Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Now, we'll give you your fi rst look at one of the most valuable capabilities of
Inventor: creating 2D drawings.
Drawing Views
Many people exploring the idea of using a 3D design tool are probably creating
2D drawings for a living. Normally, I like to introduce users to 2D drawings as
quickly as possible because it excites people when they see Inventor's potential.
I'm convinced that Inventor's ease of use and the accuracy of the 2D drawings it
generates are one of the best reasons to use it.
When I started out in design and engineering, the drafting board was still
king. Learning AutoCAD made me see how much more easily edits could be per-
formed; but it also made me aware of the redundancy of creating multiple lines
to represent the same geometry in various orthographic projections.
When you create 2D drawing views from Inventor's 3D data, the views calcu-
late themselves and are associative to any changes you make to the 3D model.
Change the size of a hole in a part, for example, and any objects or hidden lines
in the 2D drawing that represent the hole will be updated automatically.
Beginning a New Drawing from a Template
You've started all the fi les you've created so far by using a template. A drawing is
no different. You can select any template that is appropriate for the drawing you
want to create. Just because components may have been built using English
units doesn't prevent you from using a Metric template.
One of the most common modifi cations people need early on in using Inventor
is to personalize their title block so it fi ts the standard they're accustomed to. In
this exercise, you'll create a new title block and do a basic customization to raise
your awareness of where to begin. You can also import an existing AutoCAD
drawing and use it as a title block for Inventor drawings.
Let's create a new drawing and set it up for your needs:
1. Click the New icon on the Quick Access Toolbar, and start a new fi le
based on the ANSI (in).dwg template in the English tab.
DWG? Yes, DWG. The fi le you just created can be read by current
releases of AutoCAD without someone you send this to needing to
have Autodesk Inventor.
You can use some exciting workfl ows to share a DWG drawing
between AutoCAD-based products and newer Autodesk technologies
like Inventor. The rule of thumb, however, is that views created with
Inventor are edited and dimensioned only with Inventor's tools.
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