By John Evans

Training is important, and while Autodesk Inventor is one of the easiest MCAD programs to learn, training nevertheless remains critical. I remember a friend who would tell me that he never put his team members through Inventor training, because it was so simple to pick up. And then he’d rant to me, “If I want it done right, I have to do it myself!” I think I found a solution to his problem.

TEDCF is a publishing company providing training services for several CAD platforms, including Autodesk Inventor. For Inventor 2013, David Melvin, P.E., compiled seven courses comprising 2,200 topics providing 44 hours of instruction.

Each course is available for purchase as an individual download, or else all of them bundled together. The courses are as follows:

• Solid Modeling (9 hours)
• Assemblies and Advanced Concepts (9 hours)
• 2D Drafting and Customization (6 hours)
• Sheet Metal Design (8 hours)
• Tube and Pipe Routed Systems (5 hours)
• Accelerated Productivity for Inventor Studio (3 hours)
• iLogic Made Simple (4 hours; available in later in July)

Criteria

I reviewed about a fifth of the course, looking for key topics, and then letting my curiosity take me from there. Overall, I would rate the courses as follows:

2/5	Navigation/Ease of Use
4/5	Lesson Content and Thoroughness
4/5	Lesson Speed
4/5	Advanced Concepts
4/5	Overall quality

Navigation/Ease of Use. The TEDCF course comprises of videos viewable only through the installed viewer, plus the sets of tutorial content files. The viewer contains standard video playback controls, as well as a playback speed controller that allows me to slow things down, should I need this following the steps carefully. Conversely, speeding up playback lets me review lessons.

Menus provide access to History, Search, Support, and Lessons. As an alternative to starting the viewer directly, you can access it from Inventor’s ribbon. See figure 1.

Figure 1: The TEDCF user interface in Inventor

The firm’s online site lets anyone access the player and some overview course materials at no cost. Once the player is installed on your computer, you enter a registration number to access the complete lessons. This action generates a download of all class materials and videos, thereby bypassing future connectivity problems.

The Lesson Player’s control activates a pull down with all lessons listed in order of the lesson plan. Each is linked to its respective course. There are, however, no separator bars, and so the lesson names appear as one long list. See figure 2. This should not be a problem, however, if you go sequentially through lessons by clicking Next at the end of each one. Use the list only to skip ahead, or for reviewing lessons.

Figure 2: Selecting lessons non-sequentially

As I found with most other video training systems, key words are difficult to predict. For example, my search of ‘BOM’ returned no results, but entering ‘Bill of Materials’ returned 23 linked results. The developer tells me that the full search results are still being compiled, and should be available by the end of July.

The History list applies only to lessons viewed using certain controls. Picking a lesson directly from the list does not, unfortunately, add its name to History. (Lessons are added to History only when Next is clicked at the end.) I think this is a small bug, but it does keep the history list from getting cluttered. This said, the course is designed as an ongoing tutorial, building from beginning to end, and so I would recommend completing it in this manner.

Lesson Content. The content is great. In almost all the cases where I looked for help, I found good information, and then was pleasantly surprised by useful touches. For instance, whenever a dimension is given, metric and English conversions are highlighted beside the view area. Handy page overlays are common when things like Application Settings are mentioned.

There is no mention whatsoever of wires in routed systems, or any result when I searched for them, because TEDCF has no courses for Inventor’s Cable and Harness Routed Systems module. I will admit that the section is titled descriptively “Tube and Pipe Routed Systems.”

Lesson Speed. Lessons are mildly fast-paced, which I would rate as just about right for me. I prefer faster paced programs, and then I replay them to pick out fine details. New users of Inventor will most likely have to replay lessons.

Advanced Concepts. There are a good number of advanced concepts spread throughout the course. I give it a 4/5, because I would have liked even more, but for the price and level of instruction I found it well-balanced.

Overall Quality. The overall quality of the course is nice. The narrator’s voice and the audio tracks are clear and distinct. The video size and resolution is good. Nothing is perfect, and while there are areas that could be improved, the content is the most critical feature and is quite good.

