Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Creating Tangent/Normal Arcs Using the Line Tool


In Autodesk Inventor, you can also draw a tangent or a normal arc by using the line tool. To do so, at least a line or arc need to be exist in the drawing area. If a line or an arc exist, invoke the line tool, you will be prompted to select the start point of the line. move the cursor close to the point from where you want to start the tangent or normal arc; the yellow circle in the cursor turns green. Select the point at this stage; the green circle in the cursor turns gray. Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse; four construction lines appear at the start point displaying the normal and tangent directions. If you drag along the tangent direction, a tangent arc is drawn. But if you drag along the normal direction, an arc normal to the selected entity is drawn. refer to figure.




Thursday, February 7, 2013

Creating Smooth Curve between two existing sketched entities in Autodesk Inventor


In Autodesk Inventor, you can create a smooth (G2) continuous curve between two existing curves. The existing curves can be arcs, lines, splines, or projected curves. To create a smooth curve, choose the Bridge Curve tool from the Draw panel of the Sketch tab,  you will be prompted to select the curves one after the other. Select the two curves; a smooth G2 continuous curve, known as bridge curve, will be created between the selected curves. The profile of the bridge curve depends on the position of the points selected on the existing curves. Figure shows two points selected on the two curves and the resulting bridge curve.