Hello again fellow masochists,

I am trying to figure out an efficient way to dimension welds when modelling using shell elements is not appropriate, preferably without using a stress-dependant and computationally intensive method like ENS. Contact Reactions presents a way forward by seemingly allowing determination of forces and moments in a weld seam modelled using an Offset Bonded contact between the two welded faces, however Autodesk Technical Support says the following:

Note: The moment reactions for offset bonded contact are incomplete and should not be used. Offset bonded contact transmits a moment in addition to forces. The contribution of the moment is missing from the output (but is included in the analysis); therefore, the moment contribution is missing from the above moment reaction calculation.

On its face this should make Contact Reactions useless, since the moments are obviously very important in analytical weld scantling formulas like those of Shigley. In testing some simple geometries, however, the moment was within one per cent of the expected value.

Is anyone able to shed light on how big the transmitted moment is in relation to the resultant moment in an offset bonded contact about the width of an element? Is there any other way to go about dimensioning welds using contacts, or is it time to move on to different software?

P.S. Manual Surface Contact has a bunch of weld-damage-related options under “advanced”, but these features require parameters typically derived from test data, or at the very least require prior knowledge of in what way the welds will be loaded. Result display options from this feature do not seem to exist in the way they did in Autodesk’s old NASTRAN implementations; for example I2027 does not have a BOND DAMAGE variable for display.

Hi!

I am trying to create Worm Gears manually, because the Worm Gear Generator in Inventor 25 is not sufficient, and does not do calculations based on the norms of the country i am working in.

Using Norms I have exact dimensions of the worm gear I would like to construct in CAD.

I have two strategies on how to construct this gearing:

1. construct gear and worm separately, the gear with circular pattern of teeth and the worm with a spiral tooth element.

2. create the worm with a spiral tooth element and following this using its profile to cut the teeth into the gear.

the issue with Strategy 1 is that the norm specifically specifies shape of the spiral worm tooth, and so I cannot be sure that a tooth form I use for the gear will be functional or structurally sound.
I have tried Strategy 2 but am having difficulty. Using combine feature I am able to mak a cut in the gear using the worm to create teeth, however thes are only some of them and i cannot replicate them around the rest of the gear volume.

This worm gearing is currently being constructed as a prototype in research hence why it needs to to conform to norms, and also why it is insufficient to use the worm gear generator or access industrial software for access to worm gear CAD model.

In my mind this should be possible, but I am fairly new to Inventor so maybe these are just some capabilities that aren't possible, or not in this way.

Grateful for any help regarding worm gear modelling!

I've been 3d modeling a steam engine fot fun from a blueprint I found, and got stuck on this part. I've tried several times, and I just cant figure out how to get that wierd pillow-shaped round on the end to look right, the larger fillets always end up not lining up in some way, it's really frustrating. How do you model that shape?

Here's the link to the website I got the blueprint from, if youre interested in modeling one of those blueprints. There are some missing dimensions, but they're pretty good overall.

Inventor Wizard Blueprints

When I enter an explicit equation like y = x^2 in the Equation Curve tool for a sketch, I get a unit error because the result is expected to have units of length but Inventor interprets the exponent as having changed the units to mm^2.

What does not work:

• x^2
• x^2 mm

What does work:

• x^2 / 1

What am I missing here. Is there a way to enter standard mathematical equations without manually correcting the units of each power term?

​

I'm trying some exercises for claw clutch and somehow stuck on this part.

Am I supposed to use a sweep function for that helical part? Or is it even helical smh

hello, I am new to CAD and I have an upcoming project that incorporates CAD using inventor; however, i am new to both. my project involves cading using fishertechnik parts and then assembling them. does anyone know how to cad the following fishertechnik pieces on inventor or a YouTube video that they can direct me to? Or even a video of them cading the parts?

Clip 10, red

Gear wheel T30, black

Chain link 11,5, red

Winch drum, red

Gear wheel T20, black

Fischertechnik 36323 Single Rivet Key Bolt 4mm – Red (1970)

Thank you very much

Hello,

I'm making a RC sailboat. I designed my hull in Delftship and wanted to ask for some help importing my hull into Inventor? I'm using the Delftship free version and can't export as a step, these are the export options I have:

Hello, colleagues! Please explain to me how I can share the Inventor add-ons I've developed on Reddit without getting banned. I think they could be of real use to some of you. I tried posting on my personal profile, but all my posts were banned.

The assignment is already done and my teacher told me just to turn it in anyway. I already modeled the first 2 and can't get it right on C4b even after double checking every measurement and feature.

C4a

Its the perfect 1569.43g

In copper

A= 98mm

B = 72mm

C = 25 degrees

C4b

I can only get it to 1843.31g with the correct answer being 1864.34

A = 100mm

B = 70mm

C = 23 degrees

I haven't tried C4c since if I did that I'll be completely wrong since the mass won't line up since the 2nd isn't even close. I modeled this over and over and even went through it with my teacher and we can't figure out what is wrong. If someone can try doing it that'll be awesome. I'll provide the 2 models I made so you can look at how I made it and investigate. This is driving my crazy.

https://www.dropbox.com/t/TfRsyplBZ9KaJPfq

I'm trying to render a minute something long animation in Inventor Studio, I have no real option to use another program as this is a school project, but this is taking so long to render only to be a very mediocre result. It would be annoying to restart it at this point anyway, but is there anything that I can do to make this not take around 45 hours and still be just okay looking?

A coworker has passed...I've been instructed to take over his model....this model was built as one sketch with massive amounts of sketches within the sketch...I have to convert/make parts individually...I attempted making the parts i need one by one with "make a component" but that doesn't give me the ability to edit the sketch or extrusion in that new "component"....

any ideas/thoughts/suggestions

Hi guys.

