Mission Inventor:

2009-11-19T13:05:00.001-06:00

AutoCAD Inventor 2011 Beta Is Now Available

For those wondering when this would be made available, it is now available for downloading. If you already have a beta account or need to create one, go to:
http://beta.autodesk.com
If you are new, then you will need to fill out an online form and get approval.This is an excellent opportunity to review the software, see what’s new and try to break it in before it is released. Please keep in mind that Beta software is not for production use and any information created in a beta software has no guarantee of working in the final version.You will also need to check your internet connection, because you will be downloading several DVD’s worth of information.
Good luck and we look forward to seeing your comments on the Beta Forum’s website.

Drivers

We get a lot of questions and support calls concerning drivers, particularly video drivers. There is a lot of published information about video drivers and their compatibility with the Autodesk products. Here’s a very good one:

http://www.inventor-certified.com/graphics/index.php

It has past and present information on drivers, where to find them, if they are compatible with the current product and which version of the drivers are available.

Training

Spending money in a down economy sounds counter-intuitive, however, that is exactly what your business may need. While attending the Southern Automotive Conference last month, most of the automotive manufacturers in the southeast were present. Many of them discussed how they were making and acting on plans for recovery. One of them discussed that instead of laying off hundreds of employees, they trained their workers on improving quality (over thousands of hours) and developed over 3,000 kaizens! Now is a great time to train or retrain your employees on their CAD software. If you can make your engineers more productive and more accurate, it will pay off several fold through your entire production facility. Invest in your workers by training them on the software and improve your bottom line. ALACAD has many regular classes. We can also customize classes to your work/workflow to make your engineering departments more efficient.

Support, help yourself......

2009-07-31T09:23:00.002-05:00

I found this blogger that really knows his stuff.
Wait it's Autodesk, they should know it.

Autodesk support now has their own blog!

There some good stuff here.

http://beinginventive.typepad.com/being-inventive/

You can even setup your RSS feed to pull from here and be up to date all teh time.

Enjoy.

Certified....

2009-07-31T09:03:00.002-05:00

Certified Nut? No
Certified Geek? No.
How about Certified Inventor Professional. That can help.
With today's economy, it helps to stand out in teh crowd. Autodesk has now released and ready for you to take the Inventor Certifications.

Visit here for an Overview: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=10095419)

There are 2 levels, Associate and Profesional.
You have to take the Associate and Pass to take the Professional.
If you take and pass the Professional Exam, you get a certificate and a Logo that you can stick in the Signature portion of your email. Also, you can be listed in Autodesk's database of Professionals for Employers (or Clients) to see.
There are practice tests available (free) to get you ready.

You have to go to a Autodesk ATC (Authorized Training Center) to take the test. However, for teh small fee, it may pay off big from a job point of view.

I recieved notification today that i passed, so you can too.

2009-04-24T16:38:00.002-05:00

Here's a YouTube Video on some of the new Fuctions oin Sheet Metal Design:

2009-04-24T16:36:00.001-05:00

Here's a YouTube Video on Assembly Design:

Plastic Parts Design Video

2009-04-24T16:28:00.002-05:00

Check out this Youtube Video on the plastic parts design

2009-04-24T16:27:00.002-05:00

Been absent so long learning more of the new stuff that's in 2010.
So let's renew the blog with cool stuff.

Happy Holidays!!

2008-12-21T23:24:00.002-06:00

Happy Holidays.
Been real busy, but thought i would pass along this Seasons Greetings.

At AU saw a lot of good stuf. I'll post my Top 7 things i saw in the next week or so....

Do i hear Reindear?

2008-10-13T19:51:00.002-05:00

MDT: going the way of the DO-DO:

The only thing I have to say is: YES!

If you have MDT (Mechanical Desktop) and are not looking at going to Inventor, but maybe something else, because Autodesk canceled MDT... get over it.

MDT was early 1990's technology that has been dragged along for people who don't like change.

This technology was out there before many of the competitors of Inventor(like Solidworks), for a cheaper price then.

With the demise of MDT, I expect all old MDT users to go and make Inventor better faster, now that Autodesk will have more money in that part of their budget.

Thank you Autodesk for setting a course for the future and engaging.

