time to speed things up a bit, so as I refer to procedures, I will once again detail them, and thereafter I will just state that it needs to be completed. 

Note: Halfway through I realized some changes needed to be made, in order for this process not to be more confusing than it might already appear.  If I missed any odd things in the images, or got out of sync with the variable names, please notify me, and I’ll do my best to correct them.

In this session we will create another offset plane, and additional profiles and transitions. Before we do, it would be prudent to create the remaining profiles that will be referenced to our (current) Right Plane. These will be the locations that the extending walls project into, the “tie in” points.  You should be fairly familiar with the basic procedures, Lord knows you’ve had tons of time to practice since my last post, we will pick up the speed a bit.

Civil 3D – Part Builder Part 3

We will pick up where we left off from Part Builder Part 2.

Open our saved part “Wingwall sloped” from the last session.  The image below should be representative of what we had before.

Model Parameters

The Model Parameters are the nuts and bolts variables that control the size of the part. The parameters are either dimensions or offsets that are controlling the size and angle of features, or parameters that the user has defined. Expand the collection heading, and you should be able to see all the parameters stored in the part, as well as the values currently assigned.  Lets create some user defined parameters to help us in our equations.

Right click on the Model Parameters collection, and select ‘Edit…’

The Model Parameters dialog will appear, allowing changes, additions, and deletions to the existing parameters.  On the right you will see buttons, all of which are self explanatory, with the exception of the ‘Calculator…’ button.  This allows you to pull variables form a list (without having to remember and type them), and evaluate the result of a proposed equation.  Any time you need to map a parameter to another, you can use this feature instead of typing if you wish.

Civil 3D – Part Builder Intro

Part Builder is a functional parametric modeler that 90% of the industry steers clear of.

If it is functional, then why stay away?

The main reason is that Civil personnel are not modelers.  Historically, that isn’t what they do.  The road through Civil 3D is long and bumpy because it is a reactive dependent model in nature, not because the software is difficult. Civil personnel are not modelers, at least not until now.

So why have a parametric modeling app in the middle of Civil 3D?

Well, to quote one of my party chiefs, “To have and not need it better than to need and not have” (His motto was to carry everything in the truck…for ME to carry everything).  Without the app, modified structures would be hopeless.  We would be stuck with the same old OEM structures, and as new structures come out, they would not be accessible.  Eventually, everyone would use styled NULL structures for everything, reducing the effectiveness of Civil 3D as a 3 dimensional tool (You know, the object viewer is not just a toy).  Pipe conflicts can be seen and evaluated easily……..IF the structures and pips are accurate.

Here is an example.  Let’s say you need a custom headwall manufactured to help at an odd bridge embankment, or a weir storm structure with an odd inlet.  The tolerances are a bit tight, and simply using something styled in 2D is leaving a lot of frustration and insecurity (I bet you rerun the same calcs 6 times of more before the project is complete, JUST so you can sleep at night).  With part builder, it doesn’t have to be that way.  Just take an hour (wink wink) and build the part so that the plan can be conveyed accurately in a complete form.

Point Arrow stop at Marker

How do you stop the Point Label Arrow at the Point Parker?

This question was posted to the Autodesk Discussion groups. Someone was kind enough to answer it there, but I thought a few screen shots would be nice for my group.