LATEST SERVICE PACKS:

Inventor Series or Professional 11 - Service Pack 2
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8008737&linkID=4183232


Mechanical Desktop 2007 - Service Pack 1 - For Inventor Series 11
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8113081&linkID=4183232

Mechanical Desktop 2007 - Service Pack 1 - For Inventor Professional 11
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8113052&linkID=4183232

Mechanical Desktop 2007 - Service Pack 1 - For Inventor Professional for Simulation 11
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8113016&linkID=4183232

Mechanical Desktop 2007 - Service Pack 1 - For Inventor Professional for Routed Systems 11
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8112993&linkID=4183232

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

Autodesk Labs has recently posted a utility for Feature Recognition in Autodesk Inventor 11.

You can use this application to convert neutral 3D CAD (STEP, SAT, or IGES solids) models into fully featured Autodesk® Inventor™ 11 models. Feature mapping can be executed automatically or interactively as needed to maintain design intent.

As with anything at Autodesk Labs, this utility is not supported by Autodesk and should be seen as a "Use At Your Own Risk" utility.

Check them out at:
Autodesk Labs

LATEST SERVICE PACKS:

Autodesk Data Management Server 5 Service Pack 1
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8012637&linkID=4183232

Anyone using Vault 5 or Productstream 5 NEEDS to apply this Sevice Pack to both the Server and the Clients that connect to it!

LATEST SERVICE PACKS:

Autodesk Inventor 11 DWF Extension Service Pack 2
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8008766&linkID=4183232

For those of you who weren't aware, Autodesk released the DWF Extension for Subscription Members of Inventor 11. DWF Extension adds significant capabilities regarding what can be placed into Inventor-generated DWF files, as well as, Redline Markup Overlay capability to Inventor.

Colorado Inventor Users Group

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
6:30PM – 9:00PM

Please join us once again at SVI Trucks in Loveland, CO for this month’s Users Group. Mark your calendars now to participate in an open discussion of ideas and technology. We’ve prepared two short presentations before we open the floor to fellow Inventor Users to share their experiences from the field.

Explore Inventor 11’s Frame Generator to quickly create structural frames with custom or standard parts.

• Library of standard structural shapes
• Works with 2D/3D wireframe or solid model edges
• Automatic placement on frame outline
• Quickly and easily add welds and define end conditions

Autodesk University

• More industry professionals than ever are discovering that an annual trip to AU pays dividends all year long.
• Plan now to join your peers at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas—one of the world's most celebrated venues for meetings and conventions - for the 14th annual AU.
• Nov. 28 – Dec. 1, 2006.

Inventor Q&A

As always, food and soft drinks will be provided for those who bring questions and experiences to share!

Come to discuss ideas, increase knowledge and get advice from Avatech’s experts and other Colorado Inventor users.

Please RSVP or get directions:
Call us at: 800-487-8729 or email us
Rob Johnston: rob.johnston@avatech.com
Jared Drennen: jared.drennen@avatech.com

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

Following in the footsteps of Google, Autodesk has recently created a website called Autodesk Labs to post utilities that they are testing the functionality of and that they think fill a need for their users. One such utility is called Vault Mirror.

Vault Mirror creates a read-only mirror of the files within a Vault. The mirror will contain the same files and directory structure as seen from Vault Explorer. It's similar to running the "Get Entire Folder" command on the root folder, but Vault Mirror is smart enough to pull down only the needed files. When used with Task Scheduler, Vault Mirror can be used to create remote copy of the latest versions of the Vault file tree.

As with anything at Autodesk Labs, this utility is not supported by Autodesk and should be seen as a "Use At Your Own Risk" utility.

Check it out at:
Autodesk Labs

A permenent link to Autodesk Labs is available on the Sidebar to the left, under Useful Links.

Colorado Inventor Users Group

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
6:30PM – 9:00PM

We are happy to be back in the Denver Avatech office (DTC) for this month’s Users Group. Please mark your calendars now to keep this night available to come participate in an open discussion of ideas and technology. We’ve prepared two short presentations before we open the floor to fellow Inventor Users to share their experiences from the field.

