Direct Edit Tool and Options - Autodesk Inventor Part Tutorial | Autodesk Inventor 2021 IN DEPTH

[Calm Hip-Hop Music] Hey everybody it's Alex with Engineering Applied  in this video I’ll be giving you a detailed   overview of the direct edit tool found in Autodesk  Inventor if you want more easy to understand and   practical content like this made by an experienced  engineer like myself make sure you like this video   subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications  so you don't miss out on any helpful content like   this in the future if you're looking for  a specific function check the description   for timestamps and if you don't find what you're  looking for in this video make sure you check out   the other videos in the Autodesk Inventor series  playlist because I know you'll find exactly what   you need there let's get started okay so let's  go ahead and take a look at this direct edit tool   so in the 3d space in front of you you'll see  that we have a t-slot frame that I imported as   a step file from a distributor I like to use  and we're going to use this direct edit tool   to modify various aspects of the geometry without  needing any sort of history in the model now what   do I mean by history so when a model doesn't have  history I’m essentially alluding to the fact that   the model does not have specific sketch geometry  or any discernible features other than the solid   body as a whole so if I look at this model and  look in my model browser all I have is this entire   solid body all as one piece there's no extrusions  there's no hole features there's none of that   okay so this is what I mean when a model does not  have history so as an example I have two identical   models except that this one has all of the history  here in the model browser so you've got all of the   features associated with this model if I go to  this version of it all we have is the solid body   now the nice thing about the direct edit tool is  we can actually manipulate the solid body without   requiring any of that history that I showed  you in the previous model so what we're going   to do first is we're going to go under  the modify section and click on direct   and now you'll see we have this menu that pops up  and allows us to manipulate some of these features   so we'll go ahead and start with this little  tab on the left so if you click and drag this   this will allow you to move around this menu now  if you have a specific place that you'd like to   leave these types of menus that sort of float  around in space what you can do is you can pin   it somewhere along your workspace so I like to  pin mine sort of right here on the right side   I like to keep it close to the piece that I’m  working on so I’ll just move it right here and   then you go to this drop down box click it and  then you can pin the toolbar in this position   of course you can click and drag it and move  it to a different position but essentially   what this does is if I were to exit out of this  tool and go back in it will pop up in the same   exact spot that I had it before so I like to pin  this in my workspace so I’m not constantly moving   around when I jump in and out of this command so  that's available to you and then we can also auto   fade this toolbar so when I’m not moused over that  area all of that extra selection info fades away   so it clears up my workspace a little bit and then  when I hover over it it reappears for me so um I   usually don't like to do that I I like to leave  that disabled but this is a personal preference   okay so now moving along the top we have our move  command the move command has a couple of different   uses so one use for this is we can actually select  the front face of this and resize the bar in its   entirety in one go so I select that front face  and then I can click and drag this arrow or I can   type a value into this box so let's say we want  to take off two and a half inches from this bar   we can do that but of course we'll need to put  a negative sign because it is sensitive to the   axis direction and there we go we took off two  and a half inches from the bar without having   to create a sketch on that front face and then a  cut feature using the extrude command so really   powerful tool another way we can use this move  command is we can actually move the entire solid   in 3d space all as a whole so what I can do is I  can go underneath this move tab to where it says   faces and we'll click this little down arrow and  select solids and we'll pick up this entire solid   and now we can actually translate this entire  piece on any of the three axis directions as   a whole and then once I’ve got the selection  that I want I can hit this little plus sign   and there we go now we've moved our part in 3d  space one thing I’d like to point out is that each   individual sub feature within this command has  a different set of options that are associated   with it so these are context specific options okay  so under the move command as you've already seen   we can select um either faces or solids and then  we also have access to automatic blending preview   mode and so on and so forth so as we go through  this tutorial we'll hit on each one of these   individual options for you continuing through our  move command I want to give you an overview of the   automatic blending options so I went ahead and  disabled automatic blending for now and I switched   over to this model and in this model I have an  extruded boss with a fillet around this sharp edge   to round it off and um what we're going to do is  we're going to actually try to shorten this boss   a little bit so we're going to select this face  and we're going to just drag this arrow downwards   okay and I want you to notice something here  so when I drag it down and execute the command   you'll notice that it left the original fillet  and it just doesn't look like we want it to so   that's because the automatic blending is  off so it doesn't know what to do with this   originally tangent face uh or this radius that  was on that edge so let's actually go back and   try that again so we'll go to direct and then  we'll enable automatic blending this time select   this face and then drag that arrow down and when  we do that you'll see that it auto updates this   