The Autodesk(R) Inventor(R) 2021: Design Variations and Representations guide contains topics that teach how to efficiently create and represent designs based on existing geometry. You will learn how the iFeature, iPart, and iAssembly tools can leverage existing geometry to quickly create additional or slightly varied geometry. Additionally, how iMates can be used for placement in an assembly. The remaining chapters focus on how you can create positional configurations to evaluate a components' range of motion (Positional Representations), create simplified geometry to share with customers while protecting your intellectual property (Shrinkwrap and Assembly Simplification), and how to manage large assemblies (Level of Detail Representations).

The topics covered in this guide are also covered in the following ASCENT guides, which include a broader range of advanced topics:

Autodesk(R) Inventor(R) 2021: Advanced Assembly Modeling Autodesk(R) Inventor(R) 2021: Advanced Part Modeling

Topics Covered

Create and place an iFeature. Use the Copy command to duplicate features in or between models. Create an iPart that can generate different configurations of a model. Insert standard or custom iParts into an assembly. Modify an iPart factory. Use a table-driven iPart to create an iFeature. Build iMate constraints into parts or subassemblies. Manually or automatically match iMates of parts in an assembly and use a Match List. Create, place, and edit an iAssembly. Create and edit different positional representations of an assembly. Create a Shrinkwrap part. Selectively determine which components to include in a simplified view and use that information to create a new part model. Define bounding box or cylindrical geometry to represent assembly components and use that information to create a new part model. Combine the use of a simplified view, envelopes, and visibility settings to create a new simplified model. Create and use Level of Detail representations in an assembly.

Prerequisites

Access to the 2021.0 version of the software, to ensure compatibility with this guide. Future software updates that are released by Autodesk may include changes that are not reflected in this guide. The practices and files included with this guide might not be compatible with prior versions (i.e., 2020). The material covered in this guide assumes a mastery of Autodesk Inventor basics as taught in the Autodesk Inventor: Introduction to Solid Modeling guide.