Autodesk Inventor software can be used to save time, money, and scrap in manufacturing. Successfully manufacturing a product is not only about the final product, it also includes how you get there. In this class, we will show you how to use Inventor to work backwards to develop all the process steps of manufacturing a part. You first design the finished part you need, then use iParts and iLogic to engineer all the steps that are needed to get from a block of steel to a finished part. We will show you a workflow that takes advantage of the associative abilities of the "i" tools. As your finished product evolves, all of the production steps change as well. This workflow enables you to develop documentation for inspection, fabrication, work holding, fixturing, and machining 3D models of each progression. You can use stress analysis of parts in process to ensure that the process won't damage the final product. We will also offer tips and tricks that will help manufacturing engineers incorporate Inventor on the shop floor.

This seminar will cover design for digital manufacturing (DfDM) with a focus on additive manufacturing (DfAM). Capitalizing on the learnings from more than 1,000 projects posted on the You3Dit marketplace, we’ll walk our attendees through a DfAM process for translating customer needs into a design optimized for additive manufacturing, enabling performance, process, and product breakthroughs. We will describe high-level DfDM implications for common digital manufacturing tools, such as laser cutters, computer numerical control (CNC) machines, waterjet, and more. We will describe the overall DfDM process in the context of Fusion 360 software and how that workflow is optimized to support DfAM and other digital manufacturing technologies. Lastly, as a group we’ll create a set of design rules related to a new and powerful manufacturing process: “X.” The class will last 60 minutes, including 15 minutes at the end for questions and answers.

Design advancements are exciting and offer solutions previously unthought-of to complex problems. But we can’t forget the manufacturing processes needed to fabricate and eventually implement that new and optimized design. This class will focus on the emerging Generative Design technology in Fusion 360, and multiple ways to manufacture those designs, capitalizing on additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, and a combination of both. The goal will be to explore design and manufacturing workflows to bring this emerging technology into the fold for potential users with varying levels of manufacturing capability. This class will address the workflow from initial generation to final part, focusing on the best practices found along the way.

Fusion 360 software is a complete product-design tool that enables users to go from concept to production with integrated CAD, CAM, and CAE technology. We hear that a lot, but in reality, what does it actually mean? Is it the Swiss Army knife of design software? Can it do everything? This class will take attendees through the complete design and manufacturing process, from initial concept scribbles all the way through to generating files for 3D printing and toolpaths for a computer numerical control (CNC) job. We'll kick off with bringing some drawings into the Fusion 360 environment and using them as template. Then we will move on to some basic simulations, carrying out a design change and generating some communication visuals with custom materials. Finally, we'll hit up the Manufacture workspace to generate some toolpaths for CNC machining and potentially fire up a CNC machine (using Fusion Team to share tool libraries).

Estimating and understanding costs is paramount to the success of any project. This course will show how to use Process Analysis 360 software to model your manufacturing processes, test various options, and generate associated costs for capital equipment, energy, labor, consumables, and waste.

This course will describe the advantages and challenges of using 3D printing for shoe manufacturing. It will include how OESH Shoes is using a special 3D printing process for production manufacturing. Key to the process is a pellet-based extruding 3D printer that is specifically designed for extruding elastomeric materials suitable for shoe components. The printer prints directly from readily available thermoplastic pellets rather than from filament, and enables us to use blowing agents in both chemical and physical form as well as microcellular expanding agents to produce cellular and foamed materials that are particularly suitable for shoe soles. We have a bank of these 3D printers all operating simultaneously, each printer producing its own made-to-order pair of shoes or components. This process enables us to offer a much broader range of styles and sizes than is achievable with traditional manufacturing, and it will enable us to produce customized shoes. This session features Fusion 360.

Deriving a product design into a manufacturing process is a continuous challenge. Catching up with the latest design changes is often a manual and error-prone, slow process performed in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. With the Vault PLM solution, this process can be vastly improved as both the engineering BOM and the manufacturing BOM are accessible and linked in a single system. Workflow mechanisms help ensure that data received from engineering gets transitioned properly and extended to define manufacturing processes. The resulting manufacturing then gets published to ERP upon approval of manufacturing change orders. In this session, you will see how this process is managed in an integrated environment. We will use a custom-built smart editor to automate this process as much as possible and to provide visual indicators to help ensure a proper alignment of structures in an easy way.

Preparing your designs for manufacture isn't just about knocking out a 2D drawing and hitting print. There's a ton of metadata which can be created and capitalized on to improve the flow of information and the components themselves through the manufacturing process. These days, automated manufacturing with computer numerical control (CNC) is commonplace; therefore, it is necessary to have an efficient process for creating CNC cut files or models. In this class, we cover several ways to prepare and export data to CAM software ready for CNC machining. Which one is best for your company or process? Exporting that manufacturing data from Inventor® software is only part of the process. Learn how you can deliver that information to those within manufacturing and procurement. The class also features iPropWiz V6, an amazing Inventor add-in that not only supercharges iProperties, but also makes it easier to create CNC cut files.

Additive manufacturing doesn’t have to be complex. Autodesk Netfabb is the right tool to reduce the complexity and streamline your AM workflow. This presentation will cover the end-to-end workflow of the additive manufacturing process using Netfabb and Simulation Utility. We’ll focus on the most challenging AM process, DMLS, in this presentation. The aim of the presentation is to show how Autodesk Netfabb will help you make the most of additive manufacturing starting from a CAD model all the way to build preparation and simulation build results.

