Modeling in Inventor?

[amy.stuart]

We are examining a few products for making models of steel buildings and pulling steel details from a 3rd party application that work with Inventor. Does anyone have any advice on how this will work? Especially how does this work with creating stairs, etc.

We currently use plain AutoCAD 2006 and productivity time can only increase at this point.

Any input would be great. We are definitely new to Inventor and are not quite sure what it can all do for us in the Steel Industry.

[jonathan.landeros]

Amy,

I'm not sure I totally have my head around the minutia of your use, but here's a couple of advantages (I think) you might like.

1) Visualization in the 3D environment (easier than ACAD's)
2) Interference checking (make your mistakes in the computer, when it's cheap).
3) Inventor's Content Center has some of the standard steel shapes already built in (and websites like www.cbliss.com have more).
3) You can use Inventor's Parameters to help create a cut list (although I think ACAD may have some of this capability now too).
4) Drawings are linked to the parts/assemblies/presentation, and views update automatically.

Of course nothing comes for free (doesn't stop me from hoping), and the biggest drawback will be Inventor's hunger for resources. Inventor will demand more of your hardware (especially on video cards).

I hope this information is helpful.

Jonathan

[robertb.65723]

We dont design building but do alot of structural steel, ladders and galleries. I create the parts and use them like a library with small changes per job. I find it way faster than AutoCAD and we can zoom/rotate around the 3D Inventor Model to see any clashes, etc.