ABout inventor
Inventor is a "computer-aided design application for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation" We use Inventor in IDEA to design our widgets to then 3D print them. Inventor helps people draw 3D or 2D figures to then print them in real life. Inventor is confusing at first, but with time, it gets easier to use. You have many options to draw some are: Part, Assembly, Drawing, and Presentation.
We had to draw our widgets on a piece of graph paper made for isometric shapes. At first, it was a little hard for me to draw the shapes because of the measurements. Each "triangle" is worth 1/4 inch. As you can see, I messed up a little on the top left corner.
To start, I selected the XYZ plane in Inventor. After I selected the plane, I started off with a square and cut of all of the necessary sides.
I finished the 2D shape and its ready to be extruded
The widget has now been extruded.
I transferred the widget to MakerBot, so then I can 3D print it out. Here the 3D printer is printing out the raft for the widget. This is how the widget turned out! |
These are all of the widgets i made:
I learned that in-class work time is very valuable. Since we use software and programs that can't be used at home, I had to use my in-class work time wisely. I got all of my widgets done on time. Inventor was confusing at first, but then after it started making sense. I'm pretty happy with how my 3D widget turned out.