The

Creative Inventor
magazine

Inventor Model - Rendered in 3D Studio by Vladimir Makarov

Inventor Art from Russia

®
Exclusively written for Autodesk
manufacturing software users & Managers

May/June 2010
1
 AUTODESK INVENTOR
TAKES YOU BEYOND 3D TO
DIGITAL PROTOTYPING

Autodesk® Inventor® software creates a single digital

model that enables you to design, visualize, and simulate
your products. Inventor helps you to reduce product
costs and get innovative designs to market faster.
Learn how Inventor can take your designs beyond 3D at
autodesk.com/beyond3d.

AUTODESK INVENTOR

Autodesk, AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates 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 specifications at any time without
notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
2
In This Issue...
Contour It! Inventor Studio Lighting
Learn how to use some great Inventor tools Interested in rendering? Go here for a
to create complex sheet metal shapes. great article on lighting by Bill Bogan
Learn how Contour Flange, Contour Roll, from Autodesk.
Unfold/Refold and other tools are used to
create this part.
4 22
About the Cover...
Look closely at the cover image.
It’s a photograph, right? No, it’s an
Inventor assembly file, rendered in
3D Studio.
Be sure to read and view more in
this article.
6 35
Can Manufacturing Return to
Growth?
American manufacturing is going through

43
some gut-wrenching changes and con-
tinues to shrink as a percentage of GDP.
Read about some positive steps you can
take...
11
•Alias Automotive
•Inventor Surfacing
Tutorials
Veteran MCAD guru Drew Fulford is back with a look-see on
13 Inventor 2011 Constraint Limits. Also - Multi-body solids in

50
Inventor 2010 and 2011.

Freeform Modeling in Inventor?

Autodesk Technical Evangelist Rob Cohee
explains how the new Alias Design for Inventor
allows freeform modeling inside Inventor. Join
Rob for an introduction to new technology.
16
Analyze With Confidence 53
Part 2 of a series by Wasim
Younis End of an Era...
20
David Kingsley covers the
final Shuttle flights ending
in November 2010.

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55
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3
 Contour It! - Dennis Jeffrey In this next step, use Project Geometry to copy the edges
In this Inventor tutorial, I’ll explore several commands that indicated. Be sure not to miss any of the small arced edges.
can be used to create a contoured sheet metal part, that will
easily unfold. This tutorial uses tools introduced in IV2010.

I started with a new file created with an Inch-based Sheet

Metal template. Feel free to use any Sheet Metal template
you wish.

The inch-based dimensioned Sketch1 is

shown at left. Be sure to fully constrain
and dimension your sketch. There is no
need to add fillets to this sketch, as the
Contour Flange tool will add needed
bends according to your preset Sheet
Metal Style. Finish the Sketch.

In the Sheet metal tab, Select Contour

Flange. Be sure to notice the direction of
the Flange preview. Knowing the direction
of creation is very important when creat-
ing additional features. The red arrows
below indicate the Sketch1 contour. Next, create a parallel constrained Center Line in the sketch
as shown below. Use the Line command with the Center Line
toggle ON. Dimension the distance to 2 Inches (50mm).

Create the Flange to a Distance of 2 inches (50mm). The

Contour Flange is created.

In this next step, you will create a New Sketch on the end face
of the Flange. Zoom in on the end face as shown below, and
Select any of the faces, Right Mouse Click and Select New
Sketch. Alternatively, in Inventor 2011, you may select the
face, then select the New Sketch icon as shown below:
Finish the sketch and select Contour Roll. If you created the
sketch properly, you should see an automatic preview. Other-
wise, Select the projected edge and the centerline Axis. Set
the Rolled Angle to 90 degrees, and pick OK.

Save your file.

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
4 Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
Save your file again. Always save frequently! Select View Face, then select the newly created sketch in the
Model Browser. The part should align correctly.
Repeat the New sketch process on the other end of the
main section.
• Select the Face
• Create a New Sketch
• Project the edge geometry
• Create a Centerline 4 Inches (100mm) parallel to a
• vertical projected edge. Create a Sketch Point and anchor it with two 0.3 In dimen-
• Create a Contour Roll at 90 degrees Rolled Angle. sions in the lower left corner. Place a 0.25 Inch Through Hole.

