Up and Running with Autodesk Inventor Simulation 2010

A Step-by-Step Guide to Engineering Design Solutions

Wasim Younis

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780080959146
• Topic: Informatica
• Subtopic: CAD-CAM

Inventor Simulation is an essential part of the Autodesk Digital Prototyping process. It allows engineers and designers to explore and test components and products virtually, visualizing and simulating real-world performance.

Up and Running with Autodesk Inventor Simulation 2010 is dedicated to the requirements of Inventor users who need to quickly learn or refresh their skills, and apply the dynamic simulation, assembly analysis and optimization capabilities of Inventor Simulation 2010.

• Step-by-step approach gets you up and running fast
• Discover how to convert CAD models to working digital prototypes, enabling you to enhance designs, reduce over design, failure, and the need to create physical prototypes
• Extensive real-world design problems explore all the new and key features of the 2010 software, including assembly stress analysis; parametric optimization analysis; creating joints effectively; avoiding redundant joints; unknown force; logic conditions; and more…
• Tips and guidance you to tackle your own design challenges with confidence

Chapter 1. An Introduction to Inventor Simulation

Simulation Overview

During a typical design process, designers go through a series of typical questions, like do the parts fit together? Do the parts move well together? Is there interference? And do the parts follow the right path? Even though most of these questions can be catered for by 3D CAD and Rendering Software, there may be other questions that cannot. For example, designers may want to know the machinery time cycle. Is the actuator powerful enough? Is the link robust enough? And can we reduce weight? All these questions can only be answered by building a working prototype or a series of prototypes. The major issue with this method is that it is timely and costly. An alternative cost-effective method is to create a working virtual prototype by using the Inventor simulation suite. Inventor simulation suite allows the designer to convert assembly constraints automatically to mechanical joints, provide the capability to apply external forces including gravity, and be able to take effect of contact friction, damping, and inertia. As a result of this, the simulation suite provides reaction forces, velocities, acceleration, and much more. With this information, the designer can reuse reaction forces automatically to perform finite element analysis, hence reducing risks and assumptions. ...