AutoCAD Inventor :: PDF To DWG To Scalable Sketch - Spline Control Vertices
Aug 9, 2012
I have a client who is replacing a large fleet of machines located in premises throughout the country. In theory the replacement program should be straightforward..... however machine dimensions have increased slightly, new service access doors have been added and user control switches and indicators have moved. I have Inventor Assemblies of the machines to show the door and body changes, but not the complex user interface panel (buttons and switches). If I could only import a sketch of the interface panel, it would look great in an Inventor drawing and I could dimension the all important position of components on the interface panel.
I have PDF drawings of the fascia panels which I can import to Adobe Illustrator and save as a DWG. When I look at the DWG in AutoCAD Mechanical, all looks well. When I import the drawing to Inventor part sketch however lots of spline control vertices appear. I cant delete the control vertices in AutoCAD or the drawing falls to pieces when imported to Inventor.
How then do I hide the vertices from my sketch in Inventor. Am I doing things the hard way? Are there shortcuts to importing PDFs in Inventor?
Inventor 2013 sketch mode is excellent as I only have to change one dimension to scale my sketch. I can also stretch/manipulate the sketch to make up for any errors in the original PDF.
I am still very new to AutoCAD.I have 5 nodes each of which has an x y & z co-ordinates. I have converted each of these nodes into a control vertex and created a spline of degree 3.
Because the spline does not directly go through each of the control vertices and thus there is some gap between the spline and the control vertices; what I want to know is, what is the distance between a particular control vertex and the spline measured at right angles to the tangent line of the spline.
The values I am using are completely arbitrary and I have used them just to get my point across.I have also attached the actual .dwg file that contains the total number of control vertices and the spline.
Why the heck does Inventor arbitrarily orient sketches as it sees fit? I often create my first sketch on the right (YZ) plane and Inventor, stupidly turns the sketch where "RIGHT" in the viewcube reads from top to bottom.
I know all the things to do to AFTER this happens, but it shouldn't happen in the first place. If I turn my sketch so that up is up, like it should be, I then have to remember that vertical is horizontal, which is now vertical. I can't change the sketch coordinate system. It's the first sketch and there is nothing to align it to.
How to prevent the above example from occurring in the first place.
This, and the fact that I can't dimension to any existing vertices or edges without projecting them first, really make me hate using Inventor sometimes. To me, these are huge problems, neither of which Solidworks has. At worst, both of these behaviors should be configurable.
Is there a way to change or control the color of sketch objects? I didn't see any way to set colors for sketch objects within the Application Options. Might there be some registry entries that could change the color of sketch objects?
Sometimes it's useful to be able to use colors other than Green and Black for sketch objects.
Where is the setting to control the size of dims in the IPT sketch environment. The arrow sizes are OK, but the dims are so small they are unreadable to the point of having to double click on the dim to get the actual value.
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I don't seem to be able to increase the number of control vertices in an IK Spline. The number of bones in the chain upon which the Spline is set doesn't seem to affect the number of control vertices I have to work with when creating the spline and I can't find a way to increase the number. I'm trying to animate a fish but finding it difficult to get a smooth wave to travel along it's length with only four control vetices.
How can i achieve symmetry on a spline by adjusting the handles of the vertices? The copy/paste tangent button is only useful for vertices with handles pointing in the same directions, how can i copy/paste tangent (same length) but pointing in the opposing directions, it would be like mirroring tangents?
I'm trying to create an external involute spline (ANSI B92.2M) Fillet Root Side Fit 26.9mm x 1 mm x 26 teeth x 38 mm long using the spline generator with Inventor 2012. I created a test shaft"M-182-AMA.ipt" that is Ø26.9 mm x 38 mm long with 1 mm radius on each end of shaft.
I use the following steps:
1. After creating component "M-182-AMA.ipt" I select Design tab>>Power Transmission>>Involute Spline. 2. A window appears that has the caption "Involute Splines Connection Generator".In the Dimensions section I choose "Splines Type: ANSI B92.2M - 37.5 deg, Fillet Root, Side Fit, 26 x 1.00 x 38 x 5H/5h" and change the Length to 38 mm. 3. In the Shaft Groove section I use Create new, and I push the Reference 1 button that turns blue, I then select the od feature from the model and I get an error(see attached pic "error1.jpg).
I changed the 26.9mm od to be 27mm and it still gave me the error.
Work Station : Dell Precision R5400 OS: Windows 7 Business 64 Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601 Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz, 1995 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A10, 4/30/2012 Graphics Display Card: ATI FirePro V4800 (FireGL V) 1.00 GB Adapter RAM Computer Memory: 8 GB ECC RAM
In gmask, i switch the softness to 'tracer' so i got individual control of each the control points (cp). But seems that the feather's cp doesn't have its own tangent control. Is is hidden ? how can i turn it on ? or is it not available ?
I've created a shared sketch and have used it with various features. Sometime those features are suppressed. The model works fine but the shared sketch generates a sketch doctor error because the feature that created it has been suppressed. Is there anyway to make the sketch suppressed so it doesn't trigger a sketch doctor error? Inventor 2013
How do I duplicate the 2D line work from a part level sketch into a drawing level (overlay) sketch?
I started a simple 2D piping system diagram sketch by opening a new part file and using a sketch to stick draw the system schematic including some annotations. Then I opened a new drawing file and made a base view of the part file to bring a view of the original sketch into the drawing.
I realize now that it would have been much easier to have created the schematic directly in a 2D sketch at the drawing level, which would have made editing the annotations much easier at the drawing level, and there is really no need for the part file to exist. I have no intention of creating a 3D model or "real" part in the .ipt file, was just using it as a jumping off point to sketch.
I was thinking that I could correct my error in judgment by just copying the sketch and pasting it into a new sketch on the drawing, but it doesn't want to work that way. I have tried copying both the whole sketch at the browser level, and the entire sketch contents (all of the lines and annotations) from the opened part sketch, but when I attempt to paste either of those into the drawing, paste does not seem to be an option. I'd rather not have to draw the whole thing again, as in typical fashion, my once simple sketch has grown in proportion and complexity from its simple beginning.
I'm having trouble with constaints, I'd like to constrain my sketch to a point in another sketch on a different plane. Is this posible in Inventor? If so how? If Inventor works differently how would you get a points in one sketch to be linked to points another?
I am using AutoCAD 2011. my scale being off for text, dimensions, inserting scalable blocks, xrefs, etc...
The problem is that when inserting, or creating text (or any of the above) in architectural scales everything is fine, however, when the scale is changed to an engineering scale, everything comes in at 1/12 the scale it is supposed to be - i.e. - when I create text it has to be scaled up by 12, it's like AutoCAD is just reading the 200 scale and not multiplying by the scaler of 2400.
Here I enclose file Cam_Profile.ipt, this is a spline curve made from an Excel matrix with 670 points in 3 decimals accuracy (VBA editor) Extruding is not possible because of self intersecting path.
I want to trim both two free ends from the intersection and also close the intersection for extruding this profile. However ....., without displacement of any current point in the perimeter of the closed spline!
I have created a shaft and splined one end of it successfully. The shaft is the same diameter at both ends and I need to spline the other end as well but when I try, I get the following error messages, Cannot create iFeature. Not possible to create shaft groove. Splining the first end went without a hitch but Inventor absolutely refuses to spline the opposite end of the shaft. The shaft diameter is correct for the spline I have chosen (same as the major diameter)
I have a group of Points coming from a step.file. So I don't have their coordinates, excel list or anything else. Just the step file. Around 100 points. There is a line between each 2 consecutive points.
Is there any way to select all the points and create a complete spline? Or even to select all the points and create tangent arcs between all of them?
In Vers 2013, IV finally added the ability to manipulate a [3D] spline by dragging the control handles (way behind the curve on this one).
However, dragging "a" control handle causes several of the other control handles to shift as well. Puts a big limit on the ability to customize yout path. Splines are supposed to be one of the unrestricted free form tools for modeling.
Is there any way to turn this "feature" off ? I need and should be able to have discrete control on each control handle. (I had this way back in SW)
Also, there is no 'axis' for the control points unless you count the const lines that connect the control points and I don't. I should be able to select an axis and be able to shift the direction and level of influence of each side of the control point axis.
I have a spline that runs through about 70 points to make the perfect line. But when I rotate the sketch the spline turned from green to black and is no longer recognised as a boundary. I then have to delete the black line and re-draw. How do I keep the spline green and usable?
I am currently attempting to dimension to a spline in an orthographic drawing and running into some issues. I can't seem to find a way to properly dimension rather than making microscopic holes in the piece and that way giving the .idw something to grab on to for dimensioning.
I need to be able to extract all "X" and "Y" axis points from a "spline" created in a 2D "sketch" and display them in the "Debug" window (for test only).
