Shannon McGarry
The Autodesk Product Design and Manufacturing Collection offers innovative tools to streamline processes, enhance collaboration, and improve product performance across various industries.
What makes the collection so powerful??
The Autodesk Product Design and Manufacturing Collection includes a suite of tools that empower designers and engineers to bring their visions to reality. It provides capabilities that drive innovation, enhance business prospects, streamline manufacturing processes, and improve overall product performance, the collection is a game-changer in the world of design and engineering. Let’s dive into why:
Inventor for design and engineering
Autodesk Inventor is an important tool in the Autodesk Product Design and Manufacturing Collection, allowing designers and engineers to focus on their designs rather than the complexities of feature controls. The specialized modeling tools expedite the design process:
- Sheet metal: Quickly create features in your model and get accurate flat patterns for laser cutting.
- Frame generator: Model 3D frames by specifying skeletal structures and cross-sections.
- Tube & pipe: Automate routing for rigid pipes, bent tubes, and flexible hoses.
- Flexible modeling methods: Combine parametric, direct editing, and freeform modeling capabilities to swiftly model and edit 3D parts.
- Welded frames: Create skeletons and choose cross-section types for beams or extrusions.
- iLogic technology: Automate design reuse and custom designs, generating 3D models in seconds with iLogic.
Interoperability and BIM
Inventor’s AnyCAD technology transforms interoperability, maintaining an associative link to imported files for seamless updates. For BIM projects, Inventor simplifies detailed designs for architects and enables custom fabricated designs. Data exchanges from Revit to Autodesk Docs eliminate the need for file emails and revisions.
Collaboration
Shared views in Inventor enhance collaboration, so that stakeholders can view, comment, measure, section, explode, and mark up designs online. Design accelerators provide tools for common assembly parts, placing them with proper constraints and built-in calculators for loading conditions.
Simulation and analysis
Inventor Tolerance Analysis, part of the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection, helps specify manufacturing tolerances accurately. Inventor Nastran offers comprehensive FEA simulation studies, including nonlinear, thermal, fatigue, and dynamic studies powered by the Autodesk Nastran solver.
Generative design in Fusion
Generative design in Fusion generates hundreds of design iterations based on set criteria, enabling engineers to explore significantly more options quickly. General Motors used this capability to design a seat belt bracket, making it 40% lighter and 20% stronger while consolidating an assembly of eight parts into one.
Electromechanical workflow
The electromechanical workflow between AutoCAD and Inventor improves collaboration between mechanical and electrical teams. Schematic diagrams created in 2D toolsets align with 3D models, ensuring accurate and aligned bills of materials.
PCB design in Fusion
Fusion, also in the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection extends capabilities to generate electronic designs for PCB boards, from schematic diagrams to 3D board representations and signal interference simulations. Bidirectional information flow between Inventor and Fusion enhances design accuracy.
Virtual prototyping
Manufacturers can visualize projects before production. Fusion’s rendering environment and Inventor’s Studio environment provide tools for creating photorealistic renderings and videos or factory layout fly-throughs.
Scalability and automation
Viewrail leveraged Inventor iLogic to automate 3D modeling and CNC toolpath strategies for custom staircases, growing their business over tenfold. The automation tools in the collection are critical to scalability and applicable across various industries.
Product Design and Manufacturing Collection
The Autodesk Product Design and Manufacturing Collection is a powerful suite of tools that spans multiple industries, offering capabilities for machine and product design, electronics, architectural designs, and more. Harnessing these tools, designers and engineers can transform their visions into reality, driving innovation, efficiency, and performance.