Transcript
00:09
Welcome to this course on the Factory Design Utilities and the 2D AutoCAD workflow.
00:14
In this course, we're going to focus on what many factory designers consider the traditional 2D approach to the factory layout process.
00:22
We're going to look at the Autodesk Factory Design Utilities available in the AutoCAD environment,
00:27
and how they can be utilized to create a 2D layout in the AutoCAD application.
00:35
To start this demonstration off, I've opened up the file "Production C - Start".
00:40
This contains the line work that I'm going to use for this demonstration.
00:45
We've got some initial line work here that represents the area of the facility that we want to work on.
00:51
Now, I've already placed some factory assets in here, and I've already added some lines that are going to represent some conveyor runs.
01:01
In general terms in the AutoCAD workflow, usually, the first thing you want to do is reference the building footprint.
01:08
Now to do that, we're going to add an X ruff.
01:11
We're going to go up here to "Insert" and click "Attach" and I'm going to go out and insert the "Factory Footprint.dwg".
01:20
Go ahead and bring that in here.
01:22
I'm just going to use the default locations. I want it placed exactly where it was drawn.
01:27
And here you can see the overall building in reference to the zone that we are working in.
01:33
Now, this is a crucial step in the AutoCAD workflow,
01:36
because the building in this case established the origin point,
01:40
and it's very important that whoever works on the project honors this particular origin point.
01:48
So, we are working relative to a common origin throughout the factory layout process.
01:55
Now, we want to utilize the factory utilities.
01:58
I have the factory utilities installed in AutoCAD and this provides the factory tab.
02:03
Here, you'll have access to all of the factory utilities and the commands that support them.
02:10
We're going to start off with this one, the palettes command.
02:13
We want to bring up our asset browser.
02:15
The asset browser gives us access to the library of factory assets that come with the application.
02:24
I also want to bring up the factory properties palette.
02:27
This allows us to change the parameters of certain assets and modify them to suit.
02:33
Now, I'm going to add some equipment to our layout.
02:37
To do that, I'm going to utilize the asset browser.
02:40
I'm actually looking for an asset called a bag feeder.
02:44
Now, the asset browser has system assets which are supplied with the application.
02:51
It has user assets that you can create and it also has user cloud assets.
02:57
This is where the bag feeder is actually located, but instead of searching through all these directories for it.
03:02
I'm going to come up here to the search criteria and simply type in bag.
03:10
We'll execute a search and here you can see the bag feeder.
03:14
Now, you notice this icon has a circle in the upper right-hand corner.
03:17
Now mine's green because I've already downloaded the asset.
03:21
But yours is probably white like this one.
03:24
To download this asset, you simply right-click on it and select "Download Asset".
03:31
To use the asset, you left click and drag it onto your AutoCAD window, and basically, you have a block on your cursor.
03:39
I'm going to right click and use the basepoint option to select this midpoint and place this asset at the end of this conveyor run.
03:52
There's also something called a case packer.
03:56
So, in the search criteria, I'm just going to type in case, and here's my case packer.
04:01
Again, you'll have to download this asset.
04:04
I'm going to left-click and drag it out.
04:06
I'll use the basepoint option to place it at the end of this run.
04:18
Now, we're going to convert this poly line to a chain of conveyors.
04:22
To do that, I'm going to look for an asset with the search term of roller.
04:28
Now, it's very important that you use this particular asset if you're following along.
04:35
I'm going to scroll down until I find the cloud asset called roller conveyor chain.
04:43
Again, very important that you use this asset for this step.
04:47
You notice I already have it downloaded.
04:49
You'll also notice another icon on this asset in the upper left-hand corner.
04:53
The three squares in the infinity symbol mean that this asset was created to make chains where one conveyor hooks right into another automatically.
05:04
To use this, simply left click and drag it out onto the screen like normal.
05:09
Now, you could draw a polyline at this point or you can right click and select a polyline.
05:16
I'm going to select that polyline there, there is a path right over here as well.
05:20
I'm going to select that, a right click and you can see a preview of what your conveyors are going to look like.
05:27
This is actually a fat poly line, but it's the actual size of the conveyors.
05:32
Now to see a more detailed version of that, we're going to use one of the factor utilities up here called "Convert Asset Chains".
05:39
We'll select that and select the two poly lines and those will be converted into conveyors.
05:52
In this case, the blue conveyors you see are standard and the red conveyors are non-standard links.
06:01
Now, you can create conveyors one asset at a time.
06:07
I'm going to go to the asset browser and this time I'm going to go into the system assets.
06:10
These are the assets that are supplied with the application.
06:15
In the system assets, I'm going to go to the conveyor category and then I'm going to scroll down to the roller category.
