Autodesk Inventor Inventor Fusion Getting Started
Autodesk® Inventor® Fusion Technology Preview
Autodesk Inventor Fusion:
Getting Started
Contents
Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What is new in TP2? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Working with Inventor Fusion User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Display and Organize the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Customize the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Glyphs and Manipulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Marking Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Selection commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Enhanced tooltip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Browser and Copy/Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Cut/Copy and Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Function Key Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Triad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Menu and Command Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Other commands in the Application Window . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Quick Access commandbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Keytips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Navigation commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Navigation Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Create 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
i
Create a Single Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Create Multiple Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Modify a Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Press/Pull Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Move Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Draft Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Starting a Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
The Sketch Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
The Sketch Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Line/Arc Segment Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Spline Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Circle Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Circular Arc Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Rectangle Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Ellipse Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Polygon Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Project Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Trim/Extend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Sketch Fillet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Sketch Inferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Sketch Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Stopping a Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Sketch Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Editing a Sketch Entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Locking Sketch Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Find Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Dimensions and Body Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Work Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Working with Multiple Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Creating Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Position and Constrain Components . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Dimensions as Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
User Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Import Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Import Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Inventor Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Export Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Materials and Model Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Physical Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Edge Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
ii | Contents
Slice Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Views of models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Orthographic views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Perspective views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Modeling Paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Requirements . . . . . . . . . . 242
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Contents | iii
iv
Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
This is the Help for the second technology preview release of Autodesk Inventor Fusion released
in October 2009. This content may not apply to prior or future releases.
1
What is new in TP2?
Modeling:
Loft
Face draft
Improved move triad reorient
Selective feature recognition
Chamfer feature recognition
Change feature recognition type
Dissolve features
Fillet corner options
Split bodies and general split improvements
Pattern occurrence suppression
Measure
Copy and paste topology across faces and components
Snap bar improvements
Improved feature Boolean logic
1
Press/pull workflow improvements
Improved look at behavior when working with sketches and sketch based
features
Improved sweep path behavior
Sweep along spline
Sketch:
Polygon
Ellipse
Project existing sketch curves into new sketches
Trim/extend spline and ellipse
Copy and paste sketch geometry
Assemblies:
New assemble command
Change constraints to move the first selection rather than treat it as grounded
Add ground component to browser menu
Constrain to work geometry
Constraint folder in the browser
Cycle constraint highlight on hover in browser
Copy and paste components across documents
Paste as new
Make occurrence independent from others
Component paste allows for placement in 3D graphics
Improve center constraint usability
Add direction flip for constraints in graphics
Annotations:
Cylinder height dimension
Edit of angle dimensions
Real-time dimension updates
Named views remember annotation plane visibility
2 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
Global dimension precision control
User Interface:
Minimize ribbon to panel buttons
Simplified ribbon tabs
Application menu file thumbnail support
New effects and UI display options
Option to turn off snap bar UI
Improved background gradient
Consistent visual style for in graphics UI
Marking menu and command cleanup
New context menus
Selection glyph in canvas
Shift middle-mouse-button for rotate
Double-click dwg starts Fusion if file was last saved with Fusion
User and System Tags:
Add user tags
Tag search folders
Search on system tags
Search on user tags
Data Exchange:
DWF export
STL export
Pro/E import and export
Catia import and export
Graphics:
Physical materials based visualization
Ambient occlusion effect
Silhouettes effect
Improved graphics texture tiling logic
What is new in TP2? | 3
Support edges on or edges off visual style
Working with Inventor Fusion User Interface
This section presents general topics related to the Inventor Fusion User
Interface.
The Ribbon
Display and Organize the Ribbon
The ribbon is displayed automatically when you create or open a file, providing
a compact palette of all commands necessary to create your model.
The horizontal ribbon is displayed across the top of the application window.
The ribbon minimize button minimizes the ribbon. The minimize button is
located to the right of the ribbon tabs.
A temporary ribbon pane is displayed across the top of the application window
when a command is active. Use the temporary pane to input command
options, range limits, and other settings.
Ribbon Tabs and Panels
The ribbon is composed of a series of panels, which are organized into tabs
labeled by task.
Some ribbon panels display a drop-down arrow. The arrow indicates there are
additional commands related to that panel. Click the drop-down arrow to
access the additional commands on the access table.
