How to Make the Dice Using AutoDesk Inventor Professional 2010

What are dice? According to Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice ] a traditional die is a cube

(often with corners slightly rounded), marked on each of its six faces with a different number of circular

patches or pits called pips. All of these pips have the same appearance within a set of dice, and are sized

for ease of recognizing the pattern formed by the pips on a face. The design as a whole is aimed at each

die providing one randomly determined integer, in the range from one to six, with each of those values

being equally likely.

Step 1: Drawing the Cube

First make a square

Give the square depth of equal dimension to the side of the square

Open the AutoDesk Inventor Professional 2010 Program by double-clicking on the icon located on your

desk-top.

Select ‘New’ from the menu at the top of the page

Select Standard.ipt from the ‘New File’ window

Select Rectangle from the menu tray icons

What is a rectangle? A rectangle is a four-sided object that has the opposite sides equal in length, the

opposite sides are parallel; the object contains four corners of 90 degree [right] angles. How is a square

different from a rectangle? A square has all four sides equal, otherwise the same definition fits a square

that we used for the rectangle. Thus ALL squares are rectangles BUT not all rectangles are squares!

Draw a rectangle by placing your mouse pointer in the upper left quadrant of the ‘grid’ and ‘left click’

your mouse. This will set the initial point of your rectangle. Move your mouse pointer to the lower right

quadrant of the ‘grid’ and ‘left click’ your mouse. This will set the rectangle on the grid [and remove the

mouse pointer from the rectangle].

Select equal from the constraints icon menu.

Place your mouse pointer over the top line of the rectangle. It will turn red. Left click and it will turn

aqua. Now select the left line of the rectangle…it will also turn red as you put your mouse pointer over it

BUT it won’t turn aqua when you left click on it…as the rectangle becomes a square!

Now we must give the square a dimension [length of each side]. Because ALL four sides are equal we

only will need to dimension one of the sides. Select dimension from the constraints icon menu.

Place the mouse pointer over one of the lines of the square. This line will turn red. Please notice that

you have a dimension icon floating with the mouse pointer.

We now need to left click on the line. It will turn aqua. Move your mouse to the left and you will notice

dimension lines and a dimension now appear on your screen.

Left click once to set these lines on your grid. Place your mouse pointer over the black dimension line

that was set on your grid and left click. An edit dimension box will appear. We will change this

dimension to 3 inches. Type in three and press enter.

We now need to select zoom all from the icons that are transparent on the right side of your screen.

This will make your square be centered and fit into your grid evenly so that you can see the entire

object.

Right click your mouse and choose finish sketch from the menu window.

Notice that your icon menu tray has now changed.

Select extrude from the icon menu tray.

Notice that an extrude window appears with your drawing which is now shaded aqua. In order to make

our square into a cube we will need to change the number in the extrude window to 3. Remember that

a cube is a three-dimensional square!

Now in order to see our cube in 3-dimensions we will right click our mouse and select home view from

the window that appears. Notice that your cube has rotated so that we see an isometric view.

Notice that in the upper right hand corner of your screen there is a cube that has the 3-views

labeled…front, right and top!

Now save your drawing to your ‘H’ drive. Make sure you are saving the document in your ‘H’ drive.

Make a folder in your ‘H’ drive titled technology. Now save the drawing there to this folder.

To work on your drawing open it from your ‘H’ drive…this will automatically open the inventor program.

You will see your drawing. We now will begin editing this drawing so we can add the holes and disks to

create the dice.

Select the view face icon from the transparent icon tray on the right side of your drawing.

Click on the front surface. It will turn aqua and then rotate towards you [turns gray]. Place your mouse

pointer on the front surface and then right click your mouse and select new sketch from the window

that appears. Notice that after you select new sketch that the grid reappears and the icon menu tray

changes.

Select point from the icon menu tray.

Place one point hole center by left clicking your mouse over the front surface of the cube. Notice that

an aqua ‘+’ appears. We will center this using the dimension tool. Use the dimensions below and the

knowledge that we previously used in making the square to dimension this point hole center.

Remember that ½ of 3 inches is 1 ½ inches.

Put your dimension tool away by right clicking and choosing done from the pop-up menu.

Select hole from the icon tray menu in the modify section.

You will notice that a ‘hole’ window appears. We will need to change two of the sizes. First we will

change the hole depth from 1 in. to ¼ inch…then we will change the hole diameter from ¼ inch to ¾

inch.