06:21
Now, I would encourage you at your leisure to explore all the assets that come with the Factory Design Utilities.
06:28
I'm just going to jump into the roller category.
06:32
Here's my straight roller conveyor.
06:34
You'll notice it does not have a chain icon beside it.
06:37
This is what we call a local asset.
06:40
I'm going to drag this into my window.
06:44
I'm going to use that base point option again so that I can pick it, right here, and I have a pusher right here.
06:49
I'm going to hover on the midpoint and track to the left, and I'm going to drop that off right there.
06:56
On these assets, you'll see a little green dot.
06:59
It's called a connector and it allows you to snap the assets together very easily.
07:06
Back in the asset browser, I'm going to go up and grab the horizontal curve conveyor.
07:12
I'll drag that in, use the connector to snap it in place,
07:17
and I'll finally come back and grab another straight conveyor and I'll snap that right there.
07:27
Now, I know it's too long, but that's okay.
07:29
I'm going to select this asset,
07:31
and then you'll see with the asset selected the factory properties, palette lights up and includes all of the parameters built into this asset.
07:42
Now, I simply want to come in and change the length of this asset from 2000 to 400, just a very short straight conveyor to finish off the run.
07:52
There you go.
07:54
Working with assets like this makes changing things very easy.
07:58
Let's say, for instance, I want to delete that section of conveyor
08:02
and to hook everything back up, I'm going to use the factory utility called "Connect".
08:08
When you click "Connect", the little green connectors will reappear and you can select them in order and snap them back together.
08:17
Now, I want to add a workstation and a worker.
08:20
Open the asset browser. I'm going to look for a workbench.
08:27
Here's my cloud asset.
08:29
I've already downloaded it again.
08:30
I can drag it out, place it on the screen and rotate it into position.
08:34
Now, these assets are represented with simple blocks.
08:38
So, you can use all of your AutoCAD processes.
08:41
Anything that you would normally do to a block you can do to a factory asset.
08:45
So, I can click the grip tool, I can move it up into position.
08:49
If I wanted to place it on a layer, I could go activate my layer, drop down and put this asset on a manual workstation layer.
08:58
There we go.
09:02
I also want to add a worker.
09:04
Now, you'll find people or human figures in the system asset folder, in the general folder.
09:12
There's an option here called human posture.
09:14
And I'm just going to grab a person that's standing and we'll place them at their workstation.
09:23
And again, if I wanted to put those people onto a human layer, I could come down, select it, put it on to the human layer.
09:33
Because assets are just blocks, you can use copy paste to duplicate them.
09:40
In this case, I'm going to use the clipboard copy option, pan back over here, and go to clipboard paste.
09:55
Again, these factory assets are just blocks, should feel comfortable using all of your current AutoCAD processes with these factory assets.
10:05
The final asset I'm going to place in this presentation is called a case sealer.
10:10
So, for the search, I'm just going to type in case again.
10:13
And this time I'm going to use the "Case Sealer CS40".
10:18
I'm going to left click and bring this in.
10:20
I'm going to pan over here to this little conveyor run.
10:24
Now, I'm going to orient this asset off to the side and then place it manually.
10:30
Again, it's a block and I can use all of my AutoCAD commands to place the block wherever I want it.
10:37
In this case, I'm going to use the move command.
10:39
I'll select the block, I'll find the center,
10:47
and I want to center this on this conveyor right here.
10:49
So, I'm going to zoom in and find the midpoint of this conveyor.
10:58
There we go.
11:03
Okay. I want to zoom out.
11:06
And this is going to basically conclude our look at the Factory Design Utilities and how you can use them in the AutoCAD workflow.
11:16
Let's review what we've covered.
11:18
We certainly started with just some simple AutoCAD line work in a few blocks.
11:24
We added the X ruff of our building footprint into the design.
11:29
We then showed you the factory tab where all of the factory utilities are located.
11:34
We introduced the asset browser to you.
11:36
We placed numerous assets into our design.
11:39
And we modified a few of them parametric with the factory properties palette.
11:45
Now, the remainder of this project can stay in AutoCAD.
11:50
You can take what you have here, hop over into paper space, set up a Viewport and a title block and continue on with your current AutoCAD workflows.
12:01
I hope you see how the Factory Design Utilities can be integrated seamlessly with your current AutoCAD processes.
12:10
There is one critical option I would like to share with you, because you're just seconds away from seeing this data in 3D.
12:19
I'm going to jump back into the "Model" tab.
12:22
I'm going to make sure I save my file, and then on the "Factory" tab, I'm going to select "Open in Inventor".
12:34
This command will take your 2D data and reference it into a new Inventor Factory layout.
12:43
The 3D asset will be placed on top of its 2D footprint,
12:48
giving you basically an automatic way to turn your 2D data into 3D data.
