AUTODESK INVENTOR 11

Move to 3D with the Company That Brought You 2D

Make your move to 3D with Autodesk Inventor software products, the best choice for AutoCAD software users. With the fastest and easiest migration path to 3D, Autodesk Inventor has outsold all competitors four years running. No company is more focused than Autodesk on helping designers innovate and bring better products to market faster and at less cost. As the creators of AutoCAD software, Autodesk understands your design process and created the Autodesk Inventor family of products to make the move from 2D to 3D as easy as possible, providing the best way to maintain your companys 2D design data and AutoCAD technical expertise. The Autodesk Inventor product line gives designers the freedom to integrate existing 2D designs into their 3D design environment, making it easy to reuse and share both AutoCAD DWG les and 3D design data with other Autodesk manufacturing applications and their users. Available in different product congurations to provide specic levels of functionality, Autodesk Inventor is the best choice for AutoCAD users in the manufacturing space. The Autodesk Inventor product line provides a comprehensive and integrated set of design applications and 2D transition tools to help manufacturing companies move to 3D. It includes Autodesk Inventor Series software for 3D design and documentation, Autodesk Inventor Professional products for creating routed systems and validating designs, AutoCAD Mechanical for 2D drawing and detailing, and Autodesk Vault software for data management. Autodesk Inventor also delivers a new ground-breaking modeling paradigm, Functional Design. Functional Design enables designers to move beyond geometric modeling and into an environment where they can focus on the problem they are trying solve rather than spending time solely on the 3D geometry required to build the design. The Autodesk Inventor product line delivers enhanced 3D productivity while preserving your companys 2D engineering designs through true DWG compatibility. It provides access to intelligent engineering content and offers the fastest way to generate production-ready drawings to help designers quickly go from concept to production. And the Autodesk Inventor product family is interoperable with other Autodesk design applications, enabling all areas of your engineering department to work together in 2D or 3D.

Contents
Design Your Complete Product Line ....... 1 Create Quality Products the First Time Around ................................................ 4 Deliver the Design in Less Time ............... 5 Manage and Share Design Data ...............9 2D to 3D ....................................................... 12 Autodesk Solution for Manufacturing .......................................... 13 Learn More or Purchase......................... 13

Design Your Complete Product Line

Large Assembly Management Realize the benets of 3D design when developing very large assemblies. With Level of Detail Representations you have full control over which parts of your project are loaded into memory when you open the model. The capacity meter enables you to monitor memory consumption as you work so you can quickly open a huge project le to review the assembly structure and then choose to open only those subassemblies needed to get the job done. Other components of Autodesk Inventor software have been designed to support large assemblies, including advanced bill of materials (BOM) management and integrated data management to simplify the control and versioning of large numbers of part and assembly models.

Frame Generator Use the frame generator to automate the design of welded structural frames. Design and development of structural frames is fast with tools that streamline placement of predened structural shapes and simplify creation of end conditions and welded joint cleanup.

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Assembly Configurations New assembly congurations make it fast and efcient to design and document product families by dening variations from a master assembly. With assembly congurations, you can exclude or substitute individual components and make changes to dimension and constraint values. Then document the entire product family using the new Table tool to add a parameter table in your assembly drawing.

Advanced Shape Description Develop aesthetically pleasing, high-quality products using Autodesk Inventor tools to create a wide range of complex geometry by easily combining solids and surfaces. You have precise control of shape characteristics, such as tangency and continuity, by using enhanced modeling tools such as Loft to a Point, N Sided Patch, Sweep Normal to Surface, Centerline Loft, G2 Continuous Fillets, Full Round Fillets, and Face-to-Face Fillets.

Weldments With a built-in environment for designing weldments, its easy to model welds in 3D and improve quality by simulating weld preparation, welding, and postweld operations. Classify and model llet, gap, and groove weld beads as 3D solids. Automatically create 3D annotation based on industry or company standards, and automatically generate associative 2D weld symbols for documentation. Weldment analysis and reporting capabilities include bead volume reporting and comprehensive interference detection of all solid weld bead types. Sculpt Tool Use the new Sculpt tool to create 3D shapes by quickly and easily combining closed sets of surfaces. Incorporate imported surface data into your design using the Sculpt tool to modify existing parts by adding or removing material.