For lessons that are unavoidably complex in nature, these are sometimes summarized by the narrator, along with simple, written steps at the end of the respective lessons. I particularly appreciated this. See figure 3.

Figure 3: Summarized steps for lesson plan

Solid Modeling

Solid modeling is well covered, because it looks into numerous strategies for effectively using Inventor’s tools. The modeling tutorials I looked covered plastics modeling, and so it introduced plastic modeling-specific workflows along the way, such as for ribs and lips. There are some good work-around strategies presented for difficult-to-model shapes. See figure 4. Additional tutorials cover general shapes, such as screws, housings, springs, pipe fittings, and sheet metal designs with hole patterns.

Advanced topics include parameters and linked spreadsheets, advanced thread settings, repairing imported surfaces, and an introduction to Inventor Fusion.

Figure 4: Plastic design is described in detail

Assemblies and Advanced Concepts

Assembly modeling is well covered, including all types of constraints, as well as driving gears, adaptive springs, and more. Contact detection and collisions are explained and used in different scenarios during later portions of the course – just as with many other aspects of Inventor.

iParts, iAssemblies, and iFeatures are included, as well as numerous design accelerators such as shafts and keyways. Levels of detail, bills of material, top-down design, and a spiffy adaptive spring design are discussed at length. See figure 5.

Figure 5: Learning about reducing part counts through shrinkwrapping

2D Drafting and Customization

As you would expect, all view and annotation types are covered, including custom dimension styles and editing. The customization section includes most everything, from materials and appearance styles to ribbons and the user interface. See figure 6.

Figure 6: Generating 2D plans from 3D models in Inventor

Sheet Metal Design

The Sheet Metal instruction is well done, with practical development and enforcement of styles and templates. Good amount of time is devoted to bends, corners, seams, and so on, and then goes further into punches, publishing, and just about every aspect of this type of modeling. See figure 7.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the instruction includes multi-body sheet metal modeling strategies, where an entire assembly is developed in the part modeling environment, finishing off the assembly before converting components to sheet metal parts, and successfully creating flat patterns for each.

Figure 7: Creating a sheet metal assembly

Tube- and Pipe-Routed Systems

Routed Systems is a complex area of Inventor, with so many new styles and workflows to learn. Accordingly, the instruction is detailed, describing everything from making routes to generating BOMs and authoring components. See figure 8. The instructions include a new workflow and Inventor component (included in the download) that TEDCF says it developed on its own to help users build easier-to-manage systems.

Figure 8: Routing tubes through 3D models

Accelerated Productivity for Inventor Studio

A good description is given of the many aspects of the geometry of lighting, and how Inventor Studio functions. The lesson includes typical tips of what to expect in each situation. Great explanations of each light’s makeup are offered, along with basic practical methods of lighting objects. Similar time is devoted to paths, analysis of motion, surface properties, video production, cameras, and much more. See figure 9.

Figure 9: Placing cameras in 3D

Closing Thoughts

Currently, the company is advertising a July sale on the Ultimate Bundle for US$299.95, instead of the standard price of US$919.70. (Prices include download and DVD.) For a few hundred bucks, this is the most thorough course I have ever seen.

While there is no shortage of advanced topics, the real gems in this series are how well Inventor tools are covered, along with continuous reinforcement of best courses of action. The author doesn’t just state that a particular workflow is best. Each tool is covered in a fluid context, building on previous steps, and then merging them into the next topic. Where the standard steps begin to create a problem (or a future problem), the lesson points this out as the work is completed. Then, students are instructed to edit certain steps, and so guided through optional workflows that produce better results, along with explanations to reinforce the issues and how to avoid them.

The section on iLogic section was, unfortunately, not completed in time for my review, but I suspect that it will be as evenly covered as the other sections. (The company states all the lessons should be completed in July.) Perhaps, they’ll add in a few wire lessons, too.

TEDCF Publishing’s Ultimate Training Bundle for Inventor is definitely a recommended course and, for the sale price, it’s nearly a steal.

 

About the Author

John Evans has 30 years experience in the aerospace design, engineering and fabrication, as well as 18 years with MEP and civil engineering. He is certified with AutoCAD Civil 3D and Inventor.