Teaching Newbies Inventor

[Sean Marks]

Hello All,
It will be our second year as a team and my second year with the program. We had 4 AutoCAD members last year and seeing as we were all freshman, we will all be returning. Yet there are freshman and other new members joining the team this year that wish to learn about Inventor as well. As a requirement on our team each subgroup must give training to the new members.

I know there are the online tutorials, and other guides and such, as i have done a lot of them. But for the training im planning on starting them with some of the tutorials, then demonstrate some things which we learning from the conference in Atlanta. What i was wondering was what some of the more experienced teams have used to train new members in Inventor? Maybe some Mini projects you gave them to do? Somethings such as they had to make 2 to 3 parts, then assemble them?

Thanks,
Sean

[Tottanka]

My team hasnt done it, but that's what i would have done i were in your situatuion:

Ge tehm all, tell them about the inventoor show them the FirstCadLibrary and let them make your eletric board, or something.
Then let them make a part, not a hard one.
Teach them a bit about design accelerator, and they're set.
By that time you should have turned them into inventor fans, and they will make more parts of their own will.

Good Luck, Liron.

[CraigHickman]

Whenever I teach Inventor, I start simple. First make a basic part that goes down the tool line, in both sketch and features. Have them all work through making this part, as you cover over it on a projector, or something they all can see. After doing several of those (I usually do 3 or so), hand them a drawing of a part, just as someone would during the build season. However, have one or two dimensions missing. Don't make it impossible by the lack of these dimensions, but make it so they have to do some basic math or geometry in order to figure it out. If that challenge doesn't sound good, then try handing them a hand drawing of a part that is dimensioned correctly, but drawn off scale. This will start preparing them for CADing parts that team members hand them, in order to aid the machinists.

Once they have the basics down, give them another challenge, this one free form. Hand them a pair of calipers (digital or not, doesn't matter), and tell them to pick some machined part from last year's robot. Have them record all dimensions, and go CAD it up. Once they finish, send them on to a more complex part. This set of challenges is nice because it allows them to scale their CAD to their skillset at the time. So if one kid is getting it faster, you can give him a more complex part.

If you want to throw them a brain bender, have them CAD a part with a hole that is at 45 degrees to the face it's drilled into. That should stump them for a week or three.

Have fun teaching!

[technoL]

In our last meeting the Mech team was finally introduced to Inventor. I started off with a demonstration of making a basic 2D sketch and turning it into something 3D, going through most of the tool pane. We didn't have access to the projector at the meeting since there were other subteams in the room, but we were fine with a few of the students crowding around my computer for the brief overview.

Then the members were sent off to their individual workstations. I had several simple tasks assigned, such as modeling a piece of box tubing, a piece of sheet metal with holes, and other things that allowed the students to explore and manipulate all of the features. This week I'll explain assemblies and constraints and such and then have them go through some tutorials after another simple exercise. Similar to the last poster, we'll probably give them a few choices of realistic components to model after the basics are learned.

From there we'll begin to move towards drivetrains, manipulators, and overall robot design. There tends to be a fast learning curve, so be prepared to have extra activities planned in case your group also moves very quickly.

[Arefin Bari]

All the suggestions given above are very useful. Please use them.

Sean, just keep in mind that if one doesn't have the willingness to sit down with inventor/cad (and mess around for hours), they won't learn how to work with inventor no matter how much knowledge you pass to them.

Good luck.

[Molten]

All suggestions so far are worth taking note. My teacher started me off with a bunch of wooden pieces. Ex: cylinders with pieces missing, blocks with a side swept out, and anything else that will get them in the right mind set for Inventor. Then, tell them to make a bird house. Don't give them dimension, just require that it has a roof, is an assembly, all the parts can be cut out of one piece of wood (no bending wood:rolleyes: ), and challenge them with a peg for landing. Then, let them work. Once they start to have problems, odds are they will have problems, help them figure it on their own. I notice that a lot of people tend to have problems with assembling. This is because they go so long without needing it. It is one of my strong suits because a bird house was my third part I had ever drawn. Don't be afraid to make them sweat. I trained five students last year and of the five, 1 is about my equal at drafting. Now, some may say that I was to harsh and overworked them. (I admit to doing this;) ). However, despite whether or not I worked them to hard, they still learned the software.

IN SHORT: Have them build a bird house.

