Autodesk Inventor 2017 R2
The first subscription-only update for Inventor 2017 has been released.
What’s New? Unlike the Inventor 2016 mid-year releases, this one is not focused on new functionality, but a collection of enhancements, improvements, and updates to just about every environment. I’m only highlighting what I feel are the significant updates, you can read the entire list of changes here.
Your first reaction might be disappointment, why? The 2016 mid-year releases set the bar so high with the introduction of the Shape Generator, the embedding of ForceEffect, and the new A360 Connected design review, that this update might just seem ho-hum. I’m happy with the enhancements, and we should all be… there is a lot put into this update and it’s focused on productivity and making our (Inventor) lives better.
General
- Measure Improvements
- Model Browser enhancements
- Workflow Enhancements
A checkmark now appears next to the default measure precision. The precision is also now persistent across sessions meaning you can set it and forget it.
The browser has been updated to provide better clarity. Lines are shown to aid in the display of the model hierarchy, there is now a bigger difference between expanded and collapsed states, and it is much easier to navigate the hierarchy. This might seem like a minor change, but its amazing how much easier it makes navigating the browser.
Use Alt + R to launch the Relationships dialog when a feature is selected in the browser. This was an idea from the Inventor Ideastation.
Sketches now maintain their properties when exported to an AutoCAD DWG.
The Undo / Redo now functions like the other Autodesk products in that you can use the drop-down to quickly undo / redo a group of actions. This was an idea from the Inventor Ideastation.
Parts
- New Menu Options for Make Part & Make Components
- Tangent feature selection enhancements
From the browser or graphics window select sketch blocks, solid bodies, or surface bodies and select Make Part or Make Component from the right-click context menu.
With Inventor 2017 R2 double-clicking a face or edge selects all faces or edges tangent to each other. After selecting multiple faces right-click and pick Select Tangencies to select all the faces tangent. Anything to make it easier to select a group of objects is always a winner in my books.
Assemblies
A long time coming, we finally get Mirror and Copy enhancements.
- Prior to Inventor 2017 R2 relationships were automatically applied to the mirrored or copied components, now within R2 you decide if you want the relationships applied.
- A new option grounds the resulting components of the mirror or copy operation.
- When mirroring you can select Origin planes directly within the Mirror Components dialog.
Interoperability
- Quickly Customize Properties for Imported CAD Files with the New Property Mapping Tool
- DWG Underlay Now Fully Supports AutoCAD Mechanical Geometry
When attaching CATIA, Creo, NX, STEP, or Solidworks files as reference models use the new standalone Property Mapping Utility to map properties from the 3rd party CAD data to Inventor iProperties. This means the 3rd party CAD data will automatically import during attachment, meaning no more manual entry.
As the mapping is stored in XML files it will be consistent and automatically set each time you attach the data. This also means you can create as many mappings as required. Take for example you receive Solidworks data from two different sources, each who use the properties differently, no problem, just create two XML files and set the mapping as required.
The Property Mapping tool is standalone, meaning in addition to launching it from within Inventor it is also its own menu item in the Start Menu.
Drawings
- Reorder Attached Balloons with the new Sort Balloons Context Menu Option
- Specify a Hatch Pattern as SOLID
- Enhancements to Revision Tables and Parts Lists Exported Excel Formats
- Improvements to Deferring Updates on a Drawing
- Save Time Printing Multiple Drawings with Auto-Size to Drawing Sheet Size [Task Scheduler]
- Align Multiple Center Marks in a Drawing to the Selected Edge
Yes, you read that right… we can finally after all this time finally apply actual SOLID hatch patterns… whoop, whoop… no longer do I need to set the scale so small that the ANSI hatch pattern just appears as solid. [This was a long time ideastation suggestion]
When you collect balloons onto a single leader the new Sort Balloons now sorts the balloons numerically. Great little cleanup tool. My wish, how about picking Sort Balloons a second time and it sorts it in the opposite order?
Another implemented IdeaStation suggestion is the ability to align multiple select Center Marks. [I haven’t counted, but there has to be a least a dozen ideastation suggestions implemented with this update]
Presentation Enhancements
- New Create Presentation options
- Multiple Action Editing
- Edit the Duration of Multiple Actions:
- Local/World Direction
- Publish Images with a Transparent Background
- Performance Improvements for Presentations
Directly within the Assembly / Weldment browser, you can create a new presentation by right-clicking on the top-level node and selecting Create Presentation. The second option is pressing Alt + P. This is another suggestion from the Inventor Ideastation.
