A Bracket for a Wheel Assembly on Autodesk Inventor

I made this as part of my final project for class. I had to make a wheel assembly using Autodesk Inventor. Said assembly consisted of two brackets (the bracket in this tutorial), a wheel, an axle, and a base plate.

Supplies

A computer

Autodesk Inventor

Step 1: Make a File

Open Autodesk inventor on your computer. Click on the button that says 'New' in the top left corner. Click on 'Metric' and go click on the one that says 'Standard (mm).ipt' assuming that what you're making it using dimensions in the metric system. If you're making something using inches instead then you would click on 'English' and then the one that says 'Standard (in).ipt'.

Step 2: Start a Sketch

Click on 'Start 2D Sketch' which opens up something for you to choose which plane your sketch will go on. As I started on the bottom, I chose the XZ plane. That should bring you into a sketch. A good bit of the time your view will be rotated on the side. You can tell by looking at the cube on the top right corner. If the work 'TOP' is on it's side, you'll want to rotate it as this can mess up your sketch later. You can do that by clicking the arrow until it's right ways up.

Step 3: Make a Rectangle

Make a centered rectangle. To do that, click on the rectangle button located towards the top left of the of the screen until you get a drop box. Select the 'Two Point Center' rectangle option. Then click on the origin so that a green dot appears there. Then a rectangle should appear. Click again to make the rectangle stay. To give the rectangle dimensions, click on the dimension button in the toolbar at the top of the screen. Then click on the side you want to dimension. A white box will pop up with the current dimension which you can generally type in what you want it to be instead. I made my rectangle 78mm by 37mm.

Step 4: Add Fillets

To make the rectangle more like the bottom of our bracket, we need fillets. To add fillets, click on the fillet button on the toolbar towards the top left side of the screen. Then click on the corner or the two sides that make up that corner. There should also be a white box somewhere so that you can dimension the fillet. I made mine 12mm. Then you can repeat those steps again to do the other corner.

Step 5: Add Circles

To add a circle, you will need to click on the circle button at the top left. For what we're doing we will need a 'Center Point' circle. Click on the dot that appears as the center point of the fillet. Then click again outside of that to make the circle that appears stay. Repeat this with the other fillet. Now we need to add dimensions. I added a dimension of 10mm of one circle and added an equal constraint to the other circle so they'd both be the same size. To add the dimension you would just do the same thing we did to dimension the rectangle. To add the equal constraint you would click on the equal button that just had the equal sign on it (=) which is located towards the top right of the screen. Then you would click on the undimensioned circle and then the dimensioned circle. Now they should both be the same size of 10mm. That's all we needed to do for this sketch so after you're done with that click on the button with the green check mark that says 'Finish Sketch' which is located on the far right on the toolbar towards the top of the screen.

Step 6: Extrude Sketch

After clicking on 'Finish Sketch' it should bring you out to the 3D model screen. Here we can extrude the sketch. To do that, click on the 'Extrude' button on the top left located beside the 'Start 2D Sketch' button we used earlier to make the sketch. Then you will need to click on a surface that you want to extrude. When your mouse is over the sketch it should highlight it green. Once it is selected it will probably extrude to some default setting. In the box that popped up you can put in how far you want it to extrude as well as what direction as odds are we want a different size and such than whatever came up. For mine I extruded it up 10mm. That dimension goes in the box beside 'distance A'. And then the default extrusion is up which is the first option beside where it says direction. When you're done with that you can click 'Ok' and it will be extruded.

Step 7: Add Another Sketch

As that is only part of our bracket, we will need to add another sketch. To do that you will click on the 'Start 2D Sketch' button on the top left of the screen that we used when we made our first sketch. Then you will need to tell it where you want the sketch to be. For what we're making you will want to click on the edge that we didn't fillet as seen in the picture. Once it opens the sketch make a circle above the middle of the rectangle. A line will probably show up to help you with that. Dimension the circle to 20 mm. Then add a dimension to control how far up the circle is from the top edge of the rectangle. To do that, click the dimension button then the click on both the center point of the circle and the edge of rectangle to get the dimension box to appear. I dimensioned it to 48 mm.