Once they have, critique their house. How hard would it be to make? Are dimensions realistic?(No 10' bird houses:yikes: ) Did they use dimensions?(Basic, but some seem to refuse to use dimensions.:p ) All of these will show you immediately how prone they are to the software and innovation itself. Also, they will gain respect for the software.(won't happen if you just give them easy parts).
Hope this helped, if I was confusing just ask a question and I will try to explain better.

[SgtMillhouse648]

Id say start them down making something simple, like a 4x6 block. show them what the different features mean. show them they can extrude that shape straight up, or revolve it around one of the edges to make a cylinder. then take this block and show them how to make a sketch on top of that one block. go in and show them how to round/chamfer the edges. In my intro to eng. des. class, everyone's first project was a puzzle cube. you had to take a 3x3 cube and divide it up into a number of pieces, sketching each out on iso/graph paper first. then make the parts and assemble them. then make a presentation/exploded view of them all and last make an .idw of every piece. It worked real good for helping the other kids get the basics down.

[vivek16]

hey guys,

our team would like to start to use inventor this year too. I was just wondering what the minimum computer requirements were for inventor. I know that the processor should be atleast 2ghz and 2gb ram and a good graphics card is very nice but what are the minimum specs at which the program will run?k

thanks, vivek.

[JasJ002]

The best way in my opinion is to simply build things, anything right now. A month before kick off start with real world stuff (maybe rebuild last years robot), a week before kickoff go through the process of the next 8 weeks, set a calender, ect.

[Molten]

In response to vivek, You might want to check this link I pulled up from Inventor's site.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=8410923&siteID=123112
I am not a fan of the most recent versions of Inventor. If you are worried about whether or not your computer can hold it. You can reduce most of the requirements if you cut back and go for Inventor 8.
Check http://www.amsystems.com/products/mechanical/autodesk-inventor-8.asp#AutodeskInventor8SystemRequirements
I would not necessarily suggest this for competing for the Inventor award. But, If you just want it for design reasoning and dimensional decision making(like I do). Inventor 8 is good enough. Besides, just because your computer can handle the newest version doesn't mean you want it to be slowing things down so much.
Note: Inventor 8 is not probably Vista compatible. Not sure though. Could someone let me know? I would appreciate the info.
Well, vivek, I hope this helped you.

[JD Mather]

To avoid picking up bad habits you might want to have them go through this document
http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/AU2006/MA13-3%20Mather.pdf
I will be posting an update for 2008 in about a month.


The students who gung-ho might want to try tackling these tutorials
http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/DSG322/inventor_surface_tutorials.htm

[JasJ002]

The biggest problem that most teams have is that they run out of time because there is so much to do in so little time. Practice mini projects with due dates, and don't be scared to push them when it comes to time. The biggest part of a winning submission is that it's complete.

[M. Mellott]

We are fortunate to have a local branch of Kent State University give us the use of one of their classrooms for our Inventor class, with a couple dozen computers and an instructor's computer hooked up to an overhead projector. We're actually going to a larger scale of training this year--not only are we training 6-8 of Team 48's students interested in Inventor (half of which are veteran students with Inventor experience), but we've also invited students from the other 3 teams in our Northeast Ohio FIRST Robotics Alliance (NEOFRA) to participate (hopefully, about 15-18 students total).

Since there's a lot of interest in T-shirt launchers this year, one of my fellow engineers put together a scaled-down foam dart launcher, and we'll use that project as the teaching tool (but not tell them what it is up front--let them figure it out as the class goes to keep them coming back for more). We 'll start simple with the modeling of the dart, taking them through the process of creating a sketch and using it to generate a 3D solid, then creating additional sketches and solids to modify the part. We'll have the actual parts there so they'll have to measure the pasrts with calipers to get the dimensions. We'll then have them create other parts of the launcher, bringing the components together in an assembly file to show them mating constraints. Finally, we'll show them how to take individual parts or subassemblies into 2D to generate working drawings for the Build Team.

If we have time, we'll get into more complicated assemblies like transmissions or electrcal boards, but it's important they get the basics down first. From there, they should be ready to practice on their own back at their respective schools.

[Andy A.]

There are two things I always recommend to new users.

The first is to learn the sketch constraints cold. You have to know them like the back of your hand in order to produce adaptive parts that can change quickly. Inventor does your team no good if the CAD jocks can't keep up with the ever changing manufacturing. Designs are often changed in the shop, and you need to be able to update your drawings to reflect that change. This is about elventiy billion times easier if you've properly constrained your sketches and assemblies. The alternative is changing each dimension individually and it's so laborious that no one is going to do it. Then you end up with a model of the robot that isn't even remotely correct.

