Inventor 2019.1
If you are like me, you missed the release of Inventor 2019.1 (why are Canadians always the last to know!). Autodesk today released Inventor 2019.1 to the masses. You will find it for download in your Autodesk Account and Autodesk Desktop App.
“Inventor 2019 is built for today’s engineering and design professional.”
If you were waiting with baited breath for a bunch of new features, you are out of luck. Like with most mid-year releases, this update focuses on improving and extending existing features. However, most of you should be happy with the tweaks and changes they’ve made to some of our favorite features.
If you are new to Inventor 2019, you might want to start with my write-up of the new features.
Frame Generator
This update includes two new frame selection enhancements. Previously, the frame Standard always defaulted back to ANSI… but no longer! It now remembers the last used standard.
A default size is also selected by default now, meaning more readily available previews. Previews are also now available for Miter, Notch, Trim to Frame, and Lengthen/Shorten.
Skeleton sketch edges are visible automatically when using the Change or Change/Reuse edit features.
Window Selection has been extended for use with the Change command (finally). This means when enabling the Multi-Selection option you can change multiple members at one time!
Use the new Copy Properties feature to copy information from existing frame members when using Insert and Change.
Content Center
Inventor 2019.1 introduces a modernized content Center Editor User Interface (UI). With improved icon contrast it means at-a-glance legibility.
In addition to the UI, this update includes performance and productivity enhancements:
- (More) Quickly open libraries from a remote Vault Server: The cache mechanism introduced in 2019 is enhanced for an even better performance of opening libraries from remote Vault servers.
- Migration Improvements: Now when you use the Update Tool to migrate the content of legacy libraries into the current Inventor version, the library template (.ipt) files won’t be migrated. A library template (.ipt) file is now migrated when you place an instance of a library part using that template.
The Quick Search field automatically activates during the Content Center part insertion. This allows you to instantly enter information into the search field without having to select the search field again. With the Advanced Search, the Look In field now automatically populates with the selected category.
Use the new right-click menu options to quickly locate the selected component within the Content Center Editor and within the Family Table Editor. This feature I love, specifically when building new families.
iLogic
One of iLogic’s downside is the lack of efficient code checking. Inventor 2019.1 aims to help in this area with the addition of new PRINT logging and rule tracing.
iLogic now provides a type of PRINT statement that can be used in rules. This new functionality, called iLogic Logging, uses new iLogic functions to send log messages to a new Inventor panel and also to a log file.
In addition, Inventor 2019.1 includes a new automatic rule tracing mechanism. Rule tracing helps you to visualize when and why a rule is run.
The Best of the Rest
Here are my favorites from the rest of the enhancements with Inventor 2019.1
- 3D annotations now show in Shared Views and Fusion Team viewer
- SolidWorks mesh data can now be imported
- You can now import graphical PMI data from a STEP 242
- You can edit the Feature and Sketch names from within the property panel
- Pre-select sketch center points – checking this option causes all unused sketch center points, in the active sketch, to automatically be selected for use by the Hole command
One thing I found is interesting, Autodesk determined based on usage data (which is optional to enroll) the Half Section View is used more often than the other section views. Autodesk listened, and this is now the default. Its good to know that data isn’t going into a black hole.
In Summary
So there you have the new and improved in 2019.1. If you are using 2019 I see no reason why you shouldn’t update to 2019.1. Especially if you utilize the Frame Generator or iLogic. Also, if you’ve got a bunch of Content Center admin work coming up, then this update is well worth the install!
Feature image “Pencils” by Nedra
