Mastering Autodesk® Inventor® 2012 and Autodesk® Inventor LT™ 2012 Mastering Autodesk® Inventor® 2012 and Autodesk® Inventor LT™ 2012 Curtis Waguespack Senior Acquisitions Editor: Willem Knibbe Development Editor: Rob Truhn Technical Editor: Luke Larue Production Editor: Eric Charbonneau Copy Editor: Judy Flynn Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan Production Manager: Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde Book Designers: Judy Fung and Bill Gibson Compositor: JoAnn Kolonick, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Proofreader: Candace English Indexer: Ted Laux Project Coordinator, Cover: Katherine Crocker Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed Cover Image: © Pete Gardner/DigitalVision/Getty Images Copyright © 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-1-118-01682-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-118-11824-5 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-11826-9 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-11825-2 (ebk) No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechan- ical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Autodesk, Inventor, and Inventor LT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Dear Reader, Thank you for choosing Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2012 and Autodesk Inventor LT 2012. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstand- ing authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching. Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consis- tently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available. I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected]. If you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex. Best regards, Neil Edde Vice President and Publisher Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley Acknowledgments This book is a collaborative effort involving far more people than listed on the cover. Personally, I would like to thank my family, whose patience and understanding made this, and all other pursuits, possible. Professionally, I would like to thank the coworkers, clients, customers, and friends whose input and ideas have helped build the knowledge and experience that I draw from in applying concept to practice. I would like to thank Lucas Larue for the work he performed as technical editor for this edi- tion as well as all of the help he offered me in the past as I traveled along my own road to mas- tering Autodesk Inventor. A special thank-you goes out to those who have contributed to the Mastering Inventor series in the past: Thom Tremblay, Sean Dotson, Bill Bogan, Andrew Faix, Seth Hindman, Dennis Jeffrey, Loren Jahraus, Shekar Subrahmanyam, and Bob Van der Donck, all of whom are true masters of Autodesk Inventor. Thank you to the team at Wiley: Rob Truhn, Jenni Housh, Connor O’Brien, Willem Knibbe, and Pete Gaughan, for their patience, focus, and professionalism, without which there would be no book. Your hard work and support have eased our efforts in turning ideas into pages. —Curtis Waguespack