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

Engagement Engineer, Manufacturing<br><br>Mark has implemented the Autodesk manufacturing products with several industries including the blow/injection molding, automotive, and custom machinery markets. Autodesk Inventor has been a profound augmentation in his abilities allowing him to bring 3D digital prototyping to the forefront of the industries with which he has interacted. He has extensive experience and a comprehensive understanding of the technical, practical business, and human dimensions of implementation. He is an effective and skillful communicator, consulting with his clients to help achieve their business objectives. Mark is an ATC certified instructor and he helps his customers maximize their project’s effectiveness through training, support, and implementation.

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