The Fusion Change Manager in Inventor. (Click image for full-size illustration.)
Here's how it works:
1. Make changes to a parametric model in Fusion using direct editing.
2. Bring the modified model into Inventor.
3. The change manager highlights the changes, and lets you selectively accept them for import into Inventor's history tree.
Both models are shown, before and after being edited by Fusion. Colors show the types of changes:
Red - deletions
Green - additions
Blue and yellow - faces moved
Fusion itself has had some updates to its user interface, such as to the pie-shaped marking menu. Brand-new in the lower left corner is a scale that helps show the size of objects. The pointer lets you set the snap distance, making direct editing easier. Now you push or pull by, say, 5.0mm instead of 4.5678mm. When you zoom in, the snap distance automatically reduces to 1mm. I assume the min/max snaps are user-definable.
The updated user interface for Fusion. (Click image for full-size illustration.)
Autodesk's philosophy, Mr Schneider told me, is that users can employ which ever approach they prefer: direct or history, and switch back and forth as needed.
Autodesk is still vague when this will ship officially. I assume next March with Inventor 2011, but that's just my guess.
labs.autodesk.com
Thanks for posting this, Ralph. I'm looking forward to trying Autodesk Inventor Fusion Preview 2.
Inventor Fusion 1.0 was just horrible.
I'll probably have to download Autodesk Inventor Fusion Preview 2 using an alias as Autodesk hates me since Dominic Gallello left. Too bad, as I really liked him and found him a joy to work with. My comments on Autodesk's Inventor Fusion site were never allowed to be published / censored in their entirety... typical Autodesk behavior.
Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA
www.jonbanquer.wordpress.com
Posted by: Jon Banquer | Oct 23, 2009 at 01:49 PM
Jon,
Dominic is now CEO of MSC. Any chance you're a Nastran user?
Posted by: Evan Yares | Oct 27, 2009 at 08:41 AM
Evan,
No, I don't use FEA software.
I'd like to see Dominic make a long term commitment to getting involved with direct modeling. The marketing for CAD direct modeling has been and remains horrible.
Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA
www.jonbanquer.wordpress.com
Posted by: Jon Banquer | Oct 27, 2009 at 02:48 PM