To display a hidden panel, right-click anywhere inside the ribbon, and click
the name of the panel. To display or hide a panel, right-click anywhere inside
the ribbon, and click or clear the name of a panel.
Floating Panels
If you pull a panel off a ribbon tab and into the drawing area or onto another
monitor, that panel floats where you placed it. The floating panel remains
open until you return it to the ribbon, even if you switch ribbon tabs.
Expanded Panels
4 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
Procedure
An arrow at the bottom of a panel title indicates that you can expand the
panel to display additional commands. By default, an expanded panel closes
automatically when you click another panel. To keep a panel expanded, click
the push pin icon in the bottom-left corner of the expanded panel.
To minimize the ribbon using the minimize button
1 Click the ribbon minimize button to the right of the ribbon tabs.
2 The minimize behavior cycles through the following minimize options:
■ Minimize to Tabs:
Minimizes the ribbon so that only tab titles are displayed.
■ Minimize to Panels:
Minimizes the ribbon so that only tab and panel titles are displayed.
■ Show Full Ribbon:
Displays tabs and full panels, including controls.
Other methods to minimize the ribbon
Right-click the ribbon tab bar, click Minimize, and then click one of the
minimize options.
Double-click the name of the active ribbon tab.
To turn off the display of a panel
Right-click anywhere inside the ribbon. Under Panels, click or clear the name
of a panel.
To switch the display of panel titles
Right-click the ribbon tab bar and click Show Panel Titles.
Customize the Ribbon
You can customize the ribbon depending on your needs.
You can customize the ribbon in the following ways:
■ You can change the order of ribbon tabs. Click the tab you want to move,
drag it to the appropriate position, and release.
The Ribbon | 5
■ On each tab, you can change the order of ribbon panels. Click the panel
to move, drag it to the appropriate position, and release.
■ You can hide panels. Right-click a tab and chose which panels to display.
Glyphs and Manipulators
As you use Inventor Fusion, you specify modes of operation, range limits, and
other options. Since the Inventor Fusion user interface does not employ dialog
boxes, there are other access modes to set these options:
■ The ribbon
■ Glyphs
■ Manipulators
The Ribbon on page 4 is discussed in another section.
Glyphs
As you use commands in Inventor Fusion, symbols or glyphs, often appear
next to the cursor. Glyphs indicate that you can select a mode of operation,
or that certain commands are available for use.
Click and hold a glyph to display the options for the active command. Drag
the cursor to the appropriate option and release to select it. If you pause the
cursor over a glyph, a commandtip displays more information about the glyph.
The most frequently used glyphs are in the following table:
Profile com-
mands
6 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
DescriptionGlyph TitleGlyph Icon
Select a command option.Select Option
Go to the next input selection.Go to Next
This glyph is displayed when you select
(highlight) a closed sketch profile. Click
this glyph to select from a list of modeling
operations to perform on the profile.
Manipulators
A Manipulator is a 3D command. It is usually an arrow, sphere, or ring that
appears while a command is active. It sets the distance, angle, or direction of
an operation, or for setting the location or size of a feature.
Drag the manipulator to complete (or preview) the operation. The value that
is set by dragging the manipulator can also be set in the ribbon or
heads-up-display (HUD). When you release the manipulator, the corresponding
value in the ribbon and HUD is updated.
An active, selected manipulator appears yellow. When two or more
manipulators are displayed, the active manipulator is yellow. The inactive
manipulator appears red or gray.
When there are two or more manipulators associated with a command, press
the Tab key to cycle from the current manipulator to the next one. This also
activates the heads-up display (HUD) field associated with the manipulator
(including those with multiple HUDs). You can measure on page 34 geometry
using the dropdown next to any HUD. You can enter simple arithmetic
expressions and mix units when you enter values into the HUD.
A manipulator that is used to set the location of a feature (such as the Hole
Center Manipulator) displays blue when the location is constrained (concentric
with another cylindrical feature or aligned with the midpoints of two edges,
and so on).
If you pause the cursor over a manipulator, a commandtip displays more
information about the manipulator.
There are four basic manipulator types. The purpose of each varies by
command. Some common examples are listed in the following table:
Manipulator
Type
Linear Arrow
Radial Arrow
DescriptionManipulator
Used in the Extrude command to set
length and direction, and in the Hole
command to set the depth.