At this point, the part should look like this: In the next step, we will measure the overall length of the flat
in order to determine consistent spacing of the holes.

Since we placed the first hole center 0.3 in. from the vertical
edge, we will need to subtract 2X 0.3 or 0.6 in from the over-
all length. We can let Inventor do the math:
Now, let’s get fancy. The next feature to be added will be a
row of holes, evenly spaced along the lower curved edge.
Before proceeding, ponder how this might be accomplished.
But before continuing, Save your file.

Ready? The easiest way to create the holes along the lower
edge is to utilize two commands introduced in IV2010.

Select the Unfold from the Sheet Metal tab. The follow-
ing image will appear. Select the first Stationary Plane as
shown(1).

For the Rectangular Pattern, Select the Hole from the Model
Browser, Set the Direction 1 along the bottom edge, enter 10
or whatever quanitity desired. Set the dropdown to Distance,
then for Length, type in “measured distance” - .6 in. If this
value is input incorrectly, then it will appear in red until cor-
rect.

Finally, it’s time to Refold your design. Select Refold from the
Sheet Metal Panel. Pick the Workplane (1) for the Stationary
edge, and Select Add All Rolls (2). Pick OK to complete!

Next, select Add All Rolls (2). All contour rolls will now be
selected for unfolding. Pick OK.

We are now ready to add the holes. Save your file (Ctrl-S).
Select the face and create a Sketch on the flattened plate.

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author. 5
 Vladimir Makarov - Digital Artist
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of discovering a rare tal-
ent by the name of Vladimir Makarov. Vladimir, and a small
group of others in Russia had a passion for creating extremely
detailed models in Autodesk Inventor, then rendering them in
3-D Studio. Mr. Makarov gave me permission to publish his
images in The Creative Inventor Magazine. At the time, the
magazine was just a dream. I want to take the time now to
present his works.

While his primary focus was in creating reproductions of vin-

tage weapons, the quality of his art is something to behold…
and something for which the rest of us should strive. Enjoy!

Vladimir’s process is to duplicate

the components of each weapon by
recreating them in an Autodesk In-
ventor assembly.

Careful attention was given to di-

mensional accuracy.

Once the design was complete, the

assembly is translated to 3D Studio
where textures and materials could
be added in preparation for lighting
and rendering.

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
6 Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
When the Inventor file is imported
into 3D Studio, the solid geometry
is converted into mesh objects. At
this point, colors and materials
have not yet been added.

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author. 7
 Here’s the final image after colors
and materials have been added.

Lighting setups are the final deter-

miner of image qualty from an artis-
tic perspective.

A great job of modeling and applica-

tion of materials is next to useless if
proper lighting is ignored.

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
8 Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
Vladimir in 2010
Just before publication of this issue,
Vladimir was able to make contact
again. In the spirit of providing new,
fresh images done in later versions of
Inventor, these new images have been
added.

In these images, you may see the tech-

niques clearer. The view to the right is
Inventor, while the bottom image is
again rendered in 3D Studio.

Thanks, Vladimir, for these inspiring

images!

