Special Project #1

This is the first of two Special Projects that I am working on at the moment. With the end of the year drawing closer we have a few projects that test what we have learned this year. One Project is a mechanical object and the other is a plastic object. For both projects we have to do renderings, animations and drawings for each of the parts in the assembly.

This Project is the mechanical one, and the object is a Drill Press Vise. All of the parts are constrained together so that when the handle is turned the ACME Threaded Rod turns and the clamping block is pushed towards the end block. 

Rendering and Animating in Inventor

We have more recently been figuring out rendering and animating assemblies in Inventor. I have used Keyshot 4 for rendering Images of my senior project last semester. It was a slow process and bogged down my custom gaming system at my home. The renders were pretty good. Inventor has once again proven to be an amazing and streamlined program for not only solid modeling but also for rendering. The renders are easy to set up and the awesome part is it turns out high quality renders in a short time. Inventor's ability to set up and animate constraints in a simple and streamlined fashion is amazing. Very happy to be using Inventor and am excited for what will come during the last month or so of this semester.

Exploded Views and Drawing Files

These drawing files are proving to be very useful for displaying and annotating files. On interesting thing I found is that when you save the drawing file under a certain name, that name is automatically input into the drawing number section in the title block. Anyways, this image shows another really cool feature of Inventor which is exploded views. Inventor lets you bring in an assembly and make a custom exploded view and it includes all the necessary lines and such. It lets you run animations of the assembly with ease. Next up is Rendering.

Inventor and Assemblies

Inventor makes making assemblies very easy. In the assembly shown the movement of the screw moves the adjusting block which in turn moves the lifting block on top of it.
All of this is done with the use of constraints which were very easy to figure out. These are really fun to figure out how to constrain and orient.

Drawings in Inventor

This drawing shows one of the many features in Inventor that is very nice to have. With the options of different paper and title block sizes I do not have to keep making new templates for title blocks and border lines on different paper sizes like I did with AutoCAD. I works very well with placing views. All you have to do is load your drawing and click on the spot you want your front view. Then you just drag the mouse over to the right of the front view to create a right side view, to the top for a top, etc. It lets you adjust what lines it shows and doesn't  show. it is very easy to set different scales for the orthographic and isometric views. It also gives the option of showing the views as solid bodies.

Interesting Drawings in Inventor

This drawing took a little longer to figure out. with the grooves and the semicircles and placing them all correctly and finding the correct order of drawing, extruding and arrays this one took a little longer than usual. its a very neat drawing and I am very happy with the way it turned out. So far Inventor has proven to be an amazing software for 3D modeling and design.

New Semester with New Programs

So far Inventor has been a very interesting program to work with. The 3d design is very intuitive and very easy to figure out and work with. This semester I have done around 7-10 drawings with Inventor and all have gone relatively smooth. Overall the most interesting and effective tool is the sketches. being able to modify and create sketches along planes that can be adjusted and placed exactly where needed. Inventor will be an interesting program to work with over the course of this semester.