extruded boss appropriately while maintaining  that fillet around the edge so this applies to   any faces that are tangent to the face that  you're trying to use so if you're moving um   a series of features or solids or whatever that  has a tangent face associated with that you want   to leave automatic blending on uh 99 times out of  100 so anyways that's automatic blending let's go   ahead and take a look at the preview toggle so  currently is toggled on and I know that because   we have a check mark in this box so let's pick  this front face and drag this arrow back to resize   the bar and you'll see that the bar is actively  shortening as I drag it backwards on that axis   but if I disable the preview option we lose out  on that visual representation of that shorter bar   so just depending on whether or not you want to  leave that preview on that's available to you   moving down to the locate option what  we want to go ahead and do is select   our entities that we want to move so we're  going to select this hole here and this boss   okay now you'll notice that this triad so this  three axis setup which is called a triad is   centered concentrically to this inner hole okay so  we can actually reposition the triad elsewhere in   the model and use that as reference to then move  this feature so we'll go down to locate and let's   hover over this hole feature and set that triad  to snap to that so we'll hover over it left click   and then you'll notice that these faces are still  blue and that's just indicating that these are   still selected to be translated and then I can  come over to these arrows and I can actually click   and drag and move this and let's say we wanted  to move this feature over by a quarter of an inch   so we can type in 0.250 hit enter and there we go  we've moved this entire feature so that includes   the original boss this hole that's cut into it  and this fillet at the bottom all in one move   without any sort of history in this model so look  at this um model browser there's no history here   other than the solid body itself so this is why  this tool is so powerful this next option allows   us to control the orientation of the triad so by  default it's set to local so when I select this   hole feature here it aligns the triad locally to  that feature now we can actually also align this   with the origin if we want to do that so you go  to this little drop down and select world and when   you do that you'll see that that vertical axis  inverted so that it's aligned with this y-axis and   the rest of our axis geometry here in the origin  okay so that is what that command does for you   we can actually also align the triad using other  bits of geometry in the model so if we go over to   this option here after you've made your selection  we can click on this field and then you can hover   over various parts in your geometry or in your 3d  model that realigns this feature for you so let's   say we want this triad aligned with this edge here  we can hover over the edge and then left click and   then we'll realign that triad for us and then we  can go ahead and move our features about moving   down let's go ahead and take a look at the measure  from option so first we're going to pick up this   front face because I’m going to change the length  of this bar and now notice that it's measuring   this delta based off of the original face  position but what I want is I want to actually   reference this rear face so that I can pick up  the overall bar length rather than how much I’m   taking off of the bar so I go down to measure  from and I’m going to select this rear face   and when I do that it's measuring to the back  of this bar or in other words it's referencing   the overall length of the bar which is a better  case for this design so now I can resize this   to whatever size I want hit enter and there we  go we've resized our bar on a better referenced   face moving over to the right we have our snap to  option and to show off this option I went ahead   and put a work plane or a reference plane in 3d  space and now we're going to go ahead and pick up   our face of interest which is this front one and  instead of clicking and dragging and moving this   to the desired setting what we can do is we can  snap it to various entities in this case I’m going   to snap it to this reference plane click on snap  to and then select the entity that you want to snap   this feature to so I’m going to hover over the  reference plane and left-click and there we go now   it's snapped that move feature to that reference  geometry now let's go ahead and take a look at the   size tab I’m in a different model now and I went  ahead and clicked on the size tab here so let's go   ahead and pick up some different features and I’ll  show you how we can resize those accordingly so   let's say for example I want to resize this  diameter here I can click on that face and I   can click and drag this arrow okay and resize  that accordingly I can also go down here and   specify how I want to resize it so currently it's  set to an offset so this is an offset off of the   original size we can resize it based on a diameter  okay so we can select diameter and you'll see that   it changes how it measures that or we could set  it to radius okay so uh plenty of flexibility   there for us now let's actually go back and resize  a different feature so let's say we want to change   this fillet radius here on this corner what we  can do is select this face and then we can click   and drag this arrow and we can change that fillet  radius okay so you want to be careful with this   in this particular case because we have a little  step here for a lap joint and um in this case we   can't go too far on changing this fillet radius  so just make sure that you're minding the actual   design of your part and its design intent so that  you're not creating some abstract geometry that's   going to break your model or just not allow you  to manufacture it like the move option we also   have the ability to toggle the preview mode on  and off by clicking in this little checkbox here   okay and then moving down we have the reset  operation button if we click this it just resets   that sizing back to default so I can go ahead and  change that as needed moving over to the right we   can