Back to Inventor

[Frederick_Law]

At new job for 3 months.
Back to using Inventor.
Just edited old addin in VC2022 Community and updated it to .Net 4.8.
Got a few more to update for workflow in current company.

We make datacenter cabinet and cage.
Will be standardizing lots of things and make it faster and more efficient.
Also programming CNC punch.

[bnemec]

to those old add-ins covered in dust, hopefully your previous self left good comments and well structured code for your future self.

[Frederick_Law]

LOL no comments. No GIT either. Should learn how to use it.
Not too old, last update was 2018.

My app options were imported since R5.3. Using 2020, options imported from R2017.
Still working on templates for this company.

[AlexLachance]

Hey Fred,

is there any free version of Inventor out there that we can use non-commercially..? I'd like to look around it, like I can with SolidEdge for instance, so that I could have a better idea of how it works and it's Pro's and Con's.

How you feelin' from being back to it? Did it take a huge leap of improvement since the last time you had used it..?

[Frederick_Law]

I don't think there is free version. You could download and try 30 days.

I don't see much different. Last one I used was 2017. I was beta testing 2020. Reported a few bugs and some were fixed.

[mattpeneguy]

Hey Fred,

is there any free version of Inventor out there that we can use non-commercially..? I'd like to look around it, like I can with SolidEdge for instance, so that I could have a better idea of how it works and it's Pro's and Con's.

How you feelin' from being back to it? Did it take a huge leap of improvement since the last time you had used it..?

More importantly, do they use all caps for their software and are they hell bent on dragging IV to the cloud?

[Frederick_Law]

Fusion is on cloud, IV not yet.
Even if they try, all those ACAD users will drag it back down LOL

[jcapriotti]

Don't have to be in cloud to move to a subscription only model which they have. We have a few IV licenses left over for legacy work and went from a few floating license to a lot more "named" users for more $$$.

[Frederick_Law]

Yea, everyone went subscription.
One of my $30 forever for 5 device software became $140 yearly for 1 device.
And that's my "loyalty" discount.
That's an infinity% increase in price.

[jcapriotti]

Yea, everyone went subscription.
One of my $30 forever for 5 device software became $140 yearly for 1 device.
And that's my "loyalty" discount.
That's an infinity% increase in price.

Image if this happened to physical products. You need to pay an annual fee forever to continue driving your car because our company need a continuous stream of revenue. Imagine paying an annual forever fee for your washing machine, dishwasher, toaster.

[Frederick_Law]

We are doing that ourselves, on lease.
People love leasing cars. They got new on in a few years. Avoided (maybe) costly maintenance after warranty.
We almost do that on cell phone. Google just released a plan for Pixel.

I don't mind paying for update and upgrade. Just price it properly.
I can buy a software (or any product), use it for a few years and buy new one.
I can subscribe for a new one every year to keep up to date. If it's significant less then buying new one every year.
I can subscribe for software upgrade too. No costing as much as a new device.

[jcapriotti]

Two different topics I suppose. We pay annual maintenance on all software anyway so its a wash on buy with maint or lease.

The bigger deal for us for Autodesk products is they dropped the floating concurrent license and made everything "named" user. Windchill is the same and it's a maintenance nightmare when you have lots of users. And costs more usually....or sends you down the path of find alternative less expensive software for the casual users.

[Frederick_Law]

Took a while but update my IV VB.NET template to work with VS Community 2022.
Last update was 2014

[Alin]

Image if this happened to physical products. You need to pay an annual fee forever to continue driving your car because our company need a continuous stream of revenue.

New car companies are now leasing the battery.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/27/ev-ba ... consumers/

[Frederick_Law]

One design is swap battery instead of charging them.
So there are battery swap station which supposed to keep the batteries charged.

[Frederick_Law]

Updated

[jcapriotti]

Updated
1-2023.jpg

Is Previous Version and Next version redundant? I mean, are they ever not -1 and +1 from current version.

[Frederick_Law]

LOL incase user can't count?

[Frederick_Law]

Templates I'm still using is from IV6, 2002.
No rebuild template every year.

[Frederick_Law]

IV "copied" config from SW. Called it "Model State".
So now there are 2 ways to make group of similar parts/assemblies: Model State, iPart/iassembly.
Or a mix of both.
Need to try and rethink.