Explore Inventor 11’s iAssembly feature which allows you to document multiple configurations of your model within a single assembly file:

• Table driven assemblies
• Auto-capture mode
• Full BOM and DM support
• Full drawing support

Autodesk University

• More industry professionals than ever are discovering that an annual trip to AU pays dividends all year long.
• Plan now to join your peers at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas—one of the world's most celebrated venues for meetings and conventions—for the 14th annual AU
• November 28 – December 1, 2006.

Inventor Q&A

As always, food and soft drinks will be provided for those who bring questions and experiences to share!

Come to discuss ideas, increase knowledge and get advice from Avatech’s experts and other Colorado Inventor users.

Please RSVP or get directions:
Call us at: 800-487-8729 or email us
Rob Johnston: rob.johnston@avatech.com
Jared Drennen: jared.drennen@avatech.com

Colorado Inventor Users Group

Wednesday, July 19th, 2006
6:30PM – 9:00PM

Once again, the Users Group is very pleased to be hosted in Colorado Springs! Come join us at SuperFlow Technologies in Colorado Springs, CO for what is sure to be an enlightening discussion with fellow Colorado Springs Inventor Users, and enjoy two short presentations by Avatech’s resident experts:

Share and collaborate your design intent with Autodesk Design Review (formerly DWF Composer) and Extension R11

• See how you can minimize your design review and approval times using
• DWF and Autodesk’s electronic collaboration tools.

Autodesk Vault 5.0 and ProductStream 5.0

• Find out how other companies are streamlining their production process using these Autodesk data management solutions.
• And if you’re not using it yet, why not?

Inventor Q&A

As always, food and soft drinks will be provided for those who bring questions and experiences to share!

Come to discuss ideas, increase knowledge and get advice from Avatech’s experts and other Colorado Inventor users.

Please RSVP or get directions:
Call us at: 303.796.0204 or email us
Rob Johnston: rob.johnston@avatech.com
Jared Drennen: jared.drennen@avatech.com

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

Autodesk Inventor 11 DWF Extension

This week Autodesk announced the launch of Autodesk Inventor 11 DWF Extension, which delivers enhanced DWF publishing, security, and design review capabilities. These enhancements strengthen the collaboration component of Autodesk's Manufacturing solutions by giving you improved DWF file-sharing capabilities and security throughout the design review process.

This is only available to Subscription Customers, so if you are on Subscription, pick the link below to logon and download the Autodesk Inventor 11 DWF Extension.

Subscription Website

Colorado Inventor Users Group

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006
6:30PM – 9:00PM

For the first time ever, the Users Group is traveling to Boulder! Come join us at MKS Instruments in Boulder, CO for what is sure to be an enlightening discussion with fellow Colorado Inventor Users, and two short presentations by Avatech’s resident experts:

Autodesk Vault 5.0 and ProductStream 5.0 Overview

• Walk through the Autodesk data management system to find out how other companies are streamlining their production processes
• Find out why you’re not using it yet.

Share and collaborate your design intent with Autodesk Design Review (formerly DWF Composer)

• See how you can minimize your design review and approval times with DWF’s and Autodesk’s electronic collaboration tools.

Inventor Q&A

As always, food and soft drinks will be provided for those who bring questions and experiences to share!

Come to discuss ideas, increase knowledge and get advice from Avatech’s experts and other Colorado Inventor users.

Please RSVP or get directions:
Call us at: 303.796.0204 or email us
Rob Johnston: rob.johnston@avatech.com
Jared Drennen: jared.drennen@avatech.com

LATEST SERVICE PACKS:

Inventor Series or Professional 11 - Service Pack 1
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=6418565&linkID=4183232

Mechanical Desktop 2007 - No Service Pack - Series or Professional

Mechanical Desktop 2006 - Service Pack 2 - Series Only
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=7259965&linkID=4183232

Mechanical Desktop 2006 - Service Pack 2 - Professional Only
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=7259897&linkID=4183232

Colorado Inventor Users Group - Inventor-Q

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006
6:30PM – 9:00PM

It’s almost summer and you know what that means: BBQ! Please join us at the Avatech DTC offices for our first annual Inventor-Q. We’ve got two exciting presentations set-up including:

