Inventor File History

Continuing my trend on Batman and his bat files (must be one if his invention) I will share some words on how to remove the recently used files from your Inventor history.

Bat files to rescue again.

 If you didn’t know Autodesk has released a tool a couple of years back called Inventor Reset Utility and it supposed to clean the program removing any settings and customization just like a clean install.

This is a good tool to use if you get errors and crashes from Inventor and you need to test a clean session before reinstalling the product. I’ve used this to clear the user history when we moved workstations around but it’s also good for schools, labs, training rooms where people change so often and you don’t need one’s personal settings persistent.

However this will not remove the Recently Used Files on the home page. I have disabled the Home page all completely in Application Options but I still get the recent files if I click on the top left big I icon.

To remove them you need to tweak the registry and even if you know what you’re doing, pressing the Delete key in registry can be dangerous. I mean, we all have one of those days when coffee doesn’t fit in the mug, your allocated parking space is taken, or you’re just tired from being super-awesome the day before.

To remove the registry type "regedit" in the Run command on your Start menu (or press WIN+R). 

Navigate to: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion19.0\Recent File List” and see your list of recent files. 19.0 is Inventor 2015 internal number and you will of course change it to suit your Inventor version, 20.0 is 2016 and so on.

You will have 500 pinned files and 500 normal files although it’s not necessarily that all the slots are used. Instead of manually selecting and deleting all the key entries you can delete the folder itself and be done with it. Don’t worry; Inventor will recreate it next time you start the program and the home list will be empty.

But better yet why don’t you create a bat file (gotta love Batman) to do this for you while you sit and watch like a proper manager you are?

You can run this as many times you like or have it pinned in Startup to fire up automatically when you log in. Check my previous blog here on how to create a bat file and how to run it at startup.

Later,
ADS

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55883582@N08/10810635493">Batman Arkham City</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">(license)</a>

Inventor Fly mode with Space Navigator

Had a long week at work and on top of that I have reinstall win and all software so this post comes late in the day but still Thursday so hope you are not too disapointed.

I have been using a 3dconnexion space navigator for years and I wouldn’t think of doing Inventor and CAD in general without it. I still remember the “F4” spin command and I use keyboard shortcuts all the time, the multi character (AutoCAD) type, but my space navigator comes naturally.

There is an issue thou and that it’s running out of zoom. If you want to do a fly out type of navigation you can’t with the current Inventor settings and apparently it hasn’t been fix even in version 2015.

Scott Moyse has been reporting this for a couple of years and he even created an idea in the Autodesk Inventor IdeaStation and he has a fix for it. You do need to edit the windows registry; I don’t suspect anyone crashing windows from this but do make a backup of your registry file before.

1.       First, go to Inventor/Options/Display tab and mark down the current settings in the 3D Navigation section.

Here are my settings:

2.       Close inventor.

3.       Go to Start/run and type regedit

4.       Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion14.0\System\Preferences\Display

(I am using Inv 2010 which is Version14.0, yours will have a different number depending on Inv version)

5.       Double click on Viewing Command Options and change the Hexadecimal Value data to : 21

6.       Click ok and close the Registry Editor.

7.       Open Inventor and check to see if the settings in Inventor/Options/Display/3D Navigation are still the same, modify them back if they changed.

8.       Try out new navigation mode by activating perspective view on a model.

You need to move-release the space navigator in order to refocus-readjust zooming distance. You can’t do it in one smooth continuous movement.

The next trick I am going to share is adjusting the perspective view angle. While in perspective mode if you hold down CTRL+SHIFT+WHEEL UP/DOWN you will change the perspective angle.

                Mine is set to maximum for screenshots and presentations.

                This is how it looks with minimum perspective angle:

                 And this is how it looks with maximum perspective angle:

If you find it useful and want it implemented then go to the Idea Station website and vote for the change.

ADS

And the video of course: