Introducing ReCap Photo

Last Fall, Autodesk released ReCap Photo.  It is only partially a new product and a companion product for ReCap and ReCap Pro.  I say it is partially a new product because the technology has been around for over a year before the release of ReCap Photo.  If you have been following Autodesk, ReCap, or reality capture, in general, you should have heard of or seen Project Memento.  Project Memento was focused on mesh files while ReCap's photogrammetry workflow was focused on point clouds.

I really like this "semi-new" product.  One of the biggest struggles for  the casual ReCap user was how to go from the point cloud to something solid.  Anyone using ReCap as part of a survey workflow, actually had tools inside of AutoCAD Civil 3D to turn point clouds into Civil 3D surfaces.  However, there seemed to be a lack of tools for other applications.  As I learn about ReCap Photo, I find that it is capable of functions that make my work easier.  For example, I just found a way to use ReCap Photo and Fusion 360 to turn an STL file into a solid model.

If you have used  the previous web-based Photo to 3D workflow, it is pretty similar.  ReCap still uses the cloud to process the photos and make a 3D model.  The biggest differences are that the project is created in a local application, and not a web site, and the output is now a mesh file instead of a point cloud.  At first, I was not sure if I would like the mesh output because I was pretty comfortable with the point cloud output.  I am growing to appreciate the mesh output and recognize that the mesh output is better suited for working toward a solid output.

I was a little nervous the first time I tried to run a ReCap Photo project because I was not able to set the scale of the model in the photos while uploading the photos.  I discovered that scaling of object based projects is now done after the model is made.  Which actually fits some advice Autodesk had for the previous workflow.  Autodesk said that ReCap works best if it is allowed to figure how the photos fit together without having to worry about scaling.  The old advice was to run projects once without control points, then run it again with them.  Now that does not need to be done.

To help you make the transition into using ReCap Photo I have made two videos.  The first video shows how to create an Object based project.

The second video shows some of ReCap Photo's tools for processing the mesh output. 

Saving a PDF of a Drawing Using iLogic

As you probably have noticed, Inventor iLogic rules are a frequent topic in this blog.  Sharing some ways I have used iLogic in the past is a subject I like sharing with others.  One of my first rules, that I was pretty proud of, was the ability to have iLogic save a PDF of Inventor drawings.  I tackled this because it is a task a large number of Inventor users need to perform.  I was able to figure out the code and I shared it in a YouTube video and in an Autodesk University class in 2012.  With the updated Event Triggers in Inventor 2018.1, I figured it might be time to updated the rule and share it with all of you.

The most popular question I got about the previous version was, "How do it get it to print all the sheets?"  By default, Inventor uses the last settings for one sheet or all sheets.  I had not figured out how to do that programmatically.  So I wanted to figure that out for this go round.

Like any other coder, I went to the web for help.  I pretty quickly found Curtis Waguespack's post.  So I used this code and my code to create what I call Franken-code (i.e. Frankenstein Code).

If you are interested in the code, you can download it from here.

The code is documented, but here is an explanation and demonstration of the code.

Happy Coding!!!

Using The New iLogic Event Triggers

I have been using iLogic since it was acquired by Autodesk and one of the biggest headaches with iLogic rules was setting event triggers for legacy files.  For example, I could write an iLogic rule that would save a PDF of a drawing.  It was simple to add the right event triggers to your template, but what about all the legacy files, those need the same event triggers.

I would typically show people how to added the triggers and told them to add the event triggers to the legacy files as they worked on them.  I didn't like that answer, but that is the way it had to be.  The Autodesk programming gurus, that run the Being Inventive blog, created the iLogic Code Injector, which would add rules to selected files.  You can find a write up on that here.  The biggest draw back there was that you were putting stand-alone rules in each of the files and not adding Event Triggers to External Rules.

In my last post, I mentioned an idea that was posted to the Inventor Idea Station, which I had offered feedback on, has been implemented.  The idea was for what I call Global Event Triggers.  In the case of the old Event Triggers, you were embedding in a file a trigger to run a rule on a certain event.  Now the Event Triggers have been reformulated in the Inventor 2018.1 Update.  Starting in the updated release, you can set Event Triggers for all files, or files of certain types.  For example, if you created a rule that created a PDF of the file, you most likely would not want that for your 3D model files.  So the new Event Trigger Dialog box allows you to set an event trigger for that rule when certain events occur on Drawing files.  

I really like the redesign of the iLogic Event Triggers, especially for rules that you want run on all files, or at least of all files of a specific type.  And setting them up could not be any easier.