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Content Center Access the content you needwhen you need it. The Content Center gives you fast and easy access to a centralized library of engineering content, simplifying creation, reuse, and management of all company-approved content. It provides an easy-to-use content browser with search and lter tools to help you quickly nd the right part families. The Content Center includes more than 650,000 componentssuch as nuts, bolts, and screws and enables companies to add in-house parts and standard features to userdened libraries.

Content Center Publishing Tools Quickly prepare and publish large catalogs of library parts. The Content Centers publishing tools include an editing environment and batch processing of large data sets to streamline the process of preparing and publishing company parts as well as vendor catalogs. It also includes tools to set up intelligent part catalogs.

AutoDrop When you need to add many standard components to a design, AutoDrop boosts your productivity by providing intelligent component insertion with one-click placement. As you move the cursor over valid geometry, AutoDrop selects the part with the correct dimension. Graphical preview and intelligent 3D grips provide incremental adjustment based on sizes available in the Content Center.

Sheet Metal Design sheet metal components for manufacturing using specialized tools that allow for quick changes and instant drawing updates. A powerful set of tools enables you to create parts face by face, ange by ange, or by extruding special contours. The software automatically calculates bend allowances based on material and thickness, while providing customizable bend tables for correct at pattern creation.

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Bill of Materials (BOM) Provide earlier visibility into accurate component lists to improve costing and sourcing decisions. The BOM functionality provides a single source for managing the assembly and subassembly structure of purchased and nonpurchased parts, including virtual components. The result is accurate engineering BOM data and faster release to manufacturing. Timesaving features include the following: Automatic numbering with support for numeric and alpha characters and item number override Material denition for virtual components such as glue and paint Direct editing of materials in the BOM table so you can make material changes to more than one item at the same time

Component Selection Quickly focus on just the assembly components you need for the task at hand. With component selection and isolation, you choose a specic assembly component and isolate your view to focus only on that component and the items within your selection criteria. Control component visibility to enhance assembly performance and speed up design tasks.

Create Quality Products the First Time Around

Virtual Prototyping Build more innovative, higher-quality products through rapid virtual design iterations. Autodesk Inventor software offers an intuitive visual design environment for working with parts and assemblies, which inspires interactive design simulation to resolve product function before committing to a nished part. This way, you can simulate and test designs interactively earlier in the design process. And you can now easily create assemblies with multiple instances of a subassemblyeach in a different positional state.

Parametrics and Adaptivity Cut down design steps by making changes that propagate instantly throughout your design, incorporating design engines for parametrics and adaptivity. This functionality helps you associate parts in a way that allows the change of one part to drive changes in associated parts. Dimension-Driven Design Now its easy to test multiple design concepts before dening the exact form and t, a faster approach than using AutoCAD software to lay out designs. Quickly sketch shapes without worrying about details, applying dimensions to drive the geometry to the desired shape. Design Views Boost productivity when working with large, complex assemblies by storing and sharing frequently used views and representations. Quickly isolate specic parts or subassemblies to see what you want to see, when you want to see it. Sketching Create conceptual sketches of your designs using a free-form sketching environment. Create, connect, and reuse multiple sketches to build 2D/ 3D layouts of design concepts. Hole Features Improve productivity by automatically creating holes, hole notes, and hole tables that update automatically with changes. Streamline the placement of holes, independent of the sketch, using a linear (place by two edges) or concentric methodand dene hole parameters based on standard fasteners.

3D Visualization Take advantage of constant feedback on component relationships in all design modes to improve every aspect of your design before its built. To assist in making the right design choices, view sketches, parts, and subassemblies in the context of the design and assign realistic materials, textures, and lighting to your models. Contact Detection Solver Drag a component to collide with another component to validate the reaction between the twoa simple way to reduce errors early in the process and help improve product function. And its easy to drive assembly motion, providing the ability to test and retest design function. Interference Analysis Cut costly errors and improve design manufacturability with automated tools that test for part interference, allowing the parts to be measured for proper t. You can also vary the component tolerance to validate manufacturing exibility.

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AutoLimits AutoLimits help reduce errorsand engineering changesby monitoring key design parameters and providing color-coded warnings when the parameter exceeds the design limit. Use AutoLimits to monitor length, distance, angle, diameter, loop length, area, volume, and mass.

