How do you notice that you spent too much time in Autodesk Inventor?

[Chris Herold]

This thread should go to all the persons that work on the Autodesk Inventor Design Award and accomplished, at my opinion, something beautiful!
Spending most of the last two weeks of build season on it, I had to realize how much work it is to make a model of our robot!
So but now:
How do you notice that you spent too much time working in Inventor?

1.You look at random pictures, hit F4 and try to rotate it.
2.You judge other robots by how hard it is to build them in Inventor.
3.You know 1000 ways to build a rectangle in Inventor.
4.You praise Inventor as the greatest program ever since you don't need to know some of the vocabulary words for AP Composition because you know them already. (For me as an one-year German exchange student and non-native speaker really important!)
5.You try to tell everyone that 2 GB of RAM are definitely not enough for a “normal” computer.
6.You look at your own model and know 1000 ways to make it better.
7.You try to convince other people that the Autodesk Inventor Design Award is way cooler than the Chairman's Award.
8.You try to get a regional Autodesk Inventor Design Award!
9.You complain about chiefdelphi.com since the menu with the roles on the team does not have a subject like CAD or Inventor but an “Animator” one!
10.You try to kick people off the team that suggest to make drastic changes on the robot.
11.You don't want any visible modifications of your robot since your model would be inaccurate, even after the submission deadline!
12.You are on the Chairman's Award presentation team because you know everything about your robot from Inventor.
13.You know more features of Inventor than some professionals even though you do not use the program for more than six month.
14.You don't care about the ship date since your build season will go on for another week!
15.You deinstall one of your favorite games, just to download all submissions and scout for new, better techniques.

I think I got a pretty cool list of things together and all of them are more or less accurate for my case. Overall I have to say the work in Autodesk Inventor gave me, as a single person team, an amazing challenge and I really enjoyed working with it. As the submission deadline came, I spend several days working later than ever before.
I greatly appreciate all persons that work in Inventor for this award for it is an amazing task! Thank you Autodesk for sponsoring it!
After all I also learned that this is something I definitely want to do later when I graduated from college.

Good luck for all teams in the competition!

Chris
Team 1983 – The Skunkworks

Oh, I know ALL about spending too much time on CAD....

So, my list is this:

-You have over 15 different drive trains CADed in your personal file
-Wheels designed by you are featured on 4 different robots in the 08 season alone
-Your transmission CAD was manufactured and thoroughly tested by a machine shop over the summer, with regards to possibly marketing it to teams
-You see random tools or objects online and wonder why the CAD isn't hosted on the site
-You then created said CAD, sent it to the site hosts, and now it IS up there
-You never really understood how anyone could build a FIRST robot WITHOUT CADing it before manufacturing
-You have never gone into a machine shop without having a printout of a properly dimensioned drawing
-You used CAD to design a potting bench that you built for your mother
-You used CAD to design many longboards, all of which were then built and sold
-You used CAD for Geometry homework back in sophomore year (that one was fun...)

And the list goes on... but it's food time!

[Chris Herold]

Well, I don't have as much experience as you do but I am getting there! ^^ CAD programs are fun! I love doing stuff with it just random figures. I like your swerve drive train... thanks for replying we should get the CAD a little more into the spotlight

[artdutra04]

Since I use SolidWorks, I'll take "Inventor" to just mean a CAD program in general...


- I often look at random parts on random FIRST robots, only to think that only if they modeled that part, mated it correctly, and ran a simulation there would be no problems...
- You've memorized the tap and clearance sizes for all [course thread] hardware from 4-40* to 1/4-20**.
- You stop caring about adding every screw fastener into the assembly for some projects. I generally only use socket head and flat head (countersunk) screws, so it's really easy to understand which one I wanted.
- You actually consider the efficiency of the CNC tool paths, as well as designing the part so any holes through it also serve to anchor the plate to a fixture plate in the CNC mill when modeling complicated parts.
- I will never design a part that I would really dread making myself. I have probably a few hundred hours logged on milling machines and lathes, and if I would hate making the part (read: constantly remounting and probing part, creating stuff that would be a pain to machine (like weird angles), making parts that need a lot of milling using really small end mills***, etc.) I will figure out a way to make it simpler. Honestly, I think anyone who has at least a moderate amount of experience machining parts on manual milling machines or lathes, or if they have spent a moderate amount of time generating their own CAM toolpaths and actually running the CNC machines will become a much better engineer, because you can't learn experience from a textbook. And that experience will often lead to better designs that are easier and faster to make, and at the same time you won't make enemies with the machinists or manufacturing.


