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Greetings!
Another Exercise in Futility
So, for the past week, I have been struggling with
Inventor R9 Pro's Wire and Harness module. My
problem...I wanted to create an adaptive wire harness
that would move with a drive constraint. I could
create the wire harness fairly easily, but I just couldn't
get it to adapt; i.e. compress and grow based on the
drive constraint. In the browser, the wire harness was
indicated as adaptive, but I could not get it to adapt.
Turns out that I was beating my head against the wall
for no reason. Brian Kelley at Autodesk finally clued me
in...the wire/harness module has no adaptive
capabilities. Even though, the icon in the browser
indicates adaptivity...it is not adaptive unless you use
a single wire only with no wire segment.
Well, that was a disappointment. Along the journey, I
heard from other users who felt similar frustration with
this module. I think what I really heard is that this is a
tool most users really want, but the module is still too
embryonic to be really useful in the real world.
I had hoped by this release the module would be further
along...but having lived thru MDT 2.0 and AutoCAD
R13...I know that there's always hope in the next
release, or the one after. Here's looking forward to R10!
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Creating a Material in Inventor R9 |
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So, you want to create a new material with physical
properties, so you can calculate mass, etc.
- Go to Format->Style Editor.
- Expand the Materials category.
- Highlight a material similar to the one you want to
create.
- Press New.
- Assign a Name.
- Enter in the material properties.
- Press Save.
If you create a custom material, be sure to export it so
you can use it in other files, etc. To export a custom
material (or any material for that mater), highlight the
material name. Right click and select Export.
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Warnings regardings Windows XP SP2 |
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Even before this latest service pack for Windows XP
operating system was released, there were concerns
about possible bugs, including conflicts with existing
software programs.
Microsoft has published a list of some fifty(!) programs
which may have problems once you install the service
pack.
The one that many users will have issues with, I think,
is Visual Studio.net, which includes Visual Basic. BUT
the biggie...are you ready? AutoCAD 2000/2002/2004!
So, if you have AutoCAD 2000/2002/2004 installed and
are running Windows XP, be sure you check out the link
below for information on the conflicts you may
experience. Hopefully, Autodesk will also come out with
some instructions for users.
See if your software is listed »
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Email Auto-Responders |
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During the month of August...lots of folks on vacation.
This means that when CADzette gets emailed out, I will
get email back from all the vacationers telling me that
they are out of the office.
No problem when CADzette subscription numbers were
in the single digits, but I am closing in on breaking triple
digits on my number of subscribers - and I know more
folks than that read this newsletter, because people
forward the articles and tutorials they like.
Hey, it's the price of success....but what tickles me
most is when I get auto-responders from other
countries...like this one from Italy.
Grazie per la vostra e-mail.
Non saro' in ufficio sino al giorno 30 Agostoo
Potro' rispondere alla vostra e-mail al mio rientro.
Thank you for your e-mail
I will not be in the office until August 30th.
I will respond to your email when I return.
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TTF v. SHX Wars |
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The controversy over the use of TTF fonts vs. SHX
fonts continues...
Skyler Mills, of Providence, RI, writes "One word about
fonts: in our transportation engineering offices, we
only use TTF fonts on title blocks. All other uses, from
details to notes to callouts, are Romans. Our bridge
department also follows the same policy, but they use
that funky hand-lettered SHX. Personally, I think
Simplex and Romans are the best fonts. They are
clear, attractive and relatively fast. Yes, Txt is faster,
but it's hideous."
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Sketch Linestyles in Inventor R9 |
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Rich Killen of Seattle emailed me with a
quandary...what happened to that drop-down in
Inventor where you could define your sketch entity as
reference, center, construction, etc.?
Rich had searched Inventor Help to no avail. Of
course, he had been searching under Styles...a new
feature in Inventor that improves the idw interface.
But, still...Help, well, didn't help.
The drop-down has been replaced with three icons that
appear on your main toolbar when you are in sketch
mode. The icons are located to the far right. Simply
depress the desired line mode and draw your
geometry.
To change existing geometry to a different line type,
select the geometry and then toggle the linetype. You
can go from Normal to Construction and then back this
way.
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The Shifting Links on Autodesk's website |
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A couple of months back, I wrote an article in
AUGIWorld, AUGI's bi-monthly magazine, with tips and
tricks for Inventor. The article was a big hit and I got
several emails from grateful Inventor users around the
world. (I love getting that sort of email!)
However, Autodesk updates their website
CONSTANTLY. This is both good and bad. Good - their
content is never stale and you really should get into
the habit of visiting Autodesk's website often because
it does change so much - new content being added all
the time. Bad because when I write about a link...well,
it may not be there for long.
So, now I am getting emails from those same readers
who want to know...what happened to that great link
for the on-line Inventor parts catalog? It's still there,
but Autodesk moved it.
So, here's the new link...if you are an Inventor user,
you will definitely want to bookmark that page...but
keep in mind, Autodesk may very well move it again at
some future date...and then I will try to hunt it down
for you.
Click the CAD Register link »
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Visibility of Work Points in Wire Segments |
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So, I am messing around in Inventor Pro and have
created some wire segments using the Wire and
Harness tool...they look pretty good, but I want to turn
off the visibility of the work points. Go to the browser,
highlight the work points, right click - BUT no Visibility
option.
What's a gal to do? Post on Autodesk's Discussion
group and Cory McConnell, an Autodesk Inventor
Certified Expert, (www.mechanixdesigns.com) comes to
my rescue.
Go to View > Object Visibility > uncheck User
Workpoints or +.
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Layer Filter Tip for AutoCAD |
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In the Layer Properties Manager, select All in
the tree view.
Use #* in the Search for
Layer box to list layers beginning with a number; i.e. 1-
site.
Use @* to list layers beginning with a letter.
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