Step 8: Continue and Finish the Sketch

Now you'll want to add another circle at the same center point as the other circle. dimension this circle to be 40mm. Then add two lines that connect the corner points of the rectangle to the circle, but be careful to not put them at the halfway point on the circle because that's not quite where we want them. Now that the lines exist we need them to go up against the circle in a particular way. To get them to do that, we use the tangent constraint. Sometimes it does this constraint on its own and sometimes it doesn't. But to add this constraint you will need to click on the tangent button (located towards the right side of the toolbar at the top of the screen) and then click on the line and circle that need this constraint. Do this to both lines. Then you can trim the circle some. To do that, click on the trim button located around the middle of the screen and then click on the part of the circle that is inside of the part that we don't need. After that you can click on the 'Finish Sketch' button.

Step 9: Extrude Sketch

Next we need to extrude the sketch. To do this we do the same thing we did last time. Click on the extrude button and select the sketch we want extruded. Type in 10mm as the distance and make sure it's going the right direction. This time we want to go in the direction of the second option called flipped instead of the default though.

Step 10: Another Sketch

As this still isn't all of the parts we need on the bracket, we need another sketch. Click on 'Start 2D Sketch' and select the back of the piece. Draw another centerpoint circle in the center of the other circle and line it up at the edge of the part. Then click on 'Finish Sketch'.

Step 11: Extrude Circle Sketch

Now we'll want to extrude this sketch too. To do that click the extrude button and select the circle. This time we will set the distance for 2mm and we want it to go in the default direction.

Step 12: Sketch Another Rectangle

We still need another sketch. So, click on 'Start 2D Sketch' and on the base of the bracket that we made earlier. There's more than one way to go about this, but we will need a centered rectangle that lines up with the vertical part of the bracket. The way I did was I drew a rectangle along the edge of the vertical part and then gave it dimensions. The dimensions I used were 15 mm by 20mm. Then I drew a center line. The button to make a line a center line is towards the top right. You would click on that button either before you drew the line or after selecting the line. The line should be a vertical line that goes through the origin. Then you should be able to add a symmetric constraint to center the rectangle. To add that constraint you would click on the symmetric constraint button towards the top right of the screen. Then click on the two sides of the rectangle and then the centerline that's in between them. Once it is centered, you click 'Finish Sketch'.

Step 13: Extrude the Rectangle

Then as we did previously, click the extrude button the sketch we just did to extrude it. This time the direction is still default and the distance is 10mm. Click Ok and your sketch should be extruded.

Step 14: Sketch a Triangle

Now we're going to add another sketch on the side of the rectangle we just extruded. As we did before, click 'Start 2D Sketch' and select where the sketch will go. Then draw a line that meets exactly where the two outer edges of the rectangle are and a line across the center of it. You should be able to click on the points at the edges of the rectangle for this. Once all three sides of the triangle have been drawn, click on 'Finish Sketch' as usual.

Step 15: Extrude Triangle

This time our extrusion is going to be a little bit different. Instead of adding material we are going to be taking away material. You still click on both the extrude button and the triangle we just sketched as usual. The difference lies in what settings we click on in the box that pops up when we extrude something. This time instead of inputting a distance you click on the 'through all' option that's located beside the distance box. It looks like an arrow going through some horizontal lines. You also still want to make sure it is extruding in the right direction. This time we want it to be flipped instead of the default direction.

Step 16: Sketch More Circles

Now we want to sketch some more circles. To start our sketch we will click on the 'Start 2D Sketch' button again and then on the same spot we clicked on when we drew the rectangle on the base of the bracket. Then draw the circles at the center points of the other two circles. Dimension one of said circles you just drew to be 15mm. Then add the equal constraint as we did before earlier in this tutorial with the other two circles. In case you forgot, you would click on the equal constraint button (the button with an equal sign towards the top right) and then on the two circles. After they're constrained at 15mm you can click on 'finish sketch'.

Step 17: Extrude the Circles

As usual we're gonna extrude the sketch we just made. Click on the 'Extrude' button and then on both of the circles we just made. Then change the settings in the box so that the direction is flipped and the distance is 2mm. After that you can click okay and it will be extruded.

Step 18: Add Fillets

Now to round off some of the edges of our bracket, we will add some fillets. To do that click on the fillet button that's slightly left of the middle of the screen. Then in the white box that comes up you can change the radius to 2mm if it isn't already set at that. Click on the edge line of something to add a fillet there.

Step 19: Continue to Add Fillets

For my bracket I added fillets on most of the front edges. The only place I did not add fillets was on the bottom, the back, and on any of the circles. When you are done selecting where the fillets will go, click 'Ok'.

Step 20: Save It!

Congrats, you've made it to the end of this tutorial on how to make a bracket. Once you're finished with your work make sure to save it. One way this can be done is by clicking on the save button towards the very top left corner of the screen.