Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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.

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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...

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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!

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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.

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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.

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.

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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.

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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.

Re: Teaching Newbies Inventor
 

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.