This week's post is short and sweet, due to a little craziness during the week, but I still hope you all find it enjoyable and helpful!
The simplest things can drive you crazy, One I encountered in Autodesk Inventor was a leader that seemed to randomly disappear. It would just stop in one place, and start in another.
There seemed to be absolutely no good reason for it.
Why is this leader cut off?
It can be really puzzling. The first time I encountered it, it completely threw me off. It took a little bit of clicking and dragging before it finally dawned on me.
If you study the image above, you can actually see it, if you know what to look for.
The text box covered up the leader for the balloon. Because of that, the masking "erases" the leader. Dragging the leader out of the box, or dragging the box away from the leader, cause the leader to reappear.
And the truth of the fact was I had been a little careless and "whipped" the text box and made it far larger than it needed to be.
Here, I've shrunk the box to give the leader room.
It's so simple, yet at the same time, it can be so frustrating. But in the end, it's really simple to fix.
So what's my suggestion?
Keep your eyes open, of course! But also be aware that dragging a huge text box, because "it doesn't make that big a difference" can be asking for trouble.
Why? It can cause a huge difference! But just be aware, and know what to look for, and a big frustration can be reduced to just an "oops".
Earlier, this month, I relived. something many CAD users have experienced.
Frequent freezing and crashing! The bane of any CAD jockey!
When a CAD system crashes, this is what designing feels like.
Let's paint a picture!
A natural first reaction is to blame the CAD system, then perhaps the hardware. Next may come the universe and any crimes you may have committed in a past life that have resulted in such Karmic retribution.
But there was one thing that blew everyone of those theories out of the water. Well, except for the Karmic retribution theory.
Inventor hadn't been having this problems before. It had been rock solid in the days, even hours.
So I traced back to what I was doing when the freezing and crashing started. What had I done?
It turned out, I had imported a step file that represented a gearbox. A coworker confirmed that he'd experienced the same thing on his system with that same model.
Smoking gun located!
This was my culprit. You evil, evil model.
Confirming the Symptoms
Opening and inspecting the gearbox by itself, There were a few symptoms the model exhibited that indicated it as our sick file. One of them may not be a problem, but together, things start to click.
1) The size was larger than I expected. It was about 5MB.
2) The file took forever to perform even simple operations. Things like placing constraints in an assembly, or creating a sketch in a part took several minutes to calculate.
3) Then aforementioned locking up and crashing.
At this point, I was sure I had found my culprit. The Solution
I recalled a discussion with a colleague many years ago, I remembered a corrupt step file that had caused crashing in her system.
In that case, there was a weird, intersecting face that crashed the system. The solution there had been to locate it and cut it away.
I actually tried that, but after about an hour, I hadn't located the problem. I even tried loading the file into Fusion 360, and still ran into performance issues.
It was time for a different approach, which I should have tried in the first place, in retrospect.
I downloaded a new model! But instead of a STEP file, I tried an SAT file.
And that worked! The system was stable again. It didn't crash again after that. The file was less than 1.5 MB,
It feels good to be under way again!
The Conclusions
Bad or corrupt neutral files exist. They're unavoidable. Like a game of telephone, they can be caused by bad translation, bad imports, or sometimes, just bad luck. I couldn't tell you the cause of this models issue, and ultimately,, my superiors didn't care.
They wanted the project moving, they didn't care about which corner of the model had an issue.
I encourage you to be aware that "bad models exist!"
Some CAD models just fall in with the wrong crowd....
Moreover, when your program of choice begins crashing, remember that crashes aren't always the fault of the program. Whether your using Inventor, Solidworks, Solidedge, or "My-CAD-Program-is the-best-and-if-you-disagree-your-wrong" CAD (We all know who those guys are!), look at what you did just before the crashing started.
It's always possible that whatever that was, a model, a bad constraint, sketch, whatever, is your "bad seed"
I'm at the end of the four day Thanksgiving Holiday in the United States, but even on vacation I was busy trying new things.
It's what I do...(Shrug)
For a couple of years, now, I've been hearing the benefits of Fusion 360. It's portable! It doesn't require a high power workstation! It's easy to use, and so on.
