Getting Started with Generative Design for Inventor Users

MATT LEMAY: My name is Matt Lemay, and I'm part of the Generative Adoption team here at Autodesk. I work in the Americas. And my colleague Alessandro works in EMEA.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Yeah, Alessandro Gasso, counterpart of Matt for Europe, for the Generative Design Adoption.

MATT LEMAY: Excellent. So I've been working at Autodesk now for four years. My prior focus was on additive manufacturing. But with the launch of generative, that's really been my focus now for the last year and a half or two years. So to get started, we're going to quickly walk through what we hope to provide you today.

So first and foremost, we hope to really cover the why of generative. So how many people have seen a generative presentation so far this week? Pretty much everybody? So the first thing we really want to cover is that, generative is not just applicable to those extremely high-end additive manufacturing parts. But you can also apply generative to traditionally manufactured components today.

We hope to show you the workflows, starting off within Inventor, moving to Fusion to connect generative. And then moving that generative part right back to Inventor. So again, the agenda, about 20 minutes, we're just going to have a brief presentation that kind of covers some points that you might not have seen within other generative classes so far this week. Then we'll start with the workflow hands-on within Inventor. So we'll really walk you through the entire process.

So starting off with the assembly within Inventor, we'll create our preserve and obstacle geometries for generative. We'll extract that geometry and we'll send that over to Fusion 360, where we'll run through the entire generative process from start to finish. We'll then generate a component, send it right back to Inventor.

So just to quickly try and start here, how many people have used Inventor in the past? So great to see, pretty much everyone, that's really what we needed. How many people have used Fusion 360 in the past? So less, but still a pretty good amount. And how many people have used Generative in the past? So significantly less, OK.

So when we're talking about generative, I think one of the most important things to think about, for all of those that are new to generative technology, as I'm sure you've heard with a few of the other sessions, is that generative is free for the next six weeks. So if you have access to Fusion through PDMC, if you're subscribed to Fusion, if you have access to Fusion, you can try generative as much as you want for the next six weeks for free. So this is really a tremendous opportunity to really get in there and try to learn as much as you can on where it might fit for you and your company.

So in a lot of the generative presentations that you might see, you'll see these very organic, almost alien-looking components coming out of generative. And while generative can certainly produce those kind of outcomes, the ones that we're honestly more excited about are the ones that are easy to manufacture and apply a real return on investment for you and your company. So when we think about generative, why is this process so important to the things that you might make? So a quick quote here that kind of frames it well, and I won't say, this because Ale's Italian voice is a lot better than mine.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Yeah, that's a free translation. So basically, Leonardo da Vinci was saying that, a problem as a solution when it's well-framed. Since centuries, we jump directly to the solution and then try to adjust it a little bit, while the approach with generative design is completely the opposite. We need to be good in framing the problem. And let's say, in generative we do the CAD work [INAUDIBLE].

MATT LEMAY: Thank you. So when we look at these major transformations that have happened throughout the CAD industry, just to see the impact that we think generative will have, the first major shift was moving people from drafting boards to 2D CAD. So now, as the engineer had the ability to work electronically with their models, the value that they had significantly increased.

We saw the same thing with 3D CAD. So now that we can look at the assembly context of our model, we can look at parametric modeling, again, the value that the engineer has drastically jumped from 2D to 3D. We saw the same thing with finite element analysis. When we can simulate a prior to actually producing it, again, the value of the engineer drastically increased.

So we see this same sort of transformational leap as we move to generative technology. And as Ale said, the thing that's unique about generative is that, for the first time, we're actually framing the problem, we're framing the objectives, and we're allowing the computer to be a co-creator with us in that process, generating hundreds of options that we probably wouldn't have thought of completely on our own.

So when we look at this traditional process that we're really trying to effect, when our customers have told us they're trying to bring a product to market, they typically will look at a small handful of outcomes. So maybe four or five products, they'll look at the manufacturability, they'll look at the structure, they'll make trade-offs. And in the end, they're bringing a product to market, while maybe it took longer than what they would have liked, worse than that, it's probably very similar to the other parts that they may have brought to market in the past.

