The Revolve Command in AutoDesk Inventor

This is just one hub in a series of 15 hubs on using AutoDesk Inventor for 3D modeling. The index hub is here.

Whoever invented the wheel never knew what they started. The shape of a circle has been a huge factor in just about everything made. Least perimeter for most area? A circle. That alone has led many products to be manufactured with a cylindrical shape. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to model cylindrical things in Inventor, even if they have a complicated cross-section.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to take a 2D drawing and revolve it to form a circular shape. You already know how to extrude, but that only makes things straight. Here's a good way to make a bicycle tire, a spindle, and yes, a shelf for the model we've been working on.

So the next thing that our shelf system needs is an actual shelf. Since a lot of this model has been pretty round, it makes sense to revolve the shelf and make it similar. And, of course, I needed a good reason to explain the revolve command.

Since the shelf is a separate part, I created a new part for it. I did this by going to the "Create" button just like we did in the "Starting Out" tutorial, and put the part on the plane shown in Picture 1. Then I turned off the transparency that was hiding the rest of the assembly by going to the View tab and expanding the appearance to click on the "Transparency __" button - Picture 2.

Before I went into revolving the actual shelf, I created a little bracket to hold it. You can do this too - I just went to the View tab again, selected "Wireframe" under "Visual Style," and traced the shape of the dovetail as shown in Picture 3. Since we'll put the parts together later, I moved it out of the track and extruded it.

Now we are ready for the real revolve sketch. I created a new plane by going to the "Model" tab and, after clicking the arrow underneath the "Plane" button, clicking on "Midplane between Two Parallel Planes." The two parallel planes I chose were the opposing sides of the little bracket - see Picture 4.

Then I drew up what you see in Picture 5. This is the sketch that we will be revolving. I wanted it rounded at the ends, so I used a fillet, and I made a little bump-in to stop any objects that wanted to roll off the shelf.

The Revolve Command

Now we can close the sketch, open the revolve menu, and begin. Click on the "Revolve" button, right next to the "Extrude" Button. The revolve menu should come up, just like the one shown in Picture 6. Select the profile you've drawn - I selected the shelf sketch - then the axis you want to revolve it around - I selected the far right edge of the sketch - and watch the preview.

The setup is very similar to the extrude command. You can revolve all the way around (default) or a certain angle. I chose to revolve equally both ways for a total of 160 degrees. I chose 160 degrees because 180 degrees was way too normal and sharp-edged.

Once you're happy with the preview (mine is in Picture 7), press Ok. Inventor will make the revolution, and you'll be one more step on your way - we certainly are! Just one more tutorial on finishing up, and we'll have a new shelf system. Then we get to assemble it, add motion, analyze with FEA and make pretty pictures!