MFG323109 20+ Tips for Creating Weldments in Autodesk Inventor

Steve and Mike’s Autodesk Inventor Weldments class from Autodesk University las Vegas 2019 is now available on Autodesk University Online.

Click here for the video, handout, presentation, and dataset: https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Get-Your-Welders-and-Designers-Connected-20-Plus-Tips-Using-Welds-Inventor-2019

MFG323109 Get Your Welders and Designers Connected (20-Plus Tips for Creating Weldments in Inventor)

By Mike Hilvers & Steve Hilvers

The Weld environment in Inventor is a very powerful one, yet neglected and dismissed by many of the users that ever attempted to use it.

The fact is that there’s not much documentation or videos on the topic and there are some caveats and workflows that aren’t real discoverable which blows the door wide open of what the environment is capable of. That’s what we wanted to expose to our peers in this class.

At the same time, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight to Autodesk and the Inventor development team, that it’s time for the Weldment Environment to get a little bit of Love.

We feel one of the trends of the future is Model-Based Definition (MBD) or 3D annotation – whatever you would like to call it, where all the documentation, dimensions, tolerances annotations, and details will be in the model.

Weld beads and weld symbols are a key component of that which tends to be overlooked. The weld environment had Model-Based Weld symbols and notes before MBD became a feature in Inventor, so it was a precursor to the modern-day MBD. For that reason, it is coded different than MBD, so it’s only logical that the Weld Symbols be brought into the same light as MBD.

What was it like to present at Autodesk University?

We were fortunate to have an 8:00 am class on the 1st day of AU2019, so the bar was set pretty low for us, as the attendees didn’t have any other classes to compare us to! Being AU attendees for more years than we can count, we know the bar is high. It was really nice to see energetic, ready to learn attendees, who had great questions.

Prior to AU, we knew we had a solid hour packed full of information without any attendee dialog, so we went out and created some amateur (poorly edited) videos on the YouTube channel: AU & UM to ensure every tip got covered in some form of Video. The YouTube videos complement the AU class recording and also serve as the main source of info for the Handout. Frankly, we’d much rather watch a video than read about it.

We had a good dialog with the attendees which we were glad to see, as we believe you learn the most that way versus just lecture, so we didn’t quite get thru everything. If it was a 1 ½ hour class it would have been perfect for what we wanted to cover.

The feedback was really good from the attendee’s and based on that we hope we met the expectations of the AU class selection committee and didn’t let them down. It was an honor to be selected as a speaker out of a huge pool of submissions for Autodesk University 2019. We did spend a lot more time on it than expected, but we’ll turn around and use it for internal training. I also discovered some new caveats, quirks, and workarounds along the way, so it was definitely worth it.

It’s time for you to get started with Weldments!

If you truly want to get your Welders and Designers connected and send consistent products out the door, while at the same time make both groups of employees more efficient by doing what they were hired to do (Weld and Design) then the Weldment Environment in Inventor is for you! It will eliminate time wasted deciphering weld symbols and design intent by both groups.

Steve and Mike’s Autodesk Inventor Weldments class from Autodesk University las Vegas 2019 is now available on Autodesk University Online .

Click here for the video, handout, presentation, and dataset:

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Get-Your-Welders-and-Designers-Connected-20-Plus-Tips-Using-Welds-Inventor-2019

Speakers

Mike Hilvers

Design Engineer / CAD Mgr. / Standards Mgr. for an Agricultural/Farm Equipment Manufacturer for the past 24 years. We started with AutoCad, grew up with Mechanical Desktop taking it thru its full lifespan. The latest evolution, in conjunction with Autodesk, transitioned us to grabbing hold of Inventor and Vault in their infancy before they went public and maturing into the processes we currently operate under. I’m a Graduate of Ohio State University with a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering. On the side I am the 5th Generation to Farm the Ground we live on with my wife and kids, making them the 6th generation to farm that land, dating back to the Presidency of Abe Lincoln.

Steve Hilvers

Over 30+ years of machinery design. I cut my teeth on a drafting board way back in the day, then 2D AutoCAD, 3D parametrics with Mechanical Desktop, Inventor, and Vault Professional. Involved with every aspect of a product’s life from writing rules for product configurators to shipping the final product.

Class description

Does your manufacturing team consistently know where your design should have welds placed in your weldments? Do your products get welded differently each time? Does your welder have issues interpreting your weld symbols? Why not add welds into your models to alleviate these issues?

If you have Autodesk Inventor software, you have the ability to add welds into your assemblies. Get all the tips and tricks from Unverferth Manufacturing and learn how the firm has added welds into its Inventor models to show exactly where the weld beads should be placed by manufacturing.

No more guessing and incorrect interpretation when it comes to welding parts together. Communicate design intent more precisely with the manufacturing team using fewer words and Inventor software’s weldment environment.

Learning Objectives

-Learn about what the weld environment is and how to quickly get started with welds in Inventor

-Discover all that you can do to welds, from model-based geometry to adding those same symbols to your 2D print

-Learn about how one company has implemented welds into their assemblies

-Learn how to share the 3D models with your manufacturing team