Engineering Education for the Mechanically Inclined

Fusing Industrial and Mechanical Design in the Cloud

Autodesk Fusion 360 is the first Industrial Design and Mechanical Design tool that is based in the cloud. Fusion 360 is currently in Beta and now Students and Faculty today!

Fusion 360 offers incredible Surface Modeling capabilities, the amazing “Direct Modeling” approach to creating a solid body and it even has Assembly and Animation tools.

The process for accessing the Beta is simple. Get an Autodesk ID from the Autodesk Education Community then use that ID to log into the Fusion 360 Beta site.

Once you’ve created some amazing things you can share them with others on the Fusion 360 Community site. I’ve even posted a few things like this:

The most time I spent creating any of the above models was about thirty minutes and much of that time was experimenting. As it should be. You can easily spend hours just experimenting.

Another great feature of Fusion 360 is that it will automatically track the history of the various versions of my model so I can go back to an earlier version and explore my design from that point in time.

  This is a tool that installs in a few minutes, will be updated on a regular basis and I don’t even have to reinstall when an update happens. It also runs on Mac and Windows, yes, I said Mac and Windows.

Check out the most important change in CAD tools in many years and please let me know what you think at www.facebook.com/thom.tremblay.adsk

Simulation performance impossible yesterday is available to you today.

  Autodesk Simulation 360 gives you Mechanical and Computational Fluid Dynamics tools that leverage the power of cloud computing.

  Instead of the power of your laptop solving one study at a time Simulation 360 uses a server farm to solve complex problems in parallel and these tools are available to students and educators at no cost on the Autodesk Education Community today!

  Here’s an example of what you could do using Simulation 360 (Mustang not included):

  Take the time to learn more about the tremendous capabilities of Autodesk Simulation tools on the Autodesk website. I know what a huge part Simulation plays in Engineering Education to make sure you are on the leading edge of the technology. Enjoy!

Let the games begin (monitored and managed by PLM (of course))!

Win Cool Prizes in the 2012 PLM Games

 

Are you a university student in United States with an imaginative spirit? Then we want you to compete in the PLM Student Challenge. Entering is easy. Just tell us how you’d use Autodesk PLM 360 to do something amazing, and you could win a trip to Las Vegas to attend Autodesk University and other cool prizes!

Enter the Contest [https://apps.facebook.com/plmgames/]

Here is the video announcement

http://www.youtube.com/user/AutodeskPLM360

Get ahead in the Could with Simulation 360

So, you’d really like to the the CFD Analysis of your intake manifold but your laptop just doesn’t have the Horsepower? No problem.

Autodesk has just announced the release of Simulation 360. This release takes our already fantastic Simulation Mechanical and Simulation CFD tools and enables them to solve using a network of processors rather than the one in your computer.

But wait there’s more! From today until October 31st you can try Simulation 360 at no cost!

So try those frighteningly complex non-linear material studies or a creepy transient thermal analysis you’ve been too afraid to taunt. See what Simulation 360 has to offer. You’ll have a ghoulishly good time until Halloween. No trick, our treat.

Top 10 reasons Inventor 2013 is the easiest Inventor to learn

I’ve been fortunate enough to use Inventor since just before Release 1 and while a lot has changed since then there are a few enhancements to the latest release that I think make it even easier for new users to learn than previous releases.

Here are some of my favorite additions (in no particular order) to Inventor Professional 2013 that you can download from the Autodesk Education Community.

1. Sketch Scaling – One of the hardest things for students to grasp in Parametric modelers is sketching to a scale that is close to the final model. If you’re a teacher you’ve likely seen students fold sketches inside out as they begin to apply parametric dimensions to a sketch. Inventor 2013 will scale the sketch to fit the first applied parametric dimension. This is a fantastic and elegant solution that will be sure to save a lot of frustration.

2. Centered Rectangles – Many great videos, blogs, and other forms of tips and tricks have been created over the years showing various ways of centering rectangles. Inventor 2013 has two new types of rectangle that have you select a center point first then use a two or three point definition to draw

3. Dynamic Trim and Extend – So you’ve created a sketch that has 1,396 loose ends that you need to trim? No worries. In Inventor 2013 start the trim command then click and drag across the loose ends and watch them trim as you go. Magic. It works for Extend too.

4. Equation Curves – So you have to create a sketch of a NACA airfoil?. Now it’s easy. Just get the equation and use it to define the sketch directly in Inventor. There are too many options to cover here but it is a great opportunity. It even works to define 3D curves.

5. Something Primitive – A cylinder is more often that not created by sketching a circle than using the Extrude tool to add thickness to form a body. I know that, you know that so why don’t Parametric Modelers know that? Inventor 2013 does. You can create Cylinders, Boxes, Spheres, and even the beloved Torus directly without sketching first. Once the feature is completed you can use Direct Editing to edit the feature or the sketch as you normally would. It’s really about saving you lots and lots of little mundane steps that add up to happiness over time.

6. Being Direct – The Direct Manipulation that I’ve become dependent upon for editing Extrusions, Fillets, etc. is now available for the Shell tool and Work Planes. Sweet.

7. Thin Walls – These are not just for student housing any more. When you’re doing analysis on objects that are wide and tall but not very deep (like sheet metal) meshing them as a solid is taxing and can in some cases give inconsistent results. Inventor 2013 now has the ability to analyze these bodies as surfaces running through the larger footprint.

8. To the Point – Creating components that will attach to something that already exists in the real world? Inventor 2013 can use a point cloud (check out 123D Catch) or other scanned geometry in you model through the construction environment rather than modeling things that are already made.

