|
Greetings!
Dare you take the MDT v. Inventor Challenge?
Paul Waddington, of Sydney, Australia, recently issued
me a challenge. He says that MDT is superior to
Inventor. I say Inventor is the better software. He
says he can build this part in under seven minutes in
MDT. The same part took me about thirty minutes in
Inventor and I made it wrong.
What I Did
I took the AutoCAD drawing provided by Paul and
opened it in Inventor to use it as my starting sketch. I
took the front view and extruded it and then used a
sweep in order to create the required chamfer/bevel.
Of course, when you do this, you aren't able to place
the finishing fillet to round all the edges. Additionally,
the bevel changes as you go around the edge of the
part, so the sweep is actually wrong.
Paul suggests the problem can be solved using
surfacing tools. This is a plastic part
Paul is using this part as an example of why MDT is
superior to Inventor. Until Inventor can support the
creation of pieces such as these, MDT can not
be killed and must be allowed to continue as a product,
says Paul.
Any Solidworks users are also welcome to
participate...let's see if SolidWorks can kick Inventor on
this part.
Email me with the results of your efforts and any
comments.
To download the drawing and take the challenge!
|
|
CADalog. com sold to IMSI |
 |
|
Cadalog,Inc., has sold their web site, CADalog.com and
their other sites, 3Dmodelsharing.com, PartsWorks.com
and PartsXL.com to IMSI. IMSI is well known as the
developer of TurboCAD.
The Cadalog,Inc. crew are moving on and focusing their
resources on localization and exporting of CAD products
to Asia.
I expect this is one more sign of the decreasing market
in the CAD industry. It is ever more difficult for people
to make a living with an industry that insists on moving
overseas.
For information about IMSI »
|
|
|
Learn HTML for Free! |
|
|
More and more employers are requiring that you know
html. HTML is the language used to create web
pages. A lot of employers want you to be able to
create and edit in html in order to create help
documentation for your designs.
Dave Kristula has put together a step by step tutorial
which is very easy to follow on his website. He
provides examples and even has a small exercise at the
end of each lesson for you to try.
If you go through his lessons, and you probably can do
this in a day, you will be able to add HTML to your
resume with confidence.
Learn HTML for free! »
|
|
|
SolidWorks World vs. Autodesk University |
|
|
Registrations have opened for Autodesk University, as
most of you know. AU will be in Las Vegas once again
December 2-5.
For those of you who can only attend one conference
and can't decide between the AU and SolidWorks
World...
SolidWorks World will be held in Boston this year
January 19-21, which also happens to be the home of
SolidWorks Headquarters. The CEO of SolidWorks, John
McEleney, will be giving the keynote address. Carol
Bartz, Autodesk's CEO, has a previous engagement and
will not be attending this year's AU (she was at last
year's AU - it seems that she alternates, making an
appearance every other year.)
The cost to attend AU is $1245 (if you register before
10/10). The cost to attend SolidWorks World $545 (if
you register before 12/5). Neither fee includes hotel -
just admittance into classes, lunches, and the annual
party. It is easy to find an inexpensive hotel in
Vegas. Many attendees stayed across the street from
the MGM and paid $35/nite (vs. $69/nite at the MGM)
and actually found it was easier and faster to walk
across the street to the conference than through the
MGM hotel which is HUGE - it is easily a 2 mile walk
from your room to the conference floor. The Boston
Marriot Copley, where SolidWorks World is to be held, is
charging a "special rate" of $120/nite. One of the
reasons Autodesk picked Vegas for AU is the
inexpensive hotel rates. Having visited Boston, I can
say that the $120/nite rate is a pretty decent rate.
Chances that you'll be able to find a cheaper hotel
within walking distance are probably remote.
SolidWorks gives a discount on conference registration
if you are a member of a local user group and
presidents of any SolidWorks local user group get in
FREE. Autodesk doesn't cut LUGs a break although
AUGI directors get in free and anyone who has been a
president of AUGI has a lifetime pass.
So, why the big price difference? Well, SolidWorks
hasn't posted their class list yet, but last year there
were considerably fewer classes and nowhere near the
scope offered by AU.
To check out SolidWorks World »
|
|
|
Merge Control in AutoCAD, ADT, and MDT 2004 |
|
It used to that you could control how overlying lines
interact using the hpsetup.exe file included with the
software.
If you use the 2000 series of AutoCAD software, you
can run a search in Windows Explorer to locate the
hpsetup.exe file. If you have 2004 software, merge
control has been moved to the Plotter Configuration
Editor.
You can access the Plotter Configuration Editor by
selecting the Properties button on the Plot dialog next
to the plot device of your choice. Expand the Graphics
tree and you see the Merge Control option and a
preview of your two options.
As long as you are in this location, you may want to
switch your text setting to print Text as Graphics. This
will prevent the appearance of garbage characters
when using those True Type Fonts that architects love
so much.
|
|
|
Setting Units in ADT |
|
|
A user complains that he sets the units in ADT and
then saves the dwg. The next time he opens the
drawing, the units are wrong again. Is he in ADT hell?
No, chances are he used DDUNITs to set his units. In
order to set the units and have them STAY, use
AECDWGSETUP. Then select the UNITS tab.
|
|
|
Free Text Update Utility from Autodesk |
|
|
The following lisp routine may come in handy when you
want to get your attributes or text to match with a
specific text style.
Download the utility »
|
|
|
Controlling Hole Sizes in Inventor |
|
|
One of the most powerful features in Inventor is that
you can place several points in a sketch and then use
the hole tool to create a bunch of holes in one feature.
Using this method has it's pros and cons. You can
modify the sketch to reposition the holes, but all the
holes are defined using the same depth, diameter, and
type (drill, countersink, or counterbore.)
There a couple of ways around this. You can share the
sketch and only apply the hole tool to the desired
points to define different hole types.
You can select a single point for the hole tool and then
find out what the label for that diameter is (d1, d2,
d3...etc.)...then when you create the other holes just
type in the label from the desired diameter when
dimensioning the subsequent
holes.
|
|
|
SECURITYOPTIONS- NEW 2004 COMMAND |
|
For those people who are extra paranoid or those who
are dealing with proprietary information, the new
security options allow you to require a password before
someone can view your drawing.
You can also add a digital signature to the drawing to
indicate approval or authenticity.
To access the security options, go to the Options
dialog. Select the Open and Save tab. Select the
Security Options button located in lower left quadrant
of the dialog. You can also type
securityoptions on the command line.
A word of caution - if you forget the password, you are
pretty much screwed as there is no way to retrieve it.
If you are like my oldest son and show a preference for
23-plus character passwords, you will not win any
popularity contests with the recepients of your
drawings.
One cool thing is that AutoCAD 2004 is more than
happy to accept the Digital Signatures I created with
Adobe Professional.
|
| Quick Links... |
|
|
