Interoperability is key to latest Autodesk CAD releases

The biggest news is Autodesk Inventor 2008, with its main story being connectivity. Sales director for manufacturing Kevin Ison said: “Interoperability with Alias is growing as is interoperability between 2D and 3D and electrical and mechanical.” And he added: “Changes in AutoCAD Electrical will be reflected in Autodesk Inventor Professional 3D models and vice versa.” Referring to the effect of an added connection in a circuit schematic in AutoCAD Electrical on the Inventor model, Ison explained: “All you get is a notification that you need to make a change. You have to choose whether it is going into an existing harness or you need to make another one. If you do this [choose a separate wire] it will automatically route it.” On the reverse process, where a change is made in the Inventor model, he said: “You get an automatic update from 3D to 2D, although you may need to tidy the drawing.” Despite Autodesk’s wish that all users should upgrade from AutoCAD to Inventor, the company now clearly accepts that many will want to continue with AutoCAD. Hence its upgrades for AutoCAD Mechanical and AutoCAD LT drafting. “Moving from 2D to 3D, people rarely want to re-do the whole product in 3D. Now you can keep the layout in 2D.” And to assist with this process, Inventor 2008 now includes ‘TrueConnect’ that allows Inventor to directly open DWG files and save as DWG files. Previously, Inventor files could only be opened and saved in their own formats. In Inventor 2008, if the user makes a change in an Inventor file, a warning message indicates that there has been a change in the 2D DWG files associated with it. “This is the closest we can get to true 2D/3D interoperability,” said Ison. Other developments include new sheet metal design tools and the means to “incorporate manufacturing information, such as tool parameters and flat pattern optimisation in the digital prototype”. On the electrical side, there are ribbon cable design tools that support the insertion and routing of ribbon cables with full control over the shape of the cable, including the ability to define multiple twists and folds. Assembly constraints can now be automatically translated into joints. Meanwhile, FEA integration is with software provided by ANSYS. There is no sign of an integrated CFD package, but Autodesk appears to be thinking about it in the light of SolidWorks and FloXpress. The two companies, said Ison, “Watch each other closely”. Beyond this, a new DWG export from Autodesk AliasStudio provides a reliable way of transferring concept designs into Inventor. Both AliasStudio and Autodesk Showcase have been enhanced. AliasStudio 2.0 now works with a Wacom tablet. Ison said: “If you roughly draw a circle, it will make it a circle; also an ellipse.” It also now includes dynamic shape modelling, which means that the user can take a 3D shape, and twist it round an axis or otherwise deform it. In Showcase, there are new materials such as various car paints and carbon fibre and additional lighting controls. Integration is assisted by DWG file exchange with Inventor, an updated IGES translator, an independent Catia V5 translator and an independent JT (Jupiter Technology) translator. Additionally, Inventor interoperability with non-Autodesk products has been enhanced. Said Ison: “We have agreed to license PTC’s Granite modelling kernel and they have agreed to use our DWF.” However, the PDM product remains, ProductStream, which is also being updated. Vault is not PDM software, despite the number of people who try to use it as such. Last but not least, Autodesk Design Review is now available free of charge as a download from the Autodesk website. This is not only a free viewer for Autodesk CAD models: it allows 3D measurement, mark-up and annotation.