The other big point for me is learning to produce properly dimensioned drawings. I've seen some people who can create all sorts of geometry and make amazing looking models of complex parts and assemblies. But they can't document all that stuff with a set of prints because no one's ever showed them how. In a perfect world we would just send the part files off to a CNC shop and let the machine figure out everything else. But that's rarely the case in FIRST. We have to be able to give our machinists drawings they can work from, and that means giving them all the dimensions, tolerances that work and views that are helpful. I've always found this to be the most demanding part of my CAD work in FIRST and even more so now that I do this for a living. It doesn't matter how pretty the model is, if you can't give the factory a set of drawings and design guides that work you haven't really accomplished anything.

Does that mean we need to do all the math associated with for press fits, hole patterns and such in FIRST? Usually not. It's a complex subject and is rarely intuitive. Compared to good modeling skills it's not so important and takes much longer to master. Often we can just have a general note saying 'please get it as close as you can', and that works because most parts in FIRST are one-off's and custom fit. Still, I take the time to include tolerances where I can particularly where I know they need to be tight. The more information like this I can communicate the less pressure there is on everyone.

So, before you get into doing fancy stuff like lofts and complex sweeps spend time practicing making drawings. Show the students complete drawing sets, drawings that work and those that don't and so on.

-Andy A.

[Protronie]

We are fortunate to have a local branch of Kent State University give us the use of one of their classrooms for our Inventor class, with a couple dozen computers and an instructor's computer hooked up to an overhead projector. We're actually going to a larger scale of training this year--not only are we training 6-8 of Team 48's students interested in Inventor (half of which are veteran students with Inventor experience), but we've also invited students from the other 3 teams in our Northeast Ohio FIRST Robotics Alliance (NEOFRA) to participate (hopefully, about 15-18 students total).



Hey great idea inviting members from other area teams and training together.
Great way for the new members to build working relationships with other teams.
Hope you have a great class! :cool:

[Sean Marks]

Thanks to everyone who answered. Im going to try and use as much as i can from what you guys have given me. With out overwhelming them of course. :ahh:

I am very much looking forward to these trainings. There in December though so i have lots of time to pre-pair. :)

Thanks Again,

Sean

[Gherkinman]

Yeah, im pretty much in the same boat as you guys: 2nd year of inventor, I'm the only returning memeber. I read some of the posts above and found the teaching techniques very useful.
Another thing I think would be good for getting new members to learn inventor would be to give them an open project, basically have them build anything they feel up to making. As long as you use the program, even if you're just making random junk, you'll still learn how to do more, at least I did.
Thanks for the tips guys, good luck with your teams.

[rachal]

hey guys,

our team would like to start to use inventor this year too. I was just wondering what the minimum computer requirements were for inventor. I know that the processor should be atleast 2ghz and 2gb ram and a good graphics card is very nice but what are the minimum specs at which the program will run?k

thanks, vivek.

I can run Inventor 11 fine with 1gb ram and 1.73ghz processor, but it lags noticeably when I have the whole robot assembly up :P

[Molten]

Thanks to everyone who answered. Im going to try and use as much as i can from what you guys have given me. With out overwhelming them of course. :ahh:

I am very much looking forward to these trainings. There in December though so i have lots of time to pre-pair. :)

Thanks Again,

Sean

Come on, overwhelming them is the best part.;)
FYI: I am not liked much by the students I have taught. However, I do have great results. I always live with the theory, 'the end justifies the means'. Plus, picking on the newbies is always fun.:D

[alex1699]

so in my drafting class this year were learning inventor..

i like autocad

but now

i changes to inventor

its easier

but i do miss

OSNAP

[alex1699]

Come on, overwhelming them is the best part.;)
FYI: I am not liked much by the students I have taught. However, I do have great results. I always live with the theory, 'the end justifies the means'. Plus, picking on the newbies is always fun.:D

play french rap theyll hail you hahaha just kidding i dont no why but french rap helps me do better

[Gherkinman]

I found a website with a bunch of tutorials. I find it highly useful.
http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/adsk_inventor/tutorials.htm

[Dan Zollman]

Don't forget Sean Dotson's tutorials. After they make some progress with modeling and assemblies, I ask some of our members to look at the tutorials on adaptivity, iParts, derived parts, and linked parameters.
http://www.sdotson.com/tutorials.asp

I just posted a handout we're using:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2044

[alex1699]

ok is it bad when you teach the teacher

the drafting teacher

ya i think so he throws stuff at me ( candy) but in a mean way jkjk

ya so now i teach kid that need help how to do it ya me

my favort part is that you make the parts and put them together it makes me happy to make blueprints like the ones from ikea...

