I am posting this in the Support forum as this actually gains traction, as compared to the idea station:
Of all posts on the idea station:
Gathering Support: 326
Under Review: 31
Future Consideration: 24
Accepted: 33
Implemented: 27
Archived: 89
Only 27 out of 530 submissions have been added to inventor. In-which only 1 of the top 10 voted ideas have been added.
ALL of the items that are "Future Consideration" were posted in 2016-2017.
ALL of the items that are "Accepted" were posted in 2016 or 2017.
The most recent implemented idea was in January 10th, 2018 (only 1 in 2018), rest are 2016-2017.
Please Moderate this platform better. People are paying to use your software, Listen to them.
Sure, some ideas are just small QoL changes, but there are significant issues on the idea station that still need to be resolved.
Onto the Changes
Current Version:
11.0.1.21460 (UPDATE 2024.0.1)
Performance:
Performance in large assemblies is not optimal:
The more geometry and parts involved as Stock Solid and Model reduces regular Inventor performance:
I had a stock assembly with 90 parts that was a fabrication, and a weldment assembly that machined the fabrication.
I used simplify to make both a single solid to select in setup,
I set the stock and model to the respective solids,
Result is a laggy assembly:
Any change to an assembly, constrain, part move, part placing, would cause inventor to completely freeze for 5+ seconds.
Any action that would cause a toolpath to ungenerate freezes Inventor.
p l e a s e f i x t h i s
Making setup sheets in these assemblies is near impossible when you have to locate dozens of each:
clamps, setup blocks, setup cylinders, angle plates, etc.
I normally take around 30 minutes to create a angle plate setup for our boring machines, but in this specific case, it took me around 2-3 hours.
This isnt just an issue with large assemblies, but also parts with many surfaces imported from other CAD formats, though, to a lesser degree.
Single Groove:
Inventor Crashes to Memory leak if grooving tool is in an invalid position
General:
Have an option for advanced user mode:
Advanced user mode disables ALL warnings preventing toolpath generation, ex:
Tool Type: Invalid tool type for [MACHINING STRATEGY]
Contour Selection: No contour selected to machine.
Hole Faces: No faces selected for drill operation.
Warnings are not always accurate, for example:
You are unable to use facemills for drilling>boremilling programs (mentioned later)
This would allow programs/setup folders to be created without complete information.
If it doesnt have complete information like contour or holes, then it wont generate a toolpath.
-Still generate toolpath if the tool would be previously invalid
If we make a mistake, it is OUR fault. We enabled advanced user mode.
Current state of Inventor CAM holds the user's hand too much to prevent mistakes.
CAM iLogic Browser will occasionally prevent keyboard shortcuts:
-using shortcuts like F2 to rename will not work
-More testing would be required to find direct cause.
-Seems to be related to switching between part/assembly files
Log Messages:
Give more information. Log info is not helpful in many cases for trying to determine why a toolpath will not generate.
"Warning: Empty toolpath." Yea, I know this. But WHY is it empty?
A common cause is that a minimum rad/lead-in/lead-out rad will not keep the cutter within a boundary
not always the case
Tooling:
Allow for more versatility with Form Tools
Saw cutters, custom facemills, etc
Allow for Facemills to be used with bore milling strategy in drilling:
Bore Milling in Drilling is used for canned cycle posting on Heidenhain ITNC530, but we have to convert facemills to bullnose endmills.
Not having correct/accurate information on setups sheets can result in machine operator confusion.
The tool is a facemill, but the setup sheet has a tag of bullnose.
Bullnose is center cutting, facemill is not center cutting.
You can still bore mill with facemills, as long as the hole has been pre-roughed by another method, or the hole is atleast double the tool diameter.
Selection:
Heights:
Disable the ability to slide a height when selection mode is active.
When selecting a surface for a reference depth, currently existing planes take selection priority.
If the face is in a deep pocket, it is sometimes impossible to select without creating a section view.
-scrolling in close does not work in all cases, section view is the only option when that doesn't work.
Countor Selection:
Allow for an option to disable predictive toolpath selection.
When selecting a specific line for a toolpath, it will occasionally generate a contour that starts on the opposite end of the part.
The line you select is not included as a main selection lines on the toolpath.
-often will favor a radius as an end and start point of a contour, rather than the line you select.
I often have to click 10x more than I would have to if I had to select only the lines I need.
The current contour selection method is not in a good state.
Give an option to only allow the lines we click, and nothing else.
Turning:
Turning 2.0:
Groove:
Lead-In and Lead-Out does not function properly
Face-Grooving:
Add better Face-Groove support
In previous versions of Inventor CAM, Face Groove was available as a mode in the Mode drop-down.
Simulation:
Better Stock/Tooling representation
-Cutters look like 20-sided polygons, not circular tools.
-interpolating with said tools produces a polygon/jagged curve, not circular
-no option to increase quality of simulation, only to reduce.
Better simulation speed control
allow for feedrate speed control, rather than constant speed.
setting to set rapid feed, so rapids dont traverse instantly - each machine has its own max rapid
-allow for the speed slider to actually work...
-occasionally, moving the slider faster does not increase the simulation speed until the extreme end of the slider
-sometimes it actually SLOWS down the simulation speed....... not sure how that works...
allow option to disable the following:
-simulation speed changing on zoom level
-simulation speed changing on cursor location
I have been using this software for only a year, and these are a lot of the major issues I have found myself where I could not find a forum post for or solution elsewhere. I have went to proper support from our companies Autodesk resellers, and many of these issues are unfixable unless the development team makes changes.
