DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

First post for Autodesk University, so I figured we’d just jump straight in with a quick look at a new addition to Autodesk Labs. Inventor Publisher Technology Preview sees autodesk release a 3d product documentation application for creating assembly/disassembly instructions, manufacturing process instructions and all other manner of 3D documentation. It allows you, at present to bring in data from not only Inventor, but other formats, create keyframe style steps with automatic and manual explosion tools. The system gives you tools around the process, such as reversing workflows, managing views and step times as well as a range of output options, from DWF, through movie files (including flash output), powerpoint and word documents.

Taking much of its user interface queues from Fusion, the system looks pretty slick. What’s also interesting and coming soon is a publishing option for the iPhone platform which gives you 3D model animation, manipulation (panned, zooming, rotation etc). It’s not clear whether data will be local or hosted in the cloud, but it’s an interesting trend and one that makes huge sense for making documentation and instructions portable.