Managing iProperties with an Inventor iLogic Form

One of the challenges we often face during the design and documentation process is getting our design team members to populate the iProperties required for Title blocks, Bill of Materials (BOM) and Vault.

Out of the box Inventor provides workflows that allow us to populate iProperties by using the iProperty editor for individual files or through the BOM editor for multiple files. However, end users often forget to populate the iProperties or miss some of the required iProperties. A couple of common excuses we hear are “the workflow is to cumbersome” or “I don’t know which iProperties to populate”.

One solution is to provide the design team with an “Easy button” that identifies the required iProperties. This can be accomplished by using Inventor’s iLogic to create a simple form that lists the required iProperties.

I know that you may be thinking “I am not a programmer”, however the workflow below outlines the basic process to create an iLogic form using simple “Drag and Drop” workflows that do not require any programming knowledge.

Creating the iLogic Form

Start by opening a new file from one of your existing drawing templates and then click on the “+” in the Inventor browser to display the iLogic Browser.

From the iLogic Browser, select the Forms Tab, right mouse click and select “Add Form”.

The Form Editor will start and will display a preview of the form.

From the Form Editor, select the “iProperties” Tab and then expand the iProperties groupings to select the desired iProperties. Drag  and drop the iProperty to the form design tree on the right. Repeat the workflow for each iProperty (Note: you can select multiple iProperties using the “Ctrl” & “Shift” keys).

Now that the basic form is created, lets make some modifications to it.

Naming the Form

In the Form Tree select “Form 1”. In the Properties Window below, edit the label name.

Add the Company Logo

If you have an image of your company’s loge, you can dress up the form by adding it to your form. This file can be one of the following formats .bmp, .gif, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, & .tiff.

From the “Toolbox” select and drag “Picture” into the Form Tree dropping it above the first iProperty in the list.
Select “Picture” from the list in the Form Tree and got to the Properties Window. Under “Appearance”, select the Browse button from the Image row and navigate the location of your logo image.

You can adjust the size of the image on the form using the settings for “Size Limits”.

Organize the iProperties

Organize your iProperties in the Form to make it easier for the users to identify the use of specific iProperties.

From the “Toolbox”, select “Group” and drag/drop it to the top of the Form Tree. In the Properties for the Group, rename the label to a meaningful value.

Select the exiting iProperties in the Form Tree and drag/drop them in to the Group(s) you just created.

Completing the Process

Now that you have created the form, save the Inventor file to your Inventor

Templates folder and distribute to the Design Team.

End User Workflow

To use the form, start a new drawing and display the iLogic Browser as described above. Click on the form button and fill in the iProperties

About the Author

Manufacturing Applications Expert<br><br>Hal has been working closely with clients since 1997 to develop and deliver integrated solutions utilizing Autodesk products including AutoCAD, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, Inventor and Vault. His qualifications range from mechanical design engineering to pre-sales and post-sales consulting for the integration of mechanical software solutions. Hal has over 15 years of mechanical design experience in a variety of industry disciplines. He has worked as a Product Design Engineer to design, develop, fabricate and test new surgical instruments for use in Endoscopic and Open Surgery, specific applications for product use include: vessel ligation, wound closure, endoscopic instrumentation and specialty surgical devices. Hal has been awarded two U.S. Patents for medical devices he developed. Additionally during his tenure, Hal developed and maintained Engineering Documentation and CAD Standards and provided CAD product training and support for all users and new hires.

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