What this book covers

Chapter 1, Inventor Part Modeling – Sketch, Work Features, and Best Practices, explains the best practices involved in part modeling with the uses of sketches and all the work features covered. Then combine your knowledge of these best practices to complete a modeling challenge of a complex part.

Chapter 2, Advanced Design Methodologies and Strategies, discusses how and when to apply different design methodologies and strategies in Inventor, and the merits of each. You will learn and gain experience with practical examples of how each can be used. This chapter will also cover how to utilize external and non-native CAD data in Inventor.

Chapter 3, Driving Automation and Parametric Modeling in Inventor, discusses how to implement levels of automation into both parts and assemblies, by understanding the importance and use of equations and parameters to drive configurations. You can copy features across parts with iFeatures, automate the mating of parts with iMates, and create configurations using iParts and iAssemblies. Finally, you will learn how to link external spreadsheets and parameters to drive models in Inventor.

Chapter 4, Freeform, Surface Modeling, and Analysis, explains how to create surface geometry in various forms and how to use the freeform modeling tools within Inventor to create organic and complex forms. The chapter will break down the various ways surfaces can be created within Inventor. You will also learn about surface validation techniques and how to surface model in the context of an assembly.

Chapter 5, Advanced CAD Management and Collaboration – Project Files, Templates, and Custom Properties, focuses on some of the important admin that’s required to deliver successful projects with Inventor. It explains how to manage project files and best practices, how to set up templates and design standards for a company in both parts, assembly and the drawing environment, and how to manage content center libraries. In most cases, these areas are overlooked, but successful data management and organization are essential to delivering projects, on time and within budget. Engineering managers and CAD managers will find this topic of use most of all.

Chapter 6, Inventor Assembly Fundamentals – Constraints, Joints, and BOMS, discusses the fundamentals of successful assembly design and techniques. It will also cover how to effectively use constraints and joints in an assembly and the best practices, and how to use, edit, and customize BOMs in Inventor, including placement in the drawing environment and annotating a GA.

Chapter 7, Model and Assembly Simplification with Simplify, Derive, and Model States, covers techniques for simplifying geometry in a part and assembly to aid in the management of large assemblies and assist in the collaboration of models with external suppliers, customers, and stakeholders. Particular focus will be spent on model states, which were released in 2022 and superseded the traditional level of detail and positional representations of older releases.

Chapter 8, Design Accelerators – Specialised Inventor Tool Sets for Frames, Shafts, and Bolted Connections, explains how to use design accelerators for a range of product types, and how to create frameworks, gears, shafts, and bolted connections within the assembly environment. This is a key skill set in Inventor that allows for automation and extreme efficiency with workflows. The conventional means of creating these types of products or adding them to existing assemblies is very time-consuming. Engineers and designers will greatly appreciate the value that using the design accelerators provides when the situation demands it.

Chapter 9, Design Communication – Inventor Studio, Animation, Rendering, and Presentation Files, explains that successful design is usually measured on how well the benefits and the solution are understood by stakeholders; therefore, being able to demonstrate these in 3D within Inventor is highly important. Designers need to be able to render, animate, and sometimes quickly annotate parts and assemblies to communicate key design changes, updates, and showcase product features. This chapter focuses on how a designer can implement renderings, explode views with presentation files, and create animations. This chapter also focuses on some of the more basic skills of model manipulation.

Chapter 10, Inventor iLogic Fundamentals – Creating Process Automation and Configurations, gives a basic introduction to automation with iLogic and what can be achieved with this. It provides an overview of the environment and practical examples of iLogic in use. You will then progress and create several iLogic rules and use these, before finally creating an iLogic form, controlling the configuration of an assembly. This is a key chapter for enabling you to automate functions, model updates, and changes within the software.

Chapter 11, Inventor Stress and Simulation – Workflow and Techniques, gives an introduction to the stress analysis environment in Inventor, how this works, what is achievable with the standard stress analysis, and workflows to adopt and various types of analysis. It also discusses design and how important it is that designers are able to test and validate their designs, prior to manufacture. Having a basic understanding of the essentials of FEA within Inventor gives the designer the key advantage of being able to iterate and test designers quicker and more efficiently, instead of having to rely on external stress analysis engineers all of the time.

Chapter 12, Sheet Metal Design – Comprehensive Methodologies to Create Sheet Metal Products, provides an introduction to the sheet metal environment within Inventor and a detailed walk-through of the functionality and methods you can use to create sheet metal features. This chapter will also show how you can bring final sheet metal parts into the drawing environment to add detail with bend tables, hole tables, and folded and unfolded flat patterns for export.

Chapter 13, Inventor Professional 2023 – What’s New?, talks about what’s new in Inventor 2023. You will learn all of the new features and additions to Inventor Professional 2023 in both the part, assembly, and drawing environments.