What is Inventor?
Inventor is a 3-D software that is used by inventors to create objects to carry out a task. You can also use Inventor to create blueprints or used the 3-D printer, which is what we are doing. You can also assemble different parts in different documents and assemble them all together at the end.
Autodesk Inventor: How to Create Widget 4
Widget sketches I completed before putting them in Inventor
In order to create widget 4, I opened up Inventor and selected the option "part"
Next, I selected "start 2D sketch" on the top left corner
As you can see above, I was given the option of which plane to select to begin my drawing. I selected the vertical x-axis, then began my sketch using the line tool.
I sketched out my 2-D drawing, then formatted the proper dimensions into the drawing using the dimension tool. I then hit "finish 2-D sketch in the top right corner, then clicked the "extrude" button.
After extruding 1 inch , I was greeted with this.
I then edited my sketch by clicking "start 2-D" sketch again and clicking on the plane I wanted to edit, in this case, the back of the widget. I started by measuring from the top left of the widget and measured out .25 inches right. I then measured straight down .5 inches, right .5 inches, then straight back up .5 inches.
I then clicked "finish 2-D sketch" and clicked the extrude button.
I then changed the extrude setting to "cut" and cut out my outlined area.
Now that my widget looks like this, I was able to cut out the part on the right side using the same technique in the last step. I started at the top right and measured left .25 inches, down .365 inches, right .25 inches, and back up .365 inches.
I then cut out the outlined are again; and I was left with this.
Other widgets
3-D Printing
After finishing my widget in inventor, I put my widget into the maker bot software by saving my inventor file and opening it in makerbot. I then scaled the widget appropriately so it would fit in the 3-D printer. After I got everything on makerbot squared away, I saved the makerbot file onto a hard drive and went down to the 3-D printer.
I then put my hard drive into the 3-D printer and scrolled over to the file I saved onto it and selected "begin print".
My widget in the middle of printing
Finished product