Inventor: the Solid Modeling Process

[Thar]

 

This will feel like the most rushed blog ever, but since I have finally gotten Inventor to download again (after several refreshes that have prompted a new installation each time, usually failing due to some elements not able to download for whatever reason), I figured since some of y'all are into the models I make, I figured I'd make some form of demonstration in the process of making these models.

 

For those who are looking at this and thinking "what the heck I don't even":

 

Adobe Inventor is a solid modeling program made for engineers. By "made for engineers", it's designed primarily for the purpose of modeling products that do not require the sophisticated "molding" technique often used by game designers or whatever. Inventor utilizes the use of modeling through heavily constrained and dimensioned 2D sketches, and both will be explained in the next post.

 

This will be a rather short introductory post, as there is not much to explain right off the bat. The specifics for this blog will be presented during the process of each model.

 

Hope y'all are interested.

 

[spoiler=Blog Posts][url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326988-inventor-the-solid-modeling-process/?p=6539416]#1: Polearm Morningstar[/url]

[url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326988-inventor-the-solid-modeling-process/?p=6539423]#2: Sword of War and Peace[/url]

[url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326988-inventor-the-solid-modeling-process/?p=6540497]#3: Keyblade[/url]

[url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326988-inventor-the-solid-modeling-process/?p=6540685]#4: Heimerdinger's Apex Turret[/url]

[url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326988-inventor-the-solid-modeling-process/?p=6549019]#5: 3D Printing - Crochet Hook[/url][/spoiler]

[Thar]

 

(Disclaimer: the following screenshots have been shrunk to where small text is barely visible. If you want an image to be presented in a visible manner, feel free to request it.)

 

Alright, so this is my first blog post. Not sure how to feel, but let’s get right to the chase.

 

This blog will vaguely, but purposefully, demonstrate the process of solid modeling with Inventor, a program designed for engineers to solid model whatever product they’re told to try and demonstrate yada yada yada. Basically, whatever product a company wants to design, Inventor, in addition to a couple other programs, gives said engineer the technology he/she requires to create the most accurate visual representation of said product possible, and considering it’s engineering, proportions are meant to be one to one. In other words, they’re meant to be literally exact in terms of what it’s supposed to look like.

 

So let’s take a look at what we’re gonna design today:

 

 

This here is a polearm morningstar. This generic name alone splits into two categories:

 

1. A morningstar is essentially a spiky cannonball attached at the end of a club.

2. A polearm is any kind of weapon that is more pole than weapon in terms of length. The default length for a polearm for it to be considered as such is 60 inches. The distinguishing factor of a polearm is usually the bulky end of the pole opposite of where the wielder is grabbing onto. The render above should give a good enough example of what I’m trying to explain to a group of dummies.

We’ll call this the “Stone Crusher”, so named by the weapon wielded by Xu Zhu from Dynasty Warriors 4. Considering it’s just your average medieval weapon for a strong-ass warrior, naming it isn’t really that big of a deal, cause let’s face it: if you were to encounter someone who was swinging this sonuvabitch around with little effort, you’d reconsider signing up for this shit.

 

So without further ado, we’ll get right down to business. Obviously, we’ll need to start a new part. This will take you to the interface, which you’ll know once you get there. A “New Sketch” will be prompted, and the following geometry will be drafted:

 

 

Confused? If not, then you’re way ahead of this blog, therefore you have no need to continue. If not, then you should look back at the notes you took in geometry class. Wait… you didn’t take notes? No matter. This should be easy to explain:

 

The linear dimensions, or straight lines with numbers between them, represent the distance between two points along an orthographic (perfectly horizontal/vertical) line. The circular dimensions are the diameters, which are the distances between two opposite points in a circle (there is only one point in a circle that represents the longest possible distance relative to a particular point along the same curve.) The given dimensions show what should be what’s necessary. If you’re using the same program, the command requires one click at least and two clicks at most to show a dimension.

 

I’m getting too cocky with my experience here, so let’s move on. Once the sketch above is finished, the next step is to “Revolve” it. By revolving a sketch, you’re converting a 2D sketch into a 3D model by rotating it’s elements infinitely around an axis.

