Inventor 11 Announced, Integrated into End-to-End Solution

By DE Editors

Autodesk, Inc.(San Rafael, CA) announced yesterday that Inventor 11 was a key in itssolution for the manufacturing industry. The mechanical design softwareprogram is available as part of Autodesk Inventor Series or AutodeskInventor Professional and strives to be the best choice for AutoCADsoftware users moving from 2D to 3D.

With the aim of simplifying the design-to-manufacturing process,Autodesk says that it is taking an approach to product lifecyclemanagement (PLM)that steers users to cut design time and reduce errors for moreefficient new product development. By simplifying the process, whichconsists of conceptual and mechanical design, engineering, productlifecycle management, and sourcing and supplier collaboration, Autodeskis hoping its users will reap a faster return on investment. It hopesto do this by providing tools to enable industrial designers tocapture, communicate, and realize their ideas; enable sales teams tocustomize product orders engineered specifically to customerrequirements; enable engineers to work in collaborative designenvironments with integrated 2D, 3D, mechanical, and electricaldisciplines; help manage work in process data, automatebill-of-materials (BOM) and release management workflows, and providecross-development visibility to design data; and enable manufacturersto share current, accurate data with partners, suppliers, andcustomers.

A major key, of course, are the latest versions of Autodesk InventorSeries and Autodesk Inventor Professional. New features andenhancements include dynamic simulation, large assembly management, newassembly configurations, and advanced shape description. For example,dynamic simulation enables designers to determine how effectively amachine performs under real world conditions. Autodesk says thisfeature takes virtual prototypes to a new level, helping designerspredict dynamic performance and peak stress without physicalprototypes. Another is the new assembly configuration capability fordesigning and documenting families of related products in a singleassembly file.  Configurations simplify design with tools fordefining product variations from a master model.

Autodesk Inventor software enables customers to create designs based onthe functional requirements of a product before committing to complexmodel geometry with functional design. You start with a symbolicrepresentation of a product (similar to working in AutoCAD) and enterthe requirements in order to test, simulate, and validate the designinstead of the geometric dimensions of its parts.  It makesdeveloping virtual prototypes of designs easier, enables engineeringteams to communicate design intent, validate the design, and get itinto production faster. 

To learn more, click here. Desktop Engineering will publish a review of Inventor 11 in its May 2006 issue.

Sources: Press materials, extensive correspondence, and meetings with the company.