So what we'd really like to change within generative is, right at that first phase within bringing a product to market, rather than coming up with some of our own ideas, we're again leading with our objectives. So we're saying, I need a part that can hold a certain amount of mass. I need a part that can hold a certain amount of pressure.

I know these are the manufacturing types and the material types that I'd like to explore. And then generative will allow us to generate and quickly explore hundreds or thousands of viable options that we probably would have never thought of. So while this allows us to potentially bring a product to market quicker, much more valuable than that is, it's allowing us to explore geometry and product options that we would have never thought of in the past.

So when we think about the main value propositions of generative technology today, the first one, again, is really exploring a range of options. So we're not just optimizing for a single material or a single manufacturing type. We're allowing generative to explore the entire range of options, and then we can make the right trade-off choices on our own.

Next would be, we're applying real manufacturing intelligence. So I said at the beginning, many people are familiar with those very organic, alien-looking components coming out of generative. But what you might not be used to is that we can do things like traditional manufacturing-- two axis cutting, CNC, and even casting-- within generative today. And then finally, since we do want to be the front end of that product cycle, what comes out of generative is actually solid, editable CAD geometry that you can continue to adjust, validate, and then move forward through that process.

So to quickly highlight an example that shows a lot of those things, I'm sure many people have seen the project that we did with General Motors about a year and a half ago. And it took that eight-part assembly to the top left and generated a single-part replacement. So that replacement was lighter. It was stronger. But probably more importantly than that, it allowed GM to look at 150 viable options and compare across material and manufacturing options.

So when we look at what generative is going to do, generative will take the entire volume that a part could fill, and it will either add or subtract material from the functional requirements that we set-- so things like loading-- and also the manufacturing requirements that we've set-- so things like CNC, additive, casting, whatever it might be. It will then generate the range of options for us. And then we can start making the correct trade-offs to figure out the right one to move forward with.

So when setting up a generative project, it's actually really simple. There's only a couple of things that we need to keep in mind. We need to think about our current assembly context. So what are the things that we need to keep in and what are the things that we need to keep out? And right from there, we can start working through this process.

So many people are probably familiar, again, with examples like General Motors, on using generative for things like additive. But a lot's changed, even within the last six months, that makes generative a lot more applicable to traditional manufacturing. So the first one being, as I mentioned before, generative applies to things that are not just additive manufacturing today. We have a number of components, I think, in the back, if we could hand those out. These show an entire range of options, everything from additive to subtractive to casting, on a range of options.

And then second would be, just recently, we've partnered with a company called aPriori Technologies to put in costing analysis within generative. So now as we're generating all of those options, we're looking at the high-performing additive and the CNC and the casting. We can now have an idea about how much each one of those is cost, so we can actually do a cost versus performance trade-off on each.

So to the first point on, generative is now applicable to things much more than just additive, take a look at these three examples on the screen. So one of these is entirely modeled through a human. One of these is entirely generative. And one of these is a combination of both human and generative.

So how many people think the generative component was number 1? A few people. How many think generative was number 2? OK, a few more. And how many people think generative was number 3? OK, so a pretty good mix of results there.

So when we look at these options, when we're applying generative today, again, we can apply traditional manufacturing techniques. So within this process, we applied 2 and 1/2 axis CNC constraints to make something through generative that's not just higher performing and created through the generative process, but it's also easy to manufacture. And the manufacturing constraints have gotten to the point where they're so good, when we had people raise their hands in the audience, it was pretty much an even split between all of these parts. So that's how close generative is to making things that are not just higher performing, but also easy to manufacture.

So to quickly walk through that workflow, as we're setting up a generative project today, of course we can do the additive. We can do the unrestricted. But what you might not know is we can do the CNC, the two-axis cutting, the casting solutions. And we can compare them all side by side.