actually rescale an entire solid all in one go  so what we do is we left click on the solid and by   default it's set to a uniform scaling so that  means that regardless of which axis direction   I select it uniformly scales the part in all three  axis directions and of course you can type in your   scaling factor here if you'd like to do so now we  can actually open up this drop down box and select   non-uniform and scale this part independently  in each axis direction so I can scale the z   direction the x direction and so on and so  forth independently we also have the ability   to toggle the preview mode on and off like the  other commands by clicking in this box here and   then we can also relocate the triad location so we  can hover over various entities within our model   and just left click there and we can relocate that  triad now I can go ahead and set my scaling factor   based on a feature dimension using the measuring  tool so I’ve selected my solid of interest and   I’ve highlighted my original scale factor of 1 so  that it can be replaced by my measured entity so   now I go to this right facing arrow click measure  and then now I just pick an edge that I want to   match this scale factor to so I’ll just pick this  edge here okay it's uh edge length is 1.127 inches   but I need to go ahead and delete the unit from  this entry so that the software knows what to do   with this as a scale factor so I delete inches off  of this and there we go now we have our new scale   factor and then we can execute that command moving  over to rotate we're actually going to use this   option to rotate this slot or this opening in this  cover so what I want to do first is I want to sort   of zoom in on this part and select the faces that  I want to rotate and now I need to snap this triad   to a different reference point because I don't  want to rotate it off of this side I actually   want to rotate it off of the center point on this  edge here so I’m going to hit locate and I’m going   to just drop it right there okay and then now we  just want to pick up this node here that's on this   plane so that we can rotate it in this direction  so we're going to click and drag this node   and let's go ahead and set a value of negative  22 degrees and there we go now we have a rotation   that we want and we're going to hit that plus sign  and there we go we've created our rotated feature   we can also create a parallel relationship between  our rotated feature and another feature such as a   work plane or another entity within your solid so  I went ahead and drew up this work plane that's   15 degrees tilted off of this front face and  what we're going to do is we're going to pick   up this front face and now we're going to go to  snap parallel and select this reference plane   and when we do that it angles that face parallel  to that reference plane our final option is delete   faces so this is an extremely powerful tool in our  toolbox because while we don't have the history in   this model we can actually eliminate features  as if we did have the history there so what   do I mean exactly well look at these filleted  corners on this enclosure well we don't have   the actual fillet feature in our model browser  but guess what we can remove these easily so   in our direct edit option we go to delete and  let's pick up these four filleted corners now   that I’ve picked up my four corners on my  model you'll notice that I get a little   error message that pops up and essentially  this is because while I can remove these   fillets here on the edges I also need to remove  the fillet up here on the edge so let me go ahead   and select all of those okay and now that error  message goes away and I can actually remove all   of those faces but let's take it a step further  and remove this fillet along the top edge as well okay and there we go now we can hit this plus  sign and get rid of all of those features as   if we had the history already in this model one  final note I’d like to add is about the selection   and deselection of various entities within your  model without having to cancel out of the command   altogether so let's say for example I wanted  to pick up this fillet this fillet and this   fillet but on my way to picking up this last  one I accidentally selected this entire face   well this applies to all of these commands within  here so let's say I wanted to delete those well I   don't want to delete the entire flat face on the  bottom what I can do is I can hold the ctrl key   and hover over the face that I want to deselect  while holding the ctrl key I’m going to press   left click on my mouse and it will remove that  selection as my entry I can also go ahead and   do that for these other ones so if I hold ctrl  and hover over this fillet it'll highlight in   green and then when I click on it it removes that  selection for me that's all for this segment of   the Autodesk Inventor part creation module where  I gave you an overview of the direct edit tool   I really hope that you found this tutorial to  be helpful and that you put what you've learned   into practice so you can continue developing your  skills as you work your way through these lessons   also before you watch the next video in the series  make sure you subscribe to my channel and turn on   notifications to stay up to date on future content  that will help you create the future you want for   yourself and of course don't hesitate to leave  a comment or reach out via my website contact   page and let me know if there's anything else  you'd like to learn about or see on this channel   I really appreciate you choosing to stop by  and learn with me and I’ll see you again soon [Calm Hip-Hop Music]

Channel: Engineering Applied

Views: 993

Keywords: autodesk inventor 2021 tutorial, autodesk inventor tutorial for beginners, inventor tutorial 2021, inventor professional 2021 tutorial, inventor 2021, autodesk inventor 2021, inventor 2021 tutorial, autodesk inventor, autodesk inventor tutorial, inventor, autocad 2021, direct edit tool autodesk inventor 2021, direct edit command autodesk inventor 2021, how to use direct edit in autodesk inventor 2021, direct edit function in autodesk inventor 2021, how to direct edit inventor

Id: MU9Pyv38R20

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020