Inventor is Ridiculous, Again

[janelson33]

Ok, so how is GD&T so painfully bad in the software??? Emergency meeting for everyone on the Inventor team: GD&T is not new, why does the software act like it is? Really y'all? Autodesk is a giant company and y'all can't figure this out??

For reference, the software settings show the 1994 standard is cited; like seriously what self-respecting engineer thinks that is proper for professional software that costs this much? F the consumer right?

Why did the team decide to put a discrete ASME standard in the software settings if the templates don't even match the ASME books correctly? If you're going to waste time making a half ass template, don't do it. The book is literally available for anyone to purchase if Autodesk wants to do it right.

Why is everything such a pain in the butt to implement for a national US standard, ASME Y14.5 - 2009? I cannot dimension a simple slot via methods outlined in the standard Inventor says it follows. This isn't the only issue with GD&T features either, control frames can be pretty twatty too when it comes to text centering when a note is type in....anyways I digress.

Sure, there's other ways, but I want the tidiest method for this drawing.

I hope this is just a bug, but.....

Why does a planar sheet metal environment have worse performance than a 22-part multi-body model environment in Inventor???

Why the **** can I not place a center-mark at this point I've created from a sketch????

Why does the snap feature not work?

Why do some center points change like this after I add a centerline???

It is the simplest crap about Inventor that gets my blood boiling bc I can't do simple commands in drawings, for which I want to adhere to ASME Y14.5 GD&T practices.

[mcgyvr]

Ideastation request to add a "slot center point" function to Inventor..

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/center-mark-for-slots-in-drawings/idi-p/8865063

Show your support there.. 

[mcgyvr]

And a rather easy method to achieve a center point in the center of a slot is to create a workpoint in the model using the "center point of loop edge" workpoint creation method.. Then simply right click on that workpoint in the drawing browser and select "include".. 

[janelson33]

@mcgyvr Thanks for the tips, and I will certainly upvote that idea!

I still don't get why the centerline does this to the first and last Work Point marks, but it is progress in the right direction. I'll just stretch the center-line to look proper in this case.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Jarott,

Indeed, it would be much nicer if center mark can recognize a slot center. Another way similar to Brian's approach is to leverage the slot sketch. If the slot was created using Slot command in 2D Sketch, there should be a center point already. Simply make it visible and create a workpoint on it. Then include it in the drawing.

Inventor as a product has deficiencies. But, it is not worth boiling your blood. I wish all our users in good health.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Similar issues.  I cannot get any but the simplest profiles to extrude.  I got a single flat object built, but had to extrude over ten sketches to get there.  Right now I am trying to constrain sketch entities to unconsumed entities in a higher up sketch, and cannot find how to do it, if it is even possible.  Solidworks has no problem doing this.

[Anonymous]

Cannot wait to see what fresh **** awaits me with GDT.

[cadman777]

And wait a DECADE to see IF it gets added...

[cadman777]

Can you click on the horizontal c.l. and it shows a control point at the center?
If so, can you click and drag that control point to expand the c.l. to the right?

[cadman777]

If you start a new thread you'll likely get answers to this...

[cadman777]

I paid good money back in the late 90's to learn GDT (ANSI Y14.5 1994).

But I gave up on it b/c NONE of the fabrication shops could read it!

So I 'wing it' and they get the idea.

It's like using pictographs to communicate, kind of like what the Red Army's propaganda arm passed around during the reign of terror under Chairman Mao!

[BDCollett]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Similar issues.  I cannot get any but the simplest profiles to extrude.  I got a single flat object built, but had to extrude over ten sketches to get there.  Right now I am trying to constrain sketch entities to unconsumed entities in a higher up sketch, and cannot find how to do it, if it is even possible.  Solidworks has no problem doing this.

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It seems to be a common theme when people struggle with something simple in Inventor that it's followed by "Solidworks has no problem". 

[BDCollett]

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@cadman777 wrote:

I paid good money back in the late 90's to learn GDT (ANSI Y14.5 1994).

But I gave up on it b/c NONE of the fabrication shops could read it!

So I 'wing it' and they get the idea.

It's like using pictographs to communicate, kind of like what the Red Army's propaganda arm passed around during the reign of terror under Chairman Mao!

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Ha!, you mention it to most fabricators and or even machinists and get a very blank stare. Which is a shame.

[Anonymous]

I would not say no problems, but definitely far fewer problems.

[Anonymous]

Hit and miss.  Last place I worked shop floor personnel were required to know GDT, and most did well enough.  One nightmare place I worked guys on the shop floor considered basic dimensions as advisory, and always blamed me when things didn't work.  In one case a slider crank pivot was six inches off and they had no clue why the range of motion was three feet short. 

[gcoombridge]

I'm mainly replying to this thread because I think it's going to be entertaining and I want updates 😁.

@Anonymous If you're having issues extruding profiles and constraing sketches I'd suggest it's a training or workflow issue. Make a specific post and share your parts.

Re the daily 'I bet this doesn't happen in Solidworks' who cares? All of us are to some degree committed to Inventor through training or legacy data.. And unless @johnsonshiue is a majority shareholder in Autodesk it won't matter anyway. 

[sgwilliams]

@janelson33Yes I see your point. I agree if the software says it is compliant with a specific standard, then it should produce prints that conform to this standard. Sad thing is that 99% of drawings that are produced  in my industry(bearing manufacturers) rarely follow the standard and when you do nobody can read the prints because they are not properly schooled in GDT.  Problem with big software companies is there are far to many hands in the cookie jar. It's usually a development team who are all working on one piece of the puzzle and then when all the pieces are built they start putting the puzzle together. And this is the rub, this allows for faster development of all the features this software has but at the same time it cause many hours of debugging. Most software houses have an acceptable amount of bugs to remain in the software so they can meet their deadlines for release. That is why they have patches and service packs to finish the development after it has been in the field. I don't care how good your developers are we are all still human and prone to mistakes. This is how we learn all successful people know this by default. Look at SpaceX, they are building rockets left and right to that they know will fail, but each one gives them data to improve the next and so on. Autodesk is no different, when I started on Inventor version 7 many years ago it was full of bugs and had lot's of features but many need a lot of improvement and it crashed constantly. Now it is a very stable software and I rarely have issues with it. Best thing you can do is get with support and see if they can help. Talking to them will help, if you are patient. We waited many years for some fixes but they did eventually correct the problem. Also if there are not a lot of complaints about a specific issue it will definitely get overlooked most likely because they fix issues in priority of importance like any other business

[rhenstenburg]

I designed a sheet metal punch tool which matches the selection of slot punched that we have in house.  These have the opening center point that is desired by @janelson33 . Using these, then applying automated punch centers to the drawing view (must be the automated center, not manual), then using the punch table, we obtain nice results.

If slots are created manually with a sketch (not the slot command mentioned by @johnsonshiue) or using sheet metal punches, then the difficulties mentioned by @janelson33 are realized.

[BDCollett]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would not say no problems, but definitely far fewer problems.

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I would argue that if I was forced to use Solidworks today after only using Inventor for the past 15 or so I would find everything a problem.

[SEC_CAD]

Hi,

I had exactly the same issue with dimensioning to the centres of slots. Here is how I solved it:

1) Use the CENTERLINE BISECT tool between the edges and curved ends of your slot.

2) To dimension to the center select DIMENSION then select one of the centre lines. Right-click and choose INTERSECTION then click on the perpendicular centre line. Do the same for the other end of the dimension.