Inventor 101: Shape Generator

Tips & Tricks

Shape generator within Autodesk Inventor may seem like magic to engineers and designers of the past, but it’s now a completely practical and useful tool in the design process. By running shape generator on a part design, you can find options of how to reduce mass or weight all the while maintaining strength under certain loading conditions.

If you’re new to Inventor, learning how to use Shape Generator on the forefront of your learning process will give you a complex foundation to build off of. By simply selecting the faces and loading locations, selecting a symmetry plane, and fiddling with shape generator settings, you can rapidly improve your design. The output of shape generator actually gives you an STL file that you can then change your design around based off of. Think of shape generator as a helpful and complex tool that can rapidly suggest how to make design improvements. Learn how to use it in the short video below!



Trevor English

Trevor is a civil engineer (B.S.) who has made a career out of engineering and technical communication. His work has appeared on Curiosity, BBC, Interesting Engineering and other sites across the web. Originally the Chief editor for Interesting Engineering back in 2016, he now works with software & tech companies, aiding them in content marketing and technical communication. Currently living in Texas, he’s also a published children’s book author and producer for the YouTube channel Concerning Reality.