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January 31, 2012

Inventor of the Month - January 2012

Autodesk has named Tolar Manufacturing, a California-based manufacturer of transit shelters, street furniture and advertising kiosks, as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for January 2012. Tolar was recognized for its use of Autodesk software in creating custom products tailored to the needs of municipalities throughout North America.

Tolar offers more than 500 shelter types within the company’s four main product lines, each designed and engineered to be long-lasting, attractive and environmentally friendly. This includes complying with a wide range of building code requirements across North America and community design requirements from economical transit shelters to high volume bus rapid transit facilities.

Tolar has significantly expanded its Digital Prototyping portfolio in recent years and now relies on Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Inventor Publisher, Autodesk Showcase and Autodesk Vault software.

On a typical project, Tolar begins by creating 3D models of the proposed shelter using Inventor software. To further communicate design intent to customers, Tolar can create a near-photorealistic image of the model in Showcase software, and then superimpose it over an actual streetscape from the customer’s town, enabling customers to see exactly what Tolar’s product will look like when installed in the community.
   
Sonoma County transit shelter manufactured by Tolar Manufacturing and designed with the help of Autodesk Product Design Suite (Photo: Business Wire) Next, the Inventor manufacturing models are used to fabricate the multiple components that make up the shelter. These models provide clear, concise and comprehensive communications, resulting in fewer errors on the shop floor.

Additionally, Tolar uses Vault software to centrally store and manage its digital data, making it easier for the company to access and reuse drawings of specific parts for multiple projects rather than having to start each time from scratch - significantly reducing project turnaround time. Tolar also uses Inventor Publisher software to create installation instructions for customers.

Tolar Manufacturing

Inventor of the Month - January 2012 Official Press Release

Here is the YouTube video about Tolar Manufacturing.


Image Credits: Tolar Manufacturing.

January 30, 2012

Inventor Fusion for the Mac - Part 2 - Updated.

Just to let everybody know, Autodesk added another video about Inventor Fusion for the Mac on their Facebook page. This one is Part 4 and is associated with "Joints and Manual Joint Connections"

Here is a link back to the original post that has the updated video.

Inventor Fusion for Mac - Part 2 - Updated

January 26, 2012

All Autodesk Apps in One Place

If you own any type of Apple mobile device or Android mobile device, now there is one place that you can see all the Apps that Autodesk has available on the Apple App Store and also the Android Marketplace. Also, unlike some apps from other companies, most of these apps are Free and the ones that do have a cost, they are the same price at both the Apple and Android stores. Now the only thing left to do is start getting some of these apps onto the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Autodesk Apps


Previous posts about Android and Apple Apps.

January 24, 2012

Inventor Fusion for Mac - Part 2

Autodesk Inventor Fusion 2012: 3D modeling software for rapid design changes
Imagine this except it says for the Mac
At the end of November, early December at Autodesk University 2011 in Las Vegas, Autodesk gave everybody a sneak peek at Inventor Fusion Coming to the Mac. At the time they said to keep an eye out on their Inventor Fusion Facebook page for updates. Within the last week they finally gave us some more info and some new videos to watch.

A few of the questions that were asked were what are the system requirements? Answer: If you are running Snow Leapord or Lion you are ready. Also, Inventor Fusion for Mac Technology is a native 64-bit app so having more memory in your Mac the better.

Included below are videos from the Inventor Fusion Facebook page.



Fusion for Mac - Part 1, simple part modeling


Fusion for Mac - Part 2, Simple View Settings and Effects


Fusion for Mac - Part 3, Inventor Import


Fusion for Mac Part 4 - Joints and manual joint connections

More news about this Technology Preview hopefully coming at a later date. When I get more news I will upate in a Part 3 or possibly a Part 4.

Here is a link to the original post I did on November 30, 2011: Inventor Fusion Coming to the Mac

January 17, 2012

Tip #6 - Autodesk Inventor 2012 – Sheet Metal Flanges Offsets

Here I am going to show how to use on sheet metal flange command but have two different flange offsets.
SM1
Here you can start the flange command and select the two flanges that you want to create. You will notice the Glyphs that are in the middle of the flanges. Here is where you can change the style of flanges that these are.
SM2
Select the Glyph and a Bend Edit dialog comes up. Select whether it will be a Width, Offset or From To flange, in this example I am using the Offset flange. You can select each flange Glyph and change how much offset you have on each one. Here is the end result, one flange has a 1” offset and the other has a 1-1/2” offset.
SM3

I am also including a video to show how it is done.

January 4, 2012

Different Ways to Follow Inventor Topix

Starting out with 2012 I am going to show the many ways that you can follow Inventor Topix either on the Internet, Tablet device of a Smartphone.

The first way is of course checking the website for periodic updates. This way is fine but may miss a post every now and then. The following ways you get updated regularly and can then click on links provided and get the full post on what is happening at Inventor Topix. Hope to talk to some new people soon.

You can follow me using an RSS Reader:
feeds.feedburner.com/InventorTopix

You can follow me on Twitter:
twitter.com/InventorTopixJD

You can follow me on Google+:
Google+/InventorTopix

You can follow me on YouTube:
YouTube/InventorTopix

You can follow me on Facebook:
Facebook/InventorTopix

You can follow me using Google Currents, available on iOS and Android devices:
To get this download the App and do a search for Inventor Topix.

If you have another way that you would like to follow Inventor Topix that I don't already have listed, let me know in the comments below and I will see what I can do.