Inventor 2014 Wish List?

[FProcp]

Maybe the sketch environment could be a little tidier?

1 - I think by default the constraint icons should be smaller so they don’t pile up on top of each other and you can’t see what they are. They appear to be much neater and easier to read in SW?

2 - In the attached sketch it shows there are 3 dimensions needed even though the lines are now dark blue in color showing they are constrained. They are really not fully constrained because the length of both those lines can be changed.

I think there should be a symbol to show those line end points are not locked down. I have drawn “x” marks on those lines to show that. Maybe that or something else would be enough to quickly show not locked. Sometimes on complex sketches I spend much time searching for lines that don’t have their ends locked to fully constrain the sketch. I often use automatic dimension to find where those naughty lines are but an x on the end would be much faster.

The sketch environment is the basic backbone of the entier program and it needs to be perfect. 

[Anonymous]

Please put me in for a compatibility with ALL spreadsheet formats so everybody can do a iPart regardless of their "office" (MicrosoftOffice / OpenOffice)

[mrattray]

I really doubt that corporate politics would allow for AutoDesk to support a non-traditional program like OpenOffice.

[Anonymous]

it's a WISHlist. We should target the Moon because if we miss it, at least we hit a star, or two. 🙂

I had this wish because I'm testing Inventor to see if I can use it for curtainwall design and buy it and today I foundout that, in order to use iParts, I have to buy Microsoft Office (maybe a specific type) because otherwise the iPart can't be created. So my card-castle just collapsed.

[mrattray]

You MAY be able to use iLogic programming as a replacement.

[mrattray]

I'd like to be able to multi-select custom properties in the iProperty editor for deletion.

Right now I have a bunch of derived parts that were made with every single parameter derived. hat means I have to:

1) Uncheck all of these parameters from the derive part dialog. This isn't bad thanks to being able to select/deselct entire catagories.

2) I have to uncheck export on every parameter in the deriving part. This isn't too bad, it's just one click for each of 100 parameters, and I came up with a little trick to make the dialog scroll along as I click.

3) I now have to open up the derived part and select then click delete for every single one of these. Now this just sucks because now we have to find the property, click it, move over to delete, click that, move back to the list of properties, select the next one, move back to the delete button... times 100 properties... times 10 derived parts...

Better yet... why not just make the **** part update it's property list like it should have in the first place?!

Even allowing the use of the delete key on the keyboard instead of having to click the **** button would be huge, and useful in other circumstances.

[mrattray]

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@sbixler wrote:

Could it be a text parameter fed into a custom iProperty?  The parameter could be included in the derived part.

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I hit a snag using this procedure. You can't export text parameters, and you can't derive parameters that arn't exported. What I've been doing instead is deriving the controlling factors that are used in concotanating the numbers and building inside of the derived part using iLogic. It's a PITA, if you haven't guessed that already.

[Anonymous]

It would be nice to have custom pattern in assemblies. Would save a lot of time! Because a lot of time you need same parts/assemblies in a pattern, but with 2 or 3 different lengths.

Also, it would be nice to be able to delete all of the sheet formats you don't need, and add/create your own formats, and not like it is now, half made.

And why the hell do you have to be in assembly enviroment to use features as design shaft, sprocket, spur gear, .... no logic behind this!

[Anonymous]

I've just installed 2013 and was hoping for a few of my issues to be fixed.. Silly me..

Anyhow my wishlist for 2014 is mostly to do with the 2d drawing environment which I think could do with a bit of work. :

*Dimensions or text covering any lines on a drawing to have a white background so the lines would not be shown, so you can read the text or dim.

* Bullet /number lists in text.

* Item Balloons that have 2 fields. When you edit balloon you can only edit (over write) the first field. How about the 2nd one.

* Prompted Entry text in Symbols to textwrap onto a 2nd-3rd line.

* Details View shapes other than circles or squares, how about oval or user defined.

* Break out in Iso views to show the cut in 3d. eg, breakout view on a pipe, doesn't really show the pipe cut looking circular, its just a straight cut. In an Iso, you should still see that its round.

* More on Layer control. ok, so all my assembly is on Visible lines, great they ALL print at the same thickness. It would be handy if you could pick subassyA or subassyB etc and select another layer for them to be on. If you actually want to go down that path you have to pick each subassy in the browser in each view window, then pick another layer. Would help when you have to export out to acad.

Oh can we also have our own user definable toolbar put back? One that can dock !! This is frustrating!

ok, rant over

:)Anne

[Anonymous]

In the drawing environment I'd like to see these two improvements (standard in AutoCAD by the way):

1. The ability to type text on a dimension which you can choose to place under the dimension line - In AutoCAD this function could be performed by typing \X after the upper dim text. Just a button or even copy the script for \X would suffice!

2. Decent options for snapping leader lines to help place them better - at the moment all we have is the (sometimes useless) dotted alignment feature when you go near another dim leader. Perhaps we could have a basic dimension constraints toolbar in the ribbon? You only need a couple of buttons, say horizontal and vertical alignment snap?

[dan_inv09]

buffs_star wrote:

I've just installed 2013 and was hoping for a few of my issues to be fixed.. Silly me..

Anyhow my wishlist for 2014 is mostly to do with the 2d drawing environment which I think could do with a bit of work. :

*Dimensions or text covering any lines on a drawing to have a white background so the lines would not be shown, so you can read the text or dim.

It will break some extension lines and leaders but not centerlines and there is the option for cross-hatch clipping (also when it clips if there is more than one line it clips to the extent of the longest line)

* Bullet /number lists in text.

