Shorten the road to done. Autodesk ® Inventor ® Autodesk ® InventorProfessional Routed Systems Experience your design before it’s built. The Autodesk® Inventor® product line provides a comprehensive and flexible set of software for 3D mechanical design, simulation, tooling creation, and design communication that help you cost-effectively take advantage of a Digital Prototyping workflow to design and build better products in less time. Autodesk® Inventor® software is the foundation of Design and Validate Your Products Digitally Contents the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping. The Autodesk Inventor software products include Inventor model is an accurate 3D digital prototype an intuitive parametric design environment for that enables you to validate the form, fit, and developing initial concept sketches and kinematic Product Simulation function of a design as you work, minimizing the models of parts and assemblies. Inventor software Simulation ................................................. 4 need to test the design with physical prototypes. automates the advanced geometry creation of Routed Systems Design By enabling you to use a digital prototype to intelligent components, such as plastic parts, steel Tube and Pipe Design ............................. 7 design, visualize, and simulate your products frames, rotating machinery, tube and pipe runs, Cable and Harness Design ..................... 9 digitally, Inventor software helps you communicate and electrical cable and wire harnesses. Inventor Tooling Creation more effectively, reduce errors, and deliver more software helps reduce the geometry burden so Tooling and Mold Design ...................... 11 innovative product designs faster. you can rapidly build and refine digital prototypes that validate design functions and help minimize 3D Mechanical Design manufacturing costs. Layout and System Design .................. 14 Plastic Part Design.................................. 15 Traditionally, validating the operating characteristics Sheet Metal Design ............................... 17 of a design before it was built usually meant hiring Assembly Design .................................... 19 expensive specialists. But with Inventor software, CAD Productivity Tools you don’t need to be a simulation expert to AutoCAD Integration and DWG effectively simulate and optimize designs digitally. The Inventor product line includes easy-to-use and Interoperability ...................................... 21 tightly integrated part and assembly-level motion Native Translators .................................. 23 simulation and stress analysis functionality. By Learning Resources ............................... 24 simulating stress, deflection, and motion, you can Customization and Automation .......... 25 optimize and validate your design under real-world Design Communication conditions, before the product or part is ever built. Design and Manufacturing Documentation ...................................... 26 3D Visualization and Design Communication ..................................... 28 Data Management ................................. 30 Learn how Autodesk Inventor can help you use a digital prototype to bring better products to market faster and at less cost. 2 Streamline Mold Design Inventor is tightly integrated with Autodesk data The Autodesk Inventor product line includes management applications, enabling the efficient and automated mold design tools that work directly secure exchange of design data and promoting ear- from Inventor 3D models of plastic parts. Powered lier collaboration between design and manufactur- by Autodesk® Moldflow® plastic flow analysis ing workgroups. Different workgroups can manage AutoCAD Users: tools, Inventor can help to optimize your design and track all components of a digital prototype with Move beyond 3D to for moldability and minimize the number of mold free* Autodesk® Design Review software—the all- iterations. digital way to review, measure, mark up, and track Digital Prototyping. changes to designs—allowing for better reuse of Improve Design Communication and crucial design data, management of bills of materials With Autodesk Inventor Collaboration (BOMs), and collaboration with other teams and Reduce errors and associated engineering change partners. software, you can easily orders before manufacturing by generating integrate AutoCAD® manufacturing documentation directly from your With different product configurations that offer validated 3D digital prototype. Inventor offers rapid specific levels of functionality to fit your design and 3D data into a single and accurate output of production-ready draw- needs, no company is more focused than Autodesk digital model to create a ings directly from the 3D model. Inventor product on helping you create accurate digital prototypes bundles also include AutoCAD® Mechanical soft- and bring better products to market faster at less virtual representation of ware for situations that require a high-productivity cost. the final product. 2D mechanical drafting tool. Inventor software helps you realize the benefits of Digital Prototyping by providing direct read and write of native DWG™ files, so there’s no risk of inaccurate translations. Leveraging valuable DWG data with Autodesk Inventor software can help you compete more effectively, service your clients better, and do more in-house. 3 Simulation Easy-to-use and tightly integrated motion simulation and stress analysis in the Autodesk® Inventor® Professional software help you predict how the design will work under real- world conditions before building it. Integrated Motion Simulation Integrated FEA Use motion simulation—not intuition—to enhance Increase the accuracy and reliability of your design A comprehensive your design decisions. The motion simulation feature stress analysis. Use integrated FEA to predict stress simulation environment in Autodesk Inventor software uses the assembly and deflection with accurate peak loads by transferring provides support for constraints in your 3D model to identify relevant reaction forces from simulation time steps to AIP stress rigid bodies, generate correct motion joints, and analysis. motion simulation and compute dynamic behavior. This helps you to quickly static and modal finite understand the design’s behaviors, including the Adaptive Solver position, velocity, and accelerations of the moving Conduct finite element studies faster and apply the re- element analysis (FEA) parts. sults sooner. Adaptive solver technology and localized at both the part and tuning algorithms within Inventor give you accurate assembly level. Results results more quickly. from dynamic simulation Static Analysis allow engineers to use Make sure your designs are strong enough while avoiding over-designing. Examine the deformation of FEA more effectively by parts and assemblies under static loads to determine leveraging the reaction maximum and minimum stresses and deflections. At the same time, you can help assure designs meet the forces to set up the necessary safety standards. conditions for finite element stress analysis. Load Definition Apply different driving loads and torques as well as time-based force functions using the Load Profile editor. Use this tool to investigate the design’s per- formance under a range of different load conditions. 4 Simulation Optimize and validate product performance before the product is built. Because these tools are part of the 3D design software, it’s practical and cost-effective to employ simulation throughout the design process. Modal Analysis Design Update Prevent annoying and potentially hazardous vibra- Quickly apply the results of simulation studies to tions without having to build and test physical your 3D model. You can select new parameter val- prototypes. Use studies of oscillating modes to ues from parametric and optimization studies. The explore the vibrations and natural frequencies of the Promote tool automatically modifies the assemblies parts or assemblies within your design. Then make and parts within your model. changes that reduce the amplitude of oscillations. Point Trace Parametric Studies Easily calculate motion paths and save time by Improve the structural performance of your designs. simplifying the design of cams, grooved paths, and Use the Parameter Table tool to create parametric other motion-dependent components. Select any studies of design constraints and understand the point in the model and use the Trace tool to display effect of different parameter values. You’ll be able the point’s location at each step in the motion simu- to explore the impact of changes, such as wall thick- lation. Using Inventor, you can also save simulation ness, fillet radius, and hole diameter, to your design. outputs, including path traces and assembly posi- tions, for use in part and assembly design. Optimization Studies Find the best design solution without having to in- vestigate an excessive number of options. When you FEA Environment Definition conduct optimization studies, Inventor automati- Spend more time analyzing performance and less cally seeks parameter values that meet your design time preparing the analysis. Inventor gives you full criteria. control over materials, loads, constraints, con- tacts, mesh, solution quality, representations, and component visibility. Automatic and manual contact definition and support for multiple simulations also provide you with definition control. 5 Simulation Autodesk Inventor Professional gives you the tools to record your engineering