Wiley 978-0-470-48169-1 Datasheet

CHAPTER 1Finding Your Way in the Inventor InterfaceUnderstanding Inventor’s interface behavior Opening existing files Creating new files Modifying

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface10Another element of the common graphical language is the way dialog boxes are organized. Many d

The Open Dialog Box11FIGURE 1.9 File list displaying large iconsShortcuts and the File ListAt upper left in the Open dialog box is an area with a lis

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface12Centered in the dialog box and making up the bulk of it is the fi le list, where the fi les are

The Open Dialog Box13FIGURE 1.11 File list showing Thumbnail viewFile Display OptionsImmediately below the fi le list are three selection pull-down li

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface14the Open dialog box is brought up. To the right of the pull-down is a button marked Projects,

The Open Dialog Box15FIGURE 1.12 The Find File dialog boxOpening a FileNow that you’ve had an overview of the parts and functions of the Open dialog

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface16FIGURE 1.13 The Shock Absorber Front assembly in the Design windowIf you’re not opening an ex

More of the Inventor Interface17FIGURE 1.14 The New File dialog box showing the Default templatesIn the New File dialog box, Inventor’s collection of

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface18FIGURE 1.15 The Browser bar displays the contents and structure of the file you’re editing.As

More of the Inventor Interface19orientation to the X, Y, and Z axes. As shown earlier in Figure 1.13 the X axis is red, the Y axis is green, and the Z

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface2Inventor’s User InterfaceWhen you’re learning a new software application, it can sometimes seem

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface20Two icons you need to be familiar with are our old friends Undo and Redo. If you make a mistak

Working in the Design Window21FIGURE 1.16 The Design Doctor screensWorking in the Design WindowBecause you have the assembly loaded, let’s use it to

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface22View TabThe View tab (Figure 1.17) contains tools that aren’t necessarily used every time you

Working in the Design Window23FIGURE 1.18 3D display modes. Shaded (left) is the most realistic; Hidden Edge (middle) shows the edges on the back of

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface24The button below that controls whether inactive parts of an assembly dim or change appearance

Working in the Design Window25One key is to position the function you want to select on the wheel over the point you want it centered on, before you p

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface26NOTE Keyboard shortcuts appear in brackets on the Inventor menus. For a complete listing of k

Working in the Design Window27to make larger, release the mouse button. Figure 1.22 shows the zoom area being framed, and Figure 1.23 shows the result

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface28green dots appear as you move over points. If you select one of the points, the view doesn’t e

Working in the Design Window29As you near the ViewCube, another icon appears at the upper left; it looks like a house. Clicking this returns your mode

Inventor’s User Interface3FIGURE 1.2 The parts of the Inventor GUIIf you’re used to the look and feel of Microsoft Word or Excel 2007, you should fi n

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface30Make Yourself at Home: Customizing InventorNow that you have a basic feel for some of the tool

Make Yourself at Home: Customizing Inventor31FIGURE 1.24 The Application Options dialog box, with the General tab displayedLet’s walk through the dia

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface32The General TabTools on the General tab (see Figure 1.24) tell Inventor how you want the pro-g

Make Yourself at Home: Customizing Inventor33FIGURE 1.25 The Colors tab in the Application Options dialog boxRefl ection Environment Inventor com

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface34The Display TabThis is the tab where Inventor users can do the most tailoring of how Inventor

Make Yourself at Home: Customizing Inventor35Shaded Display Modes There are a lot of interesting ways to work with these options. Experiment — yo

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface36The Drawing TabNotable here is the Default Drawing File Type option. Beginning with Inventor 2

Make Yourself at Home: Customizing Inventor37Overconstrained Dimensions When we discuss applying dimensions and con-straints to sketches in futur

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface38The Assembly TabThe noteworthy option here is Constraint Audio Notifi cation. By default, when

Make Yourself at Home: Customizing Inventor39background. After switching to Background Image, click Apply again to see the effect. 9. Switch the Bac

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface4The Application menu offers a lot great features, including being able to see the names or imag

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface40 23. Let’s save it all. Click the Export button at the bottom of the dialog box. The Export

Project Files41Project FilesInventor is normally a breeze to work with. There are only a handful of ways to make it diffi cult. One common bad habit is

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface42The Project File editor is a fairly simple tool. It has a list of project fi les that have been

Project Files43Use Style Library Only users with the proper permissions can control the value of this setting. It controls whether a user can edi

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface44Project File Manager ButtonsThe buttons on the right side of the editor not only help you edit

Project Files45If you have Autodesk Vault installed, you have the option to choose to create a new Vault project or a new single-user project, as show

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface46FIGURE 1.31 Creating a new folder 7. When you return to the Inventor Project Wizard, you sh

Project Files47FIGURE 1.33 NER Inventor 2010 project fi le added to the list of project fi les 10. You’ll see that the Frequently Used Subfolders lin

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface48new project fi le. Inventor should create a new folder and highlight the name for renaming. If

Using the Help System and Infocenter49Inventor must know where fi les are to work effectively. Failing to control your fi le locations can inhibit the p

Learning the Basics of Tabs5To add a tool, right-click the desired tool shown in the Ribbon below the title bar, and select Add to Quick Access Toolba

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface50Are You Experienced?Now you can…recognize and control the elements of the interfaceEopen files

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface6On the Get Started tab are the basic New, Open, and Projects tools. (We’ll talk more about Proj

Learning the Basics of Tabs7If you fi nd that you rarely use one of the tools, you can move it to the hid-den portion of the panel by right-clicking th

Chapter 1 • Finding Your Way in the Inventor Interface8Ribbon Appearance if you’re in a hurry. Figures 1.6–1.8 show the Sketch tab in different modes.

Learning to Use the Dialog Boxes9Learning to Use the Dialog BoxesOne thing that makes Inventor easy to use is a kind of “graphical language” com-mon t