Engineering Education for the Mechanically Inclined

YouTube follow up

 Well things haven't progressed as quickly as I'd hoped but the process is underway. Check out the Inventor Back to Basics channel to see tips on the fundamentals of using Inventor that can be easily missed by anyone working on their own.

 On the channel page you'll see where I've subscribed to other channels with great content for more advanced and esoteric content. If you've found a channel that you enjoy please pass it on to me so that I can get the additional learning as well.

Another tremendous opportunity for Educators and Students

 For Faculty and Students who can't make it to Autodesk University there's another chance to take advantage of the learning opportunity.

 Autodesk University Virtual is a series of online classes some with interaction with the instructor. If you log into the Education Community you can register for Free. So take a minute and look over the offerings and make an investment in understanding the technologies that are changing the way Industry and Education are evolving.

Back to the basics of Inventor

Recently I've had some great opportunities to present to programs that have been using Inventor for awhile. While presenting I found myself falling into the trap of not pointing out the more basic nuances of Inventor. I would do something on the screen and people would say "wow, when did you add that capability"? Often what I'd done had been in Inventor for years.

  There are a lot of little things that are handy, simple techniques that I have taken for granted as Inventor has become more feature rich. Many of these things wouldn't be called out in a book or even the built in Inventor Tutorials. Right now I have a list of about twenty of these things. If you have a suggestion for something you'd like to see shared please send it to me at thom.tremblay@autodesk.com. I'm targeting videos of two minutes or less.

If you'd like to see where the limits of Inventor lie check out the Autodesk YouTube Channel another resource (and one of my favorites) is the irreverent, occasionally controversial, but always interesting Rob Cohee Unscripted series that also delves into interoperability between Mechanical Engineering and Architecture something that is happening more and more in Education.

Keep an eye out on this blog to see announcement very soon on when these videos become available and please send those suggestions.

...upon further analysis

Autodesk Inventor Professional 2010 has excellent capabilities for Dynamic Simulation and Finite Element Analysis but sometimes you need even more.

If you’re someone who needs to do advanced analysis work including; extensive optimization, fluid flow, computational fluid dynamics, mass transfer analysis, nonlinear static and dynamic analysis, rigid body motion, combined stress, flexible-body motion, electrostatics and the ability to combine analyses in multi-physics simulations than Autodesk Algor Simulation Professional 2010 may be just what you need.

But you’re just a student or a faculty member how on earth are you supposed to be able to access technologies like those shown here?

Well I’m glad you asked. The answer is the Autodesk Education Communityof course where you can download Autodesk Algor Simulation Professional 2010 for free! Just as we offer applications for design in the areas of Mechanical, Architectural, and Civil Engineering as well as Industrial, and Graphic design and animation.

As always, explore, enjoy, and learn.

Do you have standards?

 The Student download of Autodesk Inventor Professional is a fully functional offering that has an incredibly broad array of tools. It is lacking one thing though; standards.

 In order to save a lot of time for students who want to casually use the software the decision was made not to include all of the standard content (nuts, bold, etc.) that are included in the version that is sent to customers on several DVDs. From the lack of e-mail requesting additional standards I would have to say that this has gone largely unnoticed. There have been a few people looking for additional content and therefore we are making the additional Libraries available for download individually from the Education Community so you can choose which ones you may need. To download the additional Content Standards you want simply go to the Software Downloads page on the Education Community and select the link to 'Download Inventor Content Libraries'

Here is an overview of each of the files so that you can decide whether you want to access them:

ANSI: American National Standards Institute.
This library contains the English and Metric fasteners and components commonly used in the United States of America.
File name: AI2010_Inventor ANSI.zip
File size: 454mb

 

DIN: Deutsches Institut fur Normung.
This library contains the content for the German components standard.
File name: AI2010_Invnetor DIN.zip
File size: 123mb

 

GOST: Gosudarstvennyy Standart.
This library contains the content for the Russian components standard.
File name: AI2010_Inventor GOST.zip
File size: 260mb

