Design Manager for AutoDesk Inventor
Moving to a 3D design environment has many advantages but is a considerable management challenge. The very aspects of the systems that make them so powerful, assembly, sub-assembly and part relationships for instance, make effective control a problem.
We at Curve Design Solutions Ltd have thought long and hard to enable Design Manager to provide an effective solution.
The Inventor Vault is useful whilst modelling but does not go far enough in providing the control required in a quality assured environment. Design Manager provides a complete solution to management of AutoDesk Inventor models, AutoCAD drawings and other technical documents such as specifications, calculations, scanned drawings and photographs.
One of the main advantages of 3D design is the fluid way in which models evolve. However at some point the design must be fixed and drawings issued for manufacture. Design Manager can be configured to fix and issue drawings in DWF format which is ‘read only’ and cannot be accidentally changed by the modification of a part.
Design Manager allows all aspects of a model to be controlled if desired but our recommendation is to allow flexibility of modelling but strictly control the drawings which are the output of the process.
Design Manager has the following features to manage AutoDesk Inventor models:
¨ Import of Inventor assembly trees into Design Manager Projects.
This allows existing models to be imported en-masse whist maintaining sub-assembly and part relationships. If a part or assembly has iProperties these can be used to populate Design Manager Records.
¨ Instance registered parts and assemblies in an open assembly in Inventor.
This means that Design Managers powerful search facilities can be used to find parts for inclusion in new designs.
¨ Support for AutoDesk Inventor projects.
¨ Autodesk Inventor Properties and Title Block Update.
Design Manager can be configured to automatically maintain up to date drawing title block information.
¨ Issue As DWF
¨ When creating a new record in Design Manager it senses whether an assembly is open in Inventor and if the new document is an assembly or part, offers an option to create the new component, with the name and location specified in Design Manager. If a part, it will allow the user to place the part in the open assembly and start a sketch in edit.