While Autodesk was releasing the Subscription Advantage Packs for AutoCAD, Revit, and Inventor, an update popped up for Autodesk Inventor Publisher 2011. It had slipped by me, and I suspect many woould like some more information.
New Release
While the application is still being named with the 2011 line, it has enough feature enhancement to be a major release. The additions and improvements really add more ‘oomph’ to the application.
Many are new features, and some are either updated or are interfaced in different a manner. I’ll try and list as many as I can think of.
Check the end of this article for a link to the Autodesk Inventor Publisher 2011 free trial.
Home Tab
- Styles and Access to Materials
- Section views and Detail views
- Parts List and Callouts
- Movement Indicator Arrows
- Publishing
Styles and Access to Materials
| One of the most prominent changes is the addition of styles and materials. Various styles such as shading, edges, and detail have been added. Pre-mapped textured materials are available for Metal, Wood, Plastic, Glass, and Paint, etc. The two work together along with the three opacities to produce varying levels of visual detail to produce rich documentation. Once a material style is applied, it can be saved to a favorites list or applied from other components through the color pick/dropper tool. |  |
 |
 |
Section and Detail Views
Parts Lists and Callouts |
Movement Indicators |
|
|
 Radial and Linear Movement indicators are now available with standard Publisher styling and functionality. |
| This functionality pulls the data from the Bill of Materials and formats it into a customizable parts list with column selection and styling functionality. |
Publishing
Publish Mobile is now to produce videos for mobile applications such as iPads and iPhones. These can be saved locally, or on the online Autodesk site to share over the internet. To set up an acount go to http://accounts.autodesk.com.
Vault
Standardized Vault access tools are available on the Ribbon’s Vault Tab.
View
The View tab’s enhancements include Backgrounds with Solid, Gradient, Image, and Environment options. Combined with Orthographic and Perspective views as well as Ground Shadows and Floor reflections create a visually appealing and flexible environment to cast your component publications in.
Interface
BOM
Right off the bat we are faced with a new import sequence, and the user is prompted about Level of Detail and the Bill of Materials. To import the BOM from a particular LOD, or to import dry. This functionality serves the not only the Parts List feature, but the components that are available in the model as well. Using this I was able to eliminate various components from the simulation that were involved in proving out the Digital Prototype.
Contextual Interface |
Snapshot/Alteration Display |
|
| The old radial context menu is gone. I do not know how many are pleased with this, but I suspect many are. For me, I kind of like big targets to hit, and the old menu was fast in that respect. There is a bit more functionality in the new menu system. |  |
|
 |
This is kind of wild. Along with the standard Thumbnail view, each Snapshot can be viewed as a list of alterations that were performed within each Snapshot. |
Component and Sub-component selections
This functionality is kind of nice, most of the time. Components are now logically grouped in Publisher related to their respective Assembly. Selecting the assembly header in the Canvas Browser will select the entire group of components whether exploded or not. Selecting a window over all the components in an assembly will produce the same results. This is different than selecting each component individually.
 |
Assembly groups now act independent of individual assembly sub-components. When an assembly is moved, it’s relative origin is moved with it. If individual exploded components are selected to ‘return home’, they will return to their relative origin (the last location of the sub-assembly). This permits the assembly groups to be separated easily, and then exploded at their new location. In the image to the left, the Assembly is selected. The assembly header is highlighted, and components subject thereto are indicated with a crosshatch |
| In the image to the right, individual items were selected that compose the entire assembly. In this case each is highlighted, independent of the assembly.The difference provides for separate workflows.While this may feel a bit odd at first, you can immediately see the overall benefit once working with this new functionality. |  |
*TIP – Selecting the Assembly group and picking ‘Return Home’ will permit the entire group to return to their original location in the document.
Affected Snapshot
This function allows various arrays of Snapshots to be affected easily. Snapshots within a particular Storyboard or within the entire document can be affected. Once activated, alteration in the current view will be transferred to all Snapshots until the selected Snapshot array is cleared.
*TIP – Using this functionality eliminates the need to manually affect an entire group of Snapshots for color, etc. This way you can plan out how components are placed, and worry about the coloring later if desired.
My Thoughts
The functionality of the Autodesk inventor Publisher 2011 R1 is substantially enhanced. Detail Views and Parts Lists may be the most substantial additions to the application, but far from the only benefit. There is so much packed into this mid-cycle release. If you were on the fence over buying the product, this should help tip the scales, and if you already purchased Publisher, the new release is free.
If you have need some assistance with Publisher, please feel free to contact me.
I‘ll be teaching many of these items in more detail at Autodesk University 2010 in Las Vegas on Dec. 1st, at 09:30 hours. http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=event_class&session_id=7524&jid=615246
Join me there and I’ll show you some good tips, workflows, and information that will really put this new functionality to work for you.
