Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Hi I am a highschool student and last year I started a Gothic style throne chair in a woodworking class. I first drew it up in Autodesk Inventor and then created job plan sheets for each individual part. This semester I plan to finish the throne. I want to incorporate gothic themed carvings (designed by me) into the throne. Our school owns a 3D Router so my plan was to create the 3D carvings and have the router cut them into parts of my throne. My question is what software I should use to create the carvings. Should I use Inventor?

Thanks,

-Roy

[#2]

If you have already modeled everthing in Inventor, all the pieces for the assembly, the next logical step would be to use the IPT's and import them into the CAM software for the NC 3D router.

[#3]

You will want solid geometry for your CAM programming. This can be done in Inventor - see this film:

http://youtu.be/awXh8Svs9nE

You could use Fusion, 123D or AutoCAD - but you wouldn't maintain the parametric relationship with your inventor IPTs.

[#4]

Hi 13088,

As a student I think you will learn a great deal in terms of technique by modeling some of the carvings in Inventor. But if you were to pursue this professionally or even as a serious hobby, you would want to be aware of other software that is dedicated to the CNC woodcarving industry, such as these examples:

http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/vcp/vcp_index.htm

http://www.carve3d.com/index.asp?pageID=6

http://www.vectorart3d.com/

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[#5]

Thanks a lot for all of your replys. The software the router uses is Cut3D which I believe is a product from Vectric. I will look more into this.