IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Tech Tips: Customize CTRL+RMB Menus

What do rappers, drag racers, and engineers all have in common?  They love to talk about inches.  Now two of those three talk more about size in reference to their tires while engineers...its all about monitor size.  I once overheard an engineer saying he "rolls on 32s", and I thought to myself he must have a Jeep lift kit and some really awesome mudding tires.  Well I was wrong... it was his HP monitors.

What does this have to do with the title of the post?  Mouse travel my friends, mouse travel.  The more time you spend in your Ribbon rooting around for the right command, clicking on the Navigation Bar, or accessing iProperties the more your mouse travels on the screen.  The average computer mouse travels 3.4 miles per week and that's an average.  You know us CAD jockeys have got to be putting some serious mileage on those little lasers.  Here is about an hours worth of movement as an example.  This was me playing an online game.

So instead of traveling all over the place for the most commonly used commands, why not customize that right click Marking Menu?  By default Autodesk gives you 8 commands for every environment and sub-environment already, but did you know about the triple double dog secret menu?  If you hold down CTRL and click the right mouse button another set of commands can be at your fingertips.  However, the only pre-configured menu is the one in the Sketch environment that gives you all your Sketch constraints.

The Customization of the menu has to be user based and you have to do it.  Take some time and Customize it to your design purposes.  These are my common tools for what I normally do and they are here because I do complain about grabbing them all the time.

You can start this centralized awesomeness by going to your Tools Tab --> Options Panel --> Customize command.  Here is a quick screencast of the process.  Just remember when you are setting this up, you have to select the location of the command where you want it before you select it from the list of commands on the right.

 

Tech Tips: Change View Orientation in Drawing Views

Inventor 2016 introduced a smoother method of placing views in to drawings.  I posted on these changes last week so I thought I would continue with another tip today.

In previous versions of Inventor there was a button called Change View Orientation that you would select in the event that you were not getting Inventor to give you the view that you really want in your drawing.  With the inclusion of the View Cube as part of the selection process in Inventor 2016, that button is no longer needed as much as it used to be.

The ability to do this is still there though in case your orientation you desire is not exactly where you want it to be or in case you want some artistic look for a literature document instead of a fabrication drawing.  To get that same function now, all you have to do is right click on the corner of the cube that is facing you and select the Custom View Orientation selection.  That will launch you into the environment you always used before that will allow precise view rotation, Look At commands, and anything else you need to get your orientation just right.

Check out the screencast here in case you are still having trouble locating this feature.

 

Sharing AutoCAD Tool Palettes

After you have created your highly productive AutoCAD tool palette, you would like to share it with the rest of your design department.  The process is relatively simple, copy a few files and a folder and you are in business.   There are some other considerations if your tool palette contains block definitions and other entity styles.  My example tool palette contains custom blocks, standard hatches and custom dimensions.

There are two files you need to copy from your drive to the workstations you plan to share your tool palette.  The first file is the tool palette definition.  This is located in the folder C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2016\R20.1\enu\Support\ToolPalette\Palettes.  The files name begins with the name of the tool palette tab followed by a long series of letters and numbers and has a file extension of .atc.  There is a separate file for each tool palette tab.  Copy this file(s) into the matching folder on the new workstation.  The second file is the tool palette catalog.  This file is located in the folder C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2016\R20.1\enu\Support\ToolPalette.  It is named AcTpCatalog.atc. You will be copying this file and replacing the existing one on the new workstation which will replace all of the existing tool palettes on the new workstation.  Please make a copy of the existing file to allow you to return to the original tool palette definition if needed.

The tool palette contains images for each entry.  You may not display these in your tool palette but you need to copy them to new workstation to complete the process.  The folder, named Images, is located in the folder C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2016\R20.1\enu\Support\ToolPalette\Palettes.  This folder should be copied to the matching location on the new workstation.

The tool palette will now appear on the new system but your task is not complete if the tool palette uses external resources.  For example, block definitions on the tool palette exist in a drawing defined in the tool palette entry.  You can check the properties of the entry by right clicking of the entry and selecting Properties.  Below is an example of one of the block entries on my sample tool palette.  Note the source drawing containing the block source.

