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Game ON. Inventor Fusion Tech Preview Ready for Direct/Parametric Mashup

by Josh on June 24, 2009 · Comments

There’s a wave of particularly large significance in the world of parametric, history-based modeling these warm summer days. A wave directed straight at your inability to manipulate 3D geometry any which way you want. Many a company has taken on the task of harnessing more ways to fiddle with your solids. Now, it’s Autdesk’s turn.

At the 2008 Autodesk University, Inventor Fusion was introduced to show just how serious Autodesk was about providing the option for CAD users to choose between history-based or history-free modeling, mixing them together, mashing them around and coming back to either whenever the need be. Today, they release it on the masses.


One more approach to History-free modeling please. Thank you.
You may or may not know, but what’s being called history-free, direct or explicit modeling is causing a big stir in the whole CAD/PLM industry. PTC, makers of Pro/E have Wildfire5 (with CoCreate direct editing funtionality), SpaceClaim leaves history in the dust, and Siemens has the buzz with Sychronous Technology in SolidEdge and NX. In the CAD circles, let’s just say that a couple horses have been pulverized and another is on backorder.

The new Inventor?
This isn’t being booked as the new Inventor. Yet. This release is called a Technology Preview, being made available through Autodesk Labs. That means you get to try it all out, let them know what sucks and doesn’t suck to get all the buggy issues worked out. But yeah, ‘Inventor’ is in the name, History-free modeling is the wave of the future, so pretty much my guess, it’s the new Inventor.

Why it’s cool? or is it?
I use a couple 3D CAD programs, mostly SolidWorks (history-based parametric) and SpaceClaim (history-free explicit). This is interesting to me because it combines (what I would call) the best of both, although my opinion, from a user standpoint having limited use with the current version of Inventor, would be SolidWorks and SpaceClaim already do those two things the best. But, I haven’t tried Fusion or seen actual assembly/drawing/production capabilities, which always get left out in the fancy push/pull demos. But if it does allow someone to intermingle modeling methods which make design quicker, that is gonna be cool.

Besides all of that mumble-jumble above, Fusion has an interesting looking set of functionality, which you’ll see below in some short video examples. Particular items to note are the circular context menu (marking menu) that can be be accessed via right-click and gestures. The Flexible Product Structure is also an interesting take on being able to manipulate components as quickly as you can drag, drop and create a folder like structure on the screen. Now, all they need is a good logo.

So, here are the videos. First have a look at Kenneth Wong, contruting editor of Desktop Engineering Magazine, actually using and having conflicts with the product. Then check out the Autodesk Lab videos. Will it be all it’s cracked up to be? Tell us what you think.

To view more, check out the Labs Youtube channel.

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Comments

Tagged as: inventor fusion

  • daniel
    Thanks for the heads up for the Inventor Fusion beta. Will definitely have to play around with this some more.

    The circular context menu is neat. I see that Solidworks 2010 Beta also has a Mouse gesture support to execute the most relevant commands. Per the what's new PDF: You can use a mouse gesture as a shortcut to execute a command, similar to a keyboard shortcut. Once you learn command mappings, you can use mouse gestures to invoke mapped commands quickly.

    To activate a mouse gesture, from the graphics area, right-click and drag in one of eight directions: Straight up or down, straight left or right, or along a diagonal.
    When you right-click and drag, a guide appears, showing the command mappings for the eight gesture directions and highlighting the command you are about to select.
  • Mouse gestures in SW at last!!!
    But Inventor Fusion looks very cool, this way it doesn't mind how you model it will always be good. The only problem I always see with direct modeling is what makes your relations. But I hope it is going to work like the vids.
  • diverso
    Josh,
    I was at the 150th San Diego User Group Meeting, where Mr. Jeff Ray was asked about History-Free modeling in SW, his answer:

    Not happening, he said R&D is further devoloping Instant 3D, so that is seamless enough to forget that HFM even exist.

    I can see how HFM could be nice for conceptual design, but taking over the CAD industry, com'on! How would you Automate, Configure, Standarize or plain old Modify something without history.

    It would be like making a Machinist in to a Sculptor.
  • Yep, I see your point and agree to a certain point. The only reason I wouldn't dicount this technology completely is 1) for the way it's pushing innovation in the CAD apps and 2) that it's possible we, as designers, engineers and yep, machinist, may benefit from workflows that evolve out of these new functions.

    If you try it out. let me know what you think. please!
  • Chris Loughnane
    When I hear "offers design suggestions" all I can think of is the Microsoft Office Paperclip.

    I am yet to be sold on direct editing. While it surely seems to be more intuitive and thus offers an easier learning curve, I wonder if it's scalable. Does an expert SW or Pro|e user create a more robust model than an expert in Spaceclaim/Cocreate/etc.? Is direct editing going to try to replace Rhino or other more ID-based software packages?

    Then I hear you say that Wildfire 5 has direct editing functionality? Is that more like the instand3d option in solidworks or the ISDX extension in pro|e?

    I am all for any technology that helps me get my job done faster, but there seems to be too much fuzziness at the moment.

    I am interested in everyone's thoughts.
  • I don't have enough experience using all the different MCAD packages that offer direct editing. I am trying out the Fusion Preview and see things I like, but need to test it on production models. Wildfire 5 brought over some direct editing capabilities from CoCreate after PTC purchased them.

    I agree on the fuzziness. I see example using only parts and the demo typically doesn't show what happens when there's a conflict, like Ken shows above.

    If a developer were to ask me what I needed, I'd tell them, I need ways to make changes faster without touching the sketches and opening parts. They may take this as, I want direct editing functionality. But really there's a lot in history-based modeling that allows me to do this.

    What I hope out of all this is that they do find ways to streamline my workflow, my interaction with production and with other engineers. Whether it's simplifying what's shown in a model tree on the screen or giving me all the info the model contains, I don't really care too much.
  • Steve
    I think SW is foolish if they don't add serious direct modeling tools to their base product. Direct modeling is a very "dangerous" concept why, because it levels the "playing field". No worries about asking my client "what version of SW do you need it in..." or dealing with neutral files that need a lot of cleaning up before doing FEA and gods forbid that the client wants the design optimized. I'm seriously looking at SpaceClaim Style to add to my "toolbox".
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