Creating Basic Chassis
 

So, I am not very experienced with Inventor. But what I want to do is be able to create a simple design for a basic drive train idea. I took a 45 min session in December, but I can't remember everything they taught.

Basically, I created a 2D drawing of my robot. Then I remember the teacher telling us how to turn the lines into materials. We used aluminum for the material, but I can't remember how to turn it into anything. I know we didn't extrude the lines, or if we did it made them around the lines. It basically became a simple looking design for a chassis.

Once that was done we could connect corners and such, but I can't remember how, and it might be different in the 2013 version, so I'm not sure.

tl;dr I don't know how to turn sketch lines into basic parts. I don't mean extruding, I mean like it turns the line into a long hollow rectangle around the lines.

Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

If it was SolidWorks, that would be the Weldments tool. I am not familiar with Inventor, but I would assume that there is a similar tool.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

You actually can turn your rectangle into a long solid or. hollow tube by extruding it. Just sketch the cross section of the rectangle or any object and extrude it. You can also use extrude to cut away at the material yoive created. Once you created your part you can create a new file called an assembly and ad d and assemble parts youve created or downloaded.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

Additionally to use extrude your shape must be a closed loop

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

Re reading you post. I think what you will need to do is create 2 sketches with the cross section of the tube you want and another sketch with the path it will follow. You can consume allthe created sketches to make the new object.

I believe it is called Sweep.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

What you remember is a tool called frame generator in inventor. To use it you should sake your sketch, then insert it as a part in an assembly. Then click over to the design tab and select "Insert Frame." This will give you a library of standard tube and beam shapes to select to build your frame with, based on your sketch.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

I think the tool you are looking for is actually called "Frame Generator," (as mentioned by 42! while I was typing this response...). You can use this tool to quickly model a frame made out of some sort of uniform profile, such as 1x1x.0625" rectangular tube.

What you have to do is create a sketch, or several sketches, that represent the centerlines of the frame members. You then save and insert this part into an assembly. Then, under Design Accelerators, you use the Frame Generator tool to create your frame by selecting the lines. You can then add "end treatments" that will help you make the members the right length - you can make them flush, add a mitered edge to corners, or other similar operations.

This video goes into a bit more detail, and shows an example of how FRC teams might use the tool.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

Hi There,

Check out this website (http://bxd.autodesk.com/). It's really a great tool for beginners as it does a good job in laying out the basics. The inventor videos start about half way through if you're not interested in Fusion.

Just a word of caution; Inventor, like anything, takes practice. The key thing is to stick with it. Your first time, it might take you a matter of days to put together your first DT. Your second time, it might take a matter of hours.

A second word of caution; A lot of parts, and I mean A LOT OF PARTS are available online. Check out some of the online places (3D content central, KOP libraries, etc.) or the particular vendor (AndyMark, VEX, McMaster, etc.)

Hope this helps,
- Sunny G.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

Sunny G makes a great point. Although it will be very useful to learn how all the parts are modeled at this stage you want to use the supplied parts as noted by Sunny G. All the chassis parts are supplied in the 2013 KOP under the Drive Base Kit.

A very cool set of videos on how to use Frame Generator is available in the the Built By Design series. Here is the link to the Frame Generator section.

http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=first_inventor

It is the sixth video in the list.

Re: Creating Basic Chassis
 

Thank you that's exactly what I needed.