My old colleague, Jorge Fernandez, even built a 30 minute presentation on the benefits of Fusion 360!
And don't think I'm a detractor! I see the benefits, I fully acknowledge them. But what I haven't truly had yet, was an opportunity to realize those benefits for myself.
Our black cat, Scar, however, remains completely unmoved.
Scar the Kitteh is unimpressed by cloud applications like Fusion 360.
However, he does see immediate ROI in a fresh can of wet food.
This weekend, during the long weekend here in the United States, I had my opportunity to realize my benefits on a level that had a more personal impact.
First, a brief description of my situation.
I was working on a small cover that had to be light enough to be removed, but strong enough to be walked on. A constant concern was excessive "oil canning" of the material, where it would "pop" in and out like an old oil can.
If your old enough to remember theses, you know the "Oil Can Effect".
But time at work is precious. Development time, like anywhere must be kept to a minimum. And while there is value in development, there isn't always the time for development.
Many of us have encountered that before.
I don't mind playing with an idea at home. I do some of my best thinking at home, in solitude, with a cup of coffee in my hand.
My challenge is, I don't have Inventor at home. My installation is on a desktop machine, and I don't have a laptop husky enough to run the software currently.
But what I do have, is Fusion 360.
So over the course of my weekend, I built up a quick concept model,and ran a quick FEA to see what the design would do.
The floor model. There's even a grate texture to simulate perforated metal
The FEA analysis. I'm looking to see how much the floor deflects.
Is it a perfect design, no, it's a concept!
But what Fusion 360 allowed me to do was "strike while the iron was hot" when my ideas and inspiration collided in my brain, instead of when I walked into the office after a long weekend. Now I also have a more fully realized concept that I can share with colleagues.
When I walk in the office after vacation, I can talk about ideas. with a little more confidence, and with a little more visual aid.
This was my use for Fusion, a 3D notepad, repository for ideas, test station, and presenting tool, all in one.
Does this affect you? Perhaps, perhaps not. I leave that for you, as an individual to decide.
But do I think it's worth consideration, for my part, I have no doubts.
Oh! And one last post script. Here's the file I created, embedded from A360. I know the design isn't perfect, there's more tweaks I can make. But remember, it's a concept!
Creating and modifying prints often comes down to details.
Many errors I've seen (cough, made myself), are smaller, easier to miss details. One example, is forgetting to update a text field.
This is not the print you want to miss a detail on.
Just ask this engineer. He's got a tough boss!
These are often notes that are hiding in a corner in the drawing. A part number in a note is a prime example.
But what if I told you there was a way to set up your template with a field that automatically read in the part number? So that every time you placed a part in the drawing, the drawing automatically read in that part number.
There is, and this is how.
Start out by typing text, just like you have countless times in an Inventor drawing. But choose the settings indicated in the image below:
Here are the steps the image describes.
1) Start the text tool. You won't get far without this step.
2) Start typing! You'll need to get to the point where you're ready to insert the text.
3) Set the Type to Properties - Model. This makes sure that your reading the property from the model placed on the drawing.
4) Property - This is the property being placed in the text field. In my case, I'm using part number, but there plenty of others to choose from.
5) Insert - This is "pulling the trigger". This places the text in to the text field.
Next, you'll see carets with the property insert into your text editor. Part number appears in my case.
After this is done, complete typing the note you need. Once you hit OK. The text will appear on the drawing and the property's value will be read in. In my case, it's the part number 2015-48-12.
Should the property change, the field will update, wherever it's called out on the drawing, including multiple locations, if you have them.
In my example, I'll change the part number from 2015-48-12 to 15-1595-ABLE. Which, let's face it, part numbers, among other fields, can change.
Once the field is updated, the drawing will read that property from the model and automatically update.
There are the steps to get a property linked into a text field. To get real bang for your buck, add required fields to your template, and get rid of some of those repetitive, and easy to forget tasks!
And look at what other fields you can add. There are plenty to choose from!
I did create a video for this one using Autodesk Screencast. No sound, I'm afraid. But life has been keeping me *just* busy enough to keep me out of my little editing room!