Physical Properties Improve product design by using real-world properties to build a virtual prototype of your design. Parts and assemblies created in Autodesk Inventor carry physical property informationsuch as center of gravity, material type, density, color, and textureto help you make more-informed design decisions.

Geometry Analysis Validate surface characteristics to create high-quality models and then check design data for manufacturability to avoid costly changes during the tooling phase. Comprehensive analysis tools for checking geometric properties of an Autodesk Inventor design are available in both the part design and construction environments. Tools include the following: Zebra analysis with density control and enhanced display accuracy, providing visual conrmation of surface continuity and tangency Gaussian surface analysis, providing feedback of surface curvature Cross section analysis displaying wall thickness with color-coded feedback of minimum and maximum thickness violations Draft angle analysis displaying color-coded draft angle based on a pull direction that can be dened by an axis, plane, or planar face Check of minimum distance between two components or faces in an assembly

Deliver the Design in Less Time

Supplier Content Center Reduce the time and effort required to incorporate standard components into your designs. The Supplier Content Center provides web-based access to component models from more than 100 leading manufacturers. The simpleto-use browser provides quick and easy access to models in native Autodesk Inventor format. And, its fully integrated with the Autodesk Inventor Content Center.

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Associativity Take advantage of automatic propagation of design changes to reduce errors and speed time to market. Associate parts and assemblies with design relationships, so that a change made to a part is reected in the assembly design and all associated drawing les. In addition, a change to the assembly is reected in the parts and drawing les. This means that if you edit associated components, such as parts and subassemblies, those changes ripple throughout all parts, assemblies, presentations, drawings, and related partner add-ins (such as CNC tool paths or nite element analysis).

Design Accelerators Move beyond sketching and constraints and accelerate design by working with parts that are based on mechanical relationships rather than geometric descriptions. Use the engineers handbook, mechanical calculators, and component generatorspart of the design acceleratorto automate the process of creating parts and assemblies that are based on real-world attributes such as speed, power, and material properties.

Multisheet Plot Optimize paper usage and reduce plot setup time using the Multisheet Plot feature in Autodesk Inventor software. The Multisheet Plot Manager automatically arranges drawing sheets to generate a composite plot le that optimizes sheet layout on a selected paper size. Print plots directly, or save them as a batch le.

Component Generators Rapidly design, analyze, and create commonly used machine components based on functional requirements and specications. Create parts and assemblies based on real-world attributes and use conditions such as power, speed, torque, material properties, working temperatures, and lubrication conditions. Autodesk Inventor software includes component generators for mechanical connections, shafts and hubs, o-rings, gear design, belt and chain drives, power screws, and springs.

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Mechanical Calculators Avoid costly rework and improve design efciency with easy-to-use online engineering guidance and analysis tools. A comprehensive set of engineering calculators builds on standard mathematical formulas and physical theories used in both design and validation of mechanical systems. Included are calculators for weld and solder, plain bearing, plate calculator, t and tolerance, brake, and clamping joint operations.

Feature Generator Drag-and-drop shape libraries accelerate the transition to 3D modeling by making it easy and fast to create and edit parts. Use the feature generator to create fully editable Autodesk Inventor parts by simply dragging shapes from a library of standard geometry.

Engineers Handbook With engineering theory, formulas, and algorithms at your ngertips, you dramatically reduce time spent on engineering research. This comprehensive online reference and manufacturing knowledge base is easily accessible from anywhere in Autodesk Inventor.

3D Grips Grip editing is a fast and intuitive way to edit parametric parts. Activate the 3D grip and simply drag the appropriate arrow to the required location.

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Component Copy Dramatically reduce the effort required to reuse designs with a exible, timesaving utility for copying assemblies, subassemblies, and parts from previous designs. The utility includes automatic naming functionality to create same-as and except versions of the design while maintaining the integrity of assembly constraints, iMates, Workfeatures, welds, and assembly features.

Automatic Drawing Updates Dramatically reduce time spent updating and checking drawings. Autodesk Inventor associates drawing views to the original components so any change made to a part or an assembly is automatically reected in the drawing. And Autodesk Inventor supports global updates of drawing resources such as title blocks, borders, and sketched symbols. Styles Work faster and help ensure the work conforms to company standards with the ability to control and instantly change the formatting of an entire document. Styles make it easy to format characteristics such as font size, color, standards, and linetype. When you apply a style, all formatting instructions in that style are applied at once. And you can congure a set of common company styles for everyone on a project to use.

