Avatech Tricks: Drawing for Dough, Part 2

More tips for getting the correct views in Autodesk Inventor

Sometimes I need to place design views that originate from views that I don't want or need to show in my final designs. To do this, I create what I call a scratch sheet to temporarily place a master view. I then create child views of what I do want to show and drag those child views to other sheets.

To create the scratch sheet, right-click inside the browser and choose New Sheet. Although it's not necessary, I usually delete the border and title block from the sheet so that I know just with a glance that it isn't included in my sheet set. Next, I edit the sheet and check the two boxes to exclude from count and exclude from printing. Finally, I change the size of the sheet, again mainly for visualization purposes.

Figure 7. When creating a scratch sheet, in the Edit Sheet dialog box, make sure that the two Exclude Options are checked so the sheet is not included in your sheet set.

Next, I'm going to place a base view of the shaft at half scale and then create two section views, one of each end sheave. On the right end sheave, I'll place a free-form sketch line that is not locked into geometry, by picking a point above the base view and drawing a line straight down. This lets me adjust the section line back and forth, and Autodesk Inventor shows the section update automatically. The inherent problem with this is that, just like in the detail view, if my model changes significantly enough I run the risk of detaching the section line from the view. Because this view is eventually going to be moved to another sheet, I'm not concerned about where I place the view.

I'm going to lock down the left end sheave to the transition. This is done by first touching the geometry I want to lock it to and then tracking from it to a point above my model where I want my section line to start. When I drag my cursor down to the lower point, Autodesk Inventor automatically locks the section line to that tracked point. Now right-click, select Continue and place the view. Now when I try to drag the section line, the line only moves vertically. In this way, I ensure that the section line remains with the base view locked to that point.

The third section line I'm going to place is on the middle sheave. In this case, I don't want to get the rest of my model, only a little portion of it on either side of the sheave. I'll start the Section View tool to drag across a section just like I did for the first two views. This time I am going to change the section depth in the dialog box from Full to Distance and set the section depth to 200 millimeters. In the section graphics a solid black bar appears where I want Autodesk Inventor to stop calculating the section view and I can section out a little chunk of my model.

Figure 8. The different section view, placed in the IDW.

All that's left to do is to get these section views to the Avatech:2 sheet. To do this, hold down CTRL and select the three section views from the model, then drag them to Avatech:2. A solid black bar appears under the sheet when you have the views in the right spot. When the section views are moved to the sheet, they are located in the same area that they were in when views were created; in this case, they are way out above the sheet. I'll zoom out until I see the views, and then I may have to do a little adjusting to get them to fit on my sheet by editing the views and adjusting the scale to 1:4. Then drag the views onto the sheet and place them in the correct locations.

Using the techniques that I just showed you, you should end up with a sheet that looks like figure 9.

Figure 9. The finished Avatech:2 IDW.