 

ISO: International Standards Organization.
This library contains the content commonly used in much of the world for Metric components. Note: this content is installed by default using the Student download of Autodesk Inventor.
File name: AI2010_Inventor ISO
File size: 99mb

 

JIS & GB: Japanese Industrial Standards and Guobiao.
This library contains the content for the Japanese and Chinese component standards.
File name: AI2010_Inventor JIS & GB.zip
File size: 227mb

 

Other:  Misc content.
This library contains additional components that are infrequently used or are members of less common standards.
File name: AI2010_Inventor OTHER.zip
File size: 515mb

 

Parker:
This library contains components manufactured by the Parker Hannifin Corporation© used for routing Hydraulic and Pneumatic lines.
File name: AI2010_Inventor Parker.zip
File size: 25mb

 

Routed Systems:
This library contains components commonly used for piping, tubing, and wire harness routing tools.
File name: AI2010_Inventor Routed Systems.zip
File size: 3mb

 

Sheet Metal:
This library contains specialty components used in sheet metal production such as pressed in fasteners.
File name: AI2010_Inventor Sheet Metal.zip
File size: 21mb

 

Features:
This library contains pre-defined solid modeling features such as blocks and cylinders that will create or cut geometry when placed in a part file.
File name: AI2010_Inventor Feature.zip
File size: 1.5mb    

  It would be highly unusual for anyone to need more than a couple of the connector libraries but I do recommend downloading the Parker, Routed Systems and Sheet Metal libraries to be able to work with the great Tutorials that Inventor has.

Happy Anniversary to us all

Ten years ago this week I received a box from Autodesk that puzzled me. At the time I worked at an Autodesk reseller and while I frequently received packages of software to install for customers I’d never seen a box from Autodesk that was so thin. It couldn’t have been more than an inch thick and I assumed it was a book not a software package that would change my life.

 In that box was the long awaited Autodesk Inventor 1.0. A booklet less than a half inch thick accompanied a single disk and while I’d been using pre-release versions of the software it’s always exciting to see how the released product works and what changes might have been made at the end on the process. The software was simple,  and while the feature count was not as great as Mechanical Desktop or some of the other packages available at the time it was also missing was a lot of the fussiness and additional steps to get a shape on the screen.

 Fast forward to Inventor’s tenth anniversary and you’ll find that Inventor is just as (if not more) easy to use and there’s clearly been a change in its technical capabilities. Last week I did a four hour class/demo/overview for a collegiate SAE Baja team. In these four hours we covered Weldments, incredibly complex Sheet Metal, Finite Element Analysis of parts and assemblies, the always amazing Design Accelerators and discussed plastic part and Mold design with several other concepts. Even though I'd used all of these tools many times I still have to marvel at how effortless it is to carry out these tasks and how quickly the result is found. Ten years ago when I was looking at the Inventor 1.0 packaging I couldn’t possibly foresee these capabilities ever being part of the application and just a handful of years ago I would’ve doubted that they would ever be so easy. If you have Inventor and are still using the same techniques you have since you began using it take a moment to explore the tutorials and see if as a gift to yourself and a celebration of ten years of ever advancing technology you can find a new way of doing things. There are many to be found.

  To the developers, programmers and visionaries who brought Autodesk Inventor to the world I would like to say thank you and keep pushing the envelope of what people expect to be able to do. Happy Anniversary Inventor I’m sure the next ten will be as amazing as the first.

Got Skills?

 I'm not talking about computer hacking skills or Nunchuk skills, I'm talking about the skills needed to make a positive impact on your career and your future.

 Last week I was honored to be a Skills Ambassador for the trade of Mechanical Engineering Design/CAD at World Skills 2009 in Calgary, Alberta. In this competition people from eighteen countries showed their skills at discerning the appropriate work flow and techniques needed to carry out the tasks that people working as Mechanical Designers do every day.  In addition they used Autodesk Inventor as the tool to execute these tasks.