Automatic Drawing Views Automatically create front, side, ISO, detail, section, and auxiliary viewswith automatic retrieval of model dimensionsto reduce the time it takes to create drawings using traditional 2D methods. Use a robust palette of dimension, annotation, and 2D symbols to quickly complete your drawing set. Create overlay drawing views that illustrate various positional states of assemblies. The Drawing Manager supports technical drawing standards such as ANSI, BSI, DIN, GB, GOST, ISO, and JIS.

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Associative Parts List Generate and update an accurate parts list in a fraction of the time required by traditional 2D methods, virtually eliminating human error. Part and subassembly quantities are always kept up-to-date and are instantly organized and populated into a drawing parts list. Ballooning and item numbering are automatic. And you have greater exibility in creating and customizing parts lists to meet company standards.

Construction Environment The Construction Environment provides fault-tolerant import of large STEP and IGES data sets, facilitating collaboration by enabling sharing and reuse of design data. It includes a comprehensive toolkit for inspecting, editing, and correcting quarantined entities, including solids, surfaces, wireframes, and points.

Open API Customize Autodesk Inventor software for your specic environment and optimize engineering productivity. A well-documented application programming interface (API) helps you automate your specialized workows. Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD Mechanical Interoperability Get your products to market faster and with fewer errors using associative 2D and 3D collaboration between Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD Mechanical software. Just open AutoCAD Mechanical and browse through your current Autodesk Inventor les, choose a part or assembly le, and AutoCAD Mechanical creates a new linked drawing. When the design changes in Autodesk Inventor, the AutoCAD Mechanical drawing automatically updates.

Mechanical Desktop Import Easy import of Autodesk Mechanical Desktop software designs automates migration to Autodesk Inventor software. Reuse your Mechanical Desktop models and drawings as parts, assemblies, and drawings in native Autodesk Inventor format while maintaining their original design constraints and drawing relationships. Migration functionality supports automatic drawing view creation, recognizing model-to-drawing associativity for annotations, scenes, unit settings, and more.

Manage and Share Design Data

Import/Export Formats Autodesk Inventor software supports industry-standard data transfer for importing and exporting design and drawing information. It enhances collaboration with suppliers and customers by enabling sharing and reuse of design data with other 3D CAD/CAM systems. Import DWG, DXFTM , Pro/E, SAT, IGES, and STEP les. Export part assembly les, including SAT, IGES, STEP, STL, and the Autodesk Streamline on-demand collaborative project management solution. Export drawing les, including DWG (with full layer mapping), and DWFTM and DXF formats.

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Autodesk Vault Integration Integrated with Autodesk Inventor software, Autodesk Vault software is a centralized data management application for workgroups that securely stores and manages work-in-progress design data and related documents. Use it to maximize return on your companys investment in design data by driving design reuse.

Autodesk DWF The Autodesk DWF technology enables all team members to easily and securely view 2D and 3D designs published directly from Autodesk manufacturing design applications. Use Autodesk Design Review to easily review, mark up, and print designs. And all extended team members can use the free* Autodesk DWFTM Viewer application to review and print designs.

AEC Exchange The AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) Exchange tool creates and publishes simplied 3D representations, intelligent connection points, and additional information in native le formats for Autodesk Building Systems. Whats more, you can also export 3D geometry to Autodesk Architectural Desktop, Autodesk Revit -based software, and AutoCAD software.

Autodesk Inventor View Share designs with your extended manufacturing team with full-delity viewing and printing of Autodesk Inventor les even for those without the application. Nonusers can open and print part les (IPT), assembly les (IAM), and drawing les (IDW).

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Technical Illustrations Quickly create technical illustrations, process sheets, training materials, part manuals, assembly instruction sheets, and videos to train assembly teams on the manufacturing oor.

Autodesk Inventor Studio Improve communication and reduce the need for physical models by creating high-quality, photorealistic renderings and animations to illustrate design concepts. With Autodesk Inventor Studio you have streamlined access to this specialized and typically expensive functionality without having to learn a separate application.