-Dennis Jeffrey
Editor & Publisher

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author. 9
 VLADIMIR MAKAROV

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
10 Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
Can Manufacturing Return to Growth?
American manufacturing is going through some gut-wrench-
ing changes and continues to shrink as a percentage of GDP.
When you read articles in trade journals and newspapers,
everyone agrees that we need to find ways to grow manufac-
turing.
Most solutions to this problem offered by manufacturers,
associations, trade journals, and political pundits are focused
on government solutions. They want the government to
reduce taxes, halt the rise in healthcare premiums, elimi-
nate cap and trade legislation, and stop the manipulation of
foreign currencies.
This author also hopes that manufacturing gets a break on
many of these issues, but I would like to suggest that we
can’t depend on government to solve our manufacturing prob-
lems. There are many changes that can be adopted by manu-
facturers that can halt the decline of manufacturing, simply
by adopting new strategies. In fact, I will go out on a limb and
say that that many of these strategies are being used today
by progressive manufacturers and they will become common-
place in the next generation.
Here are seven problems with strategies to solve them that
I believe will eventually be adopted by the survivors in this
economy.
Problem -- Your customers (even large customers) also have
many pressures and problems trying to compete. They also
have to lay-off people, “farm-out” systems that were integral
to their manufacturing, reduce inventories, and get more
done with fewer people. Their problems can be opportunities
if you can find out about them.
1. Solution - Monitoring customers and markets. The
key is to focus on how to improve customers’ performance
and solve their problems. It requires visiting the customers
and finding out what you can do to help them solve their
internal problems. If you can change and offer new services,
you won’t have a problem. Show the customer how your prod-
uct and services will solve their problems and improve their
performance.
Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
Problem -- The old selling techniques that are still taught in
national sales training programs are not working very well for
today’s markets and buyers. The old idea of selling product
features and using magical closing methods does not work,
especially for buyers of industrial equipment.
2. Solution - Consultative Selling. Buyers don’t want
to hear a sales pitch but they do like sales people who can
understand their problems and have empathy for the buyer. It
is called consultative selling and it is more about interviewing
than selling.
Problem -- We need innovation and new products but we also
have to establish a competitive advantage. The biggest single
reason new products and new ideas don’t sell is that the com-
pany does not find out until the point of sales that the product
or idea is not unique.
3. Solution -Improve the success rate of new products.
Progressive manufacturers spend time finding out what kinds
of competitor products or services are in the market prior to
spending a lot of money on design or prototypes. They invest
this time because they want to make sure that their new
product idea is unique. You know you have done a good job
on this step of product development when you have identified
every competitor and compared their features and prices in a
matrix.
Problem -- Manufacturers do not use modern marketing strat-
egies to find new opportunities. The old methods of attending
a few trade shows, printing literature, running an occasional
ad in a trade journal and waiting for prospects to find your
website won’t work now. In the glory days of manufacturing it
was possible to get on a lot of bid lists and customers would
come to you, but now manufacturers must be more proactive.
This means identifying the best customer profiles, identifying
the market niches, and finding low cost ways to reach them.
4. Solution - Using sales prospecting and niche mar-
keting
techniques. Progressive manufacturers have figured out
that they can use modern methods to identify, contact and
pursue prospects. One industrial marketing strategy is to use
inquiries to identify new prospects and customers.
For example, by generating inquiries and identifying market
niches, a manufacturer of robot systems was able to identify
a specific application in the dairy industry and the 150 plants
that could use these robots. Once this specific application
was known, it was possible to focus the marketing techniques
and make sales calls on the plants, the sales forecast was
