Inventor

Back to Basics Setting up a new Project, Styles and Standards, Templates and Materials

Carlos Lastrilla Cadgroup Australia

Optimizing Inventor settings

Creating new materials

Customizing Styles

Making your own templates

Creating an IPJ

Setting up folder locations Data folder

structure

Inventor Project

file

Drawing Templates

Styles & Standards

Material libraries

Tips & Tricks

Set-up Assumptions:

• This set-up is for a single-user environment

• All Inventor-related data should be stored in C:\InventorData

• No existing libraries will be used

• The data in this folder will be accessed by a single project file

• Customizations will be made to Templates, Styles and Standards, and Material libraries

Setting the Folder Structure

1. Create a folder on your C:\ drive called Inventor Data

2. Inside Inventor Data, create a folder called

- Designs - Libraries

- Content Center Files

3. From C:\Users\Public Documents\Autodesk\Inventor <version>\ folder, copy the following folders to C:\Inventor Data\:

- Templates - Design Data

4. Your C:\Inventor Data folder

should now look like this:

Data folder

structure

Setting the Folder Structure Data folder

structure

Contains the IPT files generated from Inventor Content Center

Contains the files Inventor needs to define Styles, Standards and Materials

Contains all your Inventor Designs (e.g. project files, models, drawings)

Contains all your own standard content (e.g. standard brackets, jigs, etc.)

Contains your part, assembly, presentation and drawing template files

Creating a Project File

1. Open the Project Dialog box in Inventor (Access Menu Manage Projects) and create a new Project file by clicking

Inventor Project

file

2. Fill-up the dialog box as seen below. Click Next.

3. In the Select Libraries page, do not select any libraries. Click

Configuring the Project File

1. Edit the Project file Workspace by right-clicking on Workspace Edit. Change the Workspace to C:\Inventor Data\Designs

Inventor Project

file

2. Edit the Library field by right-clicking on Libraries Add Path. Change the Workspace to C:\Inventor Data\Libraries

3. Edit the Folder Options as follows:

Creating a Drawing Border

1. Create a new drawing using one of the existing templates closest to the style and standard (e.g. ANSI-mm.dwg).

Drawing Templates

2. Delete all the existing resources on the sheet (Default Border and ANSI – Large).

3. Adjust the sheet size to your desired sheet size (A3). Right-click on Sheet:1 and choose Edit.

Creating a Drawing Border

4. Create a new border using the Border command.

Drawing Templates

5. After clicking on the Border command, the Sketch Environment is opened. Draw, dimension & annotate your border as you would any sketch.

6. After drawing the border, Finish the Sketch and Save the border resource.

Creating a Drawing Border Drawing Templates

7. You can also create a new border using the Zone Border tool.

8. The Zone Border tool allows you to create a Zone Border using a dialog box:

9. Once you’ve configured your Zone Border, Finish the Sketch and save the border resource.

Creating a Drawing Title block Drawing Templates

1. Create a new Title using the Title Block command.

2. After clicking on the Title Block command, the Sketch Environment opens. Draw, dimension and annotate your title block as you would any other sketch.

3. You can use the Text command to add field labels. Use the Add Text Parameter button to add iProperty fields.

Creating a Drawing Title block Drawing Templates

4. To add an image, use the Insert Image command. Draw an image box on where you want to place your image in your title block.

5. Browse for the image you want to place into your title block. Make sure that you untick the LINK option to ensure the image is embedded into the template.

If you want to Link your image, make sure that the image is located in a folder that is defined in the Project file.

* As of the 2016 release, Inventor does not support

transparent images to be used in title

blocks.

Creating a Drawing Title block Drawing Templates

6. Once you’ve configured your Title block, Finish the Sketch and save the Title block resource.

7. Insert both the border and title block into the sheet by double clicking the resource on the appropriate Drawing Resources node.

8. Save the drawing as a template file by going to Save As Save Copy As Template. Note that this will be saved into the template folder defined in the project file.

Design Data - Explained Styles and Standards

Styles & Materials

Design Data folder

(Style Library)

CAD file (Local Styles)

1. Styles and Standards are stored in two places – the CAD file and the Style Library (Design Data).

2. When making changes to the Style Library, we first make the change in the local CAD file.

3. After making the changes, we then save the changes to the Style Library (Design Data).

4. We save the changes from the CAD file to the Style Library (Design Data) through the Save Command.

5. We save the changes from the Style Library to the CAD file using the Update command.

Design Data - Explained Styles and Standards

Design Data folder (Style Library) CAD file

(Local Styles)

When the Styles in the CAD file are not the same as the one in the Style Library (Design Data), we get the Style Conflict warning every time we create a new

drawing/part/assembly.