2008-08-19T08:58:00.003-05:00

Installations -

A phrase that makes most homeowners cringe... and a lot of software installers as well. Let's go thru some things that may make Software installations a little easier.

1. Check the software requirements, BEFORE starting the installation, not when you are having trouble. In other words, memory, hard drive, is a DVD player needed and video requirements.

2. Plan your installation, do you need to fix anything from #1 (above), where are you going to put the files, any custom changes that are required. Take notes and make a list.

3. During the install pay attention. If silent install is an option, get to know the software and what to expect before you turn this on.

4. If you are having trouble installing, check the media player (aka DVD player) is it a problem, check the media (aka DVD) is it scratched or dirty, check the hard drive.... is it full!.

5. Don't panic or get too frustrated, if you have problems installing the software. Remember you have a backup.... call your reseller or Autodesk (if you have subscription).
6. If you do have problems installing, try to copy all of the DVD's to the harddrive and install from there (when coping some of the files are duplicated, so just accept them). Then delete the DVD copy.

6. While you're installing take screen shots of all the dialog boxes, so you can remember what options you choose. Helps later on, trust me.

Hope this helps.

The whole picture

2008-05-05T08:02:00.002-05:00

Want to see the whole picture of what Autodesk can do for you?

Go to this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TKm_WB1FpA&feature=email

There's the Industrial Design (Alias) to Inventor to pretty pictures (Showcase) to Autocad Electrical.

Take a look. This is not your AUTOCAD anymore.

Sustainability, how bad are you?

2008-04-16T22:10:00.002-05:00

Well, Labs has an answer for that.

http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/sustainable_materials_assistant/

A new tool. Try it our and give the Guys at Labs some feedback.

It adds information to the materials and can poll that information to determine total Carbon footprint, among other things.

An interesting way to keep track of this information in a even Greening World. I know there are several companies that have add Carbon foot print information requirements to their specifications. So this can help them publish this information to their customers.

Labs is at it again....

2008-04-14T17:25:00.001-05:00

Look a solution to bring in native Alias files. No STEP or IGES required here.

Take a look.....
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=4246282

Are you making Scrap or Products?

2008-04-14T17:16:00.003-05:00

If you are in the business of making products, what are you doing to reduce the number of prototypes you throw away?

Can you afford to make and scrap prototypes?

If not have you looked into Digital prototyping? The idea of breaking or validating parts before you make them.

That is what this whole Digital prototyping craze is about. I can virtually break it, bend it, flex it, fit it and SHOW it before I cut the first piece of material.

If this interests you, take a look at Inventor.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=4246282

If you have and don't think it is for you, take another look.

I really believe in Inventor and it's capacity to reduce my work, increase my productivity and reduce the amount of scrap I generate. Just like Autocad did decades ago, Inventor takes it too a new level. It is worth taking another look.

LABS - were not talking dogs here

2008-04-11T12:57:00.002-05:00

Autodesk Labs is what we are talking about. If you want to see some of the new cool stuff that is coming from Autodesk (especially for Inventor) look here:

http://labs.autodesk.com/

Here you will find not just cool stuff, but USEFUL, cool stuff.

Feature Recognition
Frame Generator Customization Tool
Translator Add Ins
2D to 3D tool
etc...

Bookmark this one and keep an eye on it..

Where's my MDT?

2008-04-10T22:17:00.005-05:00

So you have your shiny new Inventor 2009 DVD's and you are looking for Mechanical Desktop 2009, but it's not there. Where is it?

A clue is one of the cards in the DVD case (see below):
That's right it's not there.... you have to download it? Why?

The first question should be .... do you need it?

Most people.. probably not, you have Inventor! But if you have to import Mechanical Desktop files into Inventor, then Yes you will need to download and install it.

That's it. Start using your new software and Happy Modeling.

This is a great time to start this....

2008-04-10T12:55:00.002-05:00

This is a great time to start this blog. This blog will be dedicated to everything about Autodesk Inventor (and anything else we can think about). A new release is out, so there are many new things to talk about. But as this blog continues, we'll talk about many things, features, techniques, cool stuff, etc.... So be on the look out and bookmark this blog, there are many good things to come.