1.  Open the Event Triggers dialog box

2.  Select the Tab for the file category

3.  Drag the iLogic rule from the left pane to the correct Event in the right pane

Here is a video I created that shows how to set up an Event Trigger using the new Event Trigger dialog.

I really like this new feature works.  I hope you do to.  Happy coding.

The Autodesk Idea Stations Works!

As someone that has been using Autodesk products for years,  I have seen release after release of new versions and seen new and enhanced features year after year.  When I first started using Autodesk products, if you felt a new feature should be added, or an existing feature should be changed, you had to go to a web site and submit a Feature Request.  A number of years ago, Autodesk introduced its user community to Idea Stations.

Ideas Stations are portions of the product forums where users can post ideas they have for a particular Autodesk software.  You could also look through other users' ideas and give a "kudos" to ideas you liked or agreed with.

Autodesk has been using those Idea Stations more and more often over the years.  About 4 or 5 years ago, they incorporated about 15 ideas from the Inventor Idea Station into that years release.  Last November I attended a focus group on new features for Inventor 2017.4 and Inventor 2018.  During that event, it was stated that between the Inventor 2017 and the Inventor 2017 R2 releases, Autodesk had incorporated about 50 ideas from the Inventor Idea Stations.  The presenter went on to state that they were on pace to include over 120 ideas between the Inventor 2017, R2, 2017.3, and 2017.4 releases.

I have two reasons to bring this up.  First, I try to plug the Idea Stations because that is the best way to have your voice heard by Autodesk.  If you have an idea, please share it.  Occasionally, browse the Idea Stations of all the products you use because you never know when someone will have an idea for a feature or function you haven't thought of and cannot live without, or suggest a workflow that will make your life easier.

My second reason for bringing it up, is I have proof it works.  Just this past weekend, I got an email from the Idea Station that an post I had commented on had a status change to "Implemented."  As it turns out, four years ago, I commented on an idea for Global Event Triggers in iLogic.  I have always held that iLogic Event Triggers being file specific created issues for users that legacy files that needed triggers for newer iLogic rules.  I gave the idea a "kudos" and added a comment about how I felt the Global Event Triggers should work.

If you would like to see the progression of this idea, you can find it on the Inventor Idea Station at this link.

I truly appreciated  the comment by Jon, from Autodesk, "This Idea was posted in the early days of this forum, and although it's far from having one of the highest vote counts, we see many being able to benefit from it in the future as they invest more in rules based design. We appreciate the patience!"

So even though this idea only got 29 votes, the Autodesk Development Team recognized the idea as being very valuable to lots of users and implemented, and included it in the Inventor 2018.1 product release.

Again, please post your ideas to the different Idea Stations, almost all Autodesk Products have their own Idea Station.  It is not hard to get to the the Idea Stations either, most products have a link to them right in the software.

Also, don't be afraid to "stuff the ballot box."  One of my co-workers, Jared, will often post an idea and ask the rest of us to give it a kudos.  I know of at least one of his ideas that have been implemented by Autodesk.  Posting your ideas, and giving kudos to the ones that you like is the best way to make the Autodesk Products we all use the best they can be.  

A Difficult Sheet Metal Model

Recently, I was teaching an Inventor Sheet Metal Modeling class for a customer and they had an odd part that gave them fits when they tried to model it.  The idea of the part was they would bend two flanges  on either side of the part, put the part in a press break and bend one end up at an angle, then bend the other end down at an angle.

I can see why it gave them grief.  Inventor cannot calculate when the material stretches, or compresses, in more than one direction.  Nathan, one of my co-workers was assisting with the class, and between the two of us, we were able to create a workflow that would give them models that would represent the formed part and the flat pattern on a drawing.

The biggest issue on this part is the four regions where the side flanges get bent either up or down.  Nathan said that, if we left those regions off the Sheet Metal model, we should get a flat pattern.  I said that I have turned sheet metal models into iParts, just so I could suppress features that prevented models from flattening.

So we created the model without the four corners that would prevent the model from flattening.  That gave us a flat pattern.  I was then able to edit the flat pattern to fill in the gaps, so our flat pattern was a rectangle, and not an odd shape.  I attempted my technique of adding features and creating an iPart to suppress those features on one version to preserve the flat pattern.  In this case, the flat pattern still failed.

Then Nathan shared that he will sometimes derive a sheet metal model into another file for similar edits.  So we created a new standard part, then derived our bracket into that model.  We were then able to add Sweep or Loft features to represent the corners that were missing in the other model.  A benefit of deriving the sheet metal model into the standard part is that changes to the sheet metal model will then be pushed to the standard part version of the model.

