Glossary

acceleration

A vector quantity defined as the rate at which an object changes its velocity.

analysis

In Autodesk Inventor, any form of real-world physical valuation. Valuations usually involve real materials, mass, densities, inertia, forces, and reactions. Included are rigid body motion studies, material stress studies, and frequency response.

assembly

Two or more components (parts or subassemblies) considered as a single model. An assembly typically includes multiple components positioned absolutely and relatively (as required) with constraints that define both size and position. Assembly components may include features defined in place in the assembly. Mass and material properties may be inherited from individual part files.

assembly constraints

Rules that determine how parts in an assembly are placed relative to other parts in the assembly. Constraints remove degrees of freedom. Assembly constraints include angle, flush (insert), mate, and tangent. Constraints may be placed between faces of features, part edges, points, inferred axes and part work features such as planes, axes, and points.

axial moment

Axial moment is applied in the plane perpendicular to the beam axis.

bending moment

Bending moment is applied in the plane parallel to the beam axis.

browser

The graphical hierarchy showing relationships among geometric elements in parts, assemblies, and drawings. Icons represent sketches, features, constraints, or attributes for each model. Objects are shown in the browser in the order in which they were created. Objects may also be edited, renamed, added, deleted, copied, and moved to a different location in the browser.

CAD edit

An edit of the model, such as a geometry feature, which affects the model directly. Thus, any regular consumer of the model, such as a parent assembly or a drawing, will witness the edit.

connection

Defines how components interact with one another during the simulation.

constraint

A barrier to movement in a mechanism. Constraints govern the position, slope, tangency, dimensions, and relationships among sketch geometry or the relative position between parts in an assembly. Geometric constraints control the shapes and relationships among sketch elements or assembly components. Dimensional constraints control size. Applying constraints removes degrees of freedom.

The menu that appears when you right-click the mouse. The context menu shows commands and online help for the current operation.

continuous load

Applies uniform load distributed along the beam.

custom constraint

Custom constraint enables free rotation and free displacement in all planes on beam or node.

custom node

A node inserted anywhere on the selected beam.

degrees of freedom

The types of movement possible for a component. There are a maximum of six degrees of freedom: 3 translational, 1 along each of the X, Y, and Z axes, and 3 rotational, 1 around each of the X, Y, and Z axes. A body floating free in space has six degrees of freedom. A grounded body has 0 degrees of freedom. Constraints can remove degrees of freedom.

displacement

The Displacement results show you the deformed shape of your model after the solution. The color contours show you the magnitude of deformation from the original shape. The color contours correspond to the values defined by the color bar.

fixed constraint

Fixed constraint prevents any movement (rotation and displacement) on beam or node.

floating pinned constraint

Applies a free rotation and free displacement in one plane on selected beam or node.

force

An action that causes a body to accelerate. It could be a push, pull, lift, or twist. The acceleration of the body is proportional to the vector sum of all forces acting on it.

Frame Analysis

An add-on to the Autodesk Inventor Assembly and Weldment environments. It enables users to analyze structural integrity of a given frame with respect to deformations and stresses, when subjected to various loading and constraints.

friction

The force that resists the motion of one body in relation to another body in contact with it.

graphics window

The active modeling area in which sketches, constraints, features, parts, and assemblies are created and edited. In the graphics window, models can be rotated, zoomed in and out, and panned. In the graphics window, you can view characteristics such as color, material, and light density. Unlike the graph window in the Output Grapher or the graph region in the Input Grapher, the graphics window does not show plots of values (that is, curves).

gravity

Applies gravitational acceleration effect in the selected direction.

grounded

Fixed. A grounded component is fully constrained, that is, has 0 degrees of freedom. Every assembly must have at least one grounded component. The first component placed in an assembly file is grounded automatically, although the ground can later be deleted and relocated.

moment

The moment is calculated by multiplying the force by the perpendicular distance to the location at which the moments are about.

override material

Material which overrides the assigned material during simulation. Use to evaluate different materials for the frame analysis.

pinned constraint

Applies a rotational constraint on the selected beam or node.

release

A type of connection of specified degrees of freedom that can be assigned to a selected beam in a structure. Releases can be applied to start or the end of the beam with possible elasticity.

rigid link

A type of connection created between selected nodes in a frame structure. Displacement and rotation defined for a rigid link can be limited to certain selected degrees of freedom.

subassembly

A group of related components that behave as a single body. Subassemblies can contain only components with no relative motion between them.

vector

An arrow that represents a force, a torque, a velocity, or an acceleration in the graphics window. The length of the vector is a function of the magnitude of the entity. The arrow tip shows the direction of entity application.

vector component

The X, Y, and Z elements that define a vector.