Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Hi learned Colleagues,

I have never modelled hydraulic hoses and I was wondering if anyone had any tips.

In particular I’d like to model hydraulic hoses that are flexible and can change with different position representations.

Is it possible?

[#2]

I do 3D hoses all the time.  There is a LOT of info buried in what I'm about to tell you and took a LOT of experimentation to define the process.

3D hoses require 2 sketches, a 2D sketch for the hose profile and a 3D sketch for the hose run.  You can define the run in the context of the assembly by including geometry in the 3D sketch.

Positional representations won't work for different runs of the same hose because they require a dimensional override.  LODs work better with respect to your drawing parts list.

Tube and Pipe should work for you too, but might require some work with Content Center first.  There was also some functionality issues that made the module difficult to use, at least for my application.

Post back if you get stuck.

[#3]

It's much easier to use the Flexible Hose within the Pipe & Tube module. You may find it easier to copy an existing hose style and edit it to fit your own hose type/diameter than creating a new flexible hose style from scratch.

As fore mentioned, there is a lot of reading material supplied (PDF) with Inventor.

[#4]

Thanks Steve and Blair for your response.

Unfortunately I don't have the pipe and tube add-on so it looks like I'm going to have to give Steve's solution a go.

Is the pipe and tube add-on worth having? I might enquire with our reseller as to how much it costs and assess value for money.

[#5]

We do a lot with flexible hose for all our air/control lines as well as hydraulic lines. I can probably do over 20 flexible lines in the Pipe/Tube module compared to a single line using the 3D sketch tool. Try searching on YouTube for inventor AVI's you should be able to watch something about the Tube/Pipe module

[#6]

I just contacted our reseller to get a quotation on the module and I was told I had to upgrade to either professional or ultimate for around 6-7k AUD. I couldn't justify that as I don't do that many flexible hoses.

Which country are you from Blair?

[#7]

Canada:

53d57m18s North - 122d45m54s West to be exact

Blair

and you?

[#8]

This is a old hydraulic run for a customer to retro his equipment. A add-hoc system to get him by. Wouldn't want to do this without the Tube-Pipe module.

[#9]

That image of the hoses looks awsome. I'd love to get that type of detail into my models.

I'm in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia. Our company designs and constructs mining equipment.

[#10]

That only took about 5 minutes to do it in the Tube/Pipe module. It even placed the fittings, the minimum radius comes from the T&P Styles library for each size of hose.