 

If the explanation confuses you, here’s a visual representation of what I mean:

 

 

Make sense? I wondered whether even explaining it was even necessary, but writing it out in word form is fun. Anyway, with the first sketch revolved, this is what is visually shown in the program. You’ll notice how pretty much everything is included: the massive end weapon, the grips, and the end piece. In the construction process, these elements require separate parts, but for modeling, efficiency is crucial, so including every possible element in the weapon on the first 3D representation is the best way to go.

 

However, while this revolve was efficient, certain elements require a certain execution to pull off further procedures. This next part is a perfect example:

 

 

The above sketch is what will be revolved into the top spike of the Stone Crusher. Given the default definition of a morningstar, they consist of several spikes laid out in a respectfully equal distribution amongst the spherical cannonball. In Inventor, in order to assure quality placement of this distribution, everything will be dealt with in the following two steps:

 

 

The above image is the prerendered placement of a “circular array”, which is a repeated copy/paste within a designated distance/angle (relative to a point which, in this image, is the center point of the circular element that's represented as a sphere) between each repeated element. Using this command, a certain number of spikes will be placed divided amongst a given angle.

 

 

Now that that array is executed, it’s time to repeat the process, this time with the selected array in its entirety. A designated angle is not required here, as any overlapping element will be unnoticeable.given the same number of elements used in the previous circular array.

 

 

We’re almost there. The above image is what the product looks like with materials added to each surface to give it the best visual representation before the final render.

 

This process is pretty simple: In the top-most portion of the screenshot, there will be a circle that represents a rainbow. Click it, and you’ll be directed to a window full of a bunch of different materials that you can designate to whatever surfaces you like.

 

For the above image, the gold-looking surfaces are “Gold Foil.” The cone just above the rounded element at the bottom is “Copper - Polished.” The rod is “Iron Gray.” The grips are "Creased - Black Leather." The cannonball with the spikes on it is “Bronze - Patina.” The spikes are “Chrome - Polished.” All of these materials can be easily found by scrolling through them. If that proves to be too hard for you, there’s a search bar.

 

After all of that is done, now it is time to render it. On the second-to-top row, there should be an “Environments” tab. There you will find “Inventor Studio.” Click “Render Image” to have a floating window. Set the lighting (you’ll have to scroll through each of them to find the one most suitable), set the resolution, then click “Render Image” and you’ll be presented with something similar to the following:

 

 

Here is your final presentation, a higher-quality image that gives a more professional, elegant visual of the product. This is the image you present at the start of whatever presentation you plan to give to said company that you want to fund for design. In addition, you must also provide specifications, including blueprints for each separate part for the construction process as well as the budget for whatever materials you want bought for it.

 

I hope this gives you a good demonstration of the modeling process in Inventor. This will not be as active as other blogs, but that all depends on what I’ll be demonstrating. On that note, I’m open to all suggestions for whatever you want me to demonstrate in this blog. I hope y’all found this interesting.

 

Here's a recorded session of this project:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J3fm_hrmh8

 

Bye!

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Oh my gosh this is wonderful. Okay so I kinda understand what's going on. And since I'm a derp with no knowledge on this stuff that's really impressive.

I really like how you're presenting this and it's really cool. I always wondered how it was done and it's really fun seeing it. ^^

[Thar]

Oh my gosh this is wonderful. Okay so I kinda understand what's going on. And since I'm a derp with no knowledge on this stuff that's really impressive.

I really like how you're presenting this and it's really cool. I always wondered how it was done and it's really fun seeing it. ^^

 

I had fun making it, although the process itself is pretty tedious as far as laying it out this way. Glad you like it, though. ^^

 

EDIT:

 

 

(Disclaimer: The following images have been shrunk to where small text is barely visible. If you want something elaborated, ask me.)

 

This next project will be a request from the wonderful Daemon. It's a special project because not only is it complex, but I'll be "reverse engineering" it, which means I'll be trying to recreate it. Only thing about this is that it's only based off an image, while traditional reverse engineering depicts of you having the part(s) literally in front of you, and you can just measure them to get an exact procedure. Considering that, this project will have a bunch of wiggle room for error and will not look exactly like what's on the image.