Here is a video of the workflow from beginning to end.

 


This topic got me thinking of common Sheet Metal questions. I often get questions about how to bend/flatten bar and pipes.  There is actually a standard part modeling command called Bend Part.  It is kind of hidden in the interface, but it has been around for a pretty long time.  The idea, is that the user draws a bend line in a sketch.  For bar or pipe, you have to create the sketch on a plane tangent to the tube.  After that, it is just a matter of setting the right options for the Bend Part feature.  If you need a flat pattern of the bar or pipe, you can convert your model to an iPart and suppress the Bend Part feature on one member of the iPart family.

Here is a video I created that shows how to use Bend Part to bend a pipe.

InstaVR App Builder

This blog has been dedicated to CAD and other topics I find interesting.  One of my latest passions is Virtual Reality, or VR.  I don't own or have access to an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, so I have really explored what is available through Google Cardboard.  I really like the fact that I have a VR capable device with me all, the time in my phone.  Because of this, I have become a little bit of a "Cardboard Junkie."  I have two of the plastic molded style and two of the paper-based style.

You probably have noticed that all my product references have been to some Autodesk product.  Since I work for an Autodesk re-seller, most of my time is spent in their products.  However, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a company named InstaVR.  I think they offer a really cool service, and wanted to share that information with all of you.

Their goal is to make VR easy and accessible.  If you have 360 photography, stereo panoramas, and other similar content, you can build your own custom VR app for Andriod or iOS.  You may remember one of my previous blog posts about rendering stereo panoramas using Inventor, Revit, and InfraWorks.  I was able to load those images into InstaVR's easy-to-use web interface, and get an app that I could distribute to customers.  My initial attempt took about 30 minutes, with the help of the InstaVR tutorials.  The most difficult part was identifying the format of my stereo panorama, so InstaVR could translate it into the experience properly.  In my first app, I  linked three different environments together.  All the user had to do is set their view at a specific spot to jump to the next scene.

In my opinion, the biggest strike against stereo panoramas is that you cannot move around because the image is static.  It didn't take me long to realize that I could minimize that loss by creating a series of stereo panoramas of the same model and then stitch them into one experience with InstaVR.

Here is a link to the app I created with using this approach.

Please note, if you want to install this app, you will have to go to your phones security settings and allow apps from unknown sources.

InstaVR does offer the ability to insert hotspots that can be linked to videos or images.  You also can add music or voice-overs to be played in the experience.  

If you are interested in this service, InstaVR offers two types of accounts; Free and Pro.  If you have a free account you can make apps, but they will just have an InstaVR splash screen and water-marks on your images.  There is also a limitation to size and output types, when you have a free account.

Here is a screen shot from my app.

I really like this service, it is the closest I have come to building a true VR experience without using a gaming engine, like Autodesk Stingray.  If you are interested in VR, but are struggling to get started, this is a very easy away to begin making VR apps.

Updated Inventor Presentation Environment

I may be a little late with this news, but this is a topic that I felt deserved an entry into the blog.  In Inventor 2017, Autodesk redesigned the Presentation Environment, or in other words IPN files  I guess, this would be news for those of you that skipped 2017, and just installed 2018.

For any of you that have used Inventor Publisher, which was retired after the 2016 release,  the redesign probably feels similar to Inventor Publisher workflow.  Autodesk decided to move Inventor Publisher functions into Inventor.  Now, the new IPN files do not replicate everything that Inventor Publisher did, however, the Timeline and Snapshot views are very similar.

Personally, I like the new Timeline workflow.  It is already more inline with the Inventor Studio timeline than the old presentation files.  I feel that it is easier to see the order of operations and easier to edit than the old way.  One function that I use now, more than in the old method, is Capturing the Camera, or previously Precise View Rotate.  It is so easy to reorient the model, and click Capture Camera.  Also, the fact that it creates a Timeline element for the camera rotation makes it easy to edit the movement and time it right in the animation.

I had to create a few IPN files to fully understand the new workflow, but now I love it.  However, I will say that it took me almost a year to find one setting that was bugging me.  Under the old method, users would pull the model apart and the animation would show the assembly of the model.  In the new environment, after the tweaks are made,  the animation shows the model being pulled apart.  Then a few months ago, when I was publishing a video, I noticed an option that would allow you to record the animation in reverse (see image).  Thus, giving me an animation in-tune with the old method.

For those of you that may not have seen the new Presentation Environment in action, or are still struggling to understand how it works, here is a video that shows the new animation and snapshot workflows.