Inventor Queries

[Sirius2]

Hi,

Ive been batting around with Inventor on and off for a while now. I accept that its not the ideal solution for some tasks we do (progressive stamping die design), but I was wondering if it was possible in the new relesses to :

a) draw a parabolic curve yet.

b) can you input a 3d path via typing co-ordinates or a spreadsheet?

No Autodesk products seem to allow you to draw parabolic curves, this is of great disadvantage if you are working on jobs for satellite dishes.

I know in MDT you can easily construct a 'pipe path' by drawing a polyline 'point to point' in 3d space via typing 3d co-ordinates - can Inventor do this yet?. We do exhaust pipe work, so its not cable and routing software gear we need. We get a paper drwing of bend convergence points in x-y-z co-ordinates and a size of a general bend radii for the whole exhaust system. The 3d sketch seems longwinded, having to project points and create offset workplanes and dimensions to projected points etc etc.


Cheers


Sirius2

 

[SeanDotson]

a) You can cut a cone with a plane and project the intersection. This is a true parabola.

b) There are a few addon macros that will do this.

c) You can do a similar thing in IV. Use gronded workpoints and then connect them all with a 3d sketch.

Sean Dotson, PE
Inventor Tutorials & More

http://www.sdotson.com

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