achieved in just one year, and within three years they were
growing at 15 percent per year, while the company achieved
their sales and profit goals.
Continued - Next Page
11
 Problem -- In some industries, such as the EDM machine mar-
ketplace, sales are down 50 percent from previous years and
may never come back. Depending only on products to make
the sales forecast may not be enough for OEMs to stay in the
business. They need other kinds of sales.
5. Solution - Creating new services. You can provide a
better value to your customers if you add additional services.
Consider adding localized services, for example. It could cut
down on travel expenses and add value to your products.
Problem -- The old sales channels just aren’t working for
today’s customers. Many manufacturers who used only
inside sales people (as in job shops), independent reps and
distributors and traditional sales organizations are finding
they are not working very well in this new era of globalization.
The problem is that customers are more sophisticated, have
many options, and there are many new requirements and
tasks required in the selling process.
6. Solution - New sales channels. Manufacturers need
to profile their various customers and their requirements
and consider evaluating new types of sales channels. For
instance, job shops may have to hire their first outside sales
manager. Manufacturers of packaging machines may have to
consider training specialized independent reps who sell a few
complimentary lines and know as much about the products
as factory sales people. And some companies who sell to a
wide variety of markets and customers may have to create a
system of multiple sales channels.
Problem -- Almost every European country is good at export-
ing (including their small manufacturers). They are good
because they recognized a long time ago that they had to
sell internationally to survive. Americans have been spoiled
by being located in the biggest market in the world, and have
avoided marketing internationally.
7. Solution - International Marketing. There are many
market niches overseas that are just developing and can use
existing U.S. products. You simply just need to take the first
baby steps at learning how to market to foreign countries.
You don’t have to be a large manufacturer to sell to foreign
customers.
Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
12
What is unique about all of these ideas is that they are all
external strategies. Hammering away at the bottom line with
continuous improvement is absolutely necessary, but if you
want to create a new future for your company you need to
develop a growth plan focused on external strategies to find
growth opportunities.
Manufacturers are going to have to become industrial mar-
keters if they want to survive. The alternative is keep doing
what you do best and hope that conditions in the economy
will improve. Perhaps the dollar will continue to decline and
the price of imports will increase, forcing many customers
to buy from American suppliers. Or perhaps some of the
customers that now buy from foreign suppliers will tire of the
hidden costs, late deliveries, and quality problems and come
back to you.
This defensive “wait and see approach” is possible, but
dangerous. Suffice it to say that waiting for outside events to
change or the government to step in and save manufacturing
may never happen. Hope is not a plan.
This article is an attempt to convince readers that there are
many things we can do to grow, despite the problems. Re-
member, American manufacturers have some clear advan-
tages. We are located in the market, we are close enough to
monitor customer needs, we can offer short lead times and
unique products, we can offer unique overnight services, and
we are still the most innovative manufacturing sector in the
world.
A better strategy for growth would be to go on the offense
and take matters into your own hands. I believe that the next
generation of manufacturers that survive this shakeout and
prolonged recession will use many of the strategies described
above. Their cultures will change from a focus on internal
processes to a focus on external customer and market issues.
About The Author - Michael Collins
Michael Collins is a frequent speaker on manufacturing
issues. His vast experience gives him
a wealth of knowledge and small
business experiences to share with
his audiences. He delivers his mes-
sage with a mix of practical business
methods and the “street smarts” that
comes from having “done it”.
He is also a writer for many industrial
trade journals.
Michael can be reached at: mpcmgt@
att.net.
Editors Note - This issue introduces a new column cov-
ering surfacing in Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk
Alias products.

