Lego Parts in Inventor

[7-11number1]

Hi this is team 1711. This coming season will only be our 3rd year in FIRST so we trying more at becoming a more organized team and give students more hands on experience in the build. One idea was to give students lego mind storm in a tech class and follow that with having the students go on computers and create 3d models of their robots in Inventor.
Our problem is that we do not have any lego parts in .ipt files to use. I have searched online and found lego building programs but that will not work because we are using school computers, so my only option is to take every lego we have and create a library of dozens of parts.
I was hoping some one would know if we could buy a package online that would have the pre-built lego files, and if not just some good inventor tips for organizing and creating such a large number of parts.

[Pavan Dave]

...through Project Lead The Way last year, we had to make cars out of Legos. We had to design and CAD all of our Legos correctly so they'd constrain correctly. Anyways, I'll see if my teacher has any of those parts shaved. Also during this project, several of us students looked for "packs" and stuff to get pre-CADed Lego files but we did not succeed so either we didn't look hard enough or they don't exist. The bonus of having them get a pair of calipers and drawing the Legos is that they will learn Inventor especially when it comes to making sure EVERY hole is the same size and all of that fun stuff!

~Pavan.

[7-11number1]

Thanks for the post, I do agree that working with a caliper and designing the parts individually is good practice for Inventor skills but I'm sure from your experience that you know how time consuming it can be. I appreciate it if you can find those old files but if not I'll understand and continue to work.

[Mr. Odlies]

Hi, http://www.legoinventor.pl/index.php

[Gertlex]

There is the LDraw set of tools and Lego part files ( www.ldraw.org )

Wouldn't do much for mates practice, though. There might be a way to convert their files into a more common CAD standard. Never looked into that.

[NHPilot]

Search in www.3dcontentcentral.com . This is primarily a site with SolidWorks models but there might also be an option for iges or step files, both of which should import into Inventor. I do know that there are Lego parts there. Not so much the bricks but the Techno series like what Mindstorms uses.

[ZInventor]

all 3dcontentcentral parts are available i a huge variety of formats, and i've used them a fair amount in my cad drawings...

[nasa-sempai]

Originally Posted by 7-11number1

Hi this is team 1711. This coming season will only be our 3rd year in FIRST so we trying more at becoming a more organized team and give students more hands on experience in the build. One idea was to give students lego mind storm in a tech class and follow that with having the students go on computers and create 3d models of their robots in Inventor.
Our problem is that we do not have any lego parts in .ipt files to use. I have searched online and found lego building programs but that will not work because we are using school computers, so my only option is to take every lego we have and create a library of dozens of parts.
I was hoping some one would know if we could buy a package online that would have the pre-built lego files, and if not just some good inventor tips for organizing and creating such a large number of parts.

Dear 7-11,

I have modeled over 200 Lego Parts for Autodesk Inventor. They are in dot ipt and dot aim files.

I did this by Taking the LDraw data from LeoCAD (a freeware) , exporting 3Dstuio and importing to AutoCADMechanical, and exopting dot iges and importing to AutoDeskInventor. Then using that import as a referance, I would recreate the part in a new dot ipt file.

My parts include everything from the original Lego Mindstorms (Lego Mindstorms 1.0 and/or 1.5). I was hopping to finish the new NXT parts before I put my lego library on the web.

When I finish my library, I foresee a problem. I perdict that once I finish the library, it will be about 300MB. I was trying to make a website using Google's Gsite product. Gsite does not allow a 300MB upload. How else can I put it on the web?

I wanted to do what you are trying to do (practice building robots using Lego Mindstorms and Inventor), but I was unsucessfull in compliting my Lego Library before my high school senior year. I am a University student now. I would like to see you fulfill this.

Respectfully,
nasa-senpai

[AustinSchuh]

I know this is a thread about Inventor, but I have a similar number of parts drawn up in Solidworks. They originally were from ldraw, but I redrew them all to be nice and smooth, instead of a bunch of triangles. If there is some interest, I can work on getting permission to post them and posting them.

[mplanchard]

Any lego component on 3dcontentcentral.com can be read into Inventor or 30 other file formats. Just download and unzip. We spent a great deal of time this summer modeling Ed Sparks FTC components from First CAD Library in native SolidWorks format - so assembly modeling will be alot easier. Also, look for new VEX components too - including new Protobot Sub assemblies and parts from the VEX Starter Kit in 3dcontentcentral.

No matter what CAD system you use - remember to use patterns and symmetry as much as you can in a part and in an assembly. Also part configurations for a Brick type lego will save you alot of time. A plastic part is going to have fillets and draft. I would suppress fillets and draft features if your assemblies become complicated. Marie

[nasa-sempai]

Dear Chief Delphi users and FIRST robotics community,

I have completed my website with over 200 Lego pieces modeled in Autodesk Inventor. Have fun!

http://sites.google.com/site/krisbase

Respectfully,
Kristofer Arreguin