Roate view with cube without "Zoom to Fit" option

Today I will highjack Jonathan Landeros post on “Changing the View Cube Zoom Behavior in Autodesk Inventor” or actually my response to his blog.

He was asked how to stop the “Fit-to-View” behavior when using the View Cube.

http://www.inventortales.com/2013/06/changing-view-cube-zoom-behavior-in.html

You can do that by right clicking on the cube and deselect “Fit-to-View on view change” in options as he points out.

I like the fit-to-window behavior but from time to time I do need to spin around a certain area , especially when working with large assemblies that take time to regen and update.

So the trick here is to select something in the window that you want to be your spinning reference. When selecting a part for example and use the view cube the window spins and fits in the window your current selection.

Go ahead and give it a try next time you work with large assemblies or when want to rotate locally.

That's it !

Once again, please reply on the blog with your own keywords and tags so others can find this post easier.

ADS.

Inventor Threads BSW BSF

I know tomorrow you will have the usual weekly post but here's something worth mentioning.

Today a old friend asked me if there's a way of getting the British Standard Whitworth (BSW) and British Standard Fine (BSF) in Inventor.

I don't think it's a matter of having a model with correct dimensions but rather showing the correct info in Hole Note.

I have attached the Thread.xls file that Inventor uses and it contains these tables as well.

All you have to do is locate the file path of your Design Data, make a backup of the existing Thread.xls and replace it with the one bellow.

In order to find out where your Design Data folder is you can go to Options / File / and look at the third option down. If is not self evident (ideally will be on the network on a shared folder for all users) then you can click the Explore button for more details.

I have rearranged the order the threads are shown in Inventor because we use metric most of the time and instead of the ANSI default type.

You can change that by opening the Thread.xls file and change the Sort Order number. You don't need to change the sheet position within the workbook just change the number and make sure the number is not used for another thread type.

Please remember that you need to restart inventor for changes to take effect. Inventor opens the file the first time you use Hole function and keeps it in memory until restarted.
And here's the xls file, use it at your own risk.

ADS


Update June 2014: It seems design data has changed in release 2015 so you need to manually add the table again. They have added new columns Thread Depth, and Thread Runouts so migrating the file won't help.

 Check beinginventive.typepad.com for more details.

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Autodesk Inventor Unresolved References

Hi guys,

Continuing on the mExtension toolbar for Autodesk Inventor I will show you the "Resolve References" function.

I can't tell you how many times I got the "Unresolved references" window, because files were removed, renamed, or just because Inventor out of the blue decided he can't locate components. 

On one particular company I worked for, the folder location on disk would move depending on the status of the project, like Quote, Live, Completed, and it messes up Inventor big time.

I don't want to work more than I have to especially on dumb boring things like locating missing files and links, so I will show you how to use the Resolve References function that will do just that for you.

Looking at the video you can see that I have missing links, and references and Inventor's complaining doesn't allow me to move forward with this project. This was fine one night before and now it's all broken.

So, in order to fix it, just hit "Skip All" when asked for missing links and use our function to solve it. Go to the mExtension toolbar and click Resolve References.

In here you have a list of all the missing references for which you can manually specify new location or, even better you can use the “search in folder” button.

You don't have to browse to the new folder location as you can select the whole D:/ drive or whatever the location of your files. Of course it takes less time if you narrow it down to say just the Purchased Parts folder for your search. This function is lightning fast but you can help it out by narrowing down the search location.

A pop-up window should tell you that the references are solved, so update and save the model and you're good to go.

That's it for today; please reply on the blog with your own keywords and tags so others can find this post easier.

ADS.

 And of course the video:

Rename Browser Nodes for Autodesk Inventor

Hi guys,

Took some time since my last post so I've decided to present you the mExtension toolbar. This piece of software has saved me hundreds of hours of work and a lot of money. If I could have a penny for every time I was asked about it...

I will start with one small function part of the mExtension, and more precisely the "Rename Browser Nodes".

As the name suggests, we are going to use it to change the way the models are displayed on the browser. 

As you'll see in the beginning of the video the models appear with the name first used when created, and if you ever decide to change it, the browser never updates, it keeps showing the original name. 

Yes, I am aware of the "Assembly Bonus Tools" function that allows you to rename them by Part Number or Description but never in a string, and it doesn't give you the option to use other iProperties like Stock Number or any of your choice.

Use the button “Occurrences” located on the mExtension toolbar to activate the function. You can choose any of the iproperties as the new display name or even concatenate several of them in a string. 

Choose Part Number as prefix, add space as delimiter and then put Description as well to make it neater, or try out any of the iProperties that suits you.

As you click apply all the models are renamed by the function above, making it easyer to browse and find your way around as well as track errors and verify properties. They are also sorted in alphabetical order.

That's it for today, hope you've enjoyed and learned/refreshed the info her.

Again, please reply on the blog with your own keywords and tags so others can find this post easier.

Come back in a week's time to find some more on the extension.

ADS.

 And of course the video:

AutoCAD, Inventor Trim Extend with "SHIFT" modifier

Today I am going to show you how to use trim-extend with one command. You might know this from AutoCAD, where “SHIFT” is pressed while in trim to get extend or vice-versa.

Same thing in Inventor, if you are doing trim and you hold down “SHIFT” while selecting sketch entities it does extent; trim-extend or extend-trim, both ways.

I suggest you try it out and for next month or so whenever you are using one of them, try the “SHIFT” modifier just to get the habit of it.

Please comment on the post if you found it useful and add your own tags just so you, and others, find it faster next time.

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