[bnemec]

IV "copied" config from SW. Called it "Model State".
So now there are 2 ways to make group of similar parts/assemblies: Model State, iPart/iassembly.
Or a mix of both.
Need to try and rethink.

Configs might be fun in a limited data set where files are confined to project folders and have a finite maintenance life, and you're by yourself. So demos and training, they are fun in demos and training.

[Frederick_Law]

I did some extensive LH RH configs in 2005.
It is powerful, too powerful with no guideline.
Technically you can build a machine with one part file and assembly.
Config all the different parts in one parts file.
And it get confusing fast without a table.

We are making metal cabinets.
Using "config" for different door styles (solid, perf, glass etc) help simplify the assembly.
Going to evaluate config on different size.
It should be great and reduce change managing in the family.
Update one and all 3872624 in the family got updated which maybe bad for inventory.

[bnemec]

I did some extensive LH RH configs in 2005.
It is powerful, too powerful with no guideline.
Technically you can build a machine with one part file and assembly.
Config all the different parts in one parts file.
And it get confusing fast without a table.

We are making metal cabinets.
Using "config" for different door styles (solid, perf, glass etc) help simplify the assembly.
Going to evaluate config on different size.
It should be great and reduce change managing in the family.
Update one and all 3872624 in the family got updated which maybe bad for inventory.

I was being facetious; they certainly have their place and can be an awesome tool when the usage allows it.

Are you using any product configurator for those cabinets? That tends to be the textbook product type for product configurator demos.

[Frederick_Law]

Are you using any product configurator for those cabinets? That tends to be the textbook product type for product configurator demos.

Not yet.
I got thrown into 30 years old design.
Everything is single part, 10 size, 10 parts.
Nothing is consistent. Extra and missing features here and there.
Dimensions are the usual imperial random 0.03, 0.032, 0.031, so can't assemble them properly.
So probably good time to wipe in clean.
Changes is required but there are resistant.

Of course, resistance is futile

[jcapriotti]

Not yet.
I got thrown into 30 years old design.
Everything is single part, 10 size, 10 parts.
Nothing is consistent. Extra and missing features here and there.
Dimensions are the usual imperial random 0.03, 0.032, 0.031, so can't assemble them properly.
So probably good time to wipe in clean.
Changes is required but there are resistant.

Of course, resistance is futile

Hand this out and require all engineers, designers, and drafters to memorize it. Always enter the full decimal value. Test on Monday.

[bnemec]

Hand this out and require all engineers, designers, and drafters to memorize it. Always enter the full decimal value. Test on Monday.

image.png

What is the precision set to in your sldasm and sldprt templates? We use 4 places for inches and two for mm.

[Frederick_Law]

What is the precision set to in your sldasm and sldprt templates? We use 4 places for inches and two for mm.

Doesn't matter. All the dec required in the fraction.
CAD don't care about precision human want to see.
Constrain will fail if its 0.00000000001 different.

Or atleast be consistent. Truncate, round up or round down. 2 dec, 3 dec or 4 dec.
Don't mix them up.

[Frederick_Law]

I had a macro to convert 0.12, 0.13 to 0.125 for one customer.

[bnemec]

Doesn't matter. All the dec required in the fraction.
CAD don't care about precision human want to see.
Constrain will fail if its 0.00000000001 different.

Or atleast be consistent. Truncate, round up or round down. 2 dec, 3 dec or 4 dec.
Don't mix them up.

It matters if the part template set to 2 plcs and the user reads 0.38 as 0.380" rather than 0.375" Or do you use fractions in sketch dimentions?

[jcapriotti]

What is the precision set to in your sldasm and sldprt templates? We use 4 places for inches and two for mm.

3 decimals

[Frederick_Law]

3 dec and show equations

[Frederick_Law]

Just realize I lost the habit of double clicking sketch to edit in IV because of SW.

[AlexLachance]

Just realize I lost the habit of double clicking sketch to edit in IV because of SW.

I still double click to edit dimensions in SW

[Frederick_Law]

Double click in the tree to edit feature and sketch.

[SPerman]

All I have to do is spend a few minutes working in F360 or SE, and I'm back to trying to open features in SW with a double click.