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16 CHAPTER 1 INVENTOR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
◆ Set aside time for training and implementing Inventor. If you have multiple users, it might
be best to consider phasing Inventor in over a period of time, allowing new users to accli-
mate themselves to a new way of design.
If you take the time to plan your leap into Inventor, your chances of success are greatly
improved. The rewards of a successful transition are great!
In future chapters, we will expand on the evaluation tools needed to plan a great transition,
but first you need to learn what is expected from Inventor. To do that, let’s enter the world of
3D design.
Creating a 3D Virtual Prototype
Common to machine design, actual prototypes are built to test or validate the design, and they
help discover weaknesses or areas that require redesigning. It is a costly and time-consuming
process but one that is needed when working from 2D designs.
Even the best engineer or designer cannot anticipate everything needed to create an accurate
design the first time around. Mistakes are made, scrap is generated, and redesign and retooling
are needed. The entire prototyping process is expensive and time-consuming.
But creating prototypes is part of the old way of doing things. It worked when you made 1,000
of something and had plenty of time and resources to lend to the project. It worked when material
costs were relatively low. In today’s competitive market, you most likely have no such luxuries of
time and materials. More and more often, manufacturing and design are pressed by worldwide
competition for products, jobs, and manufacturing bases.
The emphasis is on designing and building something quickly and economically, without
sacrificing quality or performance. Many companies today specialize in custom machines and
automation where the ‘‘prototype’’ is the end product. Clearly, anything that can be done to reduce
or eliminate prototyping will greatly influence your financial health and competitive strengths.
Over the years, as designs tools have evolved, so too have the ways we design. However, it is
possible to use new design tools in the same manner we used the old tools if we are not careful. As
companies moved from the drafting board to AutoCAD, many users continued to use AutoCAD
in much the same way they used the board. Not reusing data in the form of blocks and block
libraries and not employing block attributes to pack those blocks with intelligence are common
examples of this.
In much the same way, it is possible to use Inventor like it is AutoCAD. Creating 3D models
simply for the sake of generating a 2D shop print is a common example of this. To ensure that
you are getting the most out of Inventor, you want to ensure that your designs are more than 3D
models and are in fact virtual prototypes. You want to ensure that your 3D models are more than a
collection of related features and instead relate parameters from one feature to update based on the
edits of another to reflect the intent of the overall design. You want to build a digital prototype in
every sense of the word, anticipating change and revision and making it as robust and intelligent
as you can.
So, what is a 3D virtual prototype? Put simply, it’s a digital prototype that has not yet been built.
And although that simple answer seems obvious, it is the ‘‘not yet built’’ part of that description
that is key. A virtual prototype is a completely digital 3D parametric model that functions the
same way a real mechanism should. It is far more than a just a 3D model.
The virtual prototype consists of a main assembly, which contains many subassemblies that
have individual parts. All these components are constrained in such a way that the fit and func-
tionality of all parts and mechanisms can be visualized, tested, and proven before any parts are
manufactured. Scrap and rework are virtually eliminated if the design is fully completed and
proven in the digital form.