  It is impractical to redefine all the source files for all tool palette blocks.  The easiest method to share the source drawing is to include the source drawing in AutoCAD search path specified in the Options panel.

Other entries may use settings and configurations from the host workstation.  The include text, dimension, multi-leader styles which can all be shared in the standard AutoCAD template.

Sharing a productive tool palette is easy and the design time savings can be significant.

Tech Tips: Predefine Scale Factors in Drawings

I had a follow up to my post earlier this week on scaling drawing views in Inventor.  The question was...

How do I define the scale list in my drawing view?

Well, here is your answer...

You have to ensure you can make changes to your Styles and Standards library first.  This is usually done by setting the value on the Inventor project file to Read/Write.  From there, go to your Styles and Standards library and choose the Active Standard you are currently using.  Change the preset values dropdown to scale and then add and remove scales at leisure.  When you are finished make sure you save these changes to your Styles Library with the Save button on the Styles and Standards Panel.

Tech Tips: Dynamic Scaling of Drawing Views

The new Base View command in Inventor 2016 has been nothing short of awesome for me.  I love that I can select my orientation right from the view cube or project and delete views very quickly.  However there is one setting here that is not as discoverable to users and that is the ability to Scale the view dynamically or by known values.

The little green corners around the Base View preview look like perhaps they are just framing cursors to identify the boundary, but they are actually in fact scale adjustments.  Depending on my scale list in my Styles and Standards and therefore the scales in the dialog, the little green corner will automatically size to one of these scales as I drag it.  If I go under the lowest scale or above the largest scale, then it will start going to a very dynamic scale size instead of a chosen list.  If I hold CTRL down while I move the corners, then it automatically moves over to dynamic scaling.

      

Here is a short screencast of how it works.

 

Custom Tube & Pipe Styles: Authoring A Tube & Pipe Component

In a continuation from my previous post on creating a custom Tube & Pipe style I stepped through the required modelling steps to create a conduit for use in the Inventor Tube & Pipe environment. There are four primary steps to creating an entirely custom Tube & Pipe style:

1. Modelling a custom part (conduits and/or fittings)
2. Authoring a part as a Tube & Pipe component
3. Publishing a part to the Content Center
4. Creating the custom Tube & Pipe style

In this post I will step through authoring the previously modeled conduit so that it is ready to be added to a custom content center. With the model created we can now prepare the conduit to make it an intelligent Tube & Pipe part. As it sits now the flared conduit is simply a standard Inventor iPart with some extra work geometry.

With the conduit loaded, navigate to the Manage tab in Inventor and in the Author panel select the drop-down shown. (Depending on the last command used in this drop-down the displayed button may be different). From the drop-down list select Tube and Pipe.

The Tube & Pipe Authoring dialog box should appear. Since we are modelling a tube, in the type drop-down list select Tubes. This will preset some of the end treatment and parameter options that are required for the type selected.

Note: Three selections to create conduit are Hoses, Pipes and Tubes. In order to have these types included in the list for selection the conduit model needs to be an iPart.

The first thing to do is map the parameters to the user parameters in the model. In the parameter table select each cell in the Table Mapping column and choose a user parameter from the drop-down list. In my case the selections are:

• Nominal Size = NS (Critical for the tube and pipe style selection)
• Schedule Number = SN
• Inside Diameter = ID
• Outside Diameter = OD
• Pipe Length = PL

Don’t worry if you have unused user parameters. These can be added, if needed, when publishing the part to the content center.

Continuing with the authoring dialog box, most of the settings are applied per connection so to start configuring the first connection ensure that the Connection Number button 1 is depressed. Next select the End Treatment drop-down list and select Flared, or whichever treatment applies to your model.

In the Connection area of the authoring dialog box make the connection reference selections. These will indicate where the connection point is made when routing our line in the Tube & Pipe environment. With the Point selection button active select the appropriate work point from the model browser.

Once selected return to the authoring dialog box and click the Axis selection button to select the work axis. Be sure to select the work axis that corresponds to the same end of the tube as the work point just selected.

The arrow that is displayed after making the selection indicates the direction that a connection is made from when populating a tube and pipe route. This is not an indication of a flow direction. If the arrow is pointing inside the tube use the flip button in the authoring dialog box to point the arrow away from the tube end.

