Keep Your Eyes on the Road! Customizing View Controls in Inventor

I find myself saying this a lot right now.  Probably because my oldest son just got his temps.  But it also pertains to Inventor as well.  Often when engineers are forced to make the pretty pictures that marketing or sales wants them to produce you often spend a lot of time on the View Tab of Inventor.

Well, not me.  I normally customize my environment so that I can quickly switch things up without much Ribbon jumping.  What I am about to show you is also VERY good for when you are working with large assemblies and want to increase your performance for your computer as well.  In fact Autodesk really wants you thinking about Visual Styles more so much they made a big focus for Inventor 2020 to add a couple nice presets to get you there faster.  Below is the 2020 Improvement:

Navigation Bar: This is probably the first thing I always touch when I set up my Inventor.  I always drop Zoom, Pan, and add Projection and Visual Styles drop downs to the list.  Lets face it, no one models in Perspective but it looks really cool for getting that vanishing horizon look to a design.

Next, I customize the CTRL+Right Click Marking Menu.  Didn't know you could do that?  Well, then read up on it here.

You will have to customize this menu for each environment or sub-environment that you want these commands.  I usually only have them set for Part, Sheet Metal, and Assembly.

Lastly, I sometimes customize the Section View tools to be in my Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).  I say sometimes because the QAT is a bit finicky since I have had it reset on me before and its different for each environment like the Marking Menu.

About the Author

Manager, Innovation Solutions Group<br><br>Mark brings deep manufacturing expertise and strategic leadership to customer engagements across a wide range of industries. Throughout his career, he has vairous manufacturing and building products sectors —helping organizations modernize engineering processes and adopt advanced digital twin technologies. His extensive hands-on experience gives him a comprehensive understanding of the technical, business, and human factors required for successful solution implementation. A clear and effective communicator, Mark partners closely with customers to understand their objectives and guide them toward measurable, impactful outcomes. As a Platinum ACI instructor, he empowers teams through high‑quality training, support, and implementation services—ensuring customers maximize the value of their technology investments and achieve long-term success.

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