As I ranted in a previous post; Inventor is a tool for carrying out the tasks of Design and Engineering. Understanding this and knowing the tools of Inventor allowed the competitors to focus on the task at hand and complete them in time frames that could not possibly have been believed by people in the field when I started out. For example; on day one the competitors were given a collection of part drawings but were not given any indication of what the assembly was. The competitors created the parts in 3D, worked out how they needed to be assembled, created detail drawings of the assembly including an exploded view with balloons and a parts list and then created an animation of how the device worked. OK, leaving out the animation because it’s hard to do that with a 2D CAD system (much less a drawing board) this sort of task could easily have taken days in the past. These rock stars of design did it all in six hours work.  Simply amazing.

In addition to their notable skills they were also a group that displayed extraordinary grace under pressure. Imagine trying to do the task described above while thousands of students, adults, and industry experts watched you as you tried to carry them out. Even more amazing.

If you’re a high school student or starting out in college look into these competitions. Classroom learning is valuable but excelling in this environment could show a future employer something others can’t.

Congratulations to all of the competitors and best of luck in what is sure to be a bright future. In addition I would like to extend my gratitude to the Experts, Judges and team representatives who supported the competition and the competitors. They worked extremely long hours all the while point the spotlight and credit to the competitors.

 Get involved in World Skills International eeither as a competitor or as a professional who can help guide the future of Mechanical Engineering Design or any of the many other skills, because you've got skills, and the world needs them.

Win a pass to Autodesk University 2009!!!

 OK Engineering students, you have the advantage here.

 Autodesk is sponsoring a contest where you can create a video of why you want/need/must attend Autodesk University 2009 in Las Vegas. The details can be found here. Be entertaining, enthusiastic and of course a little begging might not hurt either.

 Be sure to enter and tell all of your friends if you make it to the voting stage. Your friends will know how help to you on YouTube old people like me won't have a chance.

Best of luck and I hope to see you in Vegas!

How it's Made - Live!

When I was a strapping young man preparing for college (a long, long time ago) I wasn't aware of the job that a Manufacturing Engineer performed. Then again the only machine around way back then was something they were calling "the wheel" and no one was sure that would catch on. 

If you've seen the wonderful television show 'How it's Made' and a couple of other similar programs you have been offered insight to the manufacturing processes used to create the things that surround us. I have a longtime friend who designs tooling in aerospace using amazing technologies and in my years working in the Autodesk commercial sales team I had many opportunities to admire the ingenuity of the craft.

Recently I had an opportunity to work with one of the fines Manufacturing Engineering Technology departments in the U.S. at Purdue. Programs like this prepare people to use a broad array of the latest technologies available to manufacturers. While "multi-disciplinary" education is a theme for discussion at conferences and in the halls of academia; understanding materials, process, electrical controls, hydraulics, pneumatics, as well as design and manufacturing software is just part of the job for a Manufacturing Engineer.

If you're looking for a major or a change in career, you're intrigued by how things are made and enjoy the challenge of finding a way to improve on something that is already working well, then take a look at the programs like the one at Purdue. You may just find yourself telling amazed listeners "How it's made".

Inventor Fusion technology is now avaialable!

So, you're looking for a way to quickly model a component you have an idea for but you don't know enough about how the component will need to be modified to use Inventor?

You'd like to be able to just pick a face and move or pivot it? Maybe add a fillet by sight rather than by a number?

This past winter I invited all of the students and faculty to check out www.inventorfusion.com to see videos of a technology that Autodesk has been preparing. Now, I'd like to have you go to one of my favorite destinations on the web; Autodesk Labs to download this technology and explore it for yourselves at: http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/fusion/

 I've been using an earlier technology preview for a few weeks and I've been impressed by its simplicity and flexibility. I think that users of Autodesk Studio products will find the "marking menu" interface options particularly appealing. Be sure to download the Getting Started document to get a good overview of the approach to make it even easier to get up to speed.

I'd love to hear what you think after kicking the tires. I'd really like to hear from some faculty members and what they think about using it as an early conceptualizing tool for their classes.