Yes, this is definitely needed - it would be best if you could just do it in the text, even if you had to paste from word or something, but I would accept some sort of text list feature.

* Item Balloons that have 2 fields. When you edit balloon you can only edit (over write) the first field. How about the 2nd one.

It looks as though the edit balloon dialog was set up like it could accommodate several columns - but yet again the actual execution did not follow through.

* Prompted Entry text in Symbols to textwrap onto a 2nd-3rd line.

If you change your text to use a text box you can do this - I would like to be able to put carriage returns within the text, in the iProperties too while you're at it, thanks.

* Details View shapes other than circles or squares, how about oval or user defined.

Yes please

* Break out in Iso views to show the cut in 3d. eg, breakout view on a pipe, doesn't really show the pipe cut looking circular, its just a straight cut. In an Iso, you should still see that its round.

Yes, a proper cut for tubes and rounds especially for the break view.

(I think you might be able fake something with some extra views - off the page, or hide them - and cut inheritance)

* More on Layer control. ok, so all my assembly is on Visible lines, great they ALL print at the same thickness. It would be handy if you could pick subassyA or subassyB etc and select another layer for them to be on. If you actually want to go down that path you have to pick each subassy in the browser in each view window, then pick another layer. Would help when you have to export out to acad.

I haven't tried, but can you select for all the views at once? (But maybe if you could set for one view and have it inherited when you place others? - or would you really want it to be something you could set from the assembly?)

Oh can we also have our own user definable toolbar put back? One that can dock !! This is frustrating!

The ribbon is the future - it is futile to resist the ribbon. You just need to learn that three clicks are better than one and hiding functions is much better than having them all neatly ordered where you can get at them.

ok, rant over

:)Anne

Once you get used to the ribbon you can be one of us, one of us, one of us ...

[JDMather]

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@buffs_star wrote:

I've just installed 2013 and was hoping for a few of my issues to be fixed.. Silly me..

Anyhow my wishlist for 2014 is mostly to do with the 2d drawing environment which I think could do with a bit of work. :

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I suspect that anything that will be in 2014 is already set in stone http://www.beta.autodesk.com

[miechh]

What I wish for is a hole template. At our company we mill holes with grooves in it. So first we mill/drill the hole, and after that we use a profiled-mill to mill two grooves in it. This hole can recur several times in one part. It would be nice to save this hole-type in a template and recall it the same way as with punches in sheetmetal; by a sketch with centermarks.

[miechh]

That's a good one! Also with triangular patterns!

[SBix26]

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@miechh wrote:

What I wish for is a hole template. At our company we mill holes with grooves in it. So first we mill/drill the hole, and after that we use a profiled-mill to mill two grooves in it. This hole can recur several times in one part. It would be nice to save this hole-type in a template and recall it the same way as with punches in sheetmetal; by a sketch with centermarks.

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Wouldn't iFeatures accomplish most of what you want?  And I believe that the punch tool would do this, too.  JD will have to give you more detail, or you could search the forum for this-- he has proposed punches as a solution to many such questions.

[DVDM]

I really like the idea of Solidworks 2013 CAD Administrator Dashboard.

I would like toolpalettes the same way AutoCAD has them, where I can have standard content in a central location, giving me the ability to update the content at any time, and change the toolpalette at any time to keep it current.

I hate having to load up a drawing template with all the content an Inventor user might need, and to have all that additional data bulk up each drawing that gets created, which just sits there and does nothing other than become outdated eventually.

I want to be able to add presets for features (hole features for example, we never ever make 2mm holes 8mm deep) to a network based style library, to give users settings they would need 90% of the time.

And talking of style libraries, this does not work well in a Vaulted environment where laptop users need their style library available locally. Maintaining this through Vault is a painful process, and with each change I need to notify the users to update their style library files? Make the style library some mystical database type library; me the Administrator makes a change, gets applied to Vault (similar to updates done to Content Centre?), and a connected Vault user will magically get the latest style library cached somewhere on his/her local machine.

Same deal with templates btw, let me manage those in Vault, and have Vault cache it locally, all by itself (without a user having to click through 10 messages warning the user of all sorts of things they don't understand).

Oh, and has anyone ever figured out how the network administrator can control the list of permissable service packs using Communication Centre, and make it available to users once the admin has tested/approved it? I tried once and gave up.

[Anonymous]

Wish list -> in the sketch mode, the ability to draw rectangles with rounded ends, as for the slots for the sole plates of bearings etc.

And:

A browser bar that doesn't only run in one direction down, so in other words, it should follow on sideways with more information because sometimes the brower can get a little busy with a derived part, several surfaces, sketches you want to hide/unhide etc. I use two screens and the second screen always has my browser bar on it, amongst other things. Observe the screenshot, it's annoying to have to scroll up and down through the brower. Whereas if it had the ability to get wider with info flowing into a 2nd and 3rd column that would be ideal.

[machiel.veldkamp]

I wish a batch export from .idw/.dwg to PDF from folder X to folder Y function in Task Scheduler. 

[Anonymous]

The text editor needs some serious improvement - compared to AutoCADs text editor it is very limited and often awkward to use.

[miechh]

Another wish:

Fill a predefined area (circular/rectangular) with maximum amount of holes in a custom defined pattern (rectangular/triangular--> pitch and angle), and use these predefined patterns to place other parts in this pattern (like "use pattern" in pattern components).

[Anonymous]

Since I'm utilising these area now:

Edit iMates easily, even once the composite is created.

More importantly, the ability to turn visibility of Component Patterns off in drawing environment, rather than selecting even instance. Actually, better selecting of component patterns all round. You cannot select CP in the browser tree in drawing environ...