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Improved measurement tools

Improved measurement tools

I find the tools in Inventor's Inspect > Measure panel very cumbersome, limited, and non-user friendly. I often have to escape out of the command between every measurement to be sure it will operate properly. I cannot measure any distance involving a round surface, such as the tangential distance to a circumference. I cannot see a history of previous measurements. I have to use round-about methods to measure certain features; for example, I have to click a random face before I can pick the center of a circle as my first measuring point.

 

The ability to keep measurements displayed, almost like temporary 3D dimensions, for the purpose of active analysis of a component (as I was trying to do with my boss the other day) would be very useful; that way as I'm navigating around my part or assembly I can see in real-time the precise dimensions of features I care about rather than measuring and re-measuring as I'm trying to determine things about the model.

 

I'd love to hear of functionality that other users would like to see added for measuring and inspecting 3D models, and to see all of these implemented in future releases of Inventor as well as in service packs to current releases, so that all users can take advantage of this very foundational functionality.

 

(Please see related Discussion Groups post here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/Better-measure-tool-in-Inventor/m-p/3841929)

42 Comments
cwhetten
Advisor

The command to create a new workplane works in two ways.  You can just click the command and choose from any type of valid inputs to create a workplane and away you go.  (Bear with me here, this IS relevant to the measure tool idea).  But you can also click the drop-down to see a list of creation methods, and clicking any of these will limit the types of geometry that can be selected.  See below:

 

Work Plane Types.png

 

What if the measure tool worked in a similar way?  Just clicking on it will make it work like it does now (only better!), where those who are familiar with it can just pick the geometry they want to measure.  But it would also have a drop-down with a list of measurements between different types of geometry.  Maybe something like this:

 

Measure Tool Types.png

 

Maybe the list of reference measurements that the OP mentioned could be incorporated into the measure tool dialog?  Something like this:

 

New Measure Tool.png

 

It would also be nice if the accumulate function actually made sense and was useful.

 

Cameron Whetten
Inventor 2012

DRoam
Mentor

Cameron,

 

I think that is a fantastic suggestion! It's consistent with the interface of Inventor right now and adds a lot of versatility. Also, your "Minimum between curve and ..." tools are essentially what I meant by "tangential distance to circumference". Tangential wasn't the right word, "normal" would have been more correct; normal to the curve's surface.

 

I'm not sure how this would be incorporated, but if there was also an option with any of those tools to say "along path", that would be very helpful. So I can say "minimum between curve and face" and then say "along the x axis" or "along the y axis" or "along this work axis or edge". This would be useful when, for example, one or more faces are angled relative to the UCS but the dimension I really care about is along one of the world axes.

 

Although I don't usually need to add dimensions together myself, for those who do a better accumulate tool like you have pictured would certainly be useful.

 

Also, the more I think about it, I'm intrigued by the idea of dimensions being displayed in 3D. It got me thinking how incredibly efficient it would be if I could even edit constraints with them. Say I'm showing my boss a model and two plates are constrained 24" apart and he wants them 16" apart. All I do is double-click the dimension which represents the constraint, change it to 16, and the distance changes as well as the dimension. This would be incredibly useful for on-the-go analysis, presentation, and modification of models. I know this is getting into an entirely different realm from a "better measurement tool" now, but 3D dimensions would more closely intertwine the two. Any thoughts?

jtylerbc
Mentor

In addition to improvements to the actual measurement system, I'd like to see it be able to report measurements in fractional ft-in format.  I mostly work with steel fabrication, and it would be very nice to not have to think in decimal inch for measurements when I've been entering most of my dimensions and parameters in fractional form.

mrattray
Advisor

Just make sure "between centers" is incorporated for holes and slots. The current 4 click method is ridiculous! Otherwise, excellent ideas here!

dan_szymanski
Autodesk
Status changed to: Under Review
 
Heathos88
Enthusiast

I absolutely need this in my assy's. theres no better way than a quick-and-easy check measure that can auto update as I do rough changes to parts. Thanks for your time in making this thread!!! Man Very Happy

drguitarum2005
Advocate

I absolutely agree with this. Picking a random face before being able to pick a circle/hole's center point is silly. Also there is no arc length to be found which would be VERY useful.

