topic Betreff: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor in Inventor Forum

Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 11:16:12 GMT

Hello,

I'm using Autodesk Inventor Professional 2015 on Windows 10 OS for mechanic assemble.

It is very difficult to create 3D portrait, for example for 3D printed animatronics, and work through with details, result is not the best.

I'm not sure about another versions, but it is clear this particular Inventor version is not intended for 3D sculptural design.

I'm wondering, what is easy and free way to create good sculptural design with some special way provided by Inventor, or if Inventor does not supports this option, what I've to use to create model and how to import it properly with size and possibility to edit for exist mechanics in assemble

I'm not sure if I will use Blender for this goal, but for example, let's say I will create a model in it. Which file and format should I save and import to get available planes for joins and constrains with imported model to edit it with new elements and connect it with exist parts

Any guide, advice or example would be helpful

Re: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

johnsonshiue — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 17:03:59 GMT

Hi! Inventor is a 3D feature-based parametric solid modeling CAD. We do have some users using it for artistic design. But, the primary purpose of the tool is to create true-scaled high-precision 3D geometry for manufacturing. Every point on the geometry not only needs to look nice but also has to be measurable. If your design does not require such precision, I don't think Inventor is a suitable tool for you.

Many thanks!

Re: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

JDMather — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 17:07:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

It is very difficult to create 3D portrait, for example for 3D printed animatronics,

Do you have an image of something similar to what you are trying to create?

Re: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

dgorsman — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 15:53:36 GMT

Right tool for the right job... I would suggest Inventor would be ideal for the mechanical side of the animatronics - levers, pistons, motors, structure, and so on. The fine details of the exterior won't count for much here and should only need to be roughed-in for reference. You can then take the mechanical contents and reference them in a more organic mesh modeler, like Blender, for the artistic outer shell.

And you'll want to watch for compatibility issues - Inventor 2015 isn't supported on Win 10, so you may have additional struggles to deal with.

Betreff: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

WHolzwarth — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 17:55:44 GMT

As already mentioned, Inventor normally does no good job with human models.

These tasks are better done with 3ds Max , Maya and others. There are lots of free samples available in the net.

See below a sample head in 3ds Max

And that's the look after export as OBJ from 3ds Max, opening in Inventor and enabling the biggest mesh as Composite. A few gaps still must be closed for getting a solid, but it's possible.

Re: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 23:48:41 GMT

Hello, JDMather

Something like this:

In my case part of face connected with mechanics. Here is attempt to create face for particular assembly in Inventor, I can not streamline the overall shape:

So if it is wrong tool, what is a proper. I can't figure out if Blender is compatible with Inventor, which format I have to export from Blender to import or open in Inventor:

Re: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:10:05 GMT

Hello, dgorsman

As I have noted above on JDMather answer, I need face parts with mechanical assembly in inventor, of course I can calculate the compatibility of parts without including into assembly, but I want include it in Inventor assembly to get movement and animation, but I don't know if I can open Blender object in Inventor, STL import cannot be edited or included

Betreff: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:12:40 GMT

Hello, wh

I'm trying to use Blender, but as I've noted in replays to JDMather and dgorsman, first need to figure out with compatibility of formats, how to import Blender object into Inventor with possibility to edit it same way as native part and include it in assembly with joint and constrains, if it is possible. Importing of STL does not gives desired result, I can't edit it or include in assembly

Betreff: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

WHolzwarth — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 07:06:39 GMT

You can try as export from Blender OBJ or STL. In most cases, result in Inventor will be a mesh.

This mesh can be converted to a solid (rare cases) or to a composite (most cases) using Mesh Enabler.

Mesh Enabler is available in Autodesk App Store.

After conversion the geometry can be edited in Inventor, with boundary patches, stitching and other operations. In the end you can get a solid, but normally a cylinder-looking region still consists of many tiny faces, and placing axes is not easily possible.

Betreff: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 17:03:16 GMT

For some reason .obj is not visible in Inventor browser, as well as in list of formats. I've exported .stl from Blender and load to Inventor with Manage/Import, then right click on model, Show Mesh Edges and Convert Base Feature with Solid/Surface, and saving of part. Also in Environment/Add-Ins/Autodesk Mesh Enabler/Load Behavior both Load Automatically and Loaded/Unloaded.

I have not figured out with sizes in Blender yet, imported model is very small compared to the assembly parts, I don't know, if it is a size of particular example, or some specificity with importing, because I've tried different examples, all loads on the same scale. In result, it is gray transparent object, seems like I can't change color:

Fillet and Chamfer works well, but I am able only Extrude with Join, with Cut I have this alert:

Re: Sculptural design supported or imported by Autodesk Inventor

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 17:09:00 GMT

Hello,

It is suitable tool for me, because I have mechanic assembly for 99%, but also I need include and combine sculptural design. My attempts described in the current topic replays to answers, please check