Engineering Education for the Mechanically Inclined

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.