The Trajectory Designer is an Autodesk® Inventor® app developed following our Engineered 3D approach, allowing conveyor engineers/designers to create 3D conveyor trajectory models to meet their process requirements for belt conveyor design.

 

Engineered 3D

The term Engineered 3D differs our approach from conventional parametric 3D, where engineering and modeling/drafting are normally decoupled, while here 3D models are integrated with not only geometric data, but also other relevant engineering data, engineering calculations and logical analysis.

In conventional methods, 3D modelers need to know the shape and size of the model to be built; however, in Engineered 3D, sizing is done by the app based on inputs of user data. In other words, engineering and sizing are more transparent to the engineers/designers.

Introduction to Conveyor Trajectory Designer

Performing conveyor trajectory calculations and producing drawings are critical tasks in conveyor design, since they have great impact on the performance (material degradation, dust generation, etc.) of conveyor transfer systems, where bulk materials flow from one conveyor to another.

It used to take both engineers and designers to get the job done, and required multiple skill sets, such as engineering calculation, 2D drafting, 3D modeling, and data communication among different stages.

This app ships with an Inventor 3D model of conveyor trajectory prototype (Engineered 3D Conveyor Trajectory Designer Model.ipt) and a .DLL file (TrajectoryDesigner.dll) that provides the UI for conveyor designers/engineers to enter not only geometric, but also all other engineering parameters including process data, material properties, and logical options associated with a conveyor trajectory.

By running Trajectory Designer inside of Inventor, the user will be able to adjust the fore-mentioned parameters easily as he/she wish, and review intermediate/result data to make analysis and decisions; and in the meantime, see the updated model on the fly.

The user can use our Trajectory Designer like a black box which is quite user friendly, simple, while powerful.

New Features in v2.0.0:

• Metric / imperial unit conversion added. When a Trajectory model is loaded into Inventor, its unit type (imperial or metric) and all parameters will be shown in UI to match the status of the loaded trajectory model; When the user switches the unit type, units of all parameters on UI will update accordingly; however, the changes will not be populated to the 3D model until the user clicks on Apply or OK button on the UI. This allows the user to switch unit type on the UI without affecting the model. When the user presses the Apply or OK button, the changes will be applied, re-calculation will be performed, unit types of all parameters in the model will be updated accordingly.

• Frequently used head pulley diameters of both imperial and metric are listed in combobox for user selection; User can also provide custom values;

• Frequently used belt widths of both imperial and metric are listed in combobox for user selection; User can also provide custom values;

• Added new warning messages to alert users of full belt and possible spillage conditions;

• On UI, consistent Greek letters have been included for parameters that are used in CEMA6.