Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- a Preview of

Autodesk Intent™
Jon Balgley -- Autodesk
and other members of the Autodesk Intent team

MA311-3

Autodesk Intent has been redesigned to fit within the workflow of Autodesk Inventor and provide an
automation platform for Inventor users. This class will introduce you to the concepts of automation in Inventor
using Autodesk Intent and how to use configuration, engineering, geometric, and spatial rules. We’ll cover the
breadth of features offered in Autodesk Intent -- how automated applications are built utilizing existing Inventor
parts and assemblies and how to automatically generate models, drawings proposals (Word docs), bills of
materials (BOMs -- Excel), and renderings. We’ll follow an example from problem definition through full
automation so you can better understand automation and the opportunities it presents to increase the
efficiency of repetitive engineering and order-engineering processes.

About the Speaker:

Jon’s 20+ years in the design automation industry began when he became one of the first employees of
ICAD, Inc., where he served as director of Customer Service. He was one of two original creators of the Intent
technology in 1992, and later served as chief technical officer for Engineering Intent Corporation. Now with
Autodesk, Jon is a product architect for Autodesk Intent as part of the company’s Manufacturing Solutions
Division. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, cum laude, from Tufts University.
Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Preview of Autodesk® Intent™ 2008

What is it?
How does it work?
What’s (not) new?
Examples and Demonstrations

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Overview

 
• What is Autodesk Intent? 
o An addin to Inventor 
o Sold separately 
o Very different look‐and‐feel from previous releases 
 
• What problems does it solve? 
o Automation of complex assembly configurations.  Doesn’t have to be too complex! 
 
• What does Intent do for you? 
o Makes it easy to create an “application” in Inventor 
o What’s an application? 
ƒ Automates some routine operations …  or maybe a lot! 
o Typical outputs from application include: 
ƒ Inventor assemblies and parts 
ƒ Inventor drawings 
ƒ Reports in Word, Excel or databases 
ƒ Inventor Studio renderings 
ƒ And XML data files … which can be used as a data conduit to/from other systems 

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Friction Roller Conveyor

Allows user to configure multiple sections of a heavy-duty conveyor system. Separate sets of
parameters apply to the whole “line” and to individual sections. Generates quotation including
photorealistic rendering.

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Automated Pipeline Layout

Reads survey data from Excel spreadsheet (in alternative formats); lays out pipeline, minimizing
elbows by computing allowable deflection between pipe sections; displays survey line (in
blue/dark) for visualizing deviation; output in Word and XML.

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Spiral staircase

Simple hinged box

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

 
 
• Who are the intended users?  (and roles) 
o “Engineering Tool Developers” – People who make Inventor “tools” to make other 
people’s jobs easier.  Has a combination of skills – “automation” of Inventor, as well as 
knowledge about the company’s product and business process.  Not necessarily a 50/50 
split. 
o  “Order Engineers” – People who respond to customer orders, and must do “custom” 
engineering of some kind.   Aka, End‐user.  “Naïve” use of complete Intent “application”.  
Assumed to be familiar with using Inventor (or capable of learning). 
 
• How does an Intent application look to the end‐user?   
o Black box.  User enters some parameters, and the application generates the complete 
set of outputs. 
o Gray box.  Application provides a “smart container”, and user can add components to it 
(restricted to appropriate types of components by the application).  Components can 
themselves be containers.  Outputs are created by the “smarts” in the container… 
o Very light gray box.  Application‐provided “container” is not very smart, but allows the 
use of “smart” but independent black‐box components. 
o Degree of “cleanup” or “post‐processing”.   Ordinary Inventor operations after 
“application has completed”. 
 
• How do Intent applications compare to Inventor (VB) addins? 
o Addins are totally open‐ended; Applications follow a standard framework 
o Addins require programming; applications … don’t 
o Addins are hard; applications are … easy (easier) 
o Matter of degree; degree is large enough to make a difference 
 
• How does Intent make it easy to create applications? 
o Predefined framework 
o Easy‐to‐use “modeling language” (not exactly a programming language) 
o Integrated with Inventor  
o Many features work together … whole is greater than sum of parts 
 
• What’s new in “2008”, compared to previous releases? 
o Totally new language (VB‐like) – but all the same concepts 
o Totally new UI, dramatically easier to use – but roughly same functionality/coverage 
ƒ Integrated “undo” with Inventor 
o New .Net API for Intent (for advanced developers) – roughly same coverage 

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Demo 1: Friction Roller Conveyor. A realistic (if incomplete) application.

Things to look for:

• “Gray box” application – end‐user gets to add and configure additional conveyor sections as 
desired (not a “black box”) 
• Black‐box components 
• “Global” parameters affect all subassemblies 
• Lots of automation – entire assembly is generated – changes to “parameters” can yield 
substantially different results 
• Non‐geometric data 
• Integration with Inventor Studio and Microsoft Word 
• Figure one man‐month to get to this level (experienced users) 

Demo 2: Simple Hinged Box. Really the simplest possible application, just to see “how it
works”, clearly.

Things to look for:

• Adopting ordinary Inventor parts and using them in Intent 
• Using named faces and edges 
• Creating an Intent assembly/design 
• “Rules” – parameter rules and Child rules 
• Adopting constraints 

In both demos, look for the following features:

• Intent Model Browser, and Properties pane – for viewing the Intent model (hierarchy) and 
property values of each object 
• “Part Editor” (aka “Parameters” dialog) – for changing values of any object, as allowed by the 
application designer 
• Design Editor ‐‐ for writing rules 
• Adoption – promoting Inventor part files (or other assembly‐components) into Intent “format” 
(using a “wrapper”)   
• See how Intent generates normal IAM/IPT files, suitable for downstream operations 

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Intent Model Browser and Properties pane

“Part Editor” (aka “Parameters” dialog)

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Design Editor

Adoption Wizard

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 Automating Autodesk® Inventor™ -- A Preview of Autodesk Intent

Ordinary Inventor Files

For more information about Autodesk Intent:

• “Getting Started Guide” will be included with software 
• Training course will be available 
• Selected partners (resellers) and Autodesk Consulting 
• www.autodesk.com/intent   (soon; still showing current version) 
• Intent discussion group:  http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=184  

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