AutoCAD Inventor :: Shrink Wrap Not Creating Solids
Jan 22, 2013
I am a tech illustrator taking our engineering models and creating dumb solids for architects to drop into CAD drawings. When I take an assembly and try to shrinkwrap it (with the Solid Bodies option) the file still has all the internal ribs and fillets and stand-outs. I have created extrudes to fill gaps and holes and even tried to create single pieces to assemble later to no avail.
What is the purpose of creating/using shrink wrap substitutes? I thought that it reduces the file size, but noticed that some files turn to be larger after shrink wrapping it. ?
I have a part that was sent to me from a vendor. It was a large 80MB part so I put it in an assembly file and shrinkwrapped it to reduce the size of it. Now it is transparent and I can not figure out how to turn it off.
About Substitute Shrink wrap parts, it doesn't automatic update when I use UPDATE or even REBUILD ALL inside the LOD with it, even if I don't break the link with the assembly it doesn't update, so I have to go in each assembly with Substitute parts ( with are many in huge projects) and then verify with "Check for updates" in the correct LOD (which in some cases are more than one per assembly). Is there a way to update them direct from the main assembly with rebuild all or something like that ?
I have always struggled with AutoCAD's text masking. I love the masking ability which makes drawings that are clean looking and easier to read. My issue is with the way the mask border is created. The mask creates a rectangular border that does not "shrink wrap" around the text. This can lead to masking more text than originally intended.
I am looking for a quick and easy way to wrap the mask around text. Right now the only way to accomplish the desired result is to explode the text into single lines and then mask each individual line. This creates issues with leaders and is a more time consuming process.
I am trying to model roots from a tree going over some rocks. Is there a way to shrink wrap or have the root geometry be influenced by the rock's form?
I designed an upholstered furniture with curved surfaces. When I generate sections or elevation I'll see the invisible edges on curved surfaces! Is there a way to get the same result as the object viewer hidden line (or shaded with edges)?
2nd question. is there a way to control how many steps the surfaces are tessellated? The outline is not very smooth!
I have a part that I want to have made by rapid prototyping that will in turn be used as a pattern for casting alloy metal parts. I need to apply a factor to the part to compensate for the shrinkage that occurs when a metal part is poured in a molten stage and will cool to slightly smalller dimensions than the mold. Is there an easy way to do this without having to recreate the part to slightly larger dimensions?
I have a part which is lets say 10ft long. Now I need to modify that to be 9.5ft. Is there a simple way to remove that .5ft from the center of the part?
I just need a way to cut out a .5ft section in the middle and then put the two remaining pieces back together. Doing this would be much easier than editing the sketches for the part, especially since I may have to change the amount that is cut out and that would change the number of holes and features.
Attached is a picture of the parts i have to edit and some lines to show the section that needs to get removed.
I want to create a text wrap - or drop cap - for a giant letter B. But I can't figure out how to do it, and every tutorial I see for drop caps refers to InDesign, and those steps do not work in Illustrator.
I was wondering if it is possible to have 2 solids in 1 part and being able to pick which one I want to see in an assembly and which one I want to see in a drawing?
I have a leafspring that should show up unbended in the drawing (for the supplier) and bended in the assembly (for visual correctness). (I used Reference Sets for this in Unigraphics.)
I'm using Inventor 2012 (64-bit) with SP1 installed.
I have a multibodied part (roughly 700 parts) and I need to do a cut extrusion. The problem is that when I'm cutting through a hundred or more solids I might miss one if it's close to the edge. I though, no problem I'll just go back to the extrusion command and add those solids I missed. Problem, the program only lets me select one solid and undoes all I had previously.
I have several IGES files that I need to make into solid models. I have been searching for days on how to do it in Inventor 2012 and everyone says how easy it is, but yet I have no luck. This file was created from a scanned mold and then made using a point cloud.
Any solid shape just tend to go to the right no matter what angle you look at it and as it seems to go towards towards infinity . This is in orthographic view I might add. In perspective view the cube ends within the screen but it far from cubical and changes its appearance as you rotate it. As you can see in the pictures even the axis graphics down to the left is messed up.
Picture one is while I am extruding the 10mm cube. The big orange thing is the arrow used to drag up from the sketch.
Picture two is just the 10mm cube. As you can see the wire frame works just fine and it event hides the edges behind the solid.
I just installed the software on this computer so I suspect it is my graphics card that simply cannot handle the 3D solids. It is a few years old, a NVIDIA Quadro FX 540. The shadows does not work either, probably because I do not have shader model 2.0 or newer. do I have to scrap my computer?
I have an assembly with some hidden solids of a part in, which are turned to invisible in the part but they show on the drawing. How to not show these in the drawing but still show the unhidden solid of the part.
I have a client who is requesting that I send them ".dwg" files of a particular project. They are asking for both 3D solids AND 2D drawing files.
1.) I can export the assembly files to a 3D DWG easy enough but how do I do it for 83 files using task scheduler or something; I cannot figure it out?