So maybe for one project, the appropriate solution would be the extremely high-performing additive component. But more likely than not, for the majority of your projects, things like CNC and casting would actually be the more appropriate solution. But you can compare all of these side by side, and even generate things as prismatic as this two-axis cut part that we see on the screen.

So just to quickly highlight that again, so we look at that same triple clamp. So on the top left, you have the human-created geometry. Everything else on that row is completely generative. So we have a 2 and 1/2 axis part, higher-performing than the human geometry, but also easy to manufacture. You have slightly higher performing 3 and 5 axis CNC, and then additive. But again, this is all happening at the same time within one project.

So it's great to compare all these different performance options. But that doesn't really mean anything to us unless we truly understand the cost of each one. So as I mentioned, we partnered with a company called aPriori Technologies. So with each one of our generative outputs, we can also view exactly how much that part would cost to manufacture.

So what aPriori looks at in the backend is, it looks at the geometry of the part, it looks at the material, the manufacturing type, the production volume. And it comes up with a cost estimate for each one of those. Now, comparing that with the performance trade-offs allows us to do some really powerful things early on. So here we can start looking at the correct manufacturing type for the right performance options.

So with that, I think we should start kicking off the workflow within Inventor, just to quickly talk about the workflow that we'll be showing today. So generative design is a part of Fusion 360. Pretty much everyone here in the room is more comfortable with Inventor. So the workflow that will actually show is setting up all of your generative geometry within Inventor, and then moving that to Fusion to run generative, and then bringing that geometry right back into Inventor. So we're not trying to replace Inventor with anything. We're essentially adding Fusion 360 and generative within that workflow.

So with that, I'll hand it off to my colleague, Ale, who will start us off with the Inventor workflow.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: OK, so now, stop listening. Now we should start working a little bit. So I hope that you have Fusion 360 and Inventor up and running on your machine. Can you confirm that? Great. OK, so please open Fusion 360. And then click here on the name of the user. And then you go on Switch Team. And you should see that the active team is the Ale Sub. You all have that? Someone has it, no one? Oh, OK.

MATT LEMAY: If anyone needs any help, we have probably six people in the back row too. So just kind of raise your hand if there's anything that you get caught on.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: So you click on the name, Switch Team. And you should see here, Ale Sub as the active. Yeah, sign in. There a lot that cannot sign in in Fusion.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] sign in.

AUDIENCE: If anyone can't sign in on Fusion, go to Explorer. You'll see an F drive. And in that, there's a script called Login [INAUDIBLE] log you in. You should be able to login under [INAUDIBLE].

MATT LEMAY: How many people are seeing those problems logging in? A pretty good amount of people here.

AUDIENCE: It's not [INAUDIBLE]. It's actually [INAUDIBLE]

MATT LEMAY: OK, so it's just the command now. OK, got it.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Sorry for that. I hope we will manage to--

MATT LEMAY: It's easier from here.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: This is the trickiest part because, I mean, it didn't depend on us.

MATT LEMAY: OK, so has everyone found Ale's team name? Good? OK.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: OK? OK. So if you open the Fusion 360 data panel, you should see a project called AU2019 GD for Inventor. So double-click on this project. And then click on New Folder. Yeah, problem?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Yeah, yeah, sorry. So I have a lot of projects here. But you should see just AU2019 GD for Inventor. Can you see it? OK, double-click on it. OK, don't create a folder named New Folder, please. So create folder with your name because everybody is going to create a folder here. So for instance, in my case, I create a folder called Ale Gasso. And then press Enter. [INAUDIBLE]

And then once you have created a folder with your name, double-click on the folder for opening it. Are you all there? Almost?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Almost there? So let's see how many folders do we have. Yeah, OK, your name or anything that is unique to you. Good. So double-click on the folder with your name. Open the folder with your name. And then click on Upload. Then select File. And you should browse on a folder that should be on the desktop that is the name of this class, something like, IM, numbers, and then L, getting started with generative. So again, you should double-click on your folder. You should have the name of your folder here.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Ah, you cannot double-click on your folder. OK, so let's wait a few minutes. All the folders are there? Yeah, because everyone is creating the folder and keep on refresh. OK, have you managed to double-click on your folder and open it? Everybody has opened his own folder?

