Autodesk Inventor ® ® 2012 Technical What’s New Autodesk® Inventor® 2012 Autodesk® Inventor® Professional 2012
Technical What’s New Contents Improved Productivity ��������������������������������������� 4 Simulation Enhancements ��������������������������������� 14 New, Expanded Help ��������������������������������������������������������� 4 Retain Joints ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 14 Inventor Essentials Videos ���������������������������������������������� 4 Continuous Load Improvements ����������������������������������� 14 Marking Menu �������������������������
Technical What’s New Welcome to the Autodesk Inventor 2012 Software Product Line Easy, Fast, Open We defined these three objectives for our latest generation of Autodesk® Inventor® products. These goals are reflected in the large number of enhancements in the latest version of the Autodesk Inventor product family. For you as a user, this means significant benefits and improvements for your daily work.
Technical What’s New Improved Productivity Inventor Essentials Videos New, Expanded Help Autodesk Inventor Wiki: Optional The new Help Wiki provides the most robust, relevant, and up to date information. In addition, the Wiki enables you to partner with Autodesk to share your knowledge with others. The online Help Wiki is the default help in Autodesk Inventor. If you are connected to the internet when you access Help in Autodesk Inventor, the Help Wiki displays.
Technical What’s New Menu mode Right-click in the graphics window. Menu items surround the cursor and each item, or the command name and corresponding command icon display. To dismiss the marking menu, click once again in the center of the menu display. Mark mode (also called gesture behavior) Draw a mark. To enter this mode, press and hold the right mouse button, and immediately move the cursor in the direction of the desired menu item. A trail follows the cursor.
Technical What’s New Select Other – Behavior Improved The Select Other procedure in previous Inventor versions required you to hover your cursor over an object, and then click the left or right arrows to toggle between adjacent faces, edges, and features. Hovering your cursor over an object in Autodesk Inventor 2012 presents you with a drop-down menu listing all available selection options. You can eliminate guesswork and speed the selection process by making your selection directly from the list.
Technical What’s New High Speed Drawing Views You can now change the orientation of existing drawing views with only a few clicks. Double-click a view, and in the Drawing View dialog box, click Change View Orientation. Then, in the Custom View window, specify a new view plane. When you change the orientation of a base view, all dependent child views inherit the new orientation.
Technical What’s New Wizard to Copy iLogic Designs The new version provides a wizard to copy an Inventor iLogic template project. Use an Inventor iLogic project as a template to produce design variations. Embed design copies as subassemblies in larger designs, or as copies of a unique and complete product definition and save considerable time compared to the previous method. Impressing Views Using New Ray Tracing Option Features include: ■ Selects linked documents automatically.
Technical What’s New Enhanced Modeling New Boundary Patch Command Model Repair Tools The option to generate a G2 (smooth) boundary patch is added to the part modeling and repair environment. Use a G2 transition to eliminate visible seams between surfaces. G2 Continuity with Variable Radius Fillets Importing data often leads to deficient models due to peculiarities of the source systems.
Technical What’s New Edit Alias® Freeform Body Launch Inventor Fusion from within Inventor using Edit Form or Edit Copy of Form. The Edit Form command creates an Alias® Freeform body which is then loaded into Inventor Fusion. You can modify the body using any of the Fusion commands then return the geometry to Inventor. Inventor Fusion now contains many of the commands previously available in Alias Design for Inventor.
Technical What’s New Boss Enhancements With new controls, you can create geometry in a single boss feature that would require multiple features previously. A Boss feature is placed at a point centered on the mating face of the head and the thread. To change the position of a Boss placement, in the Offset From Sketch field, enter a value. The Angle to Fill field controls the position of ribs on the boss feature. You can create designs that do not require ribs to go 360 degrees around the boss.