Making the most out of your Inventor Presentations:

• Use the Inventor Studio, exploded assemblies, and recorded AVI files to produce marketing materials and product manuals

Take your designs from “Model to Metal” using EdgeCAM technology for CNC Toolpath:

*Hosted by special guest MFGtech*

• Solid Machinist for Inventor
• EdgeCAM / Inventor Associativity
• Automatic Feature Recognition
• 2 thru 5 Axis Mill Functionality
• 2 thru 4 Axis, Sub Spindle & B Axis Turning
• Strategy Manager & PCI Macro Language

As always, food and soft drinks will be provided – but this time we’ll be grilling hotdogs and hamburgers!

Come to discuss ideas, increase knowledge and get advice from Avatech and MFGtech’s experts - AND other Colorado Inventor users.

Please RSVP or get directions:
Call us at: 303.796.0204 or email us
Rob Johnston: rob.johnston@avatech.com
Jared Drennen: jared.drennen@avatech.com

Colorado Inventor Users Group

Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
6:30PM – 9:00PM

If you’re a Colorado Springs Inventor User, your time has finally come! Join Avatech and your fellow Inventor Users at US Filter in Colorado Springs for this community event. Come to discuss ideas, increase knowledge and get advice from Avatech’s experts and other Southern Colorado Inventor users.

A special thanks goes out to SVI Trucks in Loveland who hosted a very well attended March meeting where we discussed the advanced capabilities of the new Inventor 11, and how Autodesk Vault is helping local companies control their design data.

Fresh from the Autodesk Americas Solutions Bootcamp, we will discuss the new features of Inventor 11, Autodesk’s Manufacturing vision, and as always, we will keep an open forum to include specific examples from our clients and partners involved with mechanical design in Colorado. We’d love to hear from you if you have additional issues you’d like us to address that you think others would benefit from hearing.

Food and Refreshments will be provided if you bring your mechanical design issues to discuss!

Please RSVP or get directions:
Call us at: 800-487-8729 or email us
Rob Johnston: rob.johnston@avat.com
Jared Drennen: jared.drennen@avat.com

Colorado Inventor Users Group

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
6:30PM – 9:00PM

For the first time this year, our User’s Group is traveling! Join Avatech and your fellow Inventor Users at SVI Trucks in Loveland for this roundtable event. Come to discuss ideas, increase knowledge and get advice from Avatech’s experts and other Northern Colorado Inventor users.

Thanks to our Denver Users, we had a very successful February meeting where we discussed the advanced capabilities of the Inventor 10, and an in-depth discussion of how the Autodesk Vault can be used to simplify your workflow and decrease tedious tasks and errors.

With this next meeting, we will finally be able to discuss the much anticipated Inventor 11 release, and the advancements that have been made to the technology since Inventor 10. As always, we will keep an open forum to include specific examples from our clients and partners involved with mechanical design in Colorado. We’d love to hear from you if you have additional issues you’d like us to address that you think others would benefit from hearing.

Once again, Food and Refreshments will be provided if you bring your mechanical design issues to discuss!

Please RSVP or get directions:
Call us at: 800-487-8729 or email us
Rob Johnston: rob.johnston@avat.com
Jared Drennen: jared.drennen@avat.com

Autodesk Manufacturing Community website

For those of you that have been looking for a good consolidator site as a primary "go to" site for Inventor, you are at it... just kidding!

Autodesk has announced a new site that gives you access to most of the tools you need that are out on the web in a single location. It is called the Autodesk Manufacturing Community and it has quick link access to many of the sites we link to, but it is managed by Autodesk. It does require free registration for access to personalized content.

Check it out at: http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com

A more permenant link is located under Useful Links to the left.

Let us know what you think!

Autodesk Beta Programs & Wish List Site

As we approach the release of Autodesk Inventor 11, some of you may be wondering how you can get a preview of what is coming in the next release. If you are on Subscription, you can use the Subscription Portal to sign-up for the Beta Program. But, what if you are not...