 

So for those who are wondering what it is I'm gonna make, here it is:

 

 

This was supposed to be my first project, but the procedure was overwhelming and I decided to drop it for something simple to start off with. However, as the request came through, I went through some alternative ways to approach it, and after some playing around, I found a way to pull it off with a decent result at best, and decent is better than not.

 

So with the above image being the true source, I needed something higher in quality to work with, so I searched for an image of just the artwork. I then threw the image into GIMP, rotated it so that it was horizontal, and cropped out any unneeded image. The result is this:

 

 

After saving the above image, I open Inventor, start a new part, and I make a new sketch. While in Sketch mode, I import the image as such:

 

 

Since the image is a one-to-one reference, I then scale the image appropriately. To do this, I generally use the grip on the hilt. A personal rule of thumb for swords like this is that the grip, measured from end to end, is 4 inches. Drawing a horizontal line across the grip in the image, I dimension the line and come up with a rough ratio to adjust the size accordingly.

 

After that's done, I move on to the first part of the actual model: the grip. This is the second most simple part of the model, as it's merely a rectangle with a barely-noticeable spline to match the contour of the outside. I make this sketch:

 

 

After that, I revolve it:

 

 

With that out of the way, time to move on to the most difficult part of the sword right away. This is the hilt, which ended up being more tedious than I anticipated. At first, I tried tracing the edges and extruding it linearly, but the result was not at all convenient or slick. After some pondering, I went with this method:

 

 

This is what I like to call a "cage." A cage is a series of 2D sketches arranged in a way that roughly lays a path for it to be lofted. As for what a "loft" is, the following step shows it well enough:

 

 

Using each sketch in the cage, I extruded each of them to the next as the loft gradually phases the shape from one 2D boundary to the other, converting the path into a 3D element. As more sketches are added to the loft path, the 3D element automatically curves to have it appear as sleek as possible without making it appear too polygonal. The result is the main part of the hilt.

 

 

The same process is used to make a miniature version as shown in the reference image. This will make the model look more relatively realistic to the image.

 

 

The above image is the cage laid out for the bottom of the hilt. The same process is used, but the difference between this one and the one in the reference image is that the latter is perfectly round. In order to achieve this, a "rail" is used to guide the loft along a more specified path, but since they didn't seem to work (with the hilt as well), this is good enough.

 

 

I lofted the cage for the bottom. Now onto the blades:

 

 

This was the easiest part of the model. All I did was offset a plane perpendicular to the direction of the sword a certain distance to where the surfaces in blue were sketched. With those drawn, I extruded them to where they go no further than where the hilt begins.

 

 

As you could see, the blades had no point. This was implemented with another loft. Using another offset plane from the top surfaces, I sketched a single point and left it at that. I then sketched a few rails where the loft between the top surface of the blade and the point curve nicely to look like a traditional sword blade. I repeated the procedure with the other blade in the opposite direction, and the gray model was finished.

 

After applying materials (copper and brass for the blades, tinted copper for the hilt, and black carbon for the grip), I rendered the model to get this final result:

 

 

And there you have it! Again, not the most accurate model, but given the circumstances, it's as good as it's gonna get. What would've been neat is if Inventor had an "effects" option to make the orange blade combust and the yellow blade glow.

 

Anyway, thanks, Dae, for the request. This was a fun build and I hope y'all found it interesting... and made sense of it.

 

Comments, suggestions, and requests are always welcome!

[.Rai]

Super cool. Really like the sword. Cool request from Dae. Very, very cool.

I'd love to see a video or something of one project.

[Thar]

Super cool. Really like the sword. Cool request from Dae. Very, very cool.

I'd love to see a video or something of one project.

 

I was actually considering that. In fact, I have footage of the first one. I'll have to mute it and put some music over it, though, cause you can hear Yowapeda playing in the background and me cussing the program out. kek

 

EDIT:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J3fm_hrmh8&list=UUKMIoQiLr5cc6hsfKDoPFyA

[Thar]

 

Evening, plebs!