00:09
Welcome to this course on the Factory Design Utilities and the 2D AutoCAD workflow.
00:14
In this course, we're going to focus on what many factory designers consider the traditional 2D approach to the factory layout process.
00:22
We're going to look at the Autodesk Factory Design Utilities available in the AutoCAD environment,
00:27
and how they can be utilized to create a 2D layout in the AutoCAD application.
00:35
To start this demonstration off, I've opened up the file "Production C - Start".
00:40
This contains the line work that I'm going to use for this demonstration.
00:45
We've got some initial line work here that represents the area of the facility that we want to work on.
00:51
Now, I've already placed some factory assets in here, and I've already added some lines that are going to represent some conveyor runs.
01:01
In general terms in the AutoCAD workflow, usually, the first thing you want to do is reference the building footprint.
01:08
Now to do that, we're going to add an X ruff.
01:11
We're going to go up here to "Insert" and click "Attach" and I'm going to go out and insert the "Factory Footprint.dwg".
01:20
Go ahead and bring that in here.
01:22
I'm just going to use the default locations. I want it placed exactly where it was drawn.
01:27
And here you can see the overall building in reference to the zone that we are working in.
01:33
Now, this is a crucial step in the AutoCAD workflow,
01:36
because the building in this case established the origin point,
01:40
and it's very important that whoever works on the project honors this particular origin point.
01:48
So, we are working relative to a common origin throughout the factory layout process.
01:55
Now, we want to utilize the factory utilities.
01:58
I have the factory utilities installed in AutoCAD and this provides the factory tab.
02:03
Here, you'll have access to all of the factory utilities and the commands that support them.
02:10
We're going to start off with this one, the palettes command.
02:13
We want to bring up our asset browser.
02:15
The asset browser gives us access to the library of factory assets that come with the application.
02:24
I also want to bring up the factory properties palette.
02:27
This allows us to change the parameters of certain assets and modify them to suit.
02:33
Now, I'm going to add some equipment to our layout.
02:37
To do that, I'm going to utilize the asset browser.
02:40
I'm actually looking for an asset called a bag feeder.
02:44
Now, the asset browser has system assets which are supplied with the application.
02:51
It has user assets that you can create and it also has user cloud assets.
02:57
This is where the bag feeder is actually located, but instead of searching through all these directories for it.
03:02
I'm going to come up here to the search criteria and simply type in bag.
03:10
We'll execute a search and here you can see the bag feeder.
03:14
Now, you notice this icon has a circle in the upper right-hand corner.
03:17
Now mine's green because I've already downloaded the asset.
03:21
But yours is probably white like this one.
03:24
To download this asset, you simply right-click on it and select "Download Asset".
03:31
To use the asset, you left click and drag it onto your AutoCAD window, and basically, you have a block on your cursor.
03:39
I'm going to right click and use the basepoint option to select this midpoint and place this asset at the end of this conveyor run.
03:52
There's also something called a case packer.
03:56
So, in the search criteria, I'm just going to type in case, and here's my case packer.
04:01
Again, you'll have to download this asset.
04:04
I'm going to left-click and drag it out.
04:06
I'll use the basepoint option to place it at the end of this run.
04:18
Now, we're going to convert this poly line to a chain of conveyors.
04:22
To do that, I'm going to look for an asset with the search term of roller.
04:28
Now, it's very important that you use this particular asset if you're following along.
04:35
I'm going to scroll down until I find the cloud asset called roller conveyor chain.
04:43
Again, very important that you use this asset for this step.
04:47
You notice I already have it downloaded.
04:49
You'll also notice another icon on this asset in the upper left-hand corner.
04:53
The three squares in the infinity symbol mean that this asset was created to make chains where one conveyor hooks right into another automatically.
05:04
To use this, simply left click and drag it out onto the screen like normal.
05:09
Now, you could draw a polyline at this point or you can right click and select a polyline.
05:16
I'm going to select that polyline there, there is a path right over here as well.
05:20
I'm going to select that, a right click and you can see a preview of what your conveyors are going to look like.
05:27
This is actually a fat poly line, but it's the actual size of the conveyors.
05:32
Now to see a more detailed version of that, we're going to use one of the factor utilities up here called "Convert Asset Chains".
05:39
We'll select that and select the two poly lines and those will be converted into conveyors.
05:52
In this case, the blue conveyors you see are standard and the red conveyors are non-standard links.
06:01
Now, you can create conveyors one asset at a time.
06:07
I'm going to go to the asset browser and this time I'm going to go into the system assets.
06:10
These are the assets that are supplied with the application.
06:15
In the system assets, I'm going to go to the conveyor category and then I'm going to scroll down to the roller category.
06:21
Now, I would encourage you at your leisure to explore all the assets that come with the Factory Design Utilities.
