Custom Colors and Weights in Inventor ?

[sanddrag]

Is is possible to set custom colors in Inventor? If so, how? Also, how about setting a custom weight of a part (manually inputting it) or at least making your own material with a custom density. Is this possible?

[petek]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Is is possible to set custom colors in Inventor? If so, how? Also, how about setting a custom weight of a part (manually inputting it) or at least making your own material with a custom density. Is this possible?

Yes and yes. Direct from Inventor help files*:
Select Format>Colors.
In the Colors dialog box, add, edit, or delete a color style.
To add a color style, click the New button, enter the style name, and then set the color attributes.
To edit an existing color style, select it in the list and then set the color attributes.
To delete a color style, select it in the list and then click the Delete button.
Click the Save button to save changes after adding or editing a style.
To apply changes to affected parts immediately, click the Apply button. Unapplied changes become effective when you close the dialog box.

Materials are changed in the same manner (using the Format>Materials menu).

Be aware that the colors and materials you create or change are part of the part (or assembly) file, not "global" settings. That means that you won't see them in a new file, unless you import them - which you can do using the Organizer... in the Format menu. Another way around this is to make the changes in a new, blank part file and Save As to your Templates directory. Then, when you use that template for a new part, your colors and materials will be in place.

* The Inventor help files should be the first place you look for answers to questions like this. It will save you a bunch of time in the long run.

[jdiwnab]

A suggestion for custom weights for parts:

For complicated parts, like the CIM moters and the battery, we weighed the part as best we could (in grams). Then, using the volume the Inventor gives you in the iProperties (formerly Properties) under the file menu, we calculated what the density should be (d=m/v) in the proper units. Inventor will most likly give the volume in cubic inches or cubic milimeters. Just do some unit conversion to g/cm^3 and put that in a new material in the part or assembly that you are working with. Thay way the battery really is heavy.

While you don't need to know the weight of the battery for weigh in purposes, you might want it to know it the robot might tip over, especially if you have a large arm...Like we did...And still do...

[Garth1388]

You can also edit physical properties by right clicking on the part in the browser bar then clicking on properties. You will then see a window come up with about 5 or 6 tabs. I can't remember which tab it is off the top of my head, but it might be physical.

Anyway, then you hit update and it will show the physical properties for the part with regards to the material and the geometry of the part. You can manually edit these properties to achieve the correct weight, but I don't recomend this unless it is and unchangable part (e.g. battery, electrical stuff etc.) because after you change it once, it will never update again if you decide to change the material. However, this method is effective in finding cg and weight of already built parts, but do not do this when designing parts.

The only problem with this system is that Inventor will not display weight only mass, volume, surface area etc. What I have done in the past is to measure the mass and calculate the weight.

I will leave you with one warning: be carefull of units. For about 2 weeks I was giving my team the weight in Newtons. They weren't too happy about that.