Used in the Revolve command to set the
rotation angle.
Glyphs and Manipulators | 7
Ring
Used in the Hole command to set the hole
diameter as well as counterbore and
countersink diameters.
When using manipulators, you do not need to keep your cursor exactly on
the 3D arrow. You can drag anywhere over empty graphics space. Many
manipulators can also snap to other geometry on your model. While a
manipulator is active, you can pause your cursor over the design and prompts
appear over geometry that the manipulator can snap to.
Marking Menu
The Marking Menu is a spatially arranged, in-canvas menu used for executing
and completing (or canceling) commands. The contents of the marking menu
change based on the context in which it is invoked.
Sphere
Used in the Hole command to set the hole
center location, in the Extrude command
to set the taper angle, and in the Sweep
command to sweep the selected profile
along the path.
8 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
Marking Menu with Context Menu
The marking menu consists of eight wedges. Each wedge represents a
command/operation. These commands are the seven frequently used
commands and the eighth is a context menu which contains additional
commands.
Marking Menu | 9
The default commands in the marking menu (context menu not shown) are:
1 Press Pull
2 Hole
3 Undo
4 Context Menu
5 Repeat Last Command
6 Delete
7 Select
8 Move
You can invoke and hide the marking menu through the following steps,
■ To start the marking menu, right-click or right mouse down
■ To close the marking menu, use the escape key, release the right mouse
button when no marking menu item is preselected, or click the left mouse
button when no item is selected.
You can hover (pause) the cursor over an item to see the commandtip for that
command.
10 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
You can select an item from the marking menu through the following steps,
1 Invoke the marking menu (using either the right-click or holding the
right mouse down).
2 Drag the cursor to the appropriate item.
3 Once the cursor is over the appropriate item, release the cursor and click
the item.
The marking menu item for Move is highlighted and the commandtip for the
highlighted item is shown.
Gesture Behavior
Marking Menu | 11
An alternative technique to execute a command in the marking menu involves
gesture behavior. This is useful when you are well conversant with the marking
menu layout and need a faster way to execute commands. Hence before using
gesture behavior, a little practice with the marking menu to develop some
muscle memory (familiarity) around the layout of the marking menu is helpful.
A gesture consists of starting the marking menu (right mouse down),
immediately dragging the cursor to the location of the intended marking
menu wedge and releasing the right mouse button before the entire marking
menu is displayed. If these operations are completed within 250 milliseconds,
only the selected wedge is briefly displayed to confirm that the operation was
performed.
Here are the steps for executing a gesture,
1 Start the marking menu (right mouse down).
2 Within 250 ms, drag the cursor in the direction of the wedge for the
appropriate operation.
3 Release the right mouse button.
During the drag gesture, a trail is visible in the canvas, showing the cursor
path. When you release the cursor, the selected wedge is displayed for a brief
time span. The command corresponding to this wedge then gets executed.
Visible train while dragging cursor in a gesture movement
12 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
Marking menu wedge appears when cursor is released
Context Menu
The marking menu displays a context menu in its 4th wedge. After you invoke
the marking menu, drag the cursor to the appropriate operation on the context
menu. When you release the cursor, the operation is selected.
The contents of the context menu change based on the current context
depending on,
■ Whether modeling mode/ sketch mode is on
■ Whether any entity is selected
Marking Menu | 13
Context menu in modeling mode
14 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
Context menu in sketching mode
Context menu for Face selection
Marking Menu | 15
Context menu for edge selection
The context menu has a default menu item, which varies depending on the
context and selection. The default menu item appears in bold text. When you
select the 4th wedge of the marking menu in a gesture movement, the default
context menu item is invoked.
Primary Marking Menu Behavior when a Command is Active
When a command is active, certain items in the marking menu display a
different behavior depending on the context. The 3rd wedge item which
represents ‘Undo when executed outside a command, now assumes Cancel
behavior within a command.
16 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
Item no. 3 represents 'Cancel' when in mid-command
Item no 3. represents Undo outside a command
When a command is executing and you select a different command, the
current command is implicitly accepted if the input is valid. After this happens
the new command is started. This technique can be utilized for quickly
approving a command and ending it. The seventh wedge of the marking
menu, which represents a Finish action when a command is active, is an easy
way to do this. When you have provided the correct input for a command
and wish to OK it, bring up marking menu and click the Finish item to
implicitly OK the command and end it.