Technical What’s New Improved Interoperability Rhino File Translation AutoCAD Import Several new options improve interoperability with AutoCAD®. On the Open flyout, select Import DWG to bypass the Options setting. In the file import wizard, the final dialog box contains options to import AutoCAD Surfaces and Wires. To enable the Surface and Wire selection, select New Part. Materials applied in the AutoCAD file persist in the Inventor file after translation.
Technical What’s New Export Building Components Before you export the component, provide all inputs and selections, and then click Apply Changes. ■ To exclude model properties, clear the Model Property check box. When Model Property is selected, model properties are exported with the component. ■ The model orientation options include ViewCube. The ViewCube „views“ generate component views when exporting. When the model is opened in Revit, the ViewCube positions sync with the Revit ViewCube.
Technical What’s New Simulation Enhancements Frame Analysis Probes Retain Joints When joints are built automatically from assembly constraints, you can retain them in the model when the translator is turned off. You have the opportunity to both customize the standard joints built from constraints and author new standard joints, without starting from scratch. New Probe and Probe Labels commands enlarge the list of tools for viewing simulation results.
Technical What’s New Beam Model Improvements You can edit an increased number of beam mechanical properties, including two new properties: Reduced Shear Stress (Ax) and Reduced Shear Area (Ay). At the bottom of the Beam Properties dialog box, check Customize, and then enter your values. It allows you to fully define, or control the section properties. Sign Convention in Frame Analysis Results Stress results were unified to use the same sign convention as the Stress Analysis results.
Technical What’s New Analyze Sustainability early in the Design Cycle Eco Materials Adviser The Eco Materials Adviser tool enables you to analyze the environmental impact of your product early in the design process. The analysis provides rapid estimates of key environmental indicators such as energy usage, CO2 footprint, water usage, compliance with European Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS), end of life, and material cost, that are influenced by your material and production process choices.
Technical What’s New Tooling General Enhancements The following productivity improvements are added to Inventor tooling: ■ Graphics processor support is added for Moldflow analysis. ■ You can place the locating ring before you place the sprue bushing. ■ Expanded LKM moldbase content is added to the library. ■ A preview graphic is added to the Adjust Orientation command. ■ You can stop the automatic surface patch or runoff surface operation at any time during creation.
Technical What’s New Export 3D Model to Moldflow Insight You can export the 3D mold base information to Moldflow Insight for cooling analysis. The mold block is exported by default. Specify the inserts, cooling system and components to export. If necessary, you can add hose definitions in the dialog box before export. The export process removes unnecessary hole features from the core/cavity solid.
Technical What’s New Cooling Channel Metric Threads You can use metric threads in the cooling channel. To list the tapered thread options, select Taper Thread. To list straight thread options, clear the check box for Taper Thread. To modify the available sizes and set the default selections, edit the Thread.xls file.
Technical What’s New User Mold Base Transition from Part to Mold Create an assembly, and use the User Mold Base command to place as a mold base. Before placement: Use options in the dialog box to enable or disable automatic constraints. Use the Mold Base Author command to specify the component type and alignment. If necessary, use the author command to define the mold base after placement.
Technical What’s New Define Workpiece Setting Enhancement An option, By References, is now added to the Define Workpiece Setting dialog box, Reference drop-down menu. Use the new option to: Define a workpiece based on selected elements of the plastic part. Define a workpiece based on multiple selected elements of the plastic part. Turn on Multiple references to select more than one reference.
Technical What’s New Ordinate Dimensions Product Updates If you experience an issue with Autodesk Inventor 2012 that has already been solved in a service pack or hotfix, a dialog box appears when you submit the problem to Autodesk, enabling you to immediately install the new service pack or hotfix. Autodesk Learning and Education From instructor-led or self-paced classes to online training or education resources, Autodesk offers learning solutions to fit your needs.
Autodesk® Inventor® Product Line Overview Autodesk Inventor Products 2012: Key Features Autodesk Inventor mechanical CAD software comes in different product configurations that offer specific levels of functionality to fit your design needs. They all demonstrate Autodesk’s focus on helping you create accurate digital prototypes and bring better products to market faster and at lower cost.
