Take Flight with Free-Form Tools in Inventor 2015

IMAGINiT Tricks Tutorial: Traditional Autodesk Inventor modeling tools do not readily lend themselves to creating smooth organic shapes. Free-form modeling, however, allows these shapes to be created very quickly and easily.

By the addition of another primitive, in this case a Box, the vertical tail has been free-formed and blended into the fuselage. This is not necessarily the only way to accomplish the task; however, I have found it to be the most efficient. When we come out of the Free-form environment, all traditional Inventor tools are available to complete the now-solid model. In my case, I added a fillet to blend the fin into the fuselage more cleanly.



The remaining parts to complete the aircraft can also be free-form modeled, but they can easily be created within Inventor as solid models. The free-form capability is a very good initial step into the more organic and aesthetically pleasing shapes which were traditionally limited within Inventor.

My first impression of the tools has been a good one; however, I’d like to see the tools be applied to more complex shapes in the future, rather than just primitives. The free-form tools are a great addition to Inventor’s functionality, and I would strongly encourage all users to look at them as an alternative way to create those not-so-simple shapes.



This plane was modeled in Inventor Pro 2015, and rendered in 3ds Max Design 2015.

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