Marking Menu | 17
Item no 7. represents 'Finish' which can be used to commit an active command
Selection commands
Mechanical designs often have many objects in the canvas which can make
selecting the appropriate object difficult.
The Select Other navigation commands in Inventor Fusion help you to select
obscured or difficult-to-select geometry. The different options for the Select
Other are accessible through a glyph which can be seen when you hover the
cursor over a face/edge. This face/ edge is termed as the root face/ edge.
Click the glyph to see the fly-out menu containing the following options:
Select Other while hovering over an edgeSelect Other while hovering over a face
1 By Depth
2 Neighbor
18 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
3 Feature
4 Parent Component
The Parent Component option directly selects the component which is the
parent for the face edge. When you select By Depth, Neighbor, or Feature, a
selection strip is displayed. The strip contains several frames each representing
a possible selection.
When you hover over a frame in the selection strip, the corresponding element
is highlighted in the model. When you click a frame in the selection strip,
the corresponding element is selected.
By Depth Selection
When you choose the ‘By Depth selection, eligible faces/ edges/ work planes/
work axes/ work points/ profiles that are partially or wholly obscured by the
selected element are listed on the selection strip.
Selection commands | 19
In the following example, eligible faces with different depth order are listed
in the selection strip.
When you highlight the first frame in the
Z Depth selection strip, the front most
overlapping face element is also highlighted.
Neighbor Selection
When you choose the Topological Neighbor selection, eligible elements that
are topologically connected to the root face/ edge are listed on the selection
strip. For the root face, list of connected edges and edge loops is displayed
while for a root edge a list of connected faces is displayed.
20 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
The next frame selected in the strip causes
an eligible element with a different Z
Depth to be highlighted.
In the following example, the topological neighbors of a root face are listed
in the selection strip. The last item in the strip represents all the edge loops
connected with the root face.
When you highlight a frame in the selection strip, the corresponding edge element
is also highlighted.
The last frame causes all edge loops to be
highlighted.
Feature Selection
When you choose the Feature selection, eligible feature objects that are partially
or wholly obscured by the selected element are listed on the selection strip.
Selection commands | 21
In the following example, both the extrusion and the fillet are eligible features.
The icons on the selection strip make it easy to identify the features by type.
The icon in the selected frame in the selection strip identifies the extrude feature.
The icon in the selected frame in the selection strip represents the fillet feature.
Parent Component Selection
When you choose the Parent Component Selection, the parent component
for the root face/edge gets selected. It is a short cut way to select the parent
component of an entity.
22 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
In the following example, the parent component of the root face gets selected.
The parent component option from the
fly-out was selected for the root face.
Consequently the parent component of
the root face is selected.
Enhanced tooltip
Many of the ribbon commands have enhanced (also referred to as progressive)
tooltip which display information for interaction with commands. Initially,
the name of the command and a short description of the command is
displayed. If you continue to pause the cursor, the commandtip expands to
display additional information.
Enhanced tooltip | 23
Browser and Copy/Paste
In Inventor Fusion, the browser presents an organized view of the data in your
design. Objects selected in the browser are selected in the graphics and
vice-versa. You can create new component instances in the browser. Bodies
can be dragged or copied and pasted from one component to another.
1 Toggle Favorites Folder
2 Toggle Information Panel
3 Child Component Node
4 Body Node
5 Feature Node
6 Pattern Node
7 Occurrence Node
8 Information Panel
24 | Chapter 1 Autodesk Inventor Fusion TP2
The blue node in the browser denotes the active component in your design.
By double-clicking the component icon you can change the active component.
This is important when creating new sketches, work features and features. All
new objects that you create belong to the active component.
Information Panel
In Inventor Fusion, the model information is readily available. The browser
includes an information panel for each node, which you can switch on or off.
Pause the cursor over a component, body, feature, pattern, or occurrence to
view information about it.
Create New Component Instances
Right-click the top-level Document node and select New Component from
the context menu to create a child component under the document. Similarly,
Browser and Copy/Paste | 25
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