FEATURES OF AUTOMATION OF MODELING PROCESSES IN THE AUTODESK INVENTOR PACKAGE

Abstract

The paper considers the issues of automating some frequently performed operations in modeling parts and adapting the Autodesk Inventor package to simplify the designer’s and engineer’s work by developing of additional tools for various programing environments, in particular, "3D model" and "Sketch". The tasks were solved due to the built-in programming system Inventor - the program functionality, which allows you to use its tools through your own user code. The purpose of this work is to develop and test algorithms and the corresponding code, expands the capabilities of the basic computer modeling tools of the Inventor program to increase the designer efficiency and reduce the time spent on routine operations. A collection of tools have been developed and implement into practice that allow you to add new operations for constructing geometric primitives that are not currently provided in the program (but were present in others, for example, in the AutoCAD package): this is the construction of common tangents and fillets of circles, the construction of work planes or body faces at a given angle, creating conical chamfers, displaying the model in a dimetric projection. Programming was conducted inside the Autodesk Inventor environment using the Inventor API and the Visual Basic language. It should be noted that mastering the possibilities of creating their own applications for adapting the Autodesk Inventor package (and not only it), which are studied at the university in the framework of computer design disciplines, will allow students to become qualified specialists in the future, both in the design of modern components and assemblies, and in the adaptation of existing software to the needs of a specific production. The use of the proposed applications is organized through the creation of command buttons located on the toolbar. The introduction of this application was carried out in the educational process and is recommended for production, which will significantly speed up and simplify the work with the package.