Check In Related Items from Inventor to Vault

New functionality on the Vault Addin for Inventor, allows users to scan the current project or model folder for related documentation, including IDW, DWG, and IPN files. This feature offers a major productivity enhancement for users who do not regularly Check In their design documentation as they create it.

• In previous versions of Vault when you ran a Check In from Inventor, it would check in the immediately related files. So in the example below we have a Drawing which contains views of a small Assembly and its Parts.

LABS - Project Scandium for Autodesk Simulation Moldflow 2013

Project Scandium for Autodesk Simulation Moldflow 2013 software is a free technology preview that extends simulation capabilities by offering new capabilities to try out and provide feedback.

LABS - Simplify your Inventor models for BIM

Inventor Simplification is a free technology preview of a new and easy way to simplify parts and assemblies for downstream consumption. The shrinkwrap feature was added to Autodesk Inventor software several releases ago. Since that time we’ve collected feedback on various ways to improve the workflow. We think we have a much better way to simplify models and wanted to share it with you as soon as possible.

Whether you need to simplify a fully detailed model to import into Revit or remove intellectual property (IP), Inventor Simplification can help. Inventor Simplification is intended to be very interactive with greater flexibility than current tools.

• Visual selection of components to keep/remove
• Replace fully detailed components with resizable primitive shapes
• Fill holes with greater control

Availabilty:

This new Inventor Simplification Technology Preview is now available as a free download and trial so please download it and let us know what you think. The technology preview will operate until July 1, 2014.

You can find the download on Autodesk Labs at:

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_simplification

LABS - Augmented Reality for Autodesk Showcase 2013

Augmented Reality allows the ability to overlay semantically in context information (graphics, text, video, sound) on to a live video feed of the real-world in real-time.

Autodesk Showcase is already a gold standard for photorealistic high quality interactive 3D real-time rendering. With the Showcase 2013 Augmented Reality plug-in, it is now easier than ever to visualize Showcase 3D models in the real-world as viewed through your web or video camera. With the Augmented Reality plug-in, Showcase scene environments can be more dynamic, allowing you to Imagine Design and Create in context to the world around you.

Availability:

The Showcase software add-on will operate until October 31, 2012.

You can find the download on Autodesk Labs at:

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/showcase_ar

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.

Inventor 2013 Arc Length Dimension

Another new feature in Inventor 2013 is the Arc Length option within the Sketch Dimension tool. To utilise this new feature follow the steps below:

• Start the Dimension command, then select the Arc you are interested in. By default the dimension will appear as a Radius.

Create AutoCAD Tool Palettes with Drag and Drop

When using AutoCAD there are probably a lot of standard Blocks, Hatch Patterns or Dimension Styles for example, that you repeatedly use on different drawings. You may be jumping through hoops to find and reuse this information, so an easier way is to store it on AutoCAD Palette/s. Which can be created by simply dragging and dropping information out of your current drawing on to the Palette.

• The first step is to turn on your Tool Palettes, to do this go to the View TAB > Tool Palettes.

AutoCAD Layer Translator

There will be times when you receive third party DWG's to work with or modify for use. One of the first stumbling blocks is that they are not likely to use the same Layer system as you. I.e. they will probably use different colours, line weights. So, to simplify things, use the AutoCAD Layer Translator (laytrans) to translate their Layers into yours.