Traditionally, designers and engineers create a layout, design the parts, and then bring everything together in an assembly. Once the design is created, the next step in the traditional process is to build and test a physical prototype.
With Autodesk Inventor, you can create an assembly at any point in the design process. You can virtually explore, test, and validate a digital prototype as the design evolves. You can visualize and simulate real-world performance of the design, so there is less reliance on costly physical prototypes.
The basic component of a digital prototype is the part file. A part model is a collection of features or solid bodies that define your digital prototype. Parametric modeling provides the ability to apply driving dimensions and geometric relationships to the model. These dimensions and relationships are called parameters. Parameters control the size and shape of a model. When you change a parameter, the model updates to reflect the changes. Using parameters, you can control multiple parts in an assembly.
Topics in this section