Update: IN-Motion, a Motion and Dynamic Simulation Addin for Autodesk Inventor has been launched by us. Check out the below video for an Overview

Update: Video tutorials on usage of IN-Motion for Dynamic Simulation of Autodesk Inventor Assemblies.

For the past few months, along with my mentor (Aik-Siong Koh), I have been busy developing Motion Simulation addin for Autodesk Inventor. We have named it IN-Motion. Once we are done with the development, it would be available for Autodesk Inventor users, in the form of an addin. Upon installing IN-Motion, they will be able to simulate an assembly both kinematically and dynamically. The following screencasts show the progress we have achieved so far in this regard and very soon we will be launching IN-Motion.

1) Basic tutorial on getting started with IN-Motion. We start with a blank Inventor assembly and place components and apply constraint. Then we start IN-Motion, set rotation to a Insert Constraint (Revolute Joint) and then simulate the mechanism/assembly. Watch high resolution video at AR-CAD.

2) Tutorial on simulating a four-bar mechanism. This assembly has 2 grounded parts and 3 movable parts, with 4 Insert Constraints. IN-Motion allows us to give rotation to one of the Insert Constraints and then the simulation can be made to see the behavior of the imposed motion. Watch high resolution video at AR-CAD.

3) Tutorial on simulating an Elliptical Trammel. This assembly has 4 components. IN-Motion deals with Planar and Insert Constraints in this case and the simulation takes place for an imposed Rotation on one of the insert constraints. Watch high resolution video at AR-CAD.

4) Tutorial on simulating an Engine. We start with the engine assembly that gets shipped along with Autodesk Inventor. Right now, we are not dealing with the sub-assembly(Piston.iam) parts and constraints. We are considering the sub-assembly as a block/part. Upon user feedback, we may actually extend upon the sub-assembly parts. This is mainly because, a lot of processing takes place in our Motion Solver and the sub-assembly parts(if non-trivial) add up to the CPU load. Watch high resolution video at AR-CAD.

5) Tutorial on Dynamic Simulation of a pendulum in Autodesk Inventor, using IN-Motion. We take the pendulum from Tutorial 1 and instead of giving a rotation, we set the value of Gravitational force for the assembly. IN-Motion then passes the gravity to our Motion solver and the dynamic simulation of the assembly takes place. This example is the simplest form of dynamic simulation and complex assemblies can also be simulated for dynamics. We are working on getting velocity, acceleration and force data at any point in the assembly, in the form of a graph. Watch high resolution video at AR-CAD.

Related posts:

1. Autodesk Inventor Dynamic Simulation Tutorial using IN-Motion
2. IN-Motion Launched for Autodesk Inventor 2009
3. IN-Motion Released for Autodesk Inventor 2010
4. Develop Autodesk Inventor Addin using C# – Part 4