3D Standards—A Continuing Journey of Best Practices

Standards! You need standards! Every company needs structure. But what about 3D standards? If you're using Inventor software, AutoCAD Mechanical design software, AutoCAD Electrical software, AutoCAD P&ID software, and/or Vault data management software, standards are a must. Inventor has the intelligence of 3D modeling, assembling, and drawing creation-come and see what we can standardize and incorporate to make the design modeling and assembly creations consistent. It's not just about 2D layers and dimension styles with a drawing, it's about iProperties, intelligence (iLogic), libraries, bills of material (BOM), analytical data, and much more. Inventor 3D design tools are incredible and can be structured so that you're not continually duplicating the same task over and over again, and so that the information instilled in the design(s) is captured properly. Structure repetitive steps with iLogic, maintain the digital BOM, format the parts list, and systematically build standards in a database library. Understand how to incorporate data management into a project's workflow. 3D standards will reach not just into the Inventor modeling world, but further into the intelligence that must stream throughout the lifecycle of a project. See how to capture all 3D CAD standards, and be able to consistently sustain them from release to release, from user to user within your company. See examples of people and companies that didn't have 3D standards and then built those standards into their design workflows. Standards-2D or 3D-are an ongoing sustaining process that can and will benefit all aspects of the design processes. There are challenges in starting the standards, because everyone wants what they feel is correct; therefore, it is good practice to form a CAD committee. The CAD committee is a structures entity and can agree on the proper pieces of standards to incorporate.