 

I feel like I should be rationing these posts more sparsely, as in like once a week or something, but considering the lack of stuff to do and my liking for this, once a day is what I've managed to do. Of course, some projects may take several days, but since no one will make any suggestions, I'm gonna choose my own for this one.

 

Today I'll be doing a Keyblade. This is a pretty easy piece, which is good for my daily routine so far.

 

The image below was originally diagonal, so I used GIMP to rotate it horizontally and crop it in.

 

 

After that, I open GIMP, new part, new sketch yada yada yada import image, scale, etc. Using my rule of thumb for scaling swords, I scaled this to be 40 inches long, which seems reasonable given its size in the game (which I should probably play one of these days.)

 

 

In this post, I'm gonna start cropping them so that only important bits are shown. Having the entire interface being there seems very unnecessary and often times makes the area of interest barely visible. Below is the outline of the shaft roughly traced from the image using lines for the straight areas and splines for the curved. For cylindrical parts, only half of the shown part is needed to be traced, because when it's revolved, it'll be horizontally symmetrical all around.

 

 

So now we'll revolve it:

 

 

Next I trace the outline of the hilt. Unlike the Sword of War and Peace, this only requires one linear extrusion with the given outline:

 

 

Next we do the same thing for the blade on the other end:

 

 

For one last detail to make it look more like the image, I made two small circles and made an "Extrude Cut", which is essentially the same as an extrusion only instead of ADDING material, we're REMOVING it instead. The cut is made, and some edges were rounded. 

 

 

The final render will look like this. The hilt is made of brass, the handle is black carbon, and the shaft and blade is polished chrome.

 

 

Again, pretty simple. One thing I didn't include is the chain at the bottom of the hilt. It's doable, but not necessary.

 

This was a pretty short post, but hopefully y'all enjoyed it all the same. Be sure to comment and request more stuff!

 

Bye!

[Tentacruel]

Neato. You're really good at this.  I especially like the Keyblade. 

 

 Question, what would the practical applications be for this?  More specifically, how would this differ from, say, Maya or Blender?  I'm just curious. 

[Thar]

 Question, what would the practical applications be for this?  More specifically, how would this differ from, say, Maya or Blender?  I'm just curious. 

 

I think the main thing that differentiates Inventor from Blender is its emphasis on constraints. While a sketch is fully constrained, all lines, curves, and points are fully defined relative to the origin and it is no longer "free-floating." While learning Inventor, my instructor always stressed the use of constraints. His way of knowing that a sketch was fully constrained was that each line/curve was purple instead of green. 

 

Hopefully that makes sense. What I'm trying to get at is that Inventor is designed primarily for engineers, who usually want to make things as precise as possible.

[Thar]

 

Hello once again! I thought I'd compensate for the short post yesterday with something more complex.

 

Today I'll be doing Heimerdinger's "Apex Turret" from League of Legends, suggested by Welche via Skype. I had to do some digging to find a good enough reference image, and this one seemed to be the best:

 

 

Due to the angle of the shot, I cannot use the image as a direct tracing background. Instead, I'll be modeling it by eye. Considering Heimerdinger's pretty much a dwarf as far as size, and the turret is about three-fourths his height, I scaled it as such.

 

Right off the bat, I started by making a sketch and drawing out half of the circular base:

 

 

Then revolved it:

 

 

After that, I started offsetting plans for which I made a cage to be lifted to make the main body. However, unlike the last loft I made which was smooth and curvy, I had to do each loft separately to give it the polygonal shape.

 

 

After the lofts, I made a perpendicular sketch of half the antennae (I think that's what this is.)

 

 

Then revolved it:

 

 

Onto the cannon. This was a peculiar part of the turret, since it required an oval shape with a couple of slots:

 

 

Revolve that:

 

 

Next is the top guard for the cannon. Considering the cannon comes out from a thinner tube, it falls prone to breakage from falling objects. This guard will ensure that it lasts as long as possible.

 

This guard requires 2 sketches to make the cage, with the end sketch being slightly angled.

 

 

Now for the motors. These are what power the machine. The same process for every revolved feature is used here:

 

 

Once revolved, I offset an angled plane to sketch a rounded rectangle that will be indented into the feature to start making the motor's "window." This is so the user can check to see if the motor is working properly and doesn't have to take everything apart to know what's wrong with it.

 

 

Another indent is made for the opening for which glass shall be placed over.

 

 

Now let's do something new! This here is a guide curve for a Sweep. A sweep is an extrusion that is guided by a guide curve. The image after the one below shows this:

 

 

Pretty much sums it up. This will be one of the handlebars for the turret in case it needs to be moved.

 

 

For the grips, a simple rectangle is drawn and revolved to indicate that it is indeed the grip.

 

 

The gears will just be a simple extrusion, but the sketch is where they can be tricky. In order for the teeth to be perfectly divided, a circular array is needed. As for the teeth, relative distance and angles of the source tooth must be symmetrical.

 

 

Once the motor, handlebar, grip, and gear have been done, they will be mirrored to the other side.

 

Last but not least, the legs. These took up about a third of the project, as there are so many actions simply for one leg. They consist of simple shapes, extrusions, and revolves, but the constraints are a pain to get what you want:

 

 

A cut is made in the second extrusion to fit the wheel that pivots the foot.

 

 

The feet are then extruded between where the pivot wheel reaches on both sides. In the extrusion menu, an option called "Between" can be used to do this.

 

 

Once the whole leg is done, time to array it three times around the base:

 

 

And for the cherry on top (I guess that makes sense), here we have the final render. Materials are anodized iron, polished chrome, and red paint.

 

 

Didn't think I'd get this done today, but yeah. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Comments and requests are appreciated!

[Thar]

bump

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Oh wow okay then this looks extra complicated to do. But it is truly really interesting seeing the process like this. ^^ I enjoyed seeing it, keep it up. :D

[Cierfrost]

 

After applying materials (copper and brass for the blades, tinted copper for the hilt, and black carbon for the grip), I rendered the model to get this final result:

 

 

And there you have it! Again, not the most accurate model, but given the circumstances, it's as good as it's gonna get. What would've been neat is if Inventor had an "effects" option to make the orange blade combust and the yellow blade glow.

 

Anyway, thanks, Dae, for the request. This was a fun build and I hope y'all found it interesting... and made sense of it.

 

Comments, suggestions, and requests are always welcome!

 

To be fair, almost all special effects including shaders and stuff are all added post-modeling. 

[Thar]

To be fair, almost all special effects including shaders and stuff are all added post-modeling.

This is true, and the built-in rendering tool is pretty mediocre.

[Thar]

 

It's been a while, but I was waiting for the main star of this new chapter. About a week ago, I ordered a 3D printer, just because I couldn't f***ing resist. To my surprise, the thing arrived literally a week earlier than expected, so my attempts at keeping it secret from my parents was a missile through a cornhole. Unfortunately, the size of it made this secret too obvious to keep out of sight, so I just went up and told them. Of course, the lecture came about my financial future, but it's nothing I haven't heard before, so I was just like "whatever."

 

Anyway, Here it is:

 

 

Beautiful, isn't it? It sounds beautiful too, and by beautiful I mean it sounds like a robot who can't decide which way to go. In other words, I can't sleep through it like other, much more quiet printers like the Ultimaker v2, which I heard was practically silent, but considering it's literally 5x more expensive, something's gotta give.

 

So for this post, I'll give a brief demonstration on the process of 3D printing. For this example, I took into consideration what one of my co-workers wanted: a crochet hook, which is some kind of knitting technique. On that note, all I needed to do was do a Google search, and I immediately found this:

 

 

This is an image of the .STL file (basically a universal model file meant for programming... and 3D printing) of the crochet hook I wanna print. Now all I gotta do is download the file on the page. With this, all I have to do is go to the slicing program included in the printer package.

 

What's slicing? Well, first I need to explain how 3D printing really works. The short explanation is that a string of plastic is melted, squirted, and laid out in shapes for which are programmed into the printer. This process is repeated while rising bit by bit in the form of layers (the default layer thickness is 100 microns, or .1 millimeters.) This process keeps going until the print is completed, and out comes an object. From an engineering stand-point, this machine is the dawn of the future, despite its purpose of only making prototypes. Either way, it's pretty f***ing cool.

