Autodesk Inventor 2015¶
Autodesk Inventor has both 3d and 2d designing, How Ever I will be using it here for 3D designing.
I have started modeling a spool holder for my Tronxy 3D printer, To limit the usage space from the previous one. I started with Autodesk Inventor and also created a video of me doing the design while explaining. I roughly Sketched The Design And Took the Measurements on a paper, if you don’t want to see the steps on the page and want to watch the video of me designing the object please Click Here
Its time to design our filament spool holder. and get it ready for 3D Printing.
1st Choose What You Want To Model¶
As I started the Autodesk Inventor, On the home screen, I have to choose a part or an assembly, what I need to build right now is a part. so selected part.
then thing I need to tell you all about that the 1. top ribbon bar is for the design tools 2. design actions & features time line 3. working area 4. shape navigation tools
1st thing to do is give you shape a name to avoid mixing up files with the same name
now as I said previously in order to make an object every thing starts with a sketch. so select sketch then select the plane you want to sketch on
once the sketch program starts the sketch the ribbon will change to sketch tab showing you all the tools you will need for sketch, 1. like shapes, editing tools, constrain tools, etc. 2. your sketch will show on the object time line 3. work area shows up with an origin point
to draw a circle 1. select circle 2. you can directly specify its dimension as you draw it
to make shapes equal each other without the need to do the dimensions all over again.
- select equal constrain
- select the first circle with defined dimensions
- select the second circle this will make it the same size of the defined circle
to make spacing and dimensions 1. select the dimensions tool from the sketch ribbon 2. select your first your first circle 3. select your second circle then the dimension will appear and you can specify the exact spacing between objects, not to mention that you can make dimension depend on each other by selecting other dimension will setting the new on.
to draw different shapes like square and other things you can locate them on the ribbon, there are more shapes un the shape drop down.
when you are done with the dimensions you need to clean your shape and make all the lines connected other wise you will face problems while extruding. us the trimming tool to cut out the un wanted line and other parts of circle etc. and when you are done select on the top right of the ribbon Finish sketch.
now that the sketch is ready and clear its time to extrude your sketch to a shape, select extrude tool then select the area within the sketch you want to extrude normally it changes color while hovering with the mouse over it to indicate that you can click to select this area. and specify how Hight you want to extrude it.
after this point the shape is extruded and you can visualize the object using the object navigation tools on the right of the work area window
now I want to make a subtraction of the shape a portion of it in the middle to allow the 3D printer acrylic to pass in between. there are many ways but since I extruded the shape in the first place in two direction I can select the middle plane and make my new drawing too.
I draw the sketch that will cut the shape I want. then select extrude and extrude it in two directions and select subtract from the extrude window
The shape is all done I will add my touches with fillets and chamfer, first you have to select the feature and then select the edge’s you want to apply the feature to and specify the size and then ok/apply.
Finally Finishing The Final features and touches for the mechanical parts the nuts and screws, I will do some cuts for the screws to they flush down with the object, as well as the nuts. usually 3 mm screws have a head or 5.X diameter I will put it 6 mm just incase and their head usually are 2.2mm, and the nuts are from one side to other are 5.5 mm but in order to let them go it I will put 5.6 mm and the depth of the cut is the same 2.2 mm, After Slicing the shape and Printing The Object Using MakerBot Replicator 5th Gen 3D Printer And Fitting The Object On The Other 3D Printer Right Into Place
Now all I need to do is to fit a PVC pipe 25 mm in the 3D Printer Part And Hang The Spool Over It.