subtracting solids

[Shizzlemah]

Guys, I am kind of new to Inventor(8)

I have a part drawn in inventor, but I now want to make a mold for that part.

My brain is telling me to draw another solid and subtract the intersection but I can't get that plan off the ground.

Any pointers here?

[wjbzone]

I also am learning Inventor.
Subracting the part from the mold sounds like a good plan for the design.
Some IV8 tools that you might want to use

Copy feature (before splitting or subtracting)
Split feature (to add draft angles)

Some things to consider:
Shrinkage
Orientation of mold block to part for machining cavities
parting line location
draft angles for part removal
gating locations to fill thin areas and avoid trapped air pockets
cooling rates for different cross sections

[Shizzlemah]

Knock knock can anybody get me pointed in the right direction?

[mtechserv]

When designing a mold in Inventor, you should use derived parts.
I use Inventor 10, and I can't remember if derived parts are created the same in IV 8.
Basically, you would model your cavity blocks, without the part cavity. Then create an assembly of both your top and bottom cavity blocks with your part.
From there, start a new ipt file and close the sketch. You'll have an option for derived parts in your part features menu. After selecting the Derived Parts command, you need to select the assembly you just created from the Open file dialog box. You then have a dialog box that will allow you to subtract the part from your cavity block. Remember, this is an ipt file, so you can model only one cavity block in this file. You'll need to repeat this process for the other cavity block in a separate ipt file.

This is just a quick and dirty overview. For more info, refer to the following website (www.sdotson.com). This includes a lot of useful inventor info. Go to the Tutorials page and you'll find two tutorials on Derived parts.

[Shizzlemah]

Sweet thanks a lot. 3 minutes and it's there. Yahoo!!!

[mtechserv]

One of the main advantages of using derived parts for modeling a mold cavity is that any changes you make to the part will automatically be reflected in the mold cavity.