Vault Integration with Microsoft Outlook

With the 2012 release of Autodesk Vault, compatibility now extends to Microsoft Outlook - enabling users to access correspondence check-in from within Outlook. Users can now multi-select their email messages and check in using the ribbon commands to assign emails to a folder within the Vault.

Vault Integration with Inventor LT Suite and AutoCAD LT

Autodesk Vault 2012 integration for Inventor LT Suite 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012 is now available as part of your Autodesk Subscription. If you have access to the Subscription Centre - you can access the update here.

The AutoCAD LT 2012 Vault Client update enables Vault functionality for use within the AutoCAD LT 2012 application to connect to a Vault Workgroup, Collaboration or Professional 2012 server. Those wishing to use AutoCAD LT 2012 with a Vault 2012 server must install this update.

Included Express Tools

The NCOPY Express Tool is now a core AutoCAD command. Copy nested objects from Xrefs, Blocks and DGN underlays (no need to explode or bind!).

Use the Delete Duplicates tool (OVERKILL Express Tool) to clean up your drawing and remove duplicate geometry.

Control Delete Duplicates settings in the dialogue box. Specify which object properties to ignore along with whether or not to optimise polyline segments and/or combine co-linear objects. The tolerance value controls the precision by which Delete Duplicates will operate.

New Multifunctional Grips

In AutoCAD 2012 multifunctional Grips have been added to many objects!Polylines have extra Grips to make editing much easier. Secondary Grips are located at the midpoint of each segment. Hovering over a Grip provides several valuable editing options such as Stretch, Add or Remove Vertex and Convert to Arc/Line.

Look for these powerful grips in Lines, Arcs, Elliptical Arcs, Dimensions and mLeaders. 3D Faces, Edges and Vertices also have them. Just hover over a Grip to access numerous relevant options.

Product Design Suite 2012 Workflow Example

We recently came across this four part video, which helps illustrate a typical Product Design Suite 2012 workflow. This might help you ascertain where the different products included in your Product Design Suite 2012 fit in.

• Chapter 1 - the conceptual design phase of your product design workflow
• Chapter 2 - moving from concepts to detailed engineering models
• Chapter 3 - tools for documentation and data management
• Chapter 4 - presentation and collaboration tools

LABS - Inventor ThreadModeler

The ThreadModeler tool allows Inventor users to more easily create realistic modelised threads based on an existing Inventor thread feature. Users select an existing thread feature in the model and ThreadModeler generates a realistic thread based on the feature properties.

This tool is available for Inventor 2011 and 2012.

You can try the ThreadModeler for yourself at:

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/ADN_plugins/catalog/

Mini Toolbars

We saw the introduction of Mini Toolbars in Inventor 2011 and these have been further expanded within Inventor 2012.

The Mini Toolbars now appear in most of the feature tools within Inventor and you now have access to more Options within the Mini Toolbar itself. Alongside this update has been the addition of enhanced previewing when you are adding a feature such as Holes and Fillets. You will now notice that you get a real time preview, which you can interact with.

Marking Menus

Marking Menus have been around in the industry for a while and those that use them 8-10 hours a day fly around never searching for commands or pallets to update. A flick of the wrist and off to the next command.

With the Marking Menu, muscle memory will eventually kick in. But with all changes, a transition period is needed to get used to the new menu. Some of you may have already turned it off, but we recommend giving it a try.

There are two modes you can use the Marking Menu with. The first is as you see it below, a typical pop up style menu, but with radial access to commands.