Once the connection selections have been made use the radio buttons to select the type of connection whether it will be male, female or neutral. Then to the right in the Engagement area you can indicate, for a male/female connection, how far the tube will engage in a connector by filling these values.

Since this flared tube is a neutral connection these values can be zero.

The connection properties for the first port have been set and to verify this is indicated in the authoring dialog box by the Connection Number button showing a black number 1. To finish authoring this part depress the 2^nd connection number button and repeat the settings and selections for the opposite end of the tube.

Note: The ISOGEN area of the authoring dialog box can be used when creating a PCF output of a Tube & Pipe run. This is not a common workflow and these fields can be left empty.

When the connections have been fully defined click OK and save the part which is now ready for publishing to the content center.

-DP

Autodesk University Class Available: What Lies Beneath - Using AutoCAD Underlays in Inventor

Well, its been well over a month since I presented my class at AU in Las Vegas this past year on using AutoCAD Underlays in Autodesk Inventor.  Every year Autodesk makes the recordings available to users that cannot attend the convention so now is a good time to check them out (just head over to the Autodesk University webpage).  I had a great time this past year and I had a little fun with an otherwise dry topic of AutoCAD material interacting with Inventor.  This year I employed Bob the Business Cat as my co-speaker to help me out.

If you want to check out the whole session complete with my presentation and handout, make sure you head over to the Autodesk University website and get your learn on about this new feature in Inventor 2016 and see if it is right for you.  I also talk about setting up policies for AutoCAD users and also how to get Inventor equipment as blocks in AutoCAD.

What Lies Beneath: Using AutoCAD Underlays in Inventor.

While you are there, make sure you check out the other courses from our IMAGINiT guys this year.  Just search on David Ponka, Jeff Stueck, Rusty Belcher, and James O'Flaherty.

Tech Tips: Speed Up Inventor Startup Time

If you are like me, you start your day off with a tall high octane cup of leaded coffee beans, you enter your den of engineering excellence (cubicle or office) and you start up or unlock your instrument of constructive awesomeness (computer).  The last thing you want when you are hopped on the design dragon is to be slowed down by your slow Inventor startup.  Well, here are some tricks to get you going faster.

Disable My Home on startup

This little beauty <inject sarcasm here> was added in 2015 and overhauled in 2016.  What it really does is give you your recent documents, access to project files, and your standard and advanced templates.  What I do not like about it is about everything.  I have been using Inventor for about 15 years now and I know how to pretty much get to wherever I need very fast and without too much fuss.  This Home screen is really a great addition to those that are new to Inventor or do not use it a whole heck of a lot

To disable this and improve your startup time, simply go to your Application Options and toggle off the Show My Home on startup.

Disable Addins from Startup

Inventor has a LOT of stuff in it.  When I say stuff, I mean addins and their functionality.  The majority of the addins are loaded by default so they appear in your interface and you don't have to go looking for them.  Generally I will use everything in Inventor, that is just the nature of the type of work I do, but what if you are never going to use Cable and Harness or Dynamic Simulation?  Why have them startup and load their .dlls if they are of no use to you?  To make these changes go to your Tools Tab --> Addins and start unchecking the items you do not need loading when you want to get into Inventor.  The downside here is that if you do need one, you have to remember you turned it off in the first place.

Cache an Assembly

Some designs take weeks or months to finish depending on the complexity.  That's why Inventor has an option for you to cache a file for quick opening.  This is great if you are in this assembly on a daily basis.  This setting is located in the Application Options on the Files tab at the very bottom.  You can cache the last assembly file or you can select a particular one to cache in memory.

  Use Express Mode

If you are using Inventor 2014 or newer and have not looked into Express Mode yet...you just don't have large enough assemblies!  This more recent enhancement was added to load dynamically components and parts into assemblies as well aid in drawing view creation.  Its like the new improved Level of Detail for memory consumption issues.  Now Inventor will create a larger IAM file with cached graphics and only load files needed to perform operations like Relationships (Constraints and Joints).  Instead of loading each file into memory which takes .1 milliseconds per file, you are loading only one file instead of that times the number of components you have.  Sure it makes your IAM a little bigger, but it gets you into the action a lot faster.