So click on Upload. Then select File. Then you should have a folder on the desktop with a subfolder with the name of this session, IM whatever, L, getting started with generative, design for Inventor. And then you have the data set. And then you have the Fusion 360 files. You select the file. You click Open. And then you upload the Fusion 360 file under your folder. The file should be located-- there should be a folder on the desktop, right? No? Sorry, where are the files located?

AUDIENCE: C [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: C?

AUDIENCE: C [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Has anyone found the file?

MATT LEMAY: Oh, go to C. And then go to Data Sets. And then if you scroll down, you're going to look for Inventor in generative, the class name, getting started in generative. And then if you click on that one-- no, just open the folder at that level.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: OK, did you upload the file? OK, very good. OK, so now we can close this and move back to something that should be more familiar with you, Inventor. So first thing you should do in Inventor, you should set the right project. So you click on Project. And then you browse to the location where you have the Fusion 360 file. There is another folder called Inventor. That is it. Can you see it?

Inventor data set, and then you select the project Front Loader. And make sure that the front loader is the active project. So the same location where you have the Fusion file, you have another folder with the Inventor data set. Under this folder, there is a project called Front Loader. Of course, you need to select this project and make this project the active project in Inventor.

We are in Inventor now, eh? Good. OK, so you open the Main Assembly Front Loader. And basically, what we are going to do, we are going to design with generative design the middle linkage for this front loader, basically starting from scratch and doing all the CAD work in Inventor. So if you are an Inventor user, this should be really simple for you.

So Inventor is open in the main assembly, as I hope this is the same for you. So we need to design the middle linkage that is missing here. So please select this subassembly and open it. And then you should see that in this subassembly, I have created a level of details. So please activate the level of details that contains just the component that I need as reference for creating the entities that I'm going to use for doing the setup in generative design.

OK, now, one of the most interesting parts-- so I create a new part in Inventor, so a new part in Inventor. And I'm going to save this part. So if you click on Save, don't save the part in the project. But if you click here and if this top connector is working on your machine, you should Fusion 360 that displays like if it was a drive. Can you see it when you save the part?

AUDIENCE: It was also loading forever. [INAUDIBLE]

AUDIENCE: Yeah, I heard some people say [INAUDIBLE].

ALESSANDRO GASSO: It's still loading the main assembly?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: OK, no problem. I'll wait. Are we all here? Are we here? OK, good. That's already a good start. OK, now, just select this subassembly, right-click, and open it. OK, this subassembly contains a level of detail called GD. Activate the level of detail, and you get this. So this contains the component from the original assembly that I'm going to use as a reference for generating the geometry for the generative design setup. Are you all here? Perfect.

Now, create a new part in Inventor. So a new part, OK, good. Now save this new part, but don't save it in the project. So click here, and you should see Fusion 360 as if it was a drive. Can you see it? Good.

No.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Yes, no, maybe? If you don't see it, it means that this [INAUDIBLE] connect [INAUDIBLE]. OK, if you click on Fusion 360, you should see Ale Sub. Double-click on Ale Sub. And then you should see the project. You should see the project. You should see less projects than I see. You should see the project AU2019 GD for Inventor. Can you see it?

Double-click on it. And then double-click on the folder with your name. OK, give a name that makes sense to the part. So for instance, I call it Ale Inventor Part. And then save the Inventor file under the folder with your name. Click Yes, because we are saving this outside the Inventor project. Are we good? Good, perfect.

Now, if we move back to Fusion 360, under your folder, in a few seconds, hopefully, you should see the Inventor file, the Inventor part that we have just saved listed in the Fusion 360 Data panel. In general, it takes a few seconds. Of course, for the [INAUDIBLE] this time [INAUDIBLE].