Whether you are on Subscription or not, I would highly recommend checking out the My Feedback Portal at Autodesk. In addition to being able to enlist in the Beta program, this site gives you another conduit to getting Autodesk to listen to the direction their products need to go. In your opinion, of course. Especially if the feature you need is not going to make it into the next release. :^)

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/

Check it out and let us know what you think.

BTW - There is a permenant link to the left you can use also, under Autodesk's "My Feedback".

LATEST SERVICE PACKS:

Inventor Series 10 - Service Pack 3a
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=6418565&linkID=4183232

Inventor Professional 10 - Service Pack 3a
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=6418567&linkID=4189376

Mechanical Desktop 2006 - Service Pack 1a - Series Only
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=5943625&linkID=4183232

Mechanical Desktop 2006 - Service Pack 1a - Professional Only
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=5943663&linkID=4189376

Fellow Inventor Users,

A lot of you have been wondering when our next Inventor Users’ group will be held. We have set a date for our next meeting which is coming up at our Denver office. The date is set for Wednesday, February 15th and the meeting will start promptly at 6:30pm. As before, dinner and refreshments will be served.

Please contact either Rob Johnston or Jared Drennen if you plan on attending so that we will know how much food to order. You can do so by calling us at 303-796-0204, ext. 108 or 111 or via email to Rob.Johnston@avatech.com or Jared.Drennen@avatech.com respectively.

Many of you have asked us about parking. We have plenty of parking in our building on the 2nd through 4th floors. Our gate code is 2204#. For the record, our office address is 8101 E. Prentice Ave., Suite 200 in the Denver Tech Center.

We hope to see you for a very fun and interesting discussion.

Eric's Take...

...on Inventor 10's "global" Bill of Material functionality.

For those of you who have long agonized over the limited capabilities and controls in Inventor assembly's Bill of Material and its lackluster relationships with presentations and drawing Parts Lists, Inventor 10 goes a long way toward fixing your issues.

We are all aware that the BOM in the assembly drives the Item Number that is displayed on the drawing when Ballooning components in a view of an assembly or a presentation. We also know that we can adjust the order (and thus the Item Number) by reordering the parts in the browser, but if we do that after creating a presentation or placing a parts list, we do not see those changes reflected in those views. This causes us to have to spend an unacceptable amount of time editing the parts list to override what the assembly is dicating to display the components with the Item Numbers we need them to show.

The Bill of Material in Inventor 10 addresses those issues and more, eliminating a significant amount of the workarounds we have come up with to control the assembly BOM and how it is displayed. To start with, we can choose which Properties, including Custom Properties, we want to display in the dialog and they stay there. We can then edit those Properties and have those changes pushed into the individual files, eliminating the need to use the Design Assistant or iProperties. We can even override Quantity to add spares or occurances we haven't modeled.

With the addition of the BOM Structure property, we can now correctly reflect how a component fits into the assembly, such as Normal (fabricated), Inseparable, Purchased, Phantom, or Reference. We can add components that have not or cannot be modeled, such as paint or lubricants, with Virtual Components.

Once our BOM is correctly represented in the assembly, we can Sort the BOM by any of the Properties discussed above. After sorting, we can Renumber the BOM to update those components with properly ordered numbering. For example, if we sort on BOM Structure, we can number all Normal components first and all Purchased components after.

Additionally, we can display both the Model and BOM structures in the same dialog. We can enable Parts Only mode to view the assembly without any of the Assembly Heirarchy. On the Export side, we can take the Structured or Parts Only assembly heirarchy out to a variety of data formats, including Excel and Access.

And with all these changes, the presentations will update based on changes made to the assembly BOM and the Parts List are more easily updated, while retaining their ability to display the BOM information as circumstances dictate.

Let's hear it, folks! Comments are welcome.

GREAT NEWS!!!

If you haven't seen the Press Release, Autodesk announced at Autodesk University, that it is now offering downloadable Inventor content from major manufacturers.

For the full press release, go to TenLinks: http://www.tenlinks.com/news/PR/AUTODESK/113005_portal.htm

For Accessing the Portal directly, go to Autodesk: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=2982576&linkID=4183232

You will have to create an account and login, but it is worth it. Also, make sure you check back often for more content.