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I need some advice please

11 REPLIES 11
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Message 1 of 12
nautilus33
272 Views, 11 Replies

I need some advice please

I  want to make a design for a simple appliance. I am still learning autodesk inventor.  I want to make a metal table, I still didn't finish the design. but I need to have an idea of the weight of my design. which material to use considering weight and will it be strong enough to stand etc. 

 

Shortly, How can I decide the thickness vs length of the table legs with autodesk  inventor? It should be strong but it shouldn't be heavy.

11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
mcgyvr
in reply to: nautilus33

We call this "engineering". Back in the day you did math to figure it out.. Now FEA programs are commonly used.

 

What version of Inventor do you have? (specifically do you have FEA or not)

 



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Message 3 of 12
JimSteinmeyer
in reply to: nautilus33

     You need to first set some design criteria. Is the table going to have heavy objects set on it? arfe these objects going to have a large base or small feet that could poke through thin sheet metal? Is money an object? do you want to use thicker aluminum and spend more money, or thinner steel for less money? maybe lighter yet and use titanium. What is the use of the table? small lamp table or a 16 foot work bench that will hold car engines?

     What ever you need to set some parameters first.

     Next I know someone  a slick salesman probably showed you how fast you can design and create in "Invenntor", SolidWorks", "Pro-E" take your pick, but untill you are compatent with the program you will probably be faster doing the inital design by hand with paper and a calculator.

     Once you know your way around the program you would be able to draft up a rough table and run it through the program's FEA functions. With this you can change material types and thicknesses as well as support numbers and locations. However , the thing most slick software salesmen and upper management types seem to forget is that unless you know what you are doing you will get a lot of pretty pictures proving which design is best and they will be 99% WRONG!

Remember, Inventor is a TOOL, and a tool used right can save a lot of time and effort, but until you know how to use the tool it willuse extra time and give bad results.

 

Jim

Inventor Premium 2013 SP1.1
Vault 2013- plain vanilla version
HP G71 notebook
celeron cpu w\ 4gb RAM and 64 bit system
Win 7 home premium

Ya, my boss has me running my personal machine at work.
Message 4 of 12
JimSteinmeyer
in reply to: mcgyvr

Na, Mcgyvr, this aint engeneering. Cleaning a room is sanatation engineering, getting people to agree is resolution engeneering, keeping a house clean is domestic engineering. what we do is not engineering.

Jim

Inventor Premium 2013 SP1.1
Vault 2013- plain vanilla version
HP G71 notebook
celeron cpu w\ 4gb RAM and 64 bit system
Win 7 home premium

Ya, my boss has me running my personal machine at work.
Message 5 of 12
nautilus33
in reply to: mcgyvr

Thanks for your feedback.

I use autodesk inventor professional 2013. I must say I learn inventor just to design a few of my product ideas and see if it works, stable, strong and can be sold at reasonable price once produced. 

Message 6 of 12
nautilus33
in reply to: JimSteinmeyer

Hello and thanks for the help.

 

It will need to have some strength for weight and pressure that might be applied so it will be strong and won't bend or broken. What I think of an extraordinary design which is different from most square tables, it has to be strong and stable and comparatively lightweight. With everything I know about metals, I was considering aluminum (which needs to be thick) or stainless steel (will be thinner). It should be at reasonable cost which shouldn't be more expensive than its rivals so people won't skip it just for its price.It will small feet base, not cylindirical, but longitudinal.

The table will be used at home, office, only indoors.

Message 7 of 12
nautilus33
in reply to: JimSteinmeyer

thanks for the input. I think that s the way engineers express themselves.

Message 8 of 12
JDMather
in reply to: nautilus33

Attach the table assembly here.


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Message 9 of 12
nautilus33
in reply to: JDMather

I am sorry, I don't have the assembly yet. I haven't progressed that much yet.

Message 10 of 12
JDMather
in reply to: nautilus33


@nautilus33 wrote:

I am sorry, I don't have the assembly yet. I haven't progressed that much yet.


You must make that progress before Inventor can tell you the weight and strength.

It is easy to make changes to materials and geometry once a basic design it created.


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Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


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Message 11 of 12
nautilus33
in reply to: JDMather

should I be using ilogic for this purpose? to determine right material, thickness, size etc. so that I won't need to make sketches over and over again?

Message 12 of 12
JDMather
in reply to: nautilus33


@nautilus33 wrote:

should I be using ilogic for this purpose? to determine right material, thickness, size etc. so that I won't need to make sketches over and over again?



No.  You are making this too complicated.  I suspect you will be doing well just to get any assembly.

Do that and then we can evaluate from there.

You can do a parametric analysis from one design (have Inventor make changes in size and materials).


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Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


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