No, I'm not chastising you for reading my blog article and browsing around the internet, I am referring more to the Browser in Autodesk Inventor. Over the last couple releases more and more of the tools you use most commonly have been popping up in the graphical interface and allowing you to spend less time in the Ribbon and the Model Browser Bar.
Perhaps the biggest habit I had to break was going to the Browser Bar for all my Feature Editing and Sketch Editing needs. When I first started using the on screen tools I was only doing it about 10% of the time, now it is more like 90%. Gone are the days when I look for a feature in the tree or a sketch to edit. Now I just use my cursor to grab what I want to modify on the screen thus reducing my overall mouse travel back and forth on my enormous monitor. What onscreen tools do you speak of Mark? These guys right here...
With these tools you simply have to click on the feature you want to modify and choose the Edit Feature button, the Edit Sketch button or if you want to create a new sketch you can do that too. The only catch is knowing that the face or edge you select on is the right feature you want to modify. If you click on a filleted face, it will take to the fillet you used to create that face and you can modify it. If you click on a face that a Hole created, it will take you right to that Hole to change its sizing. Once you get used to this it does become a lot easier to modify your parts and to keep your focus on screen instead of down through a history list. You can also use on screen icons to create new geometry as well such as new fillets or chamfers on existing edges.
Now, I am not without my complaints about the current icon set. As you read, I use it 90% of the time, not 100%. What I feel is missing is the ability to turn on the visibility of a sketch to use it again as a Master reference sketch or even just a shared sketch you might use once or twice more. Shared Sketch methods tend to create more robust models that update in a more predictable way that placing new sketches all over the place. So here is what I propose they add to the existing icons...
If you agree with me, go over the the Idea Station and give me a Kudos to help Autodesk add this to the software! The more Kudos an Idea gets the more likely it is to be Accepted and added to the software. While you are there check out some other great ideas proposed by users around the world.
Next up we will look at the updates in 2014 that make this idea of screen modifying easier with Constraints and Joints than in previous years.
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