It is Alive in the Lab

Shrinkwrap Add-in most popular in Belgian Inventor Poll

On the heels of my posting about what's available on the Autodesk Labs site for Autodesk Inventor users, my friend, Stefaan Boel, shared the results of a recent poll he conducted on the Belgian Inventor Wizard site. Stefaan posed the question:

What is important for you?

• Advanced Simulation
• Feature Recognition
• iMap
• Plastic Features
• Shrinkwrap
• 2D to 3D tool

The results were:

The Shrinkwrap Add-in for Inventor is the most popular. This is great feedback. Thanks for taking the poll and sharing the results.

What's on labs for the manufacturing industry?

A Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey emailed us:

Do you have a recent presentation of the latest stuff available on Labs for the manufacturing industry?

Inventor Product Manager, Sam Antos, provided the answer with a PowerPoint presentation. I have taken Sam's slides and fashioned them into a blog article.

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iMap for Inventor

• Skeletal iMap views to identify and modify complete assembly structure, including sub-assemblies
• Constraint iMap views to interactively investigate, create, and manipulate key relationships and constraints
• Navigate your Digital Prototypes!

// More iMap info

New User Interface

• Modern, ribbon-based UI for increased productivity, ease of use, and learnability
• Intuitive, task-based grouping of commands
• Customizable Quick Access Toolbar
• Document switching thumbnails
• Progressively detailed Tooltips

// More UI info

Advanced Simulation

• Key Plassotech capabilities that augment the Autodesk Digital Prototyping solution
• Part and Assemblies FEA and modal frequency analysis
• Parametric simulations and multi-criteria optimization
• Quickly set up simulation models that provide usable results

// More Advanced Simulation info

Shrinkwrap Add-in for Inventor

• Easily provide a single solid part as a substitute for a complex assembly
• IP protection for suppliers by quickly removing all internal components from an assembly
• Substantially less memory usage compared to the fully detailed assembly

// More Shrinkwrap info

Inventor Plastic Features

• Dedicated, purpose-built Inventor environment for designing complex plastic parts
• Automated creation of common technical plastic features
• Innovative Progressive Shelling technology for thin-walled plastic parts

// More Plastic Features info

ShareNow Add-in for Inventor

• One click publishing from Inventor to easily share designs with non-Inventor users
• Browser-based viewing without additional software
• Real-time and/or at-your-convenience collaboration including markup

// More ShareNow info

Also available on Autodesk Labs

• Enhanced JT Translator
• AliasStudio Direct Reader
• Feature Recognition
• 2D to 3D Tool
• Sustainable Materials Assistant
• English and French Inventor LT 2009



• XVL Translator (for Inventor 2008)
• Native Translators (for Inventor 2008)
• Frame Generator Customization (for Inventor 2008)

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Thanks Sam!

Enumerating the benefits of modeling software technologies for the manufacturing industry is alive in the lab.

Shrinkwrap Add-in for Inventor Now Available

There's a new tool in town. It's the Shrinkwrap Add-in for Autodesk Inventor. Inventor Product Manager, Pete Lord, provided this to me, and I was happy to add it to the Autodesk Labs site:

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_shrinkwrap

The add-in lets you fill holes and remove internals to create a simpler shell of your design. Check it out. This video is the place to start:

• YouTube
• non-YouTube

Please let us know what you think via email to labs.iv.shrinkwrap@autodesk.com. We would appreciate the feedback.

Getting feedback on add-ins to see if these concepts should ever become full-fledged features is alive in the lab.