[Robert Thacker-]

OK, I trained almost everyone on team 103 (not fully, but I at least start them off). This is how I do it:

First I set down and tell them "ok, Inventor works like this..." I tell them the crash course of why Inventor exists. Then I go and tell them something similiar to "OK, first you have a 2D sketch anf you draw your basic flat shape, then you extrude that out. After that you can cut away at it and extrude off it again and then cut it down again and so on until you get a part. After you have a part, you can take multiple parts and put them together into what is called an assembly. When you have the assembly, then you can do fun stuff like animations, presentations, and explosions." Then I ask if they understand the basic idea.

Then I start to show them the program. I teach them all about 2D sketches. I show them what every button is used for and I have a program open and so does the trainee. They imitate everything I do on their screen. Then I go out into the shop and pick a random thing to build. Usually it's like a funny shaped bolt or something.

Then I show them how to create the bolt starting from them making the 2D sketch by themselves. Then I flow through on the bolt itself and how the features all work in the Part. I take them through all the buttons again. I tell them how many different ways you can create one part. I tell them the right way to do it, as oppose to the wrong way. I go into as much detail as possible (I could even have them recreate the scratches on the bolt if I was evil enough, hehe). After that, I tell them about the rest of the buttons on the program, since you can't use all the buttons on one simple part like a bolt. After that I give them a week to design random things in the shop (things they pick out). I often say "pick something you think can't be done in Inventor and find a way to do it."

Then when they master that, I show them Assemblies. I usually start with a bolt into a hole. I show them the normal face constraint, and flush contraint, then tell them that it's the wrong way to do it, and to do a bolt constraint. I show them mistakes so that they will not make ones similiar to mine. I show how to offset a bolt and how grounding works. When to do things and when not to do things.Again, I show them how each button works. At this point I usually open up a system of last year's robot to show them. It is my job to make sure they understand Inventor perfectly before the season begins.

After that, I show them animations, drive constraints, wiring, and such and such. After you get assemblies out of the way, it's more of a "you can also do this in the program" kind of thing. I usually stress wiring and animations since they make a great final product.

What my friends like to do is have lego models to build. They design the part and put them together until they get a final product. I don't like to do that because the process is unnessarily tedious. After you get the first few done, the rest is easy, easy. And it gets boring. Plus you can't get into some of the advanced features.

Well, ok. I hope this helps. Best of Luck this year!

[Danielle H]

We haven't quite done it as a team, because our students who work with Inventor have either been in PLTW, or can easily teach, on a one-one on basis, those that haven't. But, one thing I would recommend was our first Design Challenge in IED. The Puzzle Cube.

As I'm sitting in class and can't access e-mail, I can't send you the files, but, if you'd like the pages that explain what they need to do, message me with your e-mail and I'd be happy to send them.

It's a matter of making 5 parts in inventor, basic parts, and assembling them. I can even send you pictures of my 5 parts if you wish to give them pieces to model after.

Just let me know if you'd like anything.

[Dan Zollman]

I tell them how many different ways you can create one part. I tell them the right way to do it, as oppose to the wrong way.

I agree--it's important to show that you can model something in more than one way. I ask them to come up with as many different ways as they can think of, even though only one or two will be the most effective. Even a simple hole can be modeled using any of five tools.

I show them what every button is used for and I have a program open and so does the trainee.

Do you find that this can overwhelm a new user? Teaching every single button at once works for a motivated user, but for someone who hasn't used the software before, I prefer to teach the tools over time as they make models. This way, they get some results before getting deeper into the technical parts of the software.

Here's another short lesson that I gave a couple weeks ago: I showed them how to properly measure parts. I had them measure a piece of 2" C channel to see that the legs aren't exactly 2 inches long. Then I explained that the nominal value is still 2 inches, so that's the dimension we would use in Inventor when we design something new.

[Ed Sparks]

One thing I would like to add .........

Dissect other designer's work. Step through a model from the FIRST CAD Library to see how I set things up and the sequence of features that were used. A little known trick is to move the end-of-file marker (that red ball with the "X" at the end of the feature list). You can drag it up and down the feature list one feature at a time to see the efect of each step.

Folks that have been modeling for years like myself have picked up several "tricks" that make things much easier.

[Robert Thacker-]

The user, at times, may find it overwhelming. But considered the time constraint I can't go through the entire program too slowly. Everyone I trained has been able to do it. It's more about repetition. Go through it over and over until they truly understand the material.