* 0.089" (#43 drill) tap, 0.116" (#32 drill) clearance
** 0.201" (#7 drill) tap, 0.257" (F drill) clearance
*** I will only go less than 1/4" if it is necessary. I've only broken two end mills on a manual mill; both were 1/8" end mills (one flat, the other ball). Although just a few days ago a friend and I were milling parts on a Haas VF-4 at my college, and we turned a 1/2" flat end mill into a very rough chamfer mill when it accidentally hit a fixturing bolt (it was a Vex 8-32 x 3/8" bolt) at about 3000 rpm and exploded.

[Chris Herold]

When I think back I wish I have had Inventor to make my geometry homework... especially the angles and lengths would be so much better...

[Molten]

You mean you only use it for geometry?

I have used Inventor/2D CAD for Spanish/Math/Physics/Webpage Design and just about any other class you can think of.

Another sign, is when the prom committee comes to you to design their center-piece. (Not me)
You find it easier to make a seemless background on AutoCAD then on Photoshop.
You start prefering to toy around with it then any online games.
You design your own entertainment system to save yourself work. (Not me)
Someone at your church comes to you because they need to make a copy of something, but don't have the blue print.
If your teacher gives you 1/4 of the class to teach Inventor or decides that you are better suited as an assistant then a student. Both are good signs.
How about if you feel the urge to post on this thread?

All of the above are great examples that have either happened to me or someone I know. The list goes on, but I do not.

[JasJ002]

You find the defects in Inventor, and use them to record cool looking videos.

You could animate multiple items before the Animation was introduced to Inventor

You have my signature block

And Yes, if you feel compelled to reply to this post.

[Generalx5]

"You try to tell everyone that 2 GB of RAM are definitely not enough for a “normal” computer." -----this ones so true! Ive got 4GB of ram and I think I want more....


I use a neat tool from 3D connexion, its a space navigator. personnal edition. And it is addictive!

Once you start using it on inventor, picture view, pdf documents. It will soon find its way into everything you do. you can also use it to view google earth with it too. The advantages of have 6 aixs in control on your left. and a mouse on the other....

I wish we have the technology to selectively mutate an extra arm...for the keyboard....

Once you become accustomed to the space navigator, you will want to rotate pictures with it(cant, can only zoom and pan). scroll with it, play games on it, and sometimes thinking that it is a direct replacement for a mouse......


check the attachment for what it is capable of.
Also this is a video of it in action. It isnt me! But we should all thank Forum3D for making a great demonstration video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rPdU...eature=related

[rachal]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

- You've memorized the tap and clearance sizes for all [course thread] hardware from 4-40* to 1/4-20**.

Originally Posted by artdutra04

- You actually consider the efficiency of the CNC tool paths, as well as designing the part so any holes through it also serve to anchor the plate to a fixture plate in the CNC mill when modeling complicated parts.

oh god yes

[mikecombes]

nice lists wish i could actually make one, i tried installing inventor then it told me to get a program uninstalled so i did and it didn't fully get rid of it so i can't use it

[JAZAD1]

-you tell the build team to just undo the last cut and try again

[Animalboi1313]

Another way is if you spend a good portion of your time looking for new Inventor tricks on the chiefdelphi forums

[FlyingHerring]

As a relative rookie I don't know if I should post, but I'll try.

In three weeks you are more proficient than your friends who have computer drafting as a class.

You crash your lousy school issue computer at least 5 times a day from overloading memory.

Other kids in robotics begin requesting you to make items (guns, cars, etc.) in your spare time.

You fill up the supposedly inexhaustable school server with assemblys.

You wire your robot using nothing but lofts.

You swear at people who don't give you exact dimensions.

You claim part libraries are overrated.

You memorize the decimal designation for all inch increments down to the 64th

You develop several inexplicable twitches and a craving for caffiiene.

[Creator Mat]

you hate people who change your robot with out telling you

hate other people touching your model and trying to "improve it"

have no need of tools or physics because it it can be constrained it will work

find that your computer with the 4Gig of ram is being overloaded

the schools computers won't even open for your model

[JesseK]

I used it to figure out my room arrangement when I first moved in here. I have a part named 'bed', 'desk', 'bookshelf', 'fireplace', etc. Fun stuff.

I too have way too many drive trains CADed...too bad most of them will never be built.

I believe it's nearly impossible to do accurate pneumatics without alot of adjustment unless you CAD each nook and cranny of the system that uses pneumatics.

Though I'm a blasphemist in this thread...I prefer Solidworks