You will now see your cube with a hole drilled in the center of the cube…a hole with a diameter of ¾

inch and a depth of ¼ inch.

We now must do the other surfaces. Things to know about dice:

The side OPPOSITE the surface with one hole will have six holes

The side OPPOSITE the surface with three holes will have four holes

The side OPPOSITE the surface with two holes will have five holes

Let’s now make side two of the dice by clicking on the right side of the icon shown in the picture below.

This will turn the right side towards us.

Notice how the small cube in the upper right-hand corner says ‘right’.

From here we will use procedures that we have already learned to create this block. The holes will be

dimensioned so that they are ½ inch from the corresponding side surface and ½ inch from the

corresponding top/bottom surface.

Create the holes as we had previously done for side one.

Select the top surface from the cube in the upper right-hand corner of your page. We will now create

side three. The holes will be dimensioned so that they are ½ inch from the corresponding side surface,

½ inch from the corresponding top/bottom surface and the center hole will be located 1 ½ inches from

the top and from the side of the cube. The dimensions should look like this:

Create the holes as we had previously done for side one and side two.

We must now use the free orbit tool to turn the object so that we can create sides four, five and six.

Please remember that:

The side OPPOSITE the surface with one hole will have six holes

The side OPPOSITE the surface with three holes will have four holes

The side OPPOSITE the surface with two holes will have five holes

Rotate your object so that we see side six surface. It is OPPOSITE side one.

Dimension side six as shown in the picture below:

Create holes in side six

Now select and create side four using the free rotate tool.

Dimension side four as shown in the picture below:

Create holes in side four.

Now select and create side five using the free rotate tool.

Dimension side five as shown in the picture below:

Create holes in side five.

We now have created holes in each of our sides. We now want to give our dice a color.

From the word menu tray select as material

Choose the color you would like. Your cube will change to this color.

Now let us round off the edges of the cube [so that it will roll]. Select fillet from the icon tray menu.

Click on the nine edges that you can see on your cube. Select apply [this will round off those nine

edges].

Use the free rotate tool to rotate your cube to select the other three edges. Use the fillet tool to round

off those edges to finish your cube [dice].

Choose home view to see your finished cube [dice]. Save to your ‘H’ drive.

How to create the discs that go into the holes of our dice.

We now need to create a new drawing. From the menu tray select the new icon.

Select ‘New’ from the menu at the top of the page

Select Standard.ipt from the ‘New File’ window

Select circle from the icon menu tray.

Place a circle anywhere on the grid by left clicking your mouse icon. As you then move your mouse the

circle will get bigger. Left click your mouse to draw the circle on your grid as shown below:

Dimension the circle. This circle needs to be ¾ inch in diameter. To dimension the circle we must first

choose dimension from the icon tray menu. We then will place our mouse pointer over the circle [the

line changes from green to red]. A dimension line will appear as you left click your mouse and move the

pointer. Left click again to set the dimension on the grid. Change the dimension to ¾ inch.

We now need to extrude our circle to a depth of ¼ inch. Use the knowledge that you gained in creating

the dice to do this.

Change the color of the disc to white.

Inserting the discs into the holes of the dice

We now must insert the white discs that we created previously into the dice holes. In order to do this

we must open a new page in AutoDesk Inventor 2010. This time we will be using Standard.iam

Select ‘New’ from the menu at the top of the page

Select Standard.iam from the ‘New File’ window

We now need to open both are saved cube and our saved disc. We will do this using the place

Component function from the icon tray menu.

First select the cube that you have saved from your ‘H’ drive inventor folder where you saved it.

One cube will automatically be placed on your screen. Right-click and select done from the pop-up

menu. Your cube will appear as in the example below:

Now we must place the white discs that we saved into the inventor folder that we created in our ‘H’

drives. Select the place component icon…

We will need to place 21 white discs, one for each hole.

We will now need to insert these discs into the holes. We need to select constrain from the icon tray

menu.

Next we choose insert from the place constraint window.

We then select the inside edge of one of the holes by clicking on it…

…then we choose the top face of the disc…

When we click on the top face of the disc the disc will then be inserted into the cube. Select apply. Do

this for all of the holes and discs. Remember that you may need to rotate the view in order to insert the

discs into the holes that are on the other side of the cube.

Here is the drawing with all of the discs inserted:

Save the dice to your ‘H’drive.