And I have used the FIRST CAD library parts to show new users how it should be done professionally and how all our parts should emulate that aspect.

Also, there may be many ways to make a hole. But there is usually only one right way. Using a centering marker then using the center point to make a hole is the way it should be done. There are always exceptions, of course. What I don't want to see my trainees do is create a circle in 2D Sketch mode, then cutting it with an extrution (for shame for those that may do that). Not only is it wrong, but is uses more file space.

I always tell them that theywant to design it like how a machine will cut away at it. You want the machine to find a center hole, then drill it. I remind them that these drawings are meant to be seen by machinists.

[JasJ002]

Do you find that this can overwhelm a new user? Teaching every single button at once works for a motivated user, but for someone who hasn't used the software before, I prefer to teach the tools over time as they make models. This way, they get some results before getting deeper into the technical parts of the software.

In a perfect world, yes you would want to slowly progress a student onto the full capabilities of Inventor, but in all reality every person on the team needs to know every part of the program like the back of their hand before kick off. As much as I wish we all had enough time to train newbs, in reality it's just not there and a "crash course" and some prayer is the only way to get a designer that is very useful.

[Eric Scheuing]

I know 103 had their kids to lego models last year. That might be a good thing to do.

[aksimhal]

Hi! I tried to open the FirstBase Files to teach some new kids Inventor, but I can't really figure out how to get the "modules" as the FirstBase Inventor 2008 Tutorial calls it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[sishu7]

We have mentors associated with Autodesk (so it was easier), but here is what we did:

We made a pitch to Autodesk for both more mentors and for Inventor training. We brought the robot, etc.

They let their company "professional CAD trainer" person lead a few of our design team meetings. It was a really good intro to CAD. To share the wealth, we invited a few other teams.

Not too hard, and a great intro to CAD by someone who does this for a living.

[Daniel Morse]

At RPI, I am a Teaching Assistant for Engineering Graphics and Computer Aided Design. This is an introduction to general methods in CAD for all incoming engineering students. The method we use is having weekly assignments that emphasize different techniques (sketching, constraints, extruding, revolving, sweeps, drafting, and others). For the final, we have the students put together a large and extremely complex (for their relative inexperience) part which combines all of their skills and reinforces most of the problem solving skills that are needed for CAD. This method of various parts with different emphasis works very well. Now, I teach UGS NX 5 in this particular case, but being a skilled and experienced user of Inventor, I can tell you that it should work for that as well. The only thing my class doesn't teach is assemblies, and that is something that should be easy for you to add, just make all of the training parts they build designed to be put together in an assembly, and you've got a comprehensive training program that should really teach these guys how to work the program. Also, from personal experience, I can say I taught myself how to use Inventor a number of years ago back in high school just from having parts that needed to be modeled, and sitting down and figuring it out until it worked. This requires a great deal more perseverance and motivation to work, but it is also effective. Good luck with your new members.

[Elgin Clock]

Anyone have any suggestions for a user who knows SolidWorks but wants to learn Inventor? I'm a CAD major & a Drafter in my career, so I know CAD, it would just be a matter of just learning a different (brand) software.

Any suggestions (re: books, online training) for those who have used SW first and then went to Inventor would be appreciated. :]

I want to be able to help my team a little more in 2008 than I did the past year from knowing the software.

It took us litteraly 1 hour to learn how to export a part in Inventor last year because the command wasn't where I thought it "should" be by using Solidworks.

When you only have a few days to crank out CAD drawings, an hour is just way too much time to spend on something that would usually take 2 minutes at the most. :o

[Dan Zollman]

Anyone have any suggestions for a user who knows SolidWorks but wants to learn Inventor? I'm a CAD major & a Drafter in my career, so I know CAD, it would just be a matter of just learning a different (brand) software.

Sorry for taking a while to reply. I don't have a good answer to your question. Of course you could learn the same way that everyone else does, but it would be a waste of time to go through tutorials or a book since you already know the concepts.

My one suggestion is to use Inventor Help (help menu). The help system is really extensive; it has an explanation of the concept, workflow, and options for every single tool. If you know the term for the function you're looking for, you can use the index or search to find it.

[JD Mather]

Any suggestions (re: books, online training) for those who have used SW first and then went to Inventor would be appreciated. :]

See these tutorials - particularly start with the MA13 and the MA105 tutorials.
http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/DSG322/inventor_surface_tutorials.htm