I will cover Express Mode a lot more in the coming weeks as I am writing a white paper on it right now.  For now, you can adjust the settings of Express Mode in the Assemble Tab of the Application Options and you enable or disable it by use of the Productivity tools in the Assembly environment.

I hope you pick up something from this post to make your day that much easier when it comes to startup time.  Granted, all these settings are very minuet but they do make a difference in time.  Express mode is a bigger time booster depending on the size your assemblies.

AutoCAD System Variable Monitor

AutoCAD system variables are something that most designers probably never pay attention to.  They are often set when AutoCAD is configured using the Options panel or by changing values in other configuration panels.  Some system variables are only set by a direct entry at the command prompt, using the "Setvar" command or by using the System Variables icon located on the Tools panel of the Express Menu tab.

Some system variables changes, either accidental or intentional, can have a dramatic effect on our AutoCAD productivity.  A example of this is the "Filedia" system variable.  Normally the value is set to "1" so when you go to open a drawing, you see the Select File dialog box.  If it gets changed to "0", selecting the "Open" command forces you to use the command line to find and open your drawing.  Not only is this a pain but it also is not very productive.

AutoCAD 2016 introduced a tool that allows you to capture your favorite system variable settings, store them and if you choose, warn you when they accidentally get changed.  Type the command "sysvarmonitor" on the display screen or command line to bring up the System Variable Monitor dialog box.

The dialog will be populated with some of the more popular system variables and can be edited to include your favorites as well.  Lets start at the top with the two check boxes.  The first selection "Notify when the system variable changes" will give you a command line warning if any of your system variable settings change.  This is not very efficient because you have to stop and type the "sysvarmonitor" command in order to "Reset" your system variables back to the desired value.  If the "Enable balloon notification" is checked, a Status Bar balloon will appear toward the right end.

Below is a screen shot of this balloon notification.  If you have your "traysettings" configured to dismiss notification balloons after a certain time, the notification balloon will disappear after that time has elapsed but the "sysvarmonitor" icon will remain.

 
If the balloon is visible, you can select "Click To View Change" to open the System Variable Monitor dialog box.  If the balloon has been closed, left click on the indicated icon on the status bar to open the dialog box.  Once in the dialog box you can see the warning status beside the system variable and current and preferred values.  Select the "Reset All" icon to update the system variable to the preferred value.

To edit the list of system variables you wish to monitor, select the "Edit List..." icon.  This will present the Edit System Variable List dialog box with the available system variable list on the left and your list on the right.  Use the transfer buttons to move system variables between these lists.

The last thing I want to point out is the question mark icon beside each system variable in your list and the available system variable list.  This will give you immediate access to AutoCAD help on the associated system variable.

Inventor 3rd Party Addin Review: Vault Browser Toggle

Happy New Year everyone, welcome back to 2016.  To start this year off I am going to smack you in the face with some productivity in your daily life.  Something that if you like, it can save you some of your much coveted cursor travel on your mouse pad.

What I have for you is an addin that basically will toggle your Vault and Model view in your Browser on the left side of your screen.

If you are Vault user, you probably toggle this thing multiple times a day in order to check status of a file or perhaps even to check it in or out.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do this with a command in your marking menu or perhaps an icon in your Ribbon?  Well, want no longer because there is an app on the Inventor App Exchange that will do this very task for you.  Its a small addin and it works with multiple versions of Inventor (2014-2016) without having to install it to multiple versions.

TD Vault Toggle on the App Exchange

Once installed it will add a command to each of your Ribbons in a new Panel called Vault.  Now as we know, we can remove the Panels we don't want and we can move them around as well.  In this case I am a little annoyed it shows up on ALL of my Ribbon Tabs so I end up hiding it on most with the Panel Visibility options.

What I do however is take this a little further for my productivity and I add it to my CTRL+right click menus so it is only a mouse click away for my toggling.  As you can see here, my Part Environment extra right click menu is rather productive for the things I do most like iLogic triggering, additional modeling tools, and visualization toggles.  If you want to customize yours too, all you have to do is go to the Tools Tab --> Options Panel --> Customize command and adjust each environments ctrl+right click menu.  Hope you enjoy this tool and the productivity it brings you!