Inventor Display Appearance

Display Appearance settings inside Inventor include the elements that compose the scene in the graphics area, such as visual style, ground plane, ground reflection, lighting style and shadows. By default this is set to Use Document Settings, which means that however the Display Appearance settings are configured in the file is how they will appear next time you open it, or how a file will appear from a colleage.

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.

AutoCAD Dimension Rotate

There may come a time when you want to add a Rotated (Angled) Dimension, for instance you might draw an ISO Projected View or perhaps staggered geometry.

To create Rotated Dimension follow the steps below:

• Create your geometry in a drawing, then type dimrotated at the command line
• You will be prompted for an Angle to display the dimension, i.e. 45 degrees

• Then simply pick the Start and End point of the Dimension, then drag and click to position

Locate and Clear Overridden AutoCAD Dimensions

There are times in AutoCAD where we come across a dimension that has been Overridden, there may be a real reason behind this. But more often than not, it has been done for speed, which is not helpful when you want to make something from this drawing.

To find and correct Overridden Dimensions in a drawing follow the steps below:

• Firstly this is an AutoCAD Express Tool, which are free, but do require you to tick the option during install. Open your drawing, then type dimreassoc at the command line, you will be prompted to Select Objects, drag a selection box over all Dimensions on the drawing.

Colourise Showcase Environment to Allow Model to Standout

In Showcase it is great that you can put your model into a 360 degree HDRI Environment to view from any angle and these Environments can look very good, carrying a lot of detail. However, this might start to distract from the design you are trying to portray.

Vault 2013 Re-Index File Property Improvements

Several controls have been added to the Re-Index File Property tool in the 2013 Autodesk Data Management Server (ADMS) console, enabling Administrators to filter by extension, provider and date range to help reduce the number of files affected by a Re-index operation.

To run a Re-Index File Property, log in to ADMS 2013 console on your server, then expand the Vaults folder to reveal your Vault (name may vary depending on configuration). Select your Vault to highlight it, then go to the Actions menu > Re-Index File Properties.

Fatal Error Applying Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD/LT 2013

You are encountering this issue due to a problem with Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013. We are actively working on resolving this issue. It is recommended that you uninstall Service Pack 1 until further notice.

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.