Creating general annotations

00:09

In this exercise, we will be using Autodesk Inventor Professional to create General Annotations on a 3D model.

00:18

So we'll start this exercise by opening up this gear housing part file.

00:22

What we'll be doing is adding a few dimensions as well as a couple of notes that will help to further define this model.

00:30

So to start, I'll bring over a dimension from a sketch.

00:33

So if you don't want to manually create all of your dimensions, you can also import them or extract them from the 3D model.

00:41

To do that, I'm going to go to "Extrusion4" and I'll hit the "Plus" sign to show the sketch.

00:47

"Sketch1," I will right-click and I'm going to turn the "Visibility On" using the dropdown menu.

00:53

Now, I can take any one of these dimensions and bring it to my 3D annotation. So

00:59

I'll choose this overall length of 11.3.

01:03

I'll click on it, and then after I've clicked on it, I can right-click and then select "Promote."

01:11

If I do that, you'll notice it gets really big.

01:13

That means it's been brought into the 3D annotation.

01:17

I can then go to "Sketch1" and right-click and turn "Visibility off."

01:21

So now I've brought that dimension over, it's tied to that sketch, but I didn't have to do it manually.

01:28

So that's one way that you can add in annotations to your 3D model.

01:32

The other way of doing this is if you're on the Annotate tab, if you select "Dimension,"

01:37

this will allow me to choose an edge or a series of faces from the 3D model to define a dimension manually.

01:45

So if I choose a face on this side of the model and a face on the other side to define the width,

01:52

it's going to give me that overall dimension value, and then it places it on a plane here.

01:57

The default plane shown here is the XY plane.

01:60

But I want this to align on the same plane that my 11.3 dimension has been added to.

02:06

So if I hit the "Spacebar" on my keyboard, it'll flip it to the next available plane which it shows here.

02:12

But you'll notice if I click to confirm and then I hit the "Check Mark," I can then see what plane it's lying on.

02:20

Now, you'll see that it's not quite on that plane.

02:22

You can see the leader is actually kind of centered on that face.

02:26

So if I'd like to fine tune this,

02:28

I can click on the Dimension, I can right-click and then go to "Change Annotation Plane,"

02:36

and then I'm going to click this top face and hit "Enter."

02:41

And now it moves it to be on that exact top flange plane just like that 11.3 dimension.

02:47

Now, the other thing I can do here is if I click on the dimension and I double-click this time,

02:53

it opens it up to edit. And this is where I can change, for instance, the precision.

02:57

So right now it's 2 decimal places, whereas my other dimension here is 3.

03:01

So to change that, I can just click this little button right here that says "Edit Dimension."

03:08

I can go to Precision and Tolerance on that tab. And then I'm going to change my "Primary Unit" to 3,

03:15

and I'll change my "Primary Tolerance" to 3 decimals as well in case I add a Tolerance later,

03:19

I'll select "OK."

03:21

And now I can click the "Check Mark" to confirm.

03:23

And now both of those match with the same precision and layout.

03:29

Okay. So I'm going to do next is add a hole note for this board hole right here.

03:36

This is going to include the diameter and the depth of the hole automatically.

03:39

So all I need to do is click on the Hole Thread note from the "General Annotation" panel.

03:45

Then I will select that hole face and then place it on a plane out here where it's easily visible.

03:52

Before I confirm this, I'm going to click the "Edit Hole Note" icon right here from the "Flyout" menu,

03:58

and this is where I can update the Precision and Tolerance of the note.

04:02

So I can change the symbols or add additional notes here if I'd like to.

04:07

In this case, I'm going to click the "Precision and Tolerance" icon with the pencil.

04:13

This will open up another dialogue box where I can fully customize these values.

04:18

So I'm going to change my precision for my diameter and depth here to 3 decimal places.

04:26

I'm then going to check the box for my diameter to add a limit. I'm not going to add a limit to my depth.

04:32

That's pretty much set in stone.

04:35

But for my method here, I'm going to change this to limits stacked which allows me to give an upper and lower limit.

04:41

I'm going to allow for an additional 20,000 here on the upper and I'm going to change the precision for this to 3 decimals as well.

04:51

What this will do is give me a upper and lower limit for the diameter.

04:55

So it gives me size, but it keeps the depth the same.

04:59

So I'll select "OK" and click "OK" again. And the note should automatically update here.

05:04

It looks exactly how I want it to.

05:06

So I'll hit the "Check Mark" to confirm that hole note.

05:11

Okay. So I have a couple of dimensions. I have a hole note as well.

05:15

Now I'm going to add a leader text to the edge to make sure that it's clear that I'd like all of my edges here to be broken or deburred.

05:25

So I will click on the "Leader Text" icon.

05:29

This is where I can add text notes with a leader calling out a specific region or edge in the model.

05:35

I'm going to click this outer edge right here and then I'll go ahead and place the note on that plane,

05:44

and I'll go ahead and type "Break All Edges" to make sure things get deburred.

05:52

And I will select "OK."

05:54

And now I have a text note that stays on that edge at all times, no matter what view I've rotated to,

06:02

it calls that out at any angle.

06:05

So that all looks good. Now, I'm going to add a couple of notes to my notes block.

06:10

These notes will be transferred through into your 3D PDF,

06:15

and they're really useful for clarifying overall assumptions and tolerances to your model.

06:21

In this case, I'm going to add in a general note that clarifies that anything that is not picked up with a profile tolerance,

06:29

or a size tolerance will be assumed to be a basic dimension.

06:35

So in order to do that, I can click on the "General Note" icon and then I just need to choose a quadrant where I'd like to place my notes.

06:42

I typically do the top left, so it's easy to see.

06:46

Once you click that quadrant, you'll then get a text box.

06:50

What I'll do here is I'll type in,

06:53

"Unless Otherwise Specified All Dimensions Basic."

07:03

So that will cover my bases as I'm adding in my Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing.

07:09

And this is a note that I typically add to the majority of my drawings. So I will select "OK."

07:15

And now that note will show up in that top left corner. No matter what view I'm in, it will be transferred into that window.

07:23

So the last note I will add is going to be a General Profile note.

07:28

What this does is it allows me to add in an overall profile tolerance that will control the size and location of surfaces,

07:35

that I do not individually call out with my Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing.

07:41

This replaces what you typically see on a 2D drawing where you might have a plus/minus overall tolerance in your notes block.

07:49

This is very similar to that.

07:51

So I'll click on "General Profile note" and then I can choose a quadrant where I'd like to place it.

07:56

I'll choose the same one as before.

07:58

So it adds it as the next line.

08:01

It says, "Unless Otherwise Specified, a .01.

08:04

Profile Tolerance applies to all surfaces."

08:07

If I'd like to change this note, I can right-click on the gray text to edit the Profile Tolerance.

08:14

So I'll choose that from the "Flyout" menu.

08:16

For my tolerance here, I'm going to change this to 0.02.

08:21

I can also call out a datum reference frame, which I will be doing later.

08:25

I have not established any datums yet. So there's no datum reference frame to orient this Tolerance.

08:32

So I will select "OK."

08:35

It updates the note. I'll select "OK" again.

08:37

And now I have my two notes in my notes block that will control the dimensions on surfaces,

08:44

that are not called out with my Geometric Dimensioning.