Or it won't work at all. Ah, OK, so can you see the Inventor file in the Fusion 360 data panel? Can you see it? OK, this is 100% an Inventor part file that I can save directly from Inventor to Fusion 360.

OK, now we go back to Inventor and we start. So what we are going to do now, so we are going to create the obstacle geometry. So we are going to create in Inventor some entities that then, when we do the generative design setup we are going to define as the obstacle, so the keep out zone.

OK, so now in Inventor, the new part, Manage, Derive. Double-click on this AC chassis front. Then select this subassembly, AC chassis front 001. So you select it, and then go to the option, and make sure that we are going to basically derive this assembly with the option, the GD level of detail. We can also disable the associativity because we don't need it. So we click OK, and we open. So we derive this assembly.

Now, don't click OK. So first up, bodies-- we need just a single body because this would be just a big obstacle. Then on the other tab, click on the root assembly and disable the import of all the working geometry. OK, representation, just check that we are using the level of data.

OK, the option, I'm going to patch all the holes, because I don't need the holes. This is an obstacle. Reduce memory, and then I remove all the internal voids because I don't need them. And click OK. And you should get something like that.

AUDIENCE: Could you share the options again? Could you share the options to derive?

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Yes. So bodies, single solid body, then other tab, click here. And then click to exclude everything. And then the option here, patch all the holes, reduce memory, and remove all internal voids. Yes, questions, problem?

AUDIENCE: One more time.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: One more time, OK.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Should I import the assembly from scratch? OK, redo. Replay. OK, Manage tab, Derive. Then open this folder, AC Chassis Front. Then select this assembly AC Chassis Front 001. Option, make sure that you are using the level of detail GD. Open. Just click OK on this message. Then, Bodies tab, first option, so the single body. Then Other tab, select this, exclude everything. Option, I patch all the holes, reduce memory, and I remove all the internal voids. Too fast?

OK, and you should get something like that. Now very, very important-- if you get something like that, select the derived assembly in the browser and break link with base component. Because now we are going to save this, and everything will be sent to Fusion 360. If we don't break the link, basically, we will have to wait three, four hours that all the references move from Inventor to Fusion 360.

OK, so you have this? Did you break the link? Fantastic. OK, now just save, save the file. And then move back to Fusion. And in a few seconds, we should see a message under your folder. We should see a message, an update. And when we see that, hopefully in the next few seconds--

MATT LEMAY: So just a note, if someone's completely lost in the workflow that we've done so far, that's completely fine. Because when we get to the generative portion, we have a generative ready file that you can just continue on with. So we know there were problems with some of the accounts, so don't worry about it too much if you're looking at a blank screen. We can really catch everyone up at that point.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: So just relax and enjoy your flight. Of course it's a little bit slow. Now you should see something like that. So I got the update from Inventor to Fusion 360. So now right-click on the Inventor part in the Fusion 360 data panel and open it. Are you opening it?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Did you get something like that?

MATT LEMAY: So it's not opening? Yeah, you shouldn't have to save the--

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Not yet because it's still opening? So this is an Inventor file that we can open in Fusion 360, native file, nothing to convert. You see here, there is this icon that tells us that the file is associative. So in theory, if I change something in Inventor, I get the update in Fusion 360. Are you almost all here?

OK, so now click on Design and move from the design environment to the generative design environment. Now, all those entities are supposed to be obstacles. So click on this icon, Obstacle Geometry. And window select everything that you have on the screen. And then click OK. And you should see all red.

MATT LEMAY: So just to quickly highlight what we're really trying to do here, so when we're generating the new middle linkage component for the front loader, we know that we have existing components within our assembly that we need generative to avoid. So what we've done is, we've brought that subassembly from Inventor into Fusion so we could call out all those objects as obstacle geometries, which means, keep out. Does that make sense for everyone?