06:28
I'm just going to jump into the roller category.
06:32
Here's my straight roller conveyor.
06:34
You'll notice it does not have a chain icon beside it.
06:37
This is what we call a local asset.
06:40
I'm going to drag this into my window.
06:44
I'm going to use that base point option again so that I can pick it, right here, and I have a pusher right here.
06:49
I'm going to hover on the midpoint and track to the left, and I'm going to drop that off right there.
06:56
On these assets, you'll see a little green dot.
06:59
It's called a connector and it allows you to snap the assets together very easily.
07:06
Back in the asset browser, I'm going to go up and grab the horizontal curve conveyor.
07:12
I'll drag that in, use the connector to snap it in place,
07:17
and I'll finally come back and grab another straight conveyor and I'll snap that right there.
07:27
Now, I know it's too long, but that's okay.
07:29
I'm going to select this asset,
07:31
and then you'll see with the asset selected the factory properties, palette lights up and includes all of the parameters built into this asset.
07:42
Now, I simply want to come in and change the length of this asset from 2000 to 400, just a very short straight conveyor to finish off the run.
07:52
There you go.
07:54
Working with assets like this makes changing things very easy.
07:58
Let's say, for instance, I want to delete that section of conveyor
08:02
and to hook everything back up, I'm going to use the factory utility called "Connect".
08:08
When you click "Connect", the little green connectors will reappear and you can select them in order and snap them back together.
08:17
Now, I want to add a workstation and a worker.
08:20
Open the asset browser. I'm going to look for a workbench.
08:27
Here's my cloud asset.
08:29
I've already downloaded it again.
08:30
I can drag it out, place it on the screen and rotate it into position.
08:34
Now, these assets are represented with simple blocks.
08:38
So, you can use all of your AutoCAD processes.
08:41
Anything that you would normally do to a block you can do to a factory asset.
08:45
So, I can click the grip tool, I can move it up into position.
08:49
If I wanted to place it on a layer, I could go activate my layer, drop down and put this asset on a manual workstation layer.
08:58
There we go.
09:02
I also want to add a worker.
09:04
Now, you'll find people or human figures in the system asset folder, in the general folder.
09:12
There's an option here called human posture.
09:14
And I'm just going to grab a person that's standing and we'll place them at their workstation.
09:23
And again, if I wanted to put those people onto a human layer, I could come down, select it, put it on to the human layer.
09:33
Because assets are just blocks, you can use copy paste to duplicate them.
09:40
In this case, I'm going to use the clipboard copy option, pan back over here, and go to clipboard paste.
09:55
Again, these factory assets are just blocks, should feel comfortable using all of your current AutoCAD processes with these factory assets.
10:05
The final asset I'm going to place in this presentation is called a case sealer.
10:10
So, for the search, I'm just going to type in case again.
10:13
And this time I'm going to use the "Case Sealer CS40".
10:18
I'm going to left click and bring this in.
10:20
I'm going to pan over here to this little conveyor run.
10:24
Now, I'm going to orient this asset off to the side and then place it manually.
10:30
Again, it's a block and I can use all of my AutoCAD commands to place the block wherever I want it.
10:37
In this case, I'm going to use the move command.
10:39
I'll select the block, I'll find the center,
10:47
and I want to center this on this conveyor right here.
10:49
So, I'm going to zoom in and find the midpoint of this conveyor.
10:58
There we go.
11:03
Okay. I want to zoom out.
11:06
And this is going to basically conclude our look at the Factory Design Utilities and how you can use them in the AutoCAD workflow.
11:16
Let's review what we've covered.
11:18
We certainly started with just some simple AutoCAD line work in a few blocks.
11:24
We added the X ruff of our building footprint into the design.
11:29
We then showed you the factory tab where all of the factory utilities are located.
11:34
We introduced the asset browser to you.
11:36
We placed numerous assets into our design.
11:39
And we modified a few of them parametric with the factory properties palette.
11:45
Now, the remainder of this project can stay in AutoCAD.
11:50
You can take what you have here, hop over into paper space, set up a Viewport and a title block and continue on with your current AutoCAD workflows.
12:01
I hope you see how the Factory Design Utilities can be integrated seamlessly with your current AutoCAD processes.
12:10
There is one critical option I would like to share with you, because you're just seconds away from seeing this data in 3D.
12:19
I'm going to jump back into the "Model" tab.
12:22
I'm going to make sure I save my file, and then on the "Factory" tab, I'm going to select "Open in Inventor".
12:34
This command will take your 2D data and reference it into a new Inventor Factory layout.
12:43
The 3D asset will be placed on top of its 2D footprint,
12:48
giving you basically an automatic way to turn your 2D data into 3D data.