Multiple areas with the Presentation environment have received performance improvements. This includes trail & component selection, deleting tweaks & storyboards, and creating storyboards from previous storyboards.
The Auto Explode feature has been removed. Hopefully, you didn’t rely on it. I for one never used it as it usually ended up creating more cleanup work for me then just creating the tweaks manually myself.
Mesh components are now supported within Presentations and are treated just as other solids.
The Presentation environment went under quite the overhaul with Inventor 2017 and let’s be honest, for as good as the changes are there were a couple annoying workflow limitations. One of the biggest has been addressed with this update in that you can now modify multiple actions at one time.
Within the timeline select multiple actions by pressing Ctrl as you make your selections, then drag and drop the actions to the desired location. You can drag and drop the actions before or after existing tweaks and it will maintain the relationship between the actions with different start / end times. You can also drag the end to adjust the duration (length) of the actions.
With multiple actions selected, right-click, and from the contextual menu select:
- Edit Time to set the specific duration
- Align Start Time or Align End Time to align the start / end positions
- All Before, All After, and Group to select all actions occurring before or after the selected action or playhead position.
When editing multiple Opacity actions at one time all selected components will get the same opacity value.
Inventor 2017 Service Pack 1
This also includes all the updates contained within Service Pack 1 for Inventor 2017. If you are not on subscription then I would still highly recommend installing SP1.
In Summary
This is an update that I think will have something for everyone as it touches just about every standard environment. As it doesn’t introduce any new functionality do not wait until you pass go, just deploy it now, and start enjoying the increased productivity.
Feature Image Airplane Wing with Jet Engines at the Airport by Viktor Hanacek
Sounds to me like more “hype”. I do a BROAD range of modeling and detailing, and can tell you that the above “enhancements” are nothing short of BULL SHIT. Let’s be HONEST for a change and call it like it is: this article is just more marketing hype, as-sponsored by the criminals at Autodesk. What? Is the world now filled with stooges and patsies? Where are the MEN?? How pathetic!
I’m just wondering what gives you the right to make statements about where we receive money from? We don’t receive a cent from Autodesk. We are in no way sponsored by Autodesk. You may not find these features useful, but plenty of other people do. Unless you have something useful to say, please refrain from making comments like these.
Thanx for getting back to me.
What gives me the right? Hmm …
Well, there’s this document called the US Constitution.
Inside that document there’s this thing called the First Amendment.
Are you at all familiar w/it?
That Amendment grants all Americans the GOD-GIVEN RIGHT to political speech.
What I did above is called political speech.
Nothing personal! … Chris
no it’s slanderous!
I don’t think you will find people more critical (in a constructive way) of Autodesk products like Inventor than Scott and Mike. When they see something they don’t think is right, they say it. When they see things they do like, they point those out as well.
I suggest you sign up for a beta account and see for yourself that the likes of Scott, Mike, and others freely point out the flaws they see in the program as well as dedicating a lot of time providing feedback and ideas to help enhance the product.
Just because you can doesn’t make it a good idea to do it. Have some respect. Since we are on the subject of hype (and asshole comments) Wherein did this article did we state that anything was going to save the world, or was precisely what every engineer needed. Nowhere. In fact, the author plainly said the release was a collection of fix-ups and enhancements, nothing earth shattering. Why on earth would you come across with such aggravation and slanderous comments about a fellow that was trying to explain what was in the new update?
Looks like a lotta people unnecessarily got their feelings hurt!
It was my intention to sling shit on Autodesk for their policy of feeding their investors and starving their customers. That pretty much sums it up. I’m not going to waste time on tit-for-tat. If you can’t see it, ain’t nothing I can say going to convince you otherwise. Ho Hum!
Really? If all you did was that, then you wouldn’t have got a response from anyone. But instead you brought our integrity into question. I hope it made you feel good about yourself, at least then something good would have come out of your rudeness. You clearly dislike Autodesk, that is apparent everywhere you go online. Find another CAD supplier or find another job, because they are clearly making your life a misery, which you display to everyone online.