ALESSANDRO GASSO: OK, so now we have the obstacle. So basically, we have done that. Now, still in Inventor, we are going to create other entities in Inventor that then we are going to define as the preserve geometry. So now back to Inventor, and now in this case, I trust on your Inventor skills for following what I'm going to do.

I'm going to do something really basic. But if you are not proficient with Inventor, I don't think you can follow what I'm going to do. I think, as Matt said, we have the almost final part in the folder. But if you're proficient with Inventor, please try to follow what I'm going to do.

So I'm going to create other entities still in Inventor. So I'm not doing nothing so far, no CAD work in Fusion 360 so far. But then, as I have defined those entities as obstacles, I'm going to define the other entities as preserve geometry. So the first thing that I'm going to ask you-- I know that in the US this is almost a crime. But you should go here-- Tools, Document and Setting, Units.

I live in Europe, so I work in millimeters. So please change from inch to millimeters. It works the same way in inches, but what I'm going to do is millimeters. So sorry for that, but you should have millimeter there. OK, once you have done these things that I'm really ashamed to have asked to you-- OK, so first thing that we are going to do, we are going to define a mid-plane between this face and this other face.

And you should get something like that. So basically, I'm going to create a master sketch. And using this master sketch, I'm going to just create a simple extrusion that then I'm going to define as preserve geometry.

OK, if you have this plan, then we are going to start a sketch, selecting this plane. And for a better visibility, we are going to activate the slice graphic mode. OK, very simple, very simple step in Inventor, but if you cannot follow it, there is the final file.

OK, we are going to project this geometry, then this geometry, and this joint. Then we are going to offset the geometry. It doesn't matter how much because then we are going to apply the dimensions. OK, then let's apply the dimension.

So this is 210 millimeters. You cannot see it because I need to update the graphic driver. But this is 210 millimeter. This is 180 millimeters. And then I apply a constraint, so this is equal to this one.

Then I'm going to create a construction line that basically is going to pass through the center. So first center here, second center here, and the third center here. OK, now, no more construction line, so normal line, I'm going to draw a line here. And then this line must be perpendicular to the construction line and must be tangent to this circle.

Then I'm going to draw a line from here to here. Then this line must be perpendicular to here and must be tangent to here. And then I'm going to mirror this line using the construction line as mirror line. Then I trim those lines. And then I create a three-point rectangle here, here, and then 50 millimeters.

OK, now I'm going to do basically the same things the other side. Sorry, this is a little boring part, but just to show you that I can do all the CAD work in Inventor and then move to generative design. So again, this line perpendicular to the construction line, and then tangent to this line. Then a line from here to here that must be perpendicular here. It doesn't look right. Again I mirror this line using the construction line. I trim this. And then I create the same rectangle, 50 millimeter.

OK, so now I have my master sketch. Now, from this master sketch, I'm going to create simple extrusion that then I'm going to define in generative design mainly as preserve geometry. But I will create also some entities that should be added to the obstacle. But I will show you an option in Inventor that will, basically, using that option, the entity that I create in Inventor is going to be added to the obstacle in Fusion automatically.

OK, so I finished the sketch. Now, for facilitating the view of the sketch that I'm going to extrude, I'm going to use an off section view. So I'm going to do things that, in general, are not necessary in Inventor. But so off section view using this plan are not necessary in Inventor, but just so that you can see better the sketch that I'm going to extrude.

OK, for the first the extrusion, I'm going to select, basically, all those profiles. I will start from this plane. And I will do an extrusion of 20 millimeters. Now, very important-- this is an entity that I'm going to define as preserve geometry, so I need to create a new solid. OK, so now I make the sketch visible again.

And I will extrude this profile to this face. And again, this is a preserve geometry, so new solid again. OK, now I need to mirror those two solids. Normally, I don't need to do that. But in this way, it's easier to see the profile that I'm selecting. So I'm going to mirror the solid, so this one and this one. And of course, this is the mirror of the plane.