While surfacing in Inventor is not used often by the majority of
users, it is a very powerful aspect of 3D modeling. Surfacing
or the creation of faces is at the very core of all solid models.
Autodesk Alias comes in three flavors - Alias Design, Alias Sur-
face and the king of the hill - Alias Automotive. All three are
surface modelers, enjoying an environment where freeform
surfacing is king.
This new column will cover both environments and hopefully
inspire many to investigate the power of surfacing.
A curve can be defined by as little as 2 CVs and the result is a
line. A 3rd degree curve is defined by 4 CVs as shown, 5th and
7th degree curves have 6 and 8 CVs respectively. More CVs
means more definition for your curve. I work with 5th degree
curves by default because this gives me enough CVs to create
G2 Curvature Continuity with other geometry.
2. Continuity – Continuity defines the intersection of curves
and surfaces. When CVs line up across 2 curves, you get conti-
nuity. Here I have added another curve (shown in red) to each
original:

Alias Automotive Surfacing - Jamie Klopp

Automotive modeling is tricky. Car surfaces twist and bend and
intersect in every possible way. Complex transitions abound,
fillets are many, and always the car designer must strive for
compelling highlights and reflections. We model cars in Alias
because the software is adept at both freeform modeling and
Class-A surfacing.

A word about Alias Design: starting out in Alias can be daunt-

ing for someone experienced with parametric modeling. The
Alias UI has nothing in common with other CAD programs, and
neither does the modeling workflow.
Unless you’re taking an Alias class, the best way to learn is
by jumping into the Alias documentation that installs with the
software, mine is located in the Help folder here C:\Program
Files\Autodesk\Alias2011\Help\en_US\index.html and I’ve
found it only runs in Internet Explorer. The documentation has
extensive text, videos, and tutorials on modeling concepts and
techniques, and for this reason I will not attempt to duplicate
that information. Rather I will focus on a few fundamentals
required to make nice surfaces.
G0 Continuity is said to be Positional, two curves sharing a
single point. When the first CV of both curves is aligned, you
achieve G1 Continuity and the curves are said to be Tangent.
When 2 CVs align, they are said to have G2 Curvature, and 3
CVs aligned gets the name G3 Curvature. This will all make
more sense when we examine surface continuity.
3. Surfaces – To make surfaces in Alias, you start with curves.
Using the Square Tool, I created a simple surface defined by 4
curves:

1. Curves – Alias is a NURBS modeler. This stands for Non-

Uniform Rational B-Spline and somebody smarter than me will
have to explain what that is. For the purposes of making sur-
faces, it’s enough to know that NURBS means you’ll be model-
ing with CVs.

CVs (Control Vertices) determine the direction, degree, and

weight of curves and surfaces. Since good curves make good
surfaces, we’ll start there. I drew 4 curves in the side-view
window, each with a different number of CVs:

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author. 13
 The number and orientation of the surface’s CVs are deter- With the help of a hardware shader we can see the difference
mined by its curves. In this case our surface has 16 CVs be- in blending quality between the levels of continuity. Notice
cause each construction curve has 4 CVs. that the Tangent condition has visible kinks whereas the Cur-
vature conditions flow more smoothly.

Now I duplicate this surface and use the Freeform Blend tool to
create a blend surface between them:

Smooth surface transitions are the price of entry for a car

model. Keep all your continuities at G2 Curvature or higher
and you’ll be on your way to highlights and reflections that flow
smoothly around the car.

While this is neither the first nor the last thing you need to
The continuity for both sides of this blend surface is set to Posi-
know about automotive surfacing, it’s one that my first Alias
tional. Just as with curves, this means the surfaces will share
instructor (not a car guy) neglected to teach, an oversight that
a position in space. If we want the blend surface to actually
cost me months of frustration as I tried to make Tangent sur-
blend, we need to bump the continuity up to Tangent or higher.
faces behave like Curvature.
Here you see a Tangent relationship between surfaces as de-
fined by the single row of CVs aligned with each.
4. Example –Here is a quick example from the current Audi
A5. I will recreate the lower light-catcher using scan data and
a photo for reference.

Higher levels of continuity mean more CVs to define the blend

surface:

First I make curves to match the A5’s side panel:

Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
14 Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
 After building 4 curves I use the Square Tool to create a sur-
face. With the CVs visible you can see how the surface is de-
fined:
Next I make curves in the side-view window and project them
onto my square, then trim the square:
I make the lower surface in a similar way and now have 2 body
side surfaces roughed in:
Now I bring back the Freeform Blend tool to create a Blend
Surface between the two trimmed squares. I set the Blend
Surface to achieve G2 Curvature on Side 1 and Positional Con-
tinuity on Side 2. Notice the number of CVs required to define
these relationships:
Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.
A closer look at the Blend Surface to see what these CVs are
doing:
Finally I throw a quick fillet between the Blend and Bottom Sur-
face. Just like surface blends, fillets look better with Curvature
than with Tangency, so I use G2 Curvature:
As always, honor your work with a shiny rendering. Here are
the new surfaces rendered on top of the reference photo:
5. Conclusion – CVs and Surface Continuity are important con-
cepts in automotive surfacing. It helps when building toasters
and other stuff too. If you’re new to Alias or want to learn,
dive into the Help files and start playing around with curves
and primitive shapes. Autodesk has trial licenses available
for download, as well as a Personal Learning Edition and stu-
dent discounts. We can always use another player on the Alias
team.
About the Author:
Jamie Klopp is a Design/Build Consultant
to Product, Automotive, and Aircraft com-
panies. He graduated from the Art Center
College of Design in 2001 with a degree in
Transportation Design. He spent 6 years
at Honda R&D Americas in Los Angeles
before starting his consulting business.
Jamie also founded Atmos Automotive,
a R&D company developing vehicle con-
cepts for US, European, and Asian mar-
kets. Jamie can be reached at: jklopp@atmosautomotive.com
15
 Autodesk® Alias® Design for Inventor®
Freeform Editing Add-In for Autodesk
Inventor - Rob Cohee, Autodesk.
Let’s do a word association game shall we? What do you think
of when you hear sculpted in reference to mechanical design?
How about organic design? Continue on to biomimicry, aes-
thetically appealing, ergonomic. Do you think of form com-
bined with function and the experience between the user and
the device? Or do you immediately think expensive, custom
tooling and fixturing, and “can they just give me a little more
space to work with?”
Your reaction tells me whether you are an industrial designer
or an engineer. You’re an artist or an engineer, sporting either
Converse All Stars or Johnston & Murphy’s.
The contrast is so stark in many cases that the tools Industrial
Designers use to design are different than the tools that engi-
neers use to capture their designs. And so goes the never end-
ing give and take during design reviews and an unfortunate
disconnect between the design data and engineering data.
Let me take a stab at how I’ve seen this process work.
Step 1: Industrial Designer whips up some whiz bang crazy-
looking surface model and exports the model out as some
neutral file format using 20+ year old standards.
mise? Who says there has to be a compromise?
Industrial designers typically shy away from parametric mod-
elers due to the rigid history and typically longer setup time
to create surfaces or form. With a parametric modeler users
would have to go about managing form through parameter
manipulation rather than a brush stroke. That’s a significant
difference when it comes to creative expression. Additionally,
they would have to be conscious of causing a failure some-
where up the “stack” of features if they were to somehow
break a historical dependency.
While a structured, parametrically controlled model is perfect
for engineering; it is not the most effective tool for form and
shape exploration. This is one of the use case scenarios that
Alias Design for Inventor is addressing; allowing both design-
ers and engineers to explore form directly inside of Autodesk
Inventor, yet the users are uninhibited by the traditional rigors
of history based parametric modelers.
Conventional Inventor Parametric Method
I’d like to illustrate a very simple example. Let’s start with a
simple 2” x 2” x 2” cube. The geometry from an engineering
standpoint requires one sketch, and only one feature. Note the
edge that is highlighted. A designer would like to take that line
that is currently a straight transition from one profile to an-
other and add a curve to it. Here is what I would have to do in-
side of any history-based parametric modeling application like
SolidWorks, Pro / Engineer, SolidEdge, and Autodesk Inventor.

Step 2: Engineer swears under his/her breath and imports the

surface data and spends the rest of the afternoon performing
boundary patches, surface trims, and stitching.

Step 3: Engineer gives up and models the surface as close

as he/she can with the engineering tool with sweeps, lofts,
blends, and ten times the number of features in the feature
tree than he/she can stand to look at.

Step 4: Design changes for any number of reasons. Engineer

takes up smoking, and reconsiders their career choice.

Yes, that was meant to be a tongue in cheek, extremely over

the top (yet accurate) depiction of information moving from First I would have to delete the feature. There is no way to mag-
designer to engineer. Have you ever wondered why this is such ically convert an extrusion to a loft or a sweep, so a delete is
a problem for many manufacturers? required, but I will choose to keep the sketch it is based upon.

Industrial Design tools are meant to give the user a platform

that they can essentially sneeze ideas onto their screen. Gross
analogy, but you get the point. Get all of your thoughts down
as quickly as possible without having to worry about order of
operations, or model orientation.

On the other hand, parametric tools that engineers use require

the user to be more informed about the model; size, shape,
function, etc. in order to go about modeling the component.
Those are obviously design constraints for Industrial Designers
as well, but it is their job to push the limits of what is possible.

Too much upfront knowledge about the design is restricting to

industrial designers looking to explore form, and be creative
with shapes and lines. So where then, you ask, is the compro-
Reprint of the article published in the Creative Inventor Magazine May, 2010
16 Copyright 2010 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.