Datasheet

24 CHAPTER 1 INVENTOR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
Manufacturing Implementation Certified Expert or Certified Data Management Expert on staff.
If such a consultant is not locally available, then you may want to contact Autodesk Technical
Services for assistance.
The need to thoroughly evaluate and correct any deficiencies in your current data management
structure cannot be overstated. Having a data management system that is set up to ensure the use
of unique names for every file should be a primary goal of every Inventor user. This requires some
forethought and planning in setting up a good file-naming scheme. Fixing any problems now will
deliver a great payback in the use of Autodesk Inventor or AutoCAD.
Selecting the Proper Project File Type for Your Designs
Selecting the proper project file type after correcting any errors or inefficiencies in your data man-
agement structure is crucial to your success with Autodesk Inventor and, in the future, with
various AutoCAD vertical applications. The next chapter of this book will introduce you to the
different project file types that may or may not be suitable to your specific needs.
If you need to have multiple designers working on a single project simultaneously, it is highly
recommended that you investigate Autodesk Vault. Autodesk Vault provides many benefits over
other project file types when working in a collaborative system group or even when working
alone. Vault is bundled with the Inventor suite and can be installed at the time of your Inventor
install or at a later date. Although Vault is a highly effective tool for managing your engineering
files, a poorly implemented Vault can cause a lot of headaches. Following the recommendations
in this book for setting up a Vault project should keep you in the clear.
On the other hand, you may already have another product data management (PDM) database
in use within your company for other applications. You may want to consider integrating Inventor
into that PDM system, assuming that your existing system fully accommodates and supports
Inventor at least as well as Autodesk Vault. Optionally, you might want to consider an upgrade of
the included Autodesk Vault version to one of the other versions with extended functionalities.
If you are working in a smaller company or have just a few users each working on individual
jobs with no crossover, the Single User Project file mode might be the best way for you to work.
Developing an Efficient and Stable Part-Modeling Workflow
Paramount to the success of 3D solid modeling is developing an efficient and stable part-modeling
workflow that works for your designs. Unlike AutoCAD, where lines are independent of one
another, 3D modelers build relationships between features. When you add a boss to the face of a
part, there is a relationship. If you make a change to the face that interferes with the relationship,
then the boss will fail. In order to build a stable model, you have to think about how the part
functions and how the features relate to each other.
Here are a few attributes of good part design:
◆ Sketched part features created from simple sketches that represent and document design
intent
◆ Creation of part features that do not have a high degree of dependency upon other previ-
ously created part features
◆ Part features that are easily identified and able to be edited without creating errors
◆ Fully constrained and dimensioned sketches and features that will update and behave pre-
dictably when other features are edited
◆ Features that are properly named and identified for future editing reference