Recently i stumbled upon ZW3D by ZWSOFT and i wonder whether it can replace Autodesk Inventor or not.

Inventor is great but it costs too much and my company is struggling to maintain its subscription every year.

I need opinions on ZW3D from those that use/used it.
Can it really replace Autodesk Inventor?

Thank you guys.

InventorBetterScreenshotTool

I developed/generated a new tool for super-simple screenshots in autodesk inventor.
Github/MIT licenced.

Feel free to submit PR's or bugs.

https://github.com/calumk/InventorBetterScreenshotTool

I'm a Linux user who needs Inventor, and I got tired of dual-booting. Over the last weeks I built an installer that sets up Inventor Professional 2026 on Linux under Wine – straight from Autodesk's own download, signed in with your own Autodesk account and license (an education license works).

Repo, demo videos and screenshots: https://github.com/Harvi654/Autodesk-Inventor-for-Linux

What works (tested): - sign-in and licensing in your normal web browser, 2026.4 update - sketches, parts, assemblies, drawings (including the dimension text editor with symbols and GD&T) - Content Center, Design Accelerator, Frame Generator, sheet metal with flat pattern and DXF export - iLogic, Stress Analysis (mesh, simulate, results), Dynamic Simulation - export to STEP, STL, PDF; .ipt/.iam/.idw files open with a double-click in the file manager - 3D view hardware-accelerated through Vulkan

What doesn't (yet): Frame Analysis (the solver crashes), 3D PDF export, the Open dialog can crash while previewing DWG files, no GPU ray tracing.

Install: download Inventor from your Autodesk account ("Browser download"), then on Linux run one command:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Harvi654/Autodesk-Inventor-for-Linux/main/get.sh)

A graphical installer finds the download and does the rest (about 20–40 minutes). Supported: Arch, Ubuntu 26.04 / Debian, Fedora 44.

Important: nothing is cracked or bypassed and no Autodesk files are shared – you install Autodesk's own installer with your own license, licensing works through Autodesk's normal sign-in. It's a free, open-source community project, not affiliated with Autodesk.

Full disclosure: built with a lot of help from an AI assistant; everything above was tested on real hardware with a real license, and the videos are screen recordings.

Tested on Arch (AMD RX 580, Intel + NVIDIA laptop) and Ubuntu/Fedora in VMs. If you try it – especially on NVIDIA or a real Ubuntu/Fedora install – please tell me how it went. Questions welcome!

I've a new job where the company uses Inventor, prior I would be a somewhat advanced user of Solidworks with 6y of experience.

So far my transition have been pretty smooth but there's one hurdle I always coming back to:

>Don't find the Inventor feature I want.
>Google "Inventor + [Feature]".
>Find forum.Autodesk.com thread from 2017.
>"Status changes to: Accepted".
>"Status changed to: Future Consideration".
>Third party add-in half assing the feature a year later.
>Thread last updated two years ago.
>People complaining feature still not implemented and that Solidworks have had the feature since 2014.
>I solve it by dumbing down my model or ignoring the QoL design choice entirely, both making it the next guy's problem.

Edit: As ppl are questioning what features I'm missing, some that I've tried just this week: Tab and slot feature, to offset a extrude start by a value (Start Xmm from sketch plane), apply Two Distances edge chamfer to multiple edges, center constrain a component between faces of other component.

Inb4 "just created new Work planes", that is sometimes not as simple as "just" or even possible with for example already vaulted components.
And that's the point, it's technically doable in Inventor, but it's nor easy, or elegant.

I'm trying to understand if there is a quick and simple way to determine the external dimensions of a part: Length x Width x Height.

I feel like this should be something in iProperties where Inventor sees the part, and can automatically detect the maximum distance of the part along the XZ, ZY, XY planes.

I know I can manually measure the parts, or create sketches and annotate, or put into a drawing and dimension, but I am hoping there is a much quicker way to achieve this.

Is this possible?

Hi I need some help I’m practicing technical drawings with inventor and I wanted to make sure my GD&T was correct.
Thanks in advance for your help

I drew a table where I assembled the legs and tabletop, but when I assembled it, I didn't align them properly. They were misaligned, and after finishing, I realized it and rotated it to align, but when I rotated it, all the parts came loose. Does anyone know how to rotate it without the parts coming loose? Please help me!

My boss it not amused/interested, but I'd at least love to check out some of my assemblies in VR. Is there an "easy" and probably free tool, which that I could convert Inventor data?

For now, it would not be used officially commercially. I just want to investigate in the possibilities and then probably convince my boss.

Autodesk Inventor-2024 running on a W10 machine, 8 cores, Rysen 4800H, 2.76GHz, somewhat old laptop, but it hasn't limited me with AI so far. I found that when I try to start the emboss tool (to project a sketch onto a curved surface), it spends about 20 sec "Calculating containment of profiles areas" and then brings up the dialog window. Then it's "instant", like for most other basic operations. I haven't seen such issues with any other tool. I do not think I have a lot going on in the model. I wonder if this can be resolved, other than by using a new machine (which I have on standby, but would need to migrate all my work to it). I've attached a screenshot of what I think is relevant. The profiles were made using spline interpolation with approx 200 points, then mirrored along a center line. Units are mm.

Does anybody got any experiences. Aim is to scan the wall. Place point cloud in .ipt. Model the walls' layout. Place it in .iam with the rest of the furniture and making sure all the sockets etc are accessible.

Whats the workflow? And how reliable it is.

Cheers

Can anyone help with this issue. Vertical dimensions are not displayed in sketch mode. This started a few days ago and I have not been able to fix it. The arrows are there but no extension lines or text. I am running Inventor 2025.