Need to get groovy ...

[Anonymous]

I made an API-spec 10K cross, 7 1/16" x 2 1/16".  I got everything done including the passages and boltholes for the studs.  But I need to cut grooves for the BX ring gaskets.  It is basically a block of steel with two different size holes through the center with bolt circles (and ring gasket groove) at each opening.  I am still a bit of a beginner and I am stumped on this one problem.  If it were AutoCAD I would have cranked out the solid model in about 15 minutes (or less if in a hurry) but I want to learn Inventor.

Thanks,

John Petty

Inventor 2013, Windows 7

[Anonymous]

Any chance you could post a screen shot or the actual part in its current state?

Regards,

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

  If it were AutoCAD I would have cranked out the solid model in about 15 minutes (or less if in a hurry) but I want to learn Inventor.

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You might also take 15 minutes to crank out the AutoCAD model and then someone will show you how to do it in 7.5 minutes in Inventor.  attach your files here

[graemev]

Something like this?

Use the End of Part marker to scroll through the order of construction.  Basically, the groove is made by drawing the groove profile on a plane perpendicular to the face through the bore axis, then performing a revolve cut.

[mcgyvr]

If only I knew what an API 10k cross was 

[blair]

That makes two of us

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That makes two of us

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I didn't have time to search - and didn't want to look uneducated - so I asked for example (without admitting I have no idea what the topic is about).

[Anonymous]

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@mcgyvr wrote:

If only I knew what an API 10k cross was 

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Thats why I asked for a Screen Shot or the actual part!!

[dgorsman]

Pressure fitting, rated at 10,000 # per API standards.  Don't see too many of them outside of wellheads; downstream of that its usually ASME or regional standard fittings.

[blair]

oil patch slang, should have known

[Anonymous]

Yes, as soon as I get home this evening I will upload files.

Thank you,

John Petty

[Anonymous]

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@graemev wrote:

Something like this?

Use the End of Part marker to scroll through the order of construction.  Basically, the groove is made by drawing the groove profile on a plane perpendicular to the face through the bore axis, then performing a revolve cut.

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I was trying to do something just like that.  What usually gets me messed up in Inventor are the dialog boxes at every turn and having to click "ok" or selecting something before starting an operation.  I'm more accustomed to left-hand hot-keys and explicit commands in Autocad.  Everyone tells me that Inventor is faster and better but I'm just not seeing it yet - other than the Inventor-only utilities like threaded holes and folded sheet metal.

I will upload later this evening when I get home.  This is for a side job.

Thanks,

John Petty

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:
  I'm more accustomed to left-hand hot-keys and explicit commands in Autocad.  Everyone tells me that Inventor is faster and better but I'm just not seeing it yet ...

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We've all been there.
A year from now you will look back and consider AutoCAD pure torture.

s sketch

l line

c circle

d dimension

or get used to right mouse button guestures - saves a lot of time

e extrude

h hole

r revolve

or get used to right mouse button guestures - saves a lot of time.

This is getting a little out of date - but migh help some

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/SkillsUSA%20University.pdf

Learn to love center point rectangle

sketch Split....

 line to arc and back again while in the line command

x for trim

shift x for extend (but seldom use that one)

f for fillet

ctrl drag for workplanes

[dgorsman]

If you get everything right, right off the bat the benefits are a little hard to see by an experienced AutoCAD user.  I think the real shining star (or light bulb, if you prefer) in the comparison is deeper into the design process, when it comes time to make design changes.  You know, after the engineers make their recommendations, and purchasing finds out they can only get something almost, but not entirely different, from what was spec'd after the vendor forgot to mention that they are selling their Widget A from existing stocks and are only making new Widget B's.  Less *facepalm* and more "OK, we can do that and keep the schedule."

[Anonymous]

Here is the .ipt of the cross without BX ring gasket grooves.  I am also including a PDF with BX gasket groove specs to show exactly what I need to cut into the flange faces.  We are planning on putting the BX-153 around the smaller 2 1/16" openings and the BX-156 around the 7 1/16" openings.

So I am guessing from comments herer and the help file that I need to make a sketch plane through the center of either passage - easy since they would be origin planes.  Then I would sketch the gasket seat section and close it above the surface of the crosss.  Then revolve it and subtract it from the cross.  I must be stumbling somewhere along the way and missing a minor step or something simple/stupid.

Thank in advance!

[Anonymous]

Actually, I've been doing AutoCAD solids since they arrived in the base package - surfaces before that.  That would be 1991, IIRC.  I love that AutoDesk FINALLY said goodbye to the 2D drawing board holdovers and made 3D solids and meshes into something truly worthy.  I don't mean to brag but I have quite often gotten blank stares from fellow workers when I made things in AutoCAD solids and dimensioned them directly in paperspace views with only ONE dimension style and many views and sheets with different scales.  There are so many AutoCAD users who are still so very ignorant of what it can do.  I just wish they never came out with annotative scaling for modelspace view scaling!  The last gasp for the anti-paperspace crowd. 

[Anonymous]

Yes, something VERY much like that.  I believevI have tried exactly what it looks like you did but I got nothing.  I must be doing something wrong - probably missing a step like clicking a button to tell Inventor every step I am doing.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it will be used for a wellhead control arrangement.

[graemev]

Possibly not picking the Cut button?  {shrug}

Seeing as how the groove is a simple one with uniform tapered sides, I chose a different technique:  draw the inner and outer diameters on the face and mate the centers to the center of the hole, then Extrude-Cut to the correct depth with a -22.5° taper (on the other tab of the Extrude dialog box.)

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Actually, I've been doing AutoCAD solids since they arrived in the base package - surfaces before that.  That would be 1991, IIRC. ....There are so many AutoCAD users who are still so very ignorant of what it can do.  ...

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I have a bit of experience with AutoCAD solid and surface modeling.

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/CAD238/AutoCAD_2007_Tutorials.htm