1 Introduction: course scope and software

1.1 What to expect and what you will learn in this course

Welcome to the Inventor course for beginners!

Thank you for choosing this course!

In this course you will find an introduction to the basics of the great CAD program Inventor from Autodesk and learn in particular the CAD design in detail and understand. As an engineer, I will show you, step by step, my knowledge from my studies and professional practice, so that you can achieve optimal learning success with theoretical basics on the one hand, but above all with practical examples on the other hand. After a theoretical introduction, this course includes many practical design projects to learn the design and the program from scratch.

And with Inventor from Autodesk, as with other CAD programs, you can not only design. Rather, this program combines and links several engineering disciplines, such as CAD (Computer Aided Design) and FEM (Finite Element Method), in one platform. So with Inventor you can not only create components or assemblies, but also perform simulations and animations as well as create renderings. The main focus of this course is on design with Inventor, i.e. the CAD part of the program. But the other functions will not be neglected, don't worry!

As already mentioned, the abbreviation CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. What is CAD software anyway? CAD software is used to virtually create or edit three-dimensional objects. Starting with simple individual parts, through complex parts, to entire assemblies that can be virtually assembled.

In this course, specially designed for beginners, you will learn how the Inventor environment is structured and how to make the most of its features to create three-dimensional objects. Each project of the course can be followed step by step and one by one, in order to get an easy introduction to the material and to become more familiar with the multiple functions of the program with each lesson.

In a nutshell, this means that you can learn the following in detail in this course:

It is best to stay in the order that the course provides, as the lessons build on each other. If you do not understand individual functions or commands right away or miss the explanation for a function, just stick with it, the course is structured in such a way that all important and basic functions are explained sufficiently and in an intuitive way. Therefore, explanations in the chapters may overlap or certain functions may not be covered in detail until a later chapter.

1.2 The CAD program Inventor

The professional CAD program Inventor from Autodesk offers a clear and simple user interface, but it also has its price! A license currently costs about 350 € per month, annually about 2,900 €. If you buy a license for a longer period, you can save a little. Pupils and students have the possibility to get a license for the duration of their studies. All others can test the program at least for 30 days free of charge in its full extent. It is no longer possible to buy the software directly, there is only the possibility to subscribe to the software for a certain period of time. With a subscription, Inventor can then be installed on up to three computers. However, it can only be used on one computer at a time and only with the purchaser's login data.

The structure of the design features is relatively identical for all common CAD programs used by engineers or technicians in their daily work. There is a basic selection of professional CAD programs. In addition to Inventor, the best known are: SolidWorks, Catia, SolidEdge, Pro/Engineer, also known as Creo, and probably the best known of them all: AutoCAD. There are basically no major differences in the prices, so these programs are usually only worthwhile for professional users and self-employed people.

And now we're ready to get started! Before we get to the basics of CAD design, we will make general program settings and familiarize ourselves with the program interface and functions.

2 Preparation: First steps with Inventor

2.1 Making general settings

When we start the program for the first time, we are initially presented with three windows and three menu bars. In the menu bar Get started we find standard options, such as creating a new file or opening an already created file. In addition, we can work through tutorials, see what is new in an update version of Inventor and request or look up help.

Figure 1: When starting the software for the first time, this display appears; tab Get started selected

In the Tools menu bar, we can use the Application Options button to make initial settings for the program or reactivate existing settings. With the help of these settings, the program can be individualized to some extent, e.g. the background color can be set in the Colors section - I prefer the white Presentation layout - or graphic settings, depending on the hardware, can be made in the Hardware menu tab.

Figure 2: Making the first settings in the Tools tab with Application Options

Here we have to choose between quality of display or performance, depending on the equipment of the PC. In the Sketch menu we activate two functions, namely Grid lines and Snap to grid, so that a grid is displayed to us when sketching in the 2D environment and we can select the grid points more easily with the cursor. However, this setting is really just a matter of taste.

Figure 3: In the Sketch tab, activate the Grid lines & Snap to grid options

At last we want to make a setting for the units at File. With a click on Configure Default Template we can change this to mm and set the Drawing Standard to ISO.

Figure 4: Set Configure Default Template to mm and ISO; File menu tab

For organizational reasons, the program language remains in English. This is also advantageous for you, in order to find your way around better in the international work routine on the one hand and in the mostly English-speaking Internet forums or community on the other hand. All other settings are not needed for the time being, they are much too special for the start and can be left at the default values.

We are now still in the start window of the program, in which there are still the three sections New, Projects and Recent Documents. These are relatively self-explanatory, in Recent Documents you will see the most recently used files, after the creation of the first files. In the New section we can choose between the creation of a single part Part, an assembly Assembly, a technical drawing Drawing, as well as a Presentation.

Figure 5: The three areas of the start window

If you have never worked with a CAD program before, you may wonder what the difference is between a single part: Part and an assembly: Assembly and why a distinction is made here. Think of it very simply. Just like in the real world, in the virtual environment of a CAD program, every more complex part is assembled from several individual parts. A car, for example, has thousands of individual parts, from the steering wheel to the smallest bolts. Each of these parts is an independent individual part that, when assembled as a whole, results in an assembly, the car. In the CAD program, an assembly is therefore made up of all the individual parts - just as in real assembly. With drawing, a technical drawing, an individual part with views, dimensions and all the necessary information is described on a sheet of paper in 2D in such a way that it can be manufactured in a company by an employee. An assembly can also be described with a technical drawing.

Since we want to start constructing our first - still very simple - part as soon as possible, we therefore now first select the creation of a new single part: Part.

Figure 6: Creating a new single part: Part

By the way, single part, assembly and technical drawing each have different file extensions. In this case, the extension . ipt stands for part, i.e. individual parts, the extension . iam for assembly, i.e. assemblies and the extension . dwg or . idw for drawing, i.e. technical drawings. A look at this extension will help you to identify what you are dealing with in a file. Then we get to the actual program environment of Inventor, in this case to the environment for individual parts (Parts). By the way, we can return to the initial window by clicking on the small box in the bottom bar.

In the next chapter we will take a first look at the program environment and functions of Autodesk Inventor.

2.2 Overview of program environment and functions

Let's first take a look at the program environment and the menu bars located in the upper and side areas.

The menu bars in the upper area are different for each of the four environments: Part, Assembly, Drawing and Presentation. While there are always some tabs that appear in several or all environments, such as 3D Model or Sketch, there are generally different tabs and functions depending on the environment. We will learn what the differences are during the course.

So now we are in the environment: Part.

At the top left, File allows you to open, save or export files and other basic commands.