Aluminum Extrusion in a Project File

I probably asked too many questions in my previous post so I want to make this one separate. The project will consist of about 40 different extrusions, most aluminum and some PVC and some gasket materials. Would the best practice be to enter all the dies into the project as .... stock lengths, or something thereabout, maybe even just parts which sub-parts would be cut to length and machined from?

I was also thinking it would be best practice to have the CofG of each profile to be the origin. But again I was having trouble getting stuff moved in the sketch. I am familiar with constraints but once I have one of the profiles in it proved impossible, at least for the moment, to put it where I wanted in the sketch. I will get this I'm sure, I just need some advice and more practice with it.

And before I forget, would building the 3D model of the assembly entirely in AutoCAD be able to somehow be imported straight to Inventor....it's much quicker at this moment for me to produce 3D models in AutoCAD. The Inventor stuff will come I'm sure but we're also facing deadlines.

Just had a quick play if you make each 1 unit long you can click on them and use modify to change extrude height maybe helpfull ? Sounds like a lisp type thing if your drawing the same object over and over enter L&W vert part No, hor part no, all done

Just had a quick play extrude 1 unit thick can use modify to alter height maybe Helpful ? Else a lisp enter L&W Hor partno, Ver partno all done.

sorry for double post moderator please remove.

BIGAL,

Thanks man. I appreciate any advice I can get. I am making progress albeit slow. And I'm having to work on this from 3am to 6am and then from 6pm to 9pm EDT. I'm soon leaving for a 10 hour shift at my other gig doing VB.NET and VLISP programming. Wish I could spend more continuos time on Inventor, it's a really cool tool and this client is insisting the work be done with Inventor.

I got the other holes along the bottom of the extrusion started. I have this question at the moment. This is a non-typical curtain wall mullion extrusion with nooks and crannies everywhere. I'm getting my grasp on how to import the profile from AutoCAD, extrude it and then start placing holes, notches, etc... on it. The trouble is this part is 1803 mm long. And I'm working on holes that are only 4.5 mm from the end of the part. When I pick one of the faces and start a new sketch, the view zooms out to include the entire length of the part and I have to scroll back in and usually rotate it so I can see where exactly I'm placing the hole. Is there a switch or setting I can use to stop this thing from re-zooming perpendicular to the entire face each time?

The other thing I'd like to know is how do I switch the mouse wheel back to zoom in when I rotate it up instead of down. This is completely backwards to the way I'm used to working and it would make life easier if there was a setting for this.

I understand what you mean about making the parts library only 1 mm long and adjust from there. That gives me a couple of more ideas on this project.

And I wasn't aware that LISP and VBA can be used with Inventor. Is there an IDE like in AutoCAD and how do I get to it? The first thing I notice about Inventor and using it's ribbon is that the command line is no where to be found and unless you know where to look in the ribbon, it's still awkward finding the right commands.

BTW I just read one of JD's comments on the AutoDesk forum on how to "incorrectly set the mouse wheel in Inventor". Hee Hee Hee. JD always has a way of putting things which makes one think and as I started examining it, he's right. With Inventor you use the wheel to pull the part closer and push it further away. I will probably still have trouble with this because as I'm importing stuff from AutoCAD which I have open on the right monitor and pasting it into Inventor on the left monitor. Wow.....I always welcome a challenge.

Oh yes, and I just found the VBA editor. Now things are really going to start getting dangerous. Remember, it's not how accurate you draw, it's whoever get's the most toner down on paper in the quickest time wins.....

Sounds like I would add custom profiles to the Frame Generator and use that in Inventor.

You can open dwg solids directly in Inventor (be sure to click Options and set to Import and follow the wizard). You can set this up as the default.

You can set the zoom wheel to be correct in AutoCAD (same motion as Inventor, SolidWorks and Pro/E (Creo)).

Once you see how to do this in Frame Generator - you will wonder how you ever did it in AutoCAD. (but setting it all up the first time does require a bit of Inventor knowledge)

Thanks again JD. I am curious about this having only used the frame generator in one of the tutorials that builds a box fan. I made it about 90% through that when I had some other assignments take over. So if I were to get the information into Inventor about the extrusions used, and then did something with frame generator, I wonder how far it would take me. The head, sill and vertical member for this wall system are all very different. And it takes some delicate machining to get the holes and notches in the right place to get this thing together. The screw splines help to get some of it right and some of the interior surfaces match up. But the remainder of the extrusion is filled with legs and pockets for glazing, sealants, etc... I'm having a good time learning more about Inventor although there are at least two engineers at the office I'm in now who say SolidWorks would be the best for this. Again, it's only because they are more familiar with SolidWorks than Inventor.