Northwind Inc. was founded in 1994. Known for their expertise in drafting and manufacturing sanitary conveying systems for the meat, poultry and baking industries, Northwind works with Autodesk products and D3 TECHNOLOGIES to help manufacture their products.

Click Here to read more about what Northwind does and how Autodesk Inventor helps them complete projects faster, for a better price, and with higher quality than they otherwise would.

If you'd like to know more about making your workflow more efficient, improving your bottom line or designing a better quality product, contact us at D3.

Tired of seeing weight show up in your drawing with the unit string "lbmass"? Or seeing "N/A"? This iLogic snippet can customize weight to show the units (or lack of units) that you want. It also forces Inventor to update the value whenever the document is opened or saved, and can be triggered at any other time by manually running the rule. To use this code, create a new rule from the iLogic panel on the Manage tab in your drawing template and type in this code.

Try
      model = IO.Path.GetFileName
(ThisDrawing.ModelDocument.FullFileName)
      mass = iProperties.Mass(model)
      lbs = Round(mass*2.20462262, 2)
      iProperties.Value("Custom", "lbs") = lbs
      InventorVb.DocumentUpdate()
Catch
      iProperties.Value("Custom", "lbs") = 0
End Try

I chose the "Try-Catch" format to prevent useless errors from popping up. Without it, the rule fails without a view loaded into the drawing. "Try-Catch" allows the "Try" code to fail quietly, and then runs the "Catch" code.

Excluding the "Try-Catch" framework, here is what the rest of the code does:

model = IO.Path.GetFileName(ThisDrawing.ModelDocument.FullFileName)
- This queries the drawing and gets the name of the first base view loaded into the drawing.
mass =iProperties.Mass(model)
- This retrieves the mass from the iProperties of the model.
lbs = Round(mass*2.20462262, 2)
- Interestingly enough, despite the template that you use, the internal format for mass in Inventor is kilograms. So upon retrieving the mass, you must multiply it by a conversion factor to get pounds. I also used the "Round" function to truncate the value to 2 decimal places.
iProperties.Value("Custom", "lbs") = lbs
- Now we write this value out to a custom iProperty in the drawing so that it can be accessed by the title block (or any other text field).
InventorVb.DocumentUpdate()
- Update the document so that wherever the iProperty "lbs" is used it will be updated.

Now if that code fails to run (due to the lack of a drawing view), the Catch code activates:
iProperties.Value("Custom", "lbs") = 0
- This simply sets the "lbs" iProperty to 0.

The referenced "lbs" custom iProperty needs to be created in the iProperties of the drawing and saved, along with this rule, in the template.

As far as Event Triggers go, I found "After Document Open" and "Before Document Save" to be effective.

Now all that is left is to modify the titleblock and replace "mass" with "lbs", followed by the unit of your choice.

The rule is now set up and should run quietly in the background!

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D3 Recently welcomed Brian Chastain, Inside Technical Sales; and James Jung, an Escalation Technician to the team. Both work out of Springfield's D3 office. Here are some quick facts about the new faces at D3:

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Meet Nora Feehan, one of D3's employees. Nora is the Regional Sales Manager at D3's Denver office and has been with us since May 2008.

Click Here to learn more about Nora and read her article.

On August 9^th, D3 TECHNOLOGIES employees and others headed to Joplin, MO to help with cleanup in the aftermath of the devastating tornado that hit on May 22^nd. So many homes and businesses were destroyed that the cleanup and rebuilding in that city will go on for months or more.

We were happy to be able help our neighbors whose lives have been so heavily impacted in the wake of that terrible storm, and would especially like to thank Justin Brown with Trinity Steel & Pipe, Inc. for joining us.

You can see more photos from that day on our Flickr page.

Have Subscription or Technical questions? If you're a Subscription customer, you probably have questions about how to get your software, when new releases come out, and Autodesk Subscription Center. Now, you can find a detailed FAQ whitepaper on our webpage that will help you get started.

Click Here to download the FAQ and keep it as a reference on your desktop.

• Validate Your Inventor Program
  The Validate Your Inventor program allows Autodesk® Inventor® users on subscription the ability to download an extended free trial of Autodesk® Algor® Simulation software. Inventor users on subscription will have the ability to download the Algor Simulation extended free trial through October 1, 2011. After a customer downloads and registers the extended free trial of Algor Simulation, it will run until October 14, 2011. Read more about this promotion here.
• Autodesk Better Together Mail-In Rebate
  Save up to $1,000 when you purchase an Autodesk Design or Creation Suite. Valid on purchases made between August 15 and October 14, 2011. Find out more about this promotion.
• 0% Financing Offer
  Until October 14, 2011 or until the $5,000,000 that has been allotted for this program run out, you can take advantage of 0% financing on Autodesk Design and Creation Suites. You could also finance with $0 down. This offer is subject to credit approval and eligibility criteria. Read more about this promotion here.

D3 will be at several upcoming trade shows. If you're in the area, stop by to say hello. We'll be in:

• Midwest City, OK at the 2011 Oklahoma Conference on Manufacturing at the Reed Conference Center on October 5^th
• Springfield at the MAM Fall Member Meeting at the Ramada Oasis Convention Center on October 17^th
• Wichita at the Industrial Trade Show at the Century II Expo Hall on October 18^th - 20^th