topic Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick in Inventor Nastran Forum

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

Roelof.Feijen — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 10:05:11 GMT

Great handout. Definitely recommended for new and experienced users of Inventor Nastran. Looking forward to the video on AU.

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

admaiora — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 15:05:00 GMT

Thank you @John_Holtz !!!

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

vanderson.mapdata — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 12:24:42 GMT

Dear @John_Holtz

Really interesting class and handout!! Thanks so much for sharing with us.

There are many tips that will help me in my models and I will share some of them in my Nastran training.

Regards

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

trung.pham2AHCC — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 17:50:42 GMT

Thanks for great tips!

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

Alberto_Pérez_Parra — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 19:23:56 GMT

Hi @John_Holtz, I would like to grow in my knowledge in Inventor Nastran, Do you have a book/publication? or any kind of information you could provide me to develop my skills, level of expertise. I'm planning to promote the use of Autodesk Nastran in my community developing courses/workshops to my engineering students and local sugar cane mill engineers. Thanks for your advice.

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

John_Holtz — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 19:29:07 GMT

Hi @Alberto_Pérez_Parra

The latest book that I am aware of is "Up and Running with Inventor Nastran" by Wasim Younis. There are a number of volumes depending on the year (maybe only 2023 is available?) and nonlinear or static analysis. There may be other books available.

John

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

Alberto_Pérez_Parra — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 21:59:21 GMT

Yes, the "Up and Running with Inventor Nastran" by Wasim Younis books are good source. I have both, even the spanish translation. I hope to find different/new information, thanks for your advice @John_Holtz .

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

dainalthomas01 — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 06:23:27 GMT

Thank you! This summary is very helpful, especially the detailed insights on the 60 tips and tricks. I appreciate the focus on assisting new users. I look forward to the video and handout on the AU website for more learning.

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

martin_brunnerCQUCF — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 08:05:48 GMT

Hello John

I will step throuth the handout. Looks very helpful.

Thanks for your help

Martin

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

ecottingham3KD7X — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 23:20:56 GMT

Hi John

Awesome, article. Thank you very much.

In Tip 3: Create Surface Model for Shell Elements on Fig 5 & 6 you are showing "surface model" and "Solid Model" analysis.

How are you doing this?

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

John_Holtz — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 03:29:51 GMT

Thanks @ecottingham3KD7X

Figure 5 (a solid model transferred to Nastran, then converted to shells) was created using the "Prepare > Midsurfaces" command. Because the "solid" portion of the web only extends to the inside faces of the flange, the midsurface of the web is the same height as the distance between the flanges. The midsurface for the flange is at the mid-thickness of the flange. This is where the gap between the web and flange happens; the gap is equal to half the flange thickness.

Figure 6 is a surface model created in Inventor. I may have created the surfaces directly (sketch 3 lines for the web and 2 flanges) and extruded those to make 3 surfaces, or I used the forum post How to convert a solid model to surfaces - Autodesk Community to convert a solid model into a surface model.

John

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

ecottingham3KD7X — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 18:44:10 GMT

Hi John

In Tip 3 figure 5 - Solid Model created in Inventor converted to surfaces in Nastran the Analysis is labelled Solid Model with the Model State set to Master. So the Master in the model is the Solid Model?

In Tip 3 figure 6 - Surface Model created in Inventor used to create shell elements in Nastran. The Model State is set to Surfaces.

In your "How to convert a solid Model to surfaces" the surfaces are "created" into a different assembly than the solid model. How are you able to select a different Model State between the files?

Thx

Eldon

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

John_Holtz — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 22:20:43 GMT

Hi Eldon.

The surface example shown in the "Tips and Tricks" document was created manually, meaning I projected a sketch from the solid, drew lines for the surface geometry, and then extruded the lines to create the surfaces.

You are correct that the procedure in "How to convert a solid Model to surfaces" is creating a separate model, not a separate Model State. In a simple model (like in this example), it may be practical to use the model state. In your complex example, it may not be practical to use a different Model State for the solid model and surface model.

I am open to suggestions from our Inventor experts. (I can draw an I-beam, but that is almost the limit of my model creation skills. 🙂)

John

Re: Suggested Reading - Tips and Trick

naqib_mashrur4YFQQ — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:31:21 GMT

Hi John. Thanks for making this great resource for using Inventor Nastran. I am sharing the link to the autodesk university video here, since I couldn't find it anywhere in this thread. I hope it will be helpful to anyone reading this post in the future.