Inventor Professional | Intermediate - Sheet Metal Design

Inventor Professional | Intermediate - Sheet Metal Design is a comprehensive two-day private course led by a Certified Autodesk Instructor, designed for confident Inventor users looking to enhance their skills in the sheet metal design environment. This course can be delivered either virtually or in person, and is ideal for professionals seeking to develop expertise in the sheet metal-specific tools in Inventor, enabling them to create, manipulate, and prepare components for manufacturing processes.

Throughout the course, you will explore Inventor’s sheet metal environment, focusing on tools and workflows essential for designing typical sheet metal components. You will begin by learning fundamental concepts and terminology, including base features, sheet metal parameters, and the importance of Inventor’s sheet metal defaults, building a strong foundation for your designs. As you progress, you will delve into creating and manipulating base features and folds, learning how to control bend angles and set up default bend parameters to streamline your design process. You will also explore how to use sheet metal parameters to automate design behaviour, adjusting bends and relief shapes for precise control while simplifying updates across multiple designs. You will then work with contour flanges and rolls as secondary features, using them to refine custom edges and smooth transitions in your models. Additionally, you will learn how to configure corner relief options, enhancing manufacturability and maintaining structural integrity in your designs. The course also covers working with hems to reinforce edges and adding cut features such as custom patterns, optimising your designs for production. You will gain essential skills in using the punch tool to create customised cutout shapes and learn how to produce accurate punch tables, ensuring detailed 2D documentation for fabrication. Hands-on exercises will reinforce these skills, guiding you through real-world scenarios to develop models that are fully prepared for manufacturing.

Upon completing the course, you will have a solid understanding of Inventor’s sheet metal design workflows, enabling you to confidently engage in more complex engineering and sheet metal projects. You will learn how to use Inventor’s advanced sheet metal tools to streamline your processes and produce high-quality designs with efficiency and accuracy.

During this course, you will explore the following topics:

• Module 1 – Concepts & Terminology: Learn the fundamental concepts and terminology related to sheet metal design. This module introduces the sheet metal environment in Inventor, focusing on key concepts such as base features and sheet metal parameters. You will gain an understanding of how these elements contribute to creating accurate, production-ready designs that meet manufacturing requirements.
• Module 2 – Sheet Metal Environment | Base Features & Folds: Explore the sheet metal design environment in Inventor and understand how to create and manipulate base features. You will learn about folds, controlling bend angles, and setting up default bend parameters. Additionally, you will explore how to streamline workflows for more complex designs, ensuring accuracy and efficiency during production.
• Module 3 – Sheet Metal Parameters | Bends & Bend Relief: Understand how to use sheet metal parameters to control and automate design behaviour. This module covers creating bends, adjusting bend relief shapes, and fine-tuning parameters to ensure precision in your sheet metal designs. You will also learn how to automate updates across multiple designs, improving productivity and maintaining design integrity.
• Module 4 – Contour Flanges | Secondary Features: Learn how to create contour flanges as secondary features in sheet metal design. This module covers creating custom flanges by setting flange angles, sizes, and configuring corner rounds and chamfers. You will also explore the effective use of contour flanges for various sheet metal applications, ensuring your designs meet manufacturing specifications.
• Module 5 – Contour Rolls | Secondary Features: Explore the use of contour rolls as secondary features in sheet metal designs. You will learn how to apply contour rolls for smooth transitions and how to integrate precise roll angles and radii into your models. This module also covers methods for ensuring manufacturability, verifying that contour rolls align with production processes.
• Module 6 – Flanges | Corner Relief: Discover how to utilise flanges to manage edges and apply corner relief options in sheet metal components. You will explore the different types of corner relief shapes available and learn how to apply them for improved structural integrity and easier manufacturing. This module ensures your sheet metal parts meet both design and production standards.
• Module 7 – Hems | Cut Features: Learn how to create hems to improve the rigidity and safety of sheet metal parts. This module covers both simple and complex hems, as well as the process of adding cut features such as typical holes and custom patterns. You will also explore how to optimise designs for production, ensuring the cut features are aligned with your manufacturing workflows.
• Module 8 – Holes | Punches: Understand how to use the punch tool to create holes in sheet metal parts. This module covers the entire process of configuring punch tool features, including selecting the correct punch shapes and settings. You will also learn how to generate accurate punch tables in 2D drawings, ensuring consistent and precise annotations for manufacturing, which enables effective communication with fabrication teams.

This course includes 12 months of complimentary access to the course-related ASCENT Center for Technical Knowledge e-book (valued at 75 USD) which contains files that need to be installed prior to joining the training. This e-book provides comprehensive training notes that you can refer to after the training to further ensure your knowledge retention. Login details for the ASCENT platform will be issued a few days before the training. To learn more about ASCENT, please visit their website.

ARKANCE, an Authorized Autodesk Training Center, delivers high-quality training for Autodesk software users. Upon successful completion of the course, participants will receive an official ARKANCE Certificate of Completion, demonstrating their commitment to ongoing professional development.

Additionally, participants are encouraged to register their attendance with Autodesk Education to receive a Certificate of Completion from Autodesk. To obtain this certificate, participants must follow the steps provided in the confirmation email sent after registration and submit a post-training feedback survey within 60 days of completing the course.

To join the course, participants must be confident in their use of Inventor Professional. It is recommended that individuals have a thorough understanding of all topics covered in the Essentials course, along with at least six months of regular usage of Inventor on projects. This foundational knowledge ensures full engagement with the intermediate concepts and techniques presented in the course.

Participants joining this course virtually will need:

• Inventor Professional ‘24 installed on their computer (required). Please contact us if you need to purchase a software licence.
• The latest Zoom version installed on their computer (required).
• A stable internet connection with a minimum download speed of 10 Mbps (required).
• A secondary screen to follow instructions shared by the course instructor during training, along with a mouse for easy software navigation (recommended).
• A headset to ensure clear communication with the instructor, and preferably a microphone and webcam for interactive conversations (recommended).

Participants joining this course in person will need:

• Inventor Professional ‘24 installed on their computer (required). Please contact us if you need to purchase a software licence.
• A large computer screen, along with a keyboard and mouse for easy software navigation (recommended).

Additionally, the training venue should be equipped with:

• A projector setup or a large screen enabling the instructor to connect their laptop, facilitating attendee visibility of the instructor's screen (required).

Our private training sessions are offered at a flat rate per course and accommodate up to eight participants. Delivered on request, these courses can be conducted virtually or on-site at your venue.

The training can follow a standard agenda or be customised to align with your team’s specific workflows, existing templates, and project requirements. Please note that in-person training will incur additional travel costs, and pricing may vary for customised curriculums.

Please contact us to discuss organising this training for your team.