Creating a new Standard

1. Prior to creating or modifying standards, make sure your Project file enables you to make changes to the Design Data Style Library.

2. Open the project file dialog box, and choose the Inventor Data project file.

3. Right-click on the Use Style Library node and choose Read-Write. This will allow saving of the local style library changes to the Design Data style library.

Styles and Standards

When you are done making changes to the style library, it is recommended to switch this back to Read-Only to avoid inadvertent changes to the Style Library.

Creating a new Standard

1. Open your drawing template (via the Open command, not the New command).

2. In your drawing template, place a sample part so you can see the impact changing the Styles and Standards will make.

3. In the Manage tab click on Style Editor

Styles and Standards

4. On the Standard node, right-click on the current standard, and choose Rename Style. Rename it to CG Standard.

Creating a new Standard

5. Expand the Object Defaults node. Right click on the current Object Defaults and choose Rename Style. Rename it to CG Defaults.

Styles and Standards

6. For this example, we will be modifying the Dimension Style. Expand the dimension node and right-click on Default – mm (ANSI) and rename the style to CG Dimensions.

For every style you want to modify (e.g. Balloons, Text Styles, Parts List Table, etc.), it’s best to rename one of the provided default style closest to what you are trying to achieve – in order to minimize the changes you need to make.

Creating a new Standard

7. For this example, we are changing the colour of the dimension objects. We will change the colour from the black to blue.

Styles and Standards

8. By default, the text style used is Note Text. Because this text style is also used in other styles (e.g. as Title block text), we will copy this Text style instead of renaming it.

Creating a new Standard

9. Expand the Text node and right-click on Note Text (ANSI) and choose New Style. Create a new style called CG Dimension Text.

Styles and Standards

10. Change the colour of CG Dimension Text style to blue.

Creating a new Standard

11. Go back to CG Dimensions style and change the Primary Text Style to CG Dimension Text.

Styles and Standards

12. Save the changes and close the Style Editor dialog box.

13. Apply some dimensions on your drawing to ensure that they appear as you desire.

Creating a new Standard

14. Delete all the drawing views, then save the template by using the Save command.

15. So far, all the changes made were to the Local Style Library. To save these changes to the Design Data Style Library, click on Save:

Styles and Standards

16. The Save Styles to Style Library dialog box list all styles which were changed. Click on Yes to All, then click OK.

If the option to Save is grayed-out, make sure that the active project file is allowed to make changes to the Style Library. See the first slide of this section for more info.

Creating a new Materials

1. Create a new part file and open the Materials Browser.

Material libraries

2. In the Material Browser, click on the folder icon located at the lower-right side and choose Create New Library.

3. Create a new Materials library called Cadgroup Materials.adsklib.

4. Save this in the Design Data location (C:\InventorData\Design Data\Materials\).

Creating a new Materials

5. In the Materials Browser, navigate to the Inventor Materials library and add the Iron, Cast material to the local document. Do the same for all other materials you wish to customise.

Material libraries

6. Right-click on the Iron, Cast material in the local document, and choose Edit. The Material Editor dialog box appears. Change the Name and other properties as needed and click OK.

Creating a new Materials

7. Create a Metal category under the Cadgroup Material Library by right-clicking on it at the lower-pane, then choosing Create Category.

Material libraries

8. After editing the material, right-click on the material and choose Add to. Add the material to the Cadgroup Material Library Metal.

Creating a new Materials

9. Add other materials to the library as needed. Once complete, close the part file and open the project dialog box.

Material libraries

10. In the project dialog box, right-click on the Material Libraries node and choose Add Library. Navigate to the Cadgroup Material Library.adsklib.

11. Expand the Material Libraries node and right-click on Inventor Material Library and choose Remove Library. Do the same for the Autodesk Material Library.

By removing the default libraries, you have better control over the materials you are using.

Tips & Tricks

If you find the annotations in the Graphics window too small, change the annotation scale in the Application Options General tab.

Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks

When navigating through large assemblies and you find graphics performance sluggish, try:

1. Disabling Enhanced Highlighting – Inventor only highlights the edges of the component as you hover overt them.

2. Disabling Prehighlight – Inventor does not highlight any of the components as you hover over them.

Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks

When troubleshooting graphics issues (or even component selection issues), try different settings of your Graphics Card.

Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks

To help being more deliberate in creating Adaptive components, disable Cross Part geometry projection as the default option.

When these settings are turned off, you will need to press Ctrl on your keyboard as you select edges to project. This will make the projected edges adaptive.

If you do not press Ctrl, the edges will still be projected, but no linking will occur.

Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks

To Save Application Options settings so you can use them on another computer (or when upgrading to the next higher version of Inventor), you can Export the settings as an XML file.

On the other computer, simply Import the saved XML file.

Tips & Tricks