2.) We have used ".dwg" as our native drawing format because we have people here who have a need to open our IV drawings using AutoCAD. Can I just send my client these files, without the supporting part files, and have them open them?
3.) If I just send them a copy of our native ".dwg" files are they going to be able to re-use that geometry somehow? There isn't a real IP concern as these are just pipe supports and platforms made from available steel shapes but I certainly wouldn't want them to be able to take our work and re-use it on a different project without us. If they have to do some crazy stuff like explode and scale and re-dimension these things in order for them to be re-usable on a different project, I would at least prefer that to them just being able to reuse them easily. I guess what I'm saying is that if they are going to re-use this content, I am not going to make it easy for them that's for sure!
Inventor Professional 2013 (SP-2.3), Product Design Suite Ultimate Desktop: Intel Core i7 3.4GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate SP-1, 64-bit OS, (2) GeForce GTX 580 (331.81), Space Pilot Pro (3.16.1) Laptop: Intel Core i7 3.9GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, Windows 7 Pro SP-1, 64-bit OS, GeForce GTX 780 (331.81), SpaceNavigator (3.17.7)
I need to do a cut extrusion on a multibodied part and need to select the solids. As of right now I have to select each one individually rather than doing a drag box or something like that. how I can do this fast, I've got a multibody part w/ over 1000 solids (I didn't create it, yes I know this is probably excessive).
I can't seem to get the "Solids" selection to become active in the assembly extrude dialog.Is there actually a way to control participants prior to creating the extrude feature?
How can I export 3D solids from Inventor to AutoCAD as well as reducing their byte size, for example changing assembly solids to a skin.
I do not need the internal components or intelligence of the assembly but I do need the solid body for presentation purposes. Ultimately I will be traveling with these solid drawings on my laptop and need them to be extremely compact.
I'm trying to figure a "fast" algorithm to obtain the amount of material (in linear distance) between 2 points within an assembly i.e. if I draw a line between any two points P1 & P2 in an assembly, what is the length of this segment that goes through material and what is the length that goes trough empty space?
For now I'm creating a thin cylinder as a new part, place it with one end at P1 and the other end at P2, calculate the interference volume of this body with the rest of the assembly and divide this number by the total volume of the cylinder. but has some problems:
1. It is VERY slow, and I want to call this function lots of times. 3. Is not accurate due to the finite diameter of the cylinder. 2. If the assembly has some interferences, the result is wrong (accounting same volume more than once)
When I try to select several solids for an extrusion cut/interference I can do so fairly quickly by selecting all of them in the browser so long as the extrusion is set to "all" or "distance".
For some reason when I need to do a "to" or "between" I have to select them one at a time. Every time I select a solid the select solids options returns to the input so that I have to select one solid then press the "Solids" button and select another one. This tends to do the same thing if I create an extrusion and then want to later modify the solids taking part in the extrusion. Is there an option I can turn off?
I have a part which has 2 solid bodies in it which were created using the extrude command. When setting the iProperties for this part I get the material properties applied to both solids. Is it possible to set a material for each solid so that they will be listed separately under iProps ? I suspect this can't be done in which case how would I go about separating the solid bodies ?
Autodesk Inventor Professional 2013 SP2 64-Bit Edition Windows 7 HP Z400, Intel Xeon W3550 3.07GHz 12.0GB RAM, ATI FirePro V4800 (FireGL)
derive multiple solids from a part. I use the code shown below but it seem as I only can get the first solid in the part that I am trying to derive from.
''More Code''' ' Create a new part document, invisibly. oPartDoc = m_inventorApp.Documents.Add(DocumentTypeEnum.kPartDocumentObject, , True) oPartDoc.UnitsOfMeasure.LengthUnits =UnitsTypeEnum.kMillimeterLengthUnits ' Derive the assembly into the part. Dim oDerivedPrtDef AsDerivedPartDefinition oDerivedPrtDef = oPartDoc.ComponentDefinition.ReferenceComponents.DerivedPartComponents.CreateDefinition(oTopDoc.FullDocumentName) Call oPartDoc.ComponentDefinition.ReferenceComponents.DerivedPartComponents.Add(oDerivedPrtDef) '''More Code'''
How can I get all the solids from the part that I am deriving from?
I have 17 years of Unigraphics / NX and 2 months of AutoCAD 2013 3D experience . I am designing a welded table that has lots of tubes to be aligned to each other. It appears that snaps do not work on solids and there is no way to do a point to point solid move in Inventor. Is there any way to select a solid, snap to a base point, then move or copy to a snap destination point of another solid? Does this need to be done in an assembly drawing? If so, do I have to create a file for each tube and then bring each of them into an assembly? I would like to draw the table as one part. Designing all the parts together. The lack of snaps is strange to me. I can only snap to end points in sketches. No midpoints?? I must be missing something very basic and easy. I have not tried an assembly drawing yet.
I have been working through hours and hours of training videos. Everything but move, copy and paste has been pretty easy. I think I need to find an AutoCAD to Inventor transition video. There are no training courses in my area. So I'm stuck with online training. This problem is never addressed and I can't ask the question on a video.