Inventor 2013 Dynamic Trim/Extend Sketch Geometry

The Trim and Extend tools in Inventor 2013 work in exactly the same way as before, however they now have a nice addition to make them more flexible.

• Create or Edit Sketch. Then on the ribbon, click Sketch TAB > Modify panel > Trim or Extend, depending on the task you want to complete.

New Inventor 2013 Rectangle Sketch Tools

Inventor 2013 brings two new Rectangle Sketch tools, Two and Three Point Center Rectangle, to speed up creation of these shapes. To acces these new tools, start a sketch, then click the down arrow below the standard Rectangle tool to see a list of the new tools.

Inventor 2013 Set Sketch Scale by the First Dimension

New in Inventor 2013 is the ability to scale a sketch from the first placed dimension. This always caused issues in previous releases, as placing the first dimension, then modifying its size, could cause geometry to become displaced. Where as it now all scales together with the first dimension!

Note: After you place the second dimension, edits of the first dimension no longer change the sketch scale. Also, do not dimension from the origin with the first sketch as this will not scale all geometry as expected.

Start Sketch on Part Creation in Inventor 2013

By default, in previous versions of Inventor, whenever you started a new Part file you would be taken straight into a new Sketch.

In Inventor 2013 this default behaviour has been changed to not automatically create a Sketch, instead you have the option of starting a new Sketch on your chosen Origin Workplane.

If you prefer to start a new Part and go straight into a Sketch, then you can turn this behaviour back on in Tools TAB on Ribbon > Application Options > Part TAB > change the Sketch on new part creation setting. The old default was Sketch on x-y plane!

Problem with Inventor Sketches not Having any Constraints

Have you run into a problem in Inventor where your Sketches have no Constraints? I.e. ends of lines are not joined to each other.

Well this can happen if the Inventor Sketch Constraints have been turned off. To check this, whilst in a Sketch, with nothing selected, right click in an empty space. Select Constraint Options from the right click menu. The dialogue below will be displayed, check that all Constraints are ticked on, if not click Select All and you should be back to normal.

Project to Surface

From time to time you might want to create something more complex than a Solid with a perpendicular Cut feature. A useful, but often overlooked tool in Inventor is the 3D Sketch, which contains some useful features, such as Project to Surface.

This feature allows you to project a 2D Sketch to a Face/Surface, allowing you to place sketches exactly on a face to use as a Sweep path, Split Line, Loft Rail etc. See the steps below to get yourself started with 3D Sketches.

• Create your Model and 2D Sketch geometry

Project to 3D Whilst in the 2D Sketch

In Inventor 2012, if you want a 2D Sketch projecting onto a 3D Face as a 3D Sketch, simply do it whilst creating the 2D geometry. The new Project to 3D Sketch command projects geometry from the active 2D Sketch onto selected Face/s to create a 3D sketch. Follow the steps below:

• Create your 2D Sketch

Difficult to Select Items in Sketches Within Inventor

Are you having difficulties selecting items within a sketch in Inventor, i.e. struggling to pick up an end point, mid point?

If this is the case, there is an option in Application Options > General TAB > Selection > Locate Tolerance, which can help with this.

This Locate Tolerance option sets the distance (in pixels) from which clicking selects an object. Enter a number from 1 to 10 or click the up or down arrow to select the distance. By default this is set to 5!

Autodesk Two Minute Tip - Insert Sketch Image

Autodesk Technical Evangelist Rob Cohee answers some viewer mail. Several of you have asked about inserting an image into a sketch so that you can trace over it. In this example, Rob demonstrates how to insert, orient, and modify the image so that it can be used as an underlay for sketching.

Splitting a Sketch

Sometimes when you have created a complex Sketch within a new part that you then want to Extrude, it may not be possible to select the specific areas that you wish to Extrude. The example below shows a Sketch which has created a shape in the middle that we wish to Extrude, unfortunately because the circles are complete Loops it will not allow us to select the relevant area.

What is Alias Sketch?

You may have heard of one of our new products Autodesk Alias Sketch, but have you seen what it can do? Possibly not, so we thought it would be useful to link these videos, which are from the Alias Design Website, to give you an idea.