9. What units? – Before Inventor 2013 IT Departments had to be sure to select the right options before installing the software to save students from having to constantly pick different Templates. Inventor 2013 allows you to change your default Units and Standard templates after installation

10. WikiHelp – I’ve commented and lectured many times about the value of the Inventor Help system and Tutorials. It really is a fantastic (and underutilized) system. Even if you’re an experienced user check out the WikiHelp. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find like these Essentials Videos. The images in this post are all from the WikiHelp system and you can even add content to it.

PLM in Education? Is that really even possible?

PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is a term that’s been around for a long time. It’s also a subject that has been made to seem so incredibly large in scope that only a few wise sages huddled in caves on steep mountain sides could possibly understand.

This perception has been driven largely by those who’ve been consulting with businesses on how to implement tools to execute this idea. Well as usual Autodesk has taken a different approach. We don’t think anyone can tell a business or even a student how they should be working or how they should be keeping track of the items and processes that they’re using better than they can.

The foundation of PLM is anyone that needs information being able to access it. If someone in maintenance needs to send out a replacement part they should be able to find out what was sent to the customer. An Engineer should be able to check on where a needed change to a component is in the approval process. A sales rep needs to be able to find out quickly if a customer request for a change can be done and if it’s cost effective. But what about a student?

Are you working on a Senior design project or are you collaborating on a project with students in another school? How do you know when others have finished tasks or found a source for purchased components you need? How do you generate a list of components that are easily recycled after you’ve gotten your grades.

PLM is NOT limited to Fortune 500 companies or those that can afford to spend millions to have their workflow analyzed by outsiders who somehow know how a company should be run. If you make something and you know how you did it or how you plan to, you can benefit from PLM and now you can do so without going broke.

Check out Autodesk PLM 360. This is taking a different approach one that is focused on you because you know more than we’ll ever understand about how you work and what you need. You can also work with others regardless of where they are easily because you don’t have to maintain the servers that they connect to. This is the smart way to use “The Cloud” to collaborate with complete control. It’s incredibly simple to set up and even easier to connect to others.

Check out this technology and let me know how you think you would be able to use PLM 360 with you work in Education.

Are you in a VEXing situation?

  For students working with the VEX Robotics curriculum or using their data through Project Lead the Way being able to design your robot in Inventor is a great way to understand what is needed to make your physical model.

  The standard sheet metal parts that come with the VEX kit have square holes. This makes it necessary to use two to three assembly constraints every time you want to locate a round part in a square hole. Even on a small robot that can add up to a lot of constraints very quickly.

  If the holes were round you could simply hold your Alt key and drag a round part to snap it into the round hole or use an Insert constraint but they’re not. But what if you could make them think they are? Since you wouldn’t want to change the shape of the holes in the real kit parts I’ve created a video on how you can make a simple addition to the standard parts that will make them easier to assemble.

           

By adding Inventor iMates to the square holes they will act just like they were round and therefore only require one constraint for each hole.

  Check it out and please share it with others if you think it is helpful.

Freedom meets Free-Body Diagrams

So, you say you’re tired of spending hours creating free-body diagrams but you’re just not sure if there’s an easier way?

Well don’t tell your professors but there is. Autodesk is committed to making things easier for our customers and as engineers-in-training you can benefit from the tools that make their lives easier by making the concepts you’re learning more understandable. Design Accelerators are a great example for machine design.

Autodesk ForceEffect is a new app for iPad that makes free-body diagrams so easy they’re fun! If you don’t believe me take a look at what the people in charge say:

“Autodesk ForceEffect is a mobile conceptual simulation app that brings engineering to the point of the problem,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. “This user-friendly app can greatly benefit engineers, students and technical DYIers who need to quickly and easily evaluate their designs upfront in the design process.”

See, I told you. This is really an amazing thing to behold. Check it out for free at the iTunes App Store and see for yourself. You may want to hide it from your professors though.

Stand out from the crowd with Certification

Simply getting a degree is not enough to get ahead any longer. Getting the valuable application experience of being involved in a student teams will give you an advantage in finding the work that you will enjoy.

In the current highly competitive environment it is a good idea to get every advantage you can. Certification can be the differentiator that will get you the job that you want. Being certified shows that you not only know the theory but can use the tools to practice the trade and this can be an important distinction that can open doors for you.

Right now you can view the certification preparation classes for Autodesk University 2011 Virtual to learn more about the process and the things you need to know to pass the test. You can view the classes by going here and select the class or classes that you’re interested in.

The products that are covered include:

AutoCAD® 2012
AutoCAD Civil 3D® 2012
Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2012
Autodesk 3ds Max® 2012
Autodesk Maya® 2012
Autodesk Inventor® 2012

I cannot overstate the opportunity that having access to these materials and Certification offer. Take advantage of it before someone else gets your dream job.

Calling all cars! …and bikes, and canoes, and bridges –Part 2

Are you a student on a team or a faculty advisor for one? If so I have something that you really must check out.

SAE International and Autodesk are sponsoring a webcast event; Winning with Autodesk on Thursday, October 6th at 7 PM U.S. Eastern Daylight time.

While this webcast will focus on tools used primarily on the SAE sponsored these tools can be used for any Mechanical design or engineering project. This benefits secondary teams as well as collegiate.

We will be reviewing 2D conceptual design tools, complex freeform surfacing, 3D CAD, FEA, CFD, dynamic analysis, creating metal frames, electrical wiring diagrams and 3D routing, engineering based machine component design, and all of it will be delivered in less time than it will take to get pizza delivered.

Tell your friends, parents, children, pets, and even complete strangers to register for this webcast and see how YOU can win with Autodesk!