Autodesk Inventor is a CAD program, also known as a computer-aided design application, which can be used for 3D design, simulation, and visualization. It can be used to create and modify 3D shapes, designs, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Not only that, but you can take the parts you create and put them together in one file. Inventor is very useful for prototyping designs and making things with specific measurements.
In class, we sketched six different widgets on isometric paper. Here are a few of mine.
After we completed our sketches, we made the widgets in inventor. I am going to show how I created this one.
I started by creating a 2-D sketch of the right side view of the shape.
Next, I used the extrude tool and extruded the sketch four inches.
Now, I need to cut out the two indents in the shape. I did this by creating new 2-D sketches on either side and extruding them inward.
And that's it! Now you have your completed widget.
Here are all six of my completed widgets.
After I created all of my widgets, I printed one out on the 3-D Printer. I will show you the steps I took to do so.
First, I took one of the widgets I previously made, and exported it as an STL file.
Next, I opened the new STL file in makerbot. Before I printed, I needed to get the file ready to print. I rotated my object based on best printing practice, and hit the "lay flat" button.
Then, I configured the settings so it would print on our Makerbots. I had to make sure that the quality was standard, raft was checked, extruder type was smart extruder+, and extrudser temp was 215c.
Use the preview button to see what your finished print will look like.
After all this was done, I was ready to print my widget. I put the file on a flash drive and took it to a 3-D printer. Here is what my widget looked like while it was printing:
Here is what the finished product looks like:
Throughout this project, I learned many things. I learned the process of exporting a CAD file correctly and making it printable. I also learned about the different things 3-D printers can do, and all the different settings on them you can change. Before I printed my widget, I had no idea you could change things such as quality of the print, speed of the extruder, and temperature. All the capability of our 3-D printers is amazing, and it still blows my mind. I look forward to learning many more new and exciting things in IDEA.