Maybe you thought – like me – that a 3D printer which could produce 3D models by printing layers of plastics cost ten thousands of dollars. Well, not neccessarily.
A group of enthusiasts invented an “open source” 3D printer which you can build yourself. And it will cost you a mere 750 USD in parts (or 2.500 USD as a complete assembled version if you are lazy enough to not do it yourself). They call it “MakerBot“. This miracle uses the same technology – layered drops of melted plastic – as the commercial 3D printers. MakerBot can use the plastic materials ABS, HDPE or PLA. The maximum size of a 3D object it can print is 10 × 10 × 12 cm with the resolution of 0.085 mm.
From the software side, it understands the STL file format so you can directly use 3D parts from Inventor or AutoCAD.
And now an obvious question – if MakerBot can produce (”print”) really any 3D model, with its internal structures, can it also produce a … MakerBot?
The long awaited moment has arrived – Autodesk Inventor Fusion – is now available for download on the Autodesk Labs web (the original www.inventorfusion.com address is now redirected).
This technology preview version of Inventor Fusion is free and it is time-bombed to January 2010. It seems that it is not available for everyone – the download is limited to the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States (yes, Italy is there this time).
I am delighted that my blog posting Inventor Fusion – almost nuclear is listed as press coverage on the Fusion homepage. But back to the software.
The download is surprisingly small (178MB!, compare it to the 7GB of Inventor setup) and the installer runs smoothly. I have installed it on my Inventor machine but I think that Fusion does not require Inventor to be installed. In any case, Fusion is not an addon for Inventor, it is a separate piece of software which does not alter your existing Inventor installation (if any). I have tried the direct manipulation tools on some models and it seems to work right. The application interface is quite different, a little bit cryptic at the first glance, and you must change some of your habits to use it properly (e.g. mouse right press instead of click) but I agree that it allows to move forward very quickly. The transparent browser tree makes more space for your design on screen.
Full integration (”fusion”) of the parametric and direct modeling is still not there in this first version but the development is clearly going this way. A truly bi-directional fusion of these two methods will help a lot. I will be curious to test the combination of these methods on some larger and more complicated models. With the feature-free (history-free) editing methods working on any dumb solid, it also makes more sense now why Autodesk added all the import file formats to Inventor.
Inventor Fusion (developed for two years under the codename Freeway) is a very promising 3D CAD software which has good chances to change the way we use Inventor today. And I really hope Inventor Fusion functionality will eventually fuse into standard Inventor.
Yes, if you are a student, you can simply download the latest version of Inventor Professional 2010 (not any cracked version but an official license) from the Autodesk Student portal – students.autodesk.com.
This web offers not only Inventor but almost any Autodesk software for free. The only condition is to prove to be a student (have a university e-mail account or be invited from a school representative). I have not tested it myself (and my children are too small fo this) but it seems to work (as I have been told). It is good for technical students to have the latest versions of leading CAD software in their hands. It will be also easier for them to use the respective software in their first job.
In the United States, Autodesk now gives free licenses also to the unemployed designers. I don’t think the same program is available here in Italy (yet).
One of the new features of AutoCAD Inventor 2010 (still sounds oddly) is “dynamic licensing”. When you read the explanations, it appears to be a very complicated concept, especially in combination with the existing cascade licensing, but in fact it is not that complicated.
Basically, if you have network licenses of both Inventor Suite and Inventor Professional, you can start Inventor Professional and until you start the first “professional” function, your Inventor consumes only the plain “Suite” license. So this functionality simplifies the deployment of Inventor installations in your company (everyone can have InventorPro installed) and helps you save money on the more expensive “Pro” licenses. Of course all of that makes sense only if you are one of Autodesk’s big accounts with multiple Inventor and Inventor Professional network licenses.
The above mentioned “cascade licensing” works already in existing network installations – it applies to all “suite” licenses of Autodesk software and works like this: if you have e.g. AutoCAD Mechanical licenses and Autodesk Inventor licenses, starting AutoCAD Mechanical with no free Mechanical licenses will automatically pick the “next higher” free license – Inventor.
The Inventor LT program (a limited version of Autodesk Inventor) come to its end as a free technology preview software. See the Autodesk Labs blog post.
The “graduated” commercial version of Inventor LT 2010 will be available only to customers in USA+Canada (plus Australia). There will be two options: AutoCAD Inventor LT Suite 2010 (notice the name; bundled with AutoCAD LT) and Autodesk Inventor LT 2010 (standalone). There should be special purchase options for those who have participated in the Technology Preview phase. Unfortunately only for those in North America and the Aussies.
Autodesk has announced the new version of its flagship MCAD program Inventor 2010. Besides a couple of usual functional enhancements there are several surprises in the new release.
The name – all “Suite” versions of Inventor 2010 are now called “AutoCAD Inventor”. This should indicate the inclusion of AutoCAD Mechanical in the Suite packages and many common features of AutoCAD and Inventor (DWG data format compatibility, user interface, the same parametrics…).
The UI – the most noticeable change for existing users will be the new user interface – the context ribbon. You should be able to switch back to the old UI but do not condemn the ribbon before you try it – after all it seems to be really more effective and simple to use. In any case it looks much nicer. I like the no-document-open version of the ribbon with help and tutorial functions.
New family members – Inventor Tooling Suite (Mold, for plastics) and Inventor LT Suite (with AutoCAD LT) are the new members of the AutoCAD Inventor 2010 family. Mold functions will be part of the Professional Suite. I don’t know what other “professional” functions (FEM, dynamics?) will be part of the Tooling Suite.
Language packs – Inventor 2010 should be localizable by downloading additional language packs (e.g. like Vista). So we might be able to get the English Inventor and just download the Italian language pack for it.
There is a new and amazing information announced publicly to the Inventor Fusion project.
The official Inventor Fusion web site now lists the functionality of the upcoming Inventor Fusion application. The important feature of this tool is the integration (fusion) of the direct history-less modelling with the classic feature- and history-based parametric modelling. So you should able to start a parametric model, perform some quick changes using the quick and intuitive direct modelling, and put the resulting model back to the parametric state.
This sounds very promising, especially with all the 3D CAD formats supported in Inventor. Autodesk Inventor and the Inventor Fusion technology preview should eventually merge into a single product.
There are also several videos presenting the Inventor Fusion functionality. Worth watching.
One of the new technologies just introduced on the annual Autodesk University 2008 is the Autodesk Inventor Fusion Technology Preview. The more complicated name, the less complicated user interface used in the Inventor Fusion. The new user interface used for object selection and direct modeling seems to be really minimal and could speed up working in Inventor. It will also use photorealistic visualization in the editing mode. It is about time for such functions in high-end CAD software as every 3D computer game can already do so.
Using the new CATIA 5 Translator module from Autodesk Labs you can directly read CATIA V5 models into Inventor 2009.
There are several general-use translators available on the market. But all these translators are very expensive to buy, or quite inconvenient to use as a web service. And in all these translators, the CATIA translator is the most expensive – probably for licensing reasons.
Autodesk has probably found a way around the licensing limitations. The CATIA V5 Translator is available for free for all Inventor and Inventor LT users. You can install and use the CATIA translator to open .CADPart and .CADProduct files in Inventor 2009 – either in the 32-bit or in the 64-bit version.
Posted by 3dcad 
Posted by 3dcad 
Posted by 3dcad 
