Ten minute guide to Autodesk Labs
Published Wed 5 Nov 2008
Autodesk Labs (labs.autodesk.com) is a jump off point for anyone looking to learn about the latest developments at Autodesk, but what’s available for the manufacturing-focussed user? The answer is one hell of a lot.
You’ll find all manner of projects underway at Autodesk’s Manufacturing Solutions Division There are previews of major new upcoming technology, and Autodesk is looking for input on its development and usage as the programming team fine-tunes it before public release. Others are interesting developments that might never make it outside the labs. There’s plenty to play with, so here’s our guide to what’s out there, just a download away.
1Shrinkwrap Add-in
The Shrinkwrap tool for Inventor takes something that could be done with a work around before, and formalises it into a very useful little operation. To send out product data, but to remove information about the internal detail of a product, the Shrinkwrap Add-in allows the output of an assembly file as a single part, without any feature information. It has tools to close off open faces as well. These same tools can also be used to reduce assembly load times, shrink-wrapping non-critical components and using them with Alternative Representations.
2Alias Direct Reader
This enables the reading of surface data from AliasStudio into Inventor, to then add solid modelling operations to start engineering the surface model further and to add features. While this is going to be primarily used for reading surface data, the add-in also supports shells, solids, and curves from the AliasStudio .wire files.
3Feature Recognition
This provides the ability to take dumb data from STEP, IGES or SAT files and create intelligent feature-based models. The add-in makes it possible, either manually or automatically, to recreate features such as Fillets, Chamfers, Holes, Extrudes, Lofts and Sculpt operations, which can then be manipulated.
4UI Technology Preview
The UI technology Preview is a way of getting a sneaky peak into the future of Inventor. With user interface and interaction design, user feedback is critical, particularly when talking about professional applications. This allows the development team to project their ideas to the users that are going to have to work with the tool and get feedback. Perhaps with this Tech Preview more than any other, engaging with this stage of development has never been more essential.
5Sustainable Materials Assistant
Everyone is talking about sustainability and green issues and for those manufacturing any form of product, today’s heightened regulatory control and drive for efficiency means that organisations need to track much more than just raw materials and the cost of production. The Sustainable Materials Assistant extends the existing Inventor iProperties and gives users the ability to store information and data regarding Toxicity, Carbon Footprint, Recycling and Regulatory Information.
6Plastic Part Design
The Autodesk Inventor Plastic Features Technology Preview showcases revolutionary new Digital Prototyping technology that dramatically accelerates and simplifies the design of plastic products. This breakthrough technology allows designers and engineers to capture the functional requirements of a design and drive the automatic creation of thin-walled plastic parts and common plastic part features.
Automatic geometry creation of common technical plastic features – such as grills, rests, bosses, snaps, lips & grooves, and fillets – speeds complex plastic part design and reduces the CAD modelling expertise required for high quality designs.
Innovative “Progressive shelling” for thin-walled plastic parts reduces design time, offers more robust models, and delivers consistent results that help improve manufacturability.
To allow easy evaluation of this new technology, without disrupting existing production software workflows, current Inventor users can use this dedicated, Plastic Features preview version of Inventor along side their production versions of Inventor.
However, there’s no need to have Inventor already; Autodesk invites anyone involved in plastic design to try Inventor Plastic Features and provide them with your feedback!
7Advanced Simulation Technology Preview
If there’s an area that Autodesk is investing in most heavily, it’s simulation, with the goal of fulfilling the concept of Digital Prototyping. The Plassotech buy-out brought Autodesk the higher-end analysis simulation tools and the Advanced Simulation Technology preview is the first public showing. Within the download, you’ll find the ability to directly read Inventor parts and assemblies and conduct FEA-based analyses for both stress and model/frequency responses, as well as the ability to drive parametric-based design studies, using multiple criteria optimisation, automatic mesh refinement and contact detection. At present, it’s a standalone application and requires a licensed version of Inventor Simulation Suite 2009 or Inventor Professional 2009 to be installed on the machine and will expire in June next year.