MATT LEMAY: So just a note again, for those that are a little bit behind, that's completely OK. In about five minutes, we'll show the workflow of having the setup generative part within Fusion, and then we can continue from that step.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Thank you. OK, now I'm going to do another extrusion. So I'm going to extrude this profile to this face. But in this case, this is something that is supposed to be added to the obstacle. Because you see, I cannot have material there because this part is going to move. In this case, instead of creating a new solid, I will use the Join option. And as you will see, in Fusion 360, this will be automatically added to the obstacle that I have already defined.

In this case, this is just a feature, so I just mirror this feature to this plane. Now I'm going to do the same boring stuff on the other side. So I extrude this, this, this, and this, starting from this plane, 20 millimeters. New solid, new solid because this is preserve geometry.

Then again, I extrude this face here. Again new solid because this is a preserve geometry. Then I mirror the two solids using this mirror plane. I did something wrong. Solid, this solid, this solid, and this is the mirror of plane.

OK, now, another extrusion, so I'm going to extrude this profile to this face. But this is an obstacle, so not new solid but join. And then I mirror this feature as well to this mirror plane.

OK, and now the last boring stuff-- so I extrude this face to this plane. But new solid because this is a preserve geometry. And then a mirror this solid, of course still using the plane.

OK, and now I can go in a normal view. I can hide the plane. I can hide the sketch. And you should see something like that. How many of you could follow me-- no one? No problem.

OK, but if now I save this file in Inventor-- no worries, huh? You have the file in your folder so that we can-- if I see this file in Inventor and I go in Fusion, I switch momentarily to the design workspace, after a few seconds, I should see the update coming from Inventor, in a few seconds, hopefully.

MATT LEMAY: So what we're showing here, so again, within generative, you can create the preserves and obstacles in any CAD package that you're really most comfortable with. So the workflow we're showing here is, you're within your Inventor assembly, you're creating the preserves and obstacles there and then sending that to Fusion. But you can also use all of the modeling tools within Fusion to do that as well. It's really whatever you're more comfortable with.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: I should see the update, but apparently the connection is a little bit slow. OK, what's going on here?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

MATT LEMAY: No, it should automatically update the version.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Let me see it again just to be sure. I go to the [INAUDIBLE] here, hopefully. OK, for some reason I'm not getting the update. OK, finally, thanks to the fantastic network speed we have here.

OK, so you get this notification that, basically, there was an update in Inventor, and you can consume this update. You click on it. And hopefully, in a reasonable time, you should download the app. And we got that.

Now, if we switch back to the generative design environment, maybe you can notice that some of the entities that I've just created in Inventor are red. So they have been added automatically to the op cycle that we had already defined. And this is because in Inventor I have used the Join option. I can hide, momentarily, the obstacle. And all the other entities that I've created in Inventor, I can define them as preserve geometry and they will display green.

Now since, because of me, you could not follow all the steps, in your folder, you should have a file called From Inventor. So if you open this file, you should have exactly what I have here. So if you have this, if you open this file from Inventor, and then you switch to generative design, you have the obstacle and the preserve geometry that we have created in Inventor. And now from here, we have done all the CAD job in Inventor. From here, we can start doing the setup for doing a study in generative design. And now I hope you can follow me.

OK, so we have already our design space defined, so obstacle and preserve geometry. Now we should apply load and constraints. So for doing that, we can hide the obstacle. Because obstacle is just material that won't be there, so it doesn't make sense to apply load and constraints there, so we just need to see the preserve geometry. And then we start creating the first load case.

So for the first load case, we fix the preserve geometry here. So we click on [INAUDIBLE] constraint, fixed constraint, and then we select those two faces. So this is the fixed. And then we apply a load to the other two faces below. So we select those two faces. Then we go into Vectors.

You see? So in the vector, we want a force of 1,600 newton that goes in the positive y direction. So we have selected those two faces. We go in the Vector Visibility mode. And then for the y, we put a magnitude of 1,600 newton. OK, so this is one load case. But we need to create multiple load cases that basically simulate the different cases during the operation.