dberman
Explorer

I'd love to see some maximum measurements.  Imagine a dowel pin with rounded ends.  The only way I know to measure the furthest extents is to measure the circle centers and add 2*radius, which isn't hard, but that's also a very basic example.  It wouldn't take much variation for that math to turn more into complicated trig.  Inventor can do this I'm sure.  Mostly I'm sick of making/deleting work geometry to take a measurement.

dan_szymanski
Autodesk
Status changed to: Accepted

Accepted idea [US-53053]. Thanks! PS - nice mock-up Cameron. 😉

YavorGegov
Community Visitor

Hi , everyone

 

I`m new to Inventor , switching from Solidworks , since my current employer uses inventor and I am designing tubular frames .... the measurement tool is ending my life, it is crazy to have to make sketches to measure things or having to go back and do basic maths when other CAD programs have a simple tool that just does all of the above described things. At the moment my work arround is to have the model opened in both solidworks ( for any measurements ) and to model in inventor based on what the measurements are. My question is , has anyone heard of any 3rd party plug in or something simillar that provides a better tool than the one currently in there ?  This is so frustrating since I really like the frame generator and the program overall but that measurement tool is just infuriating.

Heathos88
Enthusiast

This is great news! I can't wait 🙂

jwynne
Participant

Why Can't the measure tool spit out all applicable measurements when an object is selected. For example.

 

Select a face. Provide: area, perimeter

Select two faces. Provide: angle between faces, distance between faces

Select two points. Provide: distance between points, projected distances along Global/User CSYS

Select point and face. Provide: normal distance to face, projected distances along Global/User CSYS

Select 2 points. Provide: distance between points, projected distances along Global/User CSYS

Select curve and face ...

Select two curves

Select circle

Select 2 circles...

 

just give us what we might want by providing logical measurements based on our selections...

 

SOLIDWORKS HAS DONE THIS SINCE 2001! Smiley Surprised

_DanSolo_
Advocate

Can we have a measuring tool that gives us multiple distances, including projected distances like SolidWorks has had for years? The Inventor measure tool is very cumbersome and difficult to use.

 

SW13_Measure5.jpg

Tags (4)
_DanSolo_
Advocate

make it like this:

 

SW13_Measure5.jpg

 

NOT like this

Inventor 2015 measure.jpg

Dan_Margulius
Advisor

 

 

The_Angry_Elf
Advisor

Dan,

 

The issue I see you having here is that you are not selecting the correct features.

For example, I'm assuming in the Inventor screen shot shown you are looking for the distance from hole to hole in an axial direction, not the point to point it's giving you, correct? Note the features you selected, you selected the center point of each hole. Thus you are measureing the distance from the center of one hole at that surface to the same point of the other hole, not from axis to axis of each hole. Does that make sense?

 

If you select the axis of each hole as opposed to the center point of the hole at the surface as shown in your example, you'll get the distance from one to the other along an axis:

 

Measure.JPG

 

Hope that's clear enough. There are numerous slection options in the measure tool, select the applicable options and you'll get the measurement you are looking for. For example, let's say I wanted to measure the minimum distance between the inner faces of each hole, giving me, let's say the wall thickness between two holes, I wouldn't select centerline to centerline or point to point and then have to break out the calculator, simply select "surface" option from the pull down and poof, I have that distance.

 

Have you had any formal training on Inventor? Or even a training class on moving from SW to Inventor (basically it covers the more common differences between the two and how to accomplish things you are used to in SW, in Inventor)? Contact me directly, we offer these classes all over the country and even online.

jtylerbc
Mentor

I don't know much about SolidWorks, and nothing about its Measure tools, but I agree that Inventor's could probably use some work.  While it is likely that different selections could get the OP what he needs, the Inventor Measure tool can be clunky to deal with.  Part of this is because the selection requirements are so specific.  It would be nice if it was a little more flexible like this idea suggests.

DRoam
Mentor

Hi, this idea is a duplicate of the following post:

 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideastation/improved-measurement-tools/idi-p/3842001

 

Please cast your kudo to it as to not split the votes. Thanks!

_DanSolo_
Advocate

"Hi, this idea is a duplicate of the following post:

 

Please cast your kudo to it as to not split the votes. Thanks!"

 

Sure, and that was accepted already....Two years later we still have not seen antyhing.

So vote for both, but keep voting this one please and thanks!

 

 

 

 

DRoam
Mentor

Very valid point. Here you go, sir, have a kudo.

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