Task Scheduler Automate repetitive tasks and boost your productivity with the new task scheduler. Schedule single or multiple (batch) automated tasks such as File migrations from AutoCAD, Autodesk Mechanical Desktop, and Autodesk Inventor software Assembly and drawing updates Print jobs IGES and STEP import and export DWF publishing DWG import and export Autodesk Vault check-in and check-out User-dened tasks Autodesk Productstream Help ensure that your companys designs are complete, accurate, approved, and released to manufacturing in a timely and effective manner. Autodesk ProductstreamTM software automates the release management process by managing engineering changes and bills of materials while the engineering department maintains control of the design data.

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2D to 3D

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AutoCAD Migration Utility Improve your workow and make the most of your AutoCAD data. Quickly import AutoCAD drawings and map layers into the Autodesk Inventor environment as a completed assembly or as a part for your 3D layout. In addition, the software automatically senses AutoCAD units on import. Reuse AutoCAD Drawing Templates Speed the transition from 2D to 3D by using your AutoCAD design templates, including layers, title blocks, and standards information. Ease of Use Autodesk Inventor software offers the industrys shortest path to full 3D productivity. With a design environment featuring smarter commands, the software works the way you want to work. Highly visual feedback and gesturebased interactivity respond intelligently to cursor movement to help you work more efciently. Advanced Help System Speed the transition to 3D with contextual help. The Design Support System (DSS) provides browser-based support to quickly bring you up to speed and offers an electronic infrastructure for easy learning.

Design Doctor Resolve errors in your 3D model with highly rened diagnostic tools that recognize potential design errors and recommend corrections. The Design DoctorTM feature isolates conicting constraints, so its easy to nd the areas that require your attention.

Drawing Automation API Increase productivity by developing tools to automate the production of product documentation. The Drawing Manager API provides full access to the drawing view geometry and commands for creating detail views, dimensions, and annotation entities. It includes tools to control selection lters and extend the Autodesk Inventor data model by adding custom attributes to Drawing Manager objects. Copy and Paste from AutoCAD Reusing AutoCAD data in your 3D Autodesk Inventor designs is now even easier. Just copy AutoCAD prole geometry to the Microsoft Windows clipboard and then paste it directly into an Autodesk Inventor sketch. eLearning Flexible access to tutorials and best practices makes learning fast and easy. A valuable component of Autodesk Subscription, eLearning provides a continually expanding curriculum of convenient, targeted training exercises. Skill Builders Speed learning through exible access to up-to-date tutorials and best practices. Extended learning modules provide enriched online help, tutorials, and show me animationswith periodic updates available through the web.

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Autodesk Solution for Manufacturing

Never before have design applications and data management tools come together to simplify the way manufacturers design products and drive them through the manufacturing process. The Autodesk solution for manufacturing comprises a complete, interoperable line of industry-leading software integrated with a worldwide network of services and partners. Gain access to technical expertise for implementation, and utilize training and support programs direct from Autodesk to help use your design and data management software more effectively. Software maintenance programs help keep you up-to-date with the latest product releases and upgrades for your software. Designed to be deployed incrementally for minimal business disruption, the Autodesk solution provides the most effective way to stay ahead of the competition and achieve maximum return on your software investment.

Learn More or Purchase

Autodesk Inventor Product Line

Learn about the different Autodesk Inventor products available to t your specic design needs.
Autodesk Inventor Professional for Simulation Autodesk Inventor Professional Autodesk Inventor Professional for Routed Systems

Autodesk Inventor AutoCAD Mechanical Cable and Harness Design Tube, Pipe, and Flexible Hose Design IDF Import Stress Analysis (FEA) Dynamic Simulation Autodesk Vault

Discover why Autodesk Inventor products are the best choice for manufacturing companies. For more information visit www.autodesk.com/inventor. For more information on extending the power of your design technology, visit www.autodesk.com/subscription. For more information on making the most of your software investment, visit www.autodesk.com/consulting. Purchase Autodesk Inventor software through your Autodesk Authorized Reseller. To locate the reseller nearest you, visit www.autodesk.com/reseller.

Autodesk Inventor Series

* This product is subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of this software. Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Streamline, Design Doctor, DWF, DWG, DXF, Mechanical Desktop, Productstream, and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. 2006 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. 000000000000117346