 

As for slicing, a slicing program separates each layer in the model into programmable 2D shapes for which the printer will print on that layer. I'd post a screenshot of it, but since I'm currently in the process of a print (it's been going at it for about 8 and a half hours so far), I'll have to wait until later to update the post. It's not too exciting, but for visual context, I'll do it anyway.

 

EDIT:

 

So the cube that's outlined is where it will end up on the platform in the printer.

 

So now we begin the print. Here's a time-lapse of how it looks:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXDCgnsTpV8

EDIT: Higher-quality video uploaded.

 

So after the print's done, the machine needs to cool down. All that aside, here's how the finished print looks:

 

 

In case you're wondering, that extra material on the sides are called "supports." The purpose of supports are for the sake of overhangs in the print. The thing about overhangs is that while it's printing, the plastic is in a molten state, so gravity pulls it down and makes it appear droopy. It usually cools down quickly enough to not fall completely, but for a quality print, it's for the best.

 

So after we remove the supports (which is usually very easy since it's purposefully not dense for that very reason), here's how it turned out:

 

 

I'm honestly surprised at how well it turned out. Either way, as an early birthday present for my co-worker, she said it was the best thing ever. As modest as I am, this project was one of the best ones to start off my experience with a 3D printer. While spending $400 was one of few big purchases that I owe a lot for, it's probably one of the best purchases I've ever made.

 

So that's it. Questions, comments, and requests are always welcome!

 

Bye!

[.Rai]

dammnnn that $400 impulse purchase

Very, very cool though. Feasibly how large an object can you print with it? I've dabbled with 3D printers before, nothing major and certainly nothing large. And, I figure what else do you plan to even print?

[Thar]

dammnnn that $400 impulse purchase

Very, very cool though. Feasibly how large an object can you print with it? I've dabbled with 3D printers before, nothing major and certainly nothing large. And, I figure what else do you plan to even print?

 

Yeah, but it will be worth it.

 

The printer I have can print 7.8" x 7.8" x 7.8", which is probably the largest print span for what I paid for.

 

As for what I'm gonna print, I'm not sure. I'm open to irl suggestions from work/school, and I'll be using it to test any ideas or inventions I may think up.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Okay the printer looks all sci-fi and really cool. I like it.

And it's really neat seeing something made from this, awesome.

What exactly....are these things made out of?

[Thar]

Okay the printer looks all sci-fi and really cool. I like it.

And it's really neat seeing something made from this, awesome.

What exactly....are these things made out of?

 

I printed with ABS plastic, which is what came with the printer. Other materials can be used like PLA (a biodegradable plastic consisting of corn starch), Nylon, metal, and even wood. The metal prints usually require a special kind of printer. The one I'm using squirts out a string of plastic through a thin nozzle. Other printers can print by laying out thin layers of a material in a resin (or powder) form and melt it with lasers.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

I'm going to be perfectly honest this device sounds like magic and that's so cool.

Plastic. Wood. Like wow this is really amazing. ^^

[Thar]

Yeah, it blew my mind when I saw that you could print wood. Even the guy I saw explain it said "thanks to science." Even HE didn't know how it worked.

[Smear]

So wait, given the right model and dimensions and whatnot for printing, you could technically print something like a phone case right?

Because if you did that then painted it into some badass design that would be cool as hell.

[Thar]

So wait, given the right model and dimensions and whatnot for printing, you could technically print something like a phone case right?
Because if you did that then painted it into some badass design that would be cool as hell.

Yes you can. In fact, you don't even need to model it yourself. There are many models out there that you can download, and a wide variety of them too.

[Smear]

Yes you can. In fact, you don't even need to model it yourself. There are many models out there that you can download, and a wide variety of them too.

 

thats soooo coool buy me 10

[Kazooie]

I really, really want one of these 3D printers. They're so cool, and like Cowcow said they're just like magic. ;-;

 

I can't wait to see what else you do with it honestly!