So I need to create new load cases. In this case, I select the first load case, and I clone it. Then I activate it. I don't change the constraint. The constraints remain the same. I just added the load. And in this case, I want a force that goes in the opposite direction. So I just put a minus in front of the value. And I have the second load case.

Then I select the first load case again and I clone it. I activate it. Now, I'm going to change the constraints. So the constraint is no more applied to those two faces, so I click. I unselect the two faces. But I select now this face. So this is my constraint.

And for the loads, in this case, we are going to have a much bigger one, so something like 11,000, something like that. OK, now I clone the third case. I activate the new one. And as I've done before, I don't touch the constraint. I just change the direction of the load.

OK, and then finally, I add one last load case. So I create a new load case. And then I apply. I fix those two faces. And then I apply one load to those two faces-- in this case, minus 1,600, minus y direction. OK, so I have now all the load cases. Now I should specify the objectives of my study.

So here we have two options. We can decide to minimize the mass and we need to specify a safety factor. Or we can maximize the stiffness. In this case, we still have to define a safety factor. But we should also specify a mass target. In this case, we are going to minimize the mass with, let's say, safety factor of 4.

Then we have a couple of glimpses in the future. So we have two options for the model frequencies and for controlling the maximum displacement, but we are not going to use it now. And then very important, we need to specify what manufacturing type we want to use. Because, as Matt said, the outcome that we are going to get are manufacturing aware. So the shape that we are going to get depends on how we want to produce our part.

So in this case, we have an unrestricted. So unrestricted is no specific manufacturing constraint. Then we have an additive, where we should specify a minimum thickness, the overhang angle, so the maximum angle that we can have without using the support. Then we have, in this case, a three-axis middling. For instance, due to the orientation of the part, I can have the two z direction.

I can also change the value for the tool. I can have an option for five-axis, for instance. I can also have an option for a 2.5 axis, which we are not going to use this for this case. We have also option for two-axis, but also we are not going to use this in this case. And then we have die casting. So in this case, also consider the orientation, we can specify the z direction. Also in this case, we can change the parameters.

And then we need to select the material that we want to test with our study. And we can select up to seven materials in the same study. So for instance, if I change this to Fusion 360 Material Library, I can select, as I said, up to six materials. OK, I'm not going to do that now for the sake of time, but you can select up to six materials.

And then you are good to go. Those warnings are related-- do you want to explain why we get this warning [INAUDIBLE]?

MATT LEMAY: Yeah, so what we talked about at the beginning, with generative and then the costing analysis, so there's certain materials that don't make sense to mapping cost. So you can imagine, if you put stone and casting, the costing analysis has no idea what that would actually do. So we'll warn you here and say that that's not something that we would provide the costing for.

ALESSANDRO GASSO: Now, before generating the outcome, it's always good to generate a preview. So the preview gives you a very rough preview of what we are going to get. Very, very rough, but good enough, for instance, for checking if we have forgotten an obstacle. For instance, so we have material where we can not have material, so it's always good to start the preview. And then you can have an idea.

If you are happy with the preview, you can start the generation, if I can manage to stop the preview. OK, you click on Generate. In general, generating the outcomes costs 25 cloud credits. That is about $25. But until the 31st of December at midnight, this is for free. And I can start generating my outcome.

Now, for a project like that, this will take about 45 minutes for generating the outcome. Of course, we don't have the time for doing that. But if you go back in the Data panel, and then you go back under the domain-- so something also to mention, so we have sent the calculation to the cloud. Now at this point, I can close everything. I can close the machine. I can go home. The calculation will just run on the cloud.

If you go back to the main project-- fantastic. OK, now we can go. OK, if you go back to the main project, so under AU2019 GD for Inventor, there is a folder called Outcomes. So under this folder, there is a file, GP Part, something like that, where I have already generated the outcomes that are mainly the same outcomes that we were going to see if we had the time to wait for the calculation.