Composite materials and particularly carbon fiber are some of the hottest materials in the manufacturing world today. Renowned for their high strength-to-weight ratio, carbon fiber parts are becoming more popular in traditional fields such as automotive and construction. Carbon fiber parts are created using additive-manufacturing processes and advanced techniques. Due to their high cost, efficiency is crucial to these kinds of parts. Autodesk, Inc., has created a manufacturing suite for the design, simulation, and manufacturing of composites materials such as carbon fiber. This platform will cover all of the production strategies that are currently in the market, including hand layup, fiber placement, and tape laying. This is an introductory course to the entire platform. Also included is the end-to-end composite manufacturing process. This session features TruPlan.

Additive manufacturing, commonly known as rapid prototyping, is becoming an extremely fast-growing manufacturing process, enabling the quick manufacture of complex parts at minimal cost. However, there appears to be a great deal of confusion and misinformation regarding process capabilities and uses. In this class we will help you to understand the information surrounding this significant manufacturing process. You will gain an understanding of the current 3D printing techniques, the capabilities and limitations of the technology, and the brief history of rapid prototyping.

With the release of Inventor 2023 software, users can now send their CAD data directly from Inventor to Autodesk Fusion 360 software. This opens a host of new capabilities for Inventor users in generative design, simulation, and subtractive and additive manufacturing. This presentation will demonstrate, through compelling customer case studies, how Inventor users can now take advantage of this workflow to explore the benefits of using metal additive manufacturing to manufacture their products. Metal additive and hybrid manufacturing can offer tangible advantages in product performance due to the design freedoms the process enables, manufacturing sustainability, supply lead time, and component cost. In addition, the advances in accessible hardware and software is making this technology feasible for nearly all industrial sectors. With the connection from Inventor to Autodesk Fusion 360, you can now learn how these advantages in metal additive manufacturing can also benefit your business today.

Autodesk Netfabb is the right tool to reduce the complexity and streamline your AM workflow. This hands-on session will cover the end-to-end workflow of the additive manufacturing process using Netfabb and Simulation Utility. We’ll focus on the most challenging AM process, DMLS, in this session. The aim of the hands-on session is to show how Autodesk Netfabb will help you make the most of additive manufacturing starting from a CAD model all the way to build preparation and acquiring simulation build results.

Manufacturing efficiency is critical to providing the margins necessary to succeed as a business. Factory Design Suite provides planning and simulation tools that can drive well-built factory lines. In this class you will learn how to define an effective manufacturing workflow with Process Analysis 360 software, and you'll see how to optimize the process when it is installed in your factory. We will give a detailed overview of the similarities of and differences between process analysis and material flow analysis so that you will understand how and when to use each of these critical Factory Design Suite capabilities.

Explore capabilities that accurately convey manufacturing process and design intent, while saving time by avoiding duplication and manual data entry. Participants will explore the promotion of sketch dimensions to 3D annotations, proper utilization of model states to demonstrate manufacturing stages, associative identification methods to inscribe critical information onto the model, methods to capture surface treatments or final production procedure, and the delivery of multiple downstream artifacts.

This class is a follow up to “Intro to Composite Manufacturing Platform.” This hands-on course will follow the entire manufacturing process for composites, carbon fiber, and parts. It will begin with determining manufacturing strategies with the help of TruPlan software. Then we will use TruNest Composites software to nest the 2D carbon fiber plies for material efficiency. Since the carbon fiber fabric is time-sensitive, temperature-controlled material, it must be followed through the manufacturing process with high precision. The complete lifecycle of each roll of material and each carbon fiber part will be tracked accurately using TruNest Composites software. Finally, when the 2D shapes are cut using part programs generated by TruNest software, they will be laid up on the 3D part mold by hand, using laser projectors to assist with layup. The laser projectors that assist with ply layup will be programmed using TruLaser software. This session features TruNest Composites, TruLaser, and TruPlan.

AnyCAD lets you associatively update designs from any CAD tool, letting you connect design across disciplines and teams. This class will cover how AnyCAD can automatically update toolpaths, increasing the productivity in your company or shop. Even in-house design teams can often span multiple products and use many design formats. Instead of creating 2D drawings and putting your CAM programmers back at square one, or forcing them to use a CAD-specific CAM product, use AnyCAD to connect your CAD—including SOLIDWORKS, Siemens NX, PTC Creo, IGES, and STEP—to your favorite CAM tool. If you get various parts from contractors or customers, and you don’t want to purchase a costly license of their design software when small changes are needed during the manufacturing process, AnyCAD can bring the designs into Inventor software or Fusion 360 software, while maintaining associativity to the original design. This class will show you how to unlock the connectivity and flexibility of AnyCAD and apply it to your manufacturing process.

Learn how to kickstart your design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) process by using Fusion Lifecycle software for rapid innovation and concurrent design. Conventional design methodologies tend to be linear with siloed functional groups relegated to their respective touchpoints in the design development lifecycle. The complexities and nuances of DfAM require a modern and flexible approach that facilitates additive manufacturing’s unique design space and value proposition. With an emphasis on exploring divergent and creative thinking, we will examine how Fusion Lifecycle can manage innovative design development for DfAM and become the foundation of a digital product thread.

You don't often take an additive part directly from print bed to installation. Tolerance requirements almost always dictate the need for subtractive postmachining to ensure surfaces meet design specs and tolerances. In this class, we'll take a generativity-designed part from design to preparation for hybrid manufacturing. Along the way, we'll explore optimization with generative design, design for manufacturing, and work-holding design, and we'll see how the mechanical design tools, FEA capabilities, and hybrid manufacturing environment in Fusion 360 software can reduce friction and streamline the process from design to manufactured part.

This class presents an end-to-end solution for the automated composite manufacturing process. This class will cover advanced lay-up design strategies such as fiber placement, tape layering, and robotics lay-up which are utilized when programming automatic material layup equipment. High composite production rates will be covered through automated robotic material nesting and taping.