Does Autodesk Alias fit my needs?

[danijel.radenkovic]

Hello Alias users,

As a mechanical engineer who has more than 10 years experience with Autodesk Inventor, this is the first time that I am thinking to involve other software in design process instead of Inventor.

I work in a tire industry as engineer who design mechanical parts (pretty simple geometry without too much free curved surfaces), but this time my job require including software which has to:

1. make precised tire tread design

2. be parametric (easy to change any parameter of feature )

3. have less constraints than Inventor (dependency between features)

What do you suggest from Autodesk software?

Many thanks for the any help that you can provide.

Danijel

[m.panas · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The short answer is no.

The long answer is - Alias is based on Surfaces and is really powerful when it comes to complex free form. What you need is the exact opposite.

1. Surfaces. Normally in CAD you work with a body and cut away from it. So if you were to make a groove in a cylinder, you make a sketch and revolve cut it. In Alias it is similar, but you have to then intersect the two surfaces you have (outer skin cylinder and new 3+ joint sufaces of the groove) then trim and stitch everything. Alternatively you can work with boolean operations, but - any way you go about it - it's more steps than Inventor.

2. Freeform. In Alias you either do sketch modeling or Class A surfacing. Neither of those is required in your process (methinks).

Cheers,

Maciej

[danijel.radenkovic]

Hi Maciej,

Thank you for the reply!

Apologize for my reply after long time, I just didn't receive a email notification about your reply.

Tire tread is pretty complex surface geometry, and number of operations at the final design is not a problem if the design is parametrized. I have done something similar to this video but Rhino is "less dependent" of constraints than Inventor and if something is not clearly defined Inventor breaks.

Best regards

Danijel

[m.panas]

1. Most people as a part of their workflow in Alias remove history every couple of operations. 

In that sense - it is not really parametric.

In no way like NX for example, where you can base a sketch on variables and create part families.

2. What I meant was complex freeform surface. Like a car. Patch layout and all. (Have you seen how a car model looks like with the wireframe on?)
You mean complex geometry. 

For example a clipping system of a control panel on a plastic part is complex geometry, but not complex Surfacing. 

3. You mentioned Rhino. When I was doing my Rhino course we had an example of a tire. 

We created the traction part first - completely flat. And then we 'wound' it over a cylinder. I think that is something what would be useful for you. 
I don't know this functionality from any other program, but it's maybe because I never used it apart from that example.

Cheers,

Maciej

[danijel.radenkovic]

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@m.panas wrote:

1. Most people as a part of their workflow in Alias remove history every couple of operations. 

In that sense - it is not really parametric.

In no way like NX for example, where you can base a sketch on variables and create part families.

2. What I meant was complex freeform surface. Like a car. Patch layout and all. (Have you seen how a car model looks like with the wireframe on?)
You mean complex geometry. 

For example a clipping system of a control panel on a plastic part is complex geometry, but not complex Surfacing. 

3. You mentioned Rhino. When I was doing my Rhino course we had an example of a tire. 

We created the traction part first - completely flat. And then we 'wound' it over a cylinder. I think that is something what would be useful for you. 
I don't know this functionality from any other program, but it's maybe because I never used it apart from that example.

Cheers,

Maciej

---

Yes! That's absolutely truth. Also, I suppose that you had something similar on your Rhino course as this man showed on the video. Great example but in Inventor is not possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfFjumHO1CE

Regards

Danijel

[m.panas]

Yup, that's it.

Rhino is a very good sketch design tool. It's not a construction tool, but it seems to have the right functionality for you.

Otherwise you could work with circular patterns in Inventor.

Either way - Alias is not the way to go.

[danijel.radenkovic]

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@m.panas wrote:

Yup, that's it.

Rhino is a very good sketch design tool. It's not a construction tool, but it seems to have the right functionality for you.

Otherwise you could work with circular patterns in Inventor.

Either way - Alias is not the way to go.

---

Yes, I agree with you. I have designed some tire treads using Inventor but reason why I have started this topic is because Inventor:

1. is too slow in update/rebuild of part

2. too boring with feature dependency

3. many useful functions are still not available (even they are available in many other software since many years ago)

Some of the missed functions I have placed to Inventor Idea Station or Inventor forum:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-general-discussion/any-idea-how-to-manually-create-wrap/m-p/6...

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/variable-chamfer-amp-variable-draft/idi-p/6057282

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/bend-geometry/idi-p/6356716

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/slant-angle-option-in-geometry-text/idi-p/6230431

Regards

Danijel

[mbworldproducer · Accepted solution]

As you've been advised, and I'll add to the chorus  Alias is NOT parametric in the way you need.

It will design a nice tyre, if you don't mind detailing every surface of it then loosing the history should you want to change later.

I don't know what CAD system to advise beyond Inventor (have you looked at Autodesk AutoCAD?) as I'm still in the early stages of mastering Alias.  Eventually I suspect I'll have to move up to NX as an all-in-one solution for serious surface modelling with parametric features for the CAD side of the work.

[danijel.radenkovic]

---

@mbworldproducer wrote:

As you've been advised, and I'll add to the chorus  Alias is NOT parametric in the way you need.

It will design a nice tyre, if you don't mind detailing every surface of it then loosing the history should you want to change later.

I don't know what CAD system to advise beyond Inventor (have you looked at Autodesk AutoCAD?) as I'm still in the early stages of mastering Alias.  Eventually I suspect I'll have to move up to NX as an all-in-one solution for serious surface modelling with parametric features for the CAD side of the work.

---

Simply explained in few sentences. I am also determined to try with Siemens NX, as an great parametric surface solution.

Thank you very much friend!

Regards

Danijel