Inventor Pitfalls?

[andrewsjo]

We are engineers currently using AutoCAD. We have purchased a few seats of Inventor 9 and are currently evaluating its potential. We have some concerns. I thought this forum could add some insight....

My 1.8 MHz, 1G RAM computer is really bogged down with a 40 part, sectioning assembly *.idw file. Updating takes at least 30 minutes. ANy comments?

Can Inventor look at tolerances and check for interference in assemblies? Or, can it look at dimensional stack-up issues associated with parts chained together?

Can inventor Export to COSMOS (an FEA program)?

I have had serious difficulties making the ipart work with Excel. My excel crashes, then shuts down Inventor.

Any general words of advice or words of encouragement? We are on the fence about implementation and want all the facts...

thanks.

John
Mechanical Engineer
Artisan Industries Inc.

http://www.artisanind.com

 

[MadMango]

What video card are you using?

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[DesignerMike]

Graphics card is a major issue (as with most 3D CAD programs) Also, play with the resolution settings, sometimes you will be able to run at a lower resolution (since the card has to process so much less data)

I have used my home machine for a couple assemblies in excess of 2000 parts. It has taken much less time than you indicate. PLUS I was using the Pro piping package which really can slow down a machine. It's not exactly an awesome machine with a P3 CPU @766Mhz and 768MB unmatched RAM, and an old Oxygen GVX1 with 32M video card. Actually, I don't know why it works? I have a new Dell 3600 workstation ready to replace it, but it keeps running.

Part count is not the most important thing when it comes to performance. There are some things that really bog Inventor down. There are many ways to constrain parts together, conflicting or "overlapping" constraints tends to confuse IV, especially angle and tangential constraints. Feature patterns (like an array)take a big chunk of resources ie. modeling a perforated plate, or floor grating. Adaptivity is another resource hog, and can be very flakey in larger assemblies. And just pure model complexity, a simple cylinder for a motor is far easier for IV to handle than a motor with fins, lifting eyes, fan blades and the works (but they do look neat).

IV Pro has part level FEA built in (from ANSYS). I'm very happy with it's usability so far, and the results are on par with my hand calcs and the results from the professional I have do the complex FEA. I have never had any problems exporting the model for analysis. If you need to do serious FEA with complete assemblies, IV Pro and ANSYS is the way that I would go. (IMO)

As far as your excel problems, there was an issue with R9 and excel, but the service packs and hotfixes have corrected everything I had read about. I would try to install them and see if that helps.

Surf some of the user web-sites for some other good information, tutorials, and awesome images of work. These sites are a wonderfull resource that I use almost daily.

http://www.cbliss.com

(for free i-parts and GREAT add-ins)

http://www.sdotson.com

(for more parts, tutorials, and another forum)

http://www.kwikmcad.com

(for other great add-ins, parts etc)

The MAIN question you will get from almost everyone, is what do you do (design machines, design structural, plant layout, sheetmetal?) This would help with any suggestions.