Community
Inventor Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s Inventor Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular Inventor topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Grouping features in the Browser Bar

34 REPLIES 34
Reply
Message 1 of 35
kmccoy
4744 Views, 34 Replies

Grouping features in the Browser Bar

I'm working on a fairly complex single part model in Inventor 2010 and I'm finding myself scrolling up and down the browser bar quite a lot to get to the Solid Bodies folder for example, and I was wondering if it was possible to group features into folders or something to make the journey quicker, with the benefit of also being able to just organize things a bit better.

I'm guessing if you could it would be fairly obvious, but still I have a feeling I have seen some mention of this before but I can't find where.

Thanks,
Keith.
34 REPLIES 34
Message 2 of 35
Anonymous
in reply to: kmccoy

Have you looked at "Browser folders"?

--
IV2010-Pro-sp2
Vista Business 64bit Sp2
Core i7 950 @ 3.07Ghz
12Gb DDR3-1600, 240Gb (4 x 60 Gb SSD - RAID0)
Quadro FX3800 - 191.78
SpacePilot 3.8.3 / 6.8.1
AVG9.0
wrote in message
news:6325685@discussion.autodesk.com...
I'm working on a fairly complex single part model in Inventor 2010 and I'm
finding myself scrolling up and down the browser bar quite a lot to get to
the Solid Bodies folder for example, and I was wondering if it was possible
to group features into folders or something to make the journey quicker,
with the benefit of also being able to just organize things a bit better.

I'm guessing if you could it would be fairly obvious, but still I have a
feeling I have seen some mention of this before but I can't find where.

Thanks,
Keith.
Message 3 of 35
JDMather
in reply to: kmccoy

>Have you looked at "Browser folders"?

For features?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


EESignature

Message 4 of 35
mcgyvr
in reply to: kmccoy

> {quote:title=JDMather wrote:}{quote} > > Have you looked at "Browser folders"? >
>
> For features? Blair must have Autocad Inventor 2015


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

Did you find this reply helpful ? If so please use the Accept Solution button below.
Maybe buy me a beer through Venmo @mcgyvr1269
Message 5 of 35
kmccoy
in reply to: kmccoy

Well I've been looking for some such thing but so far have not found it, can you point me in the right direction?
Message 6 of 35
JDMather
in reply to: kmccoy

>...can you point me in the right direction?

http://www.augi.com/inventor/submitwish.asp?page=1083

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


EESignature

Message 7 of 35
kmccoy
in reply to: kmccoy

Yes for features. Hopefully I'm using the correct terminology, I'm referring to the list of extrusions, fillets, chamfers, etc.

Thanks,
Keith.
Message 8 of 35
mcgyvr
in reply to: kmccoy

Simply increase the scroll speed of your mouse wheel...


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

Did you find this reply helpful ? If so please use the Accept Solution button below.
Maybe buy me a beer through Venmo @mcgyvr1269
Message 9 of 35
kmccoy
in reply to: kmccoy

Okay, I guess that means it's not currently possible then. Thanks for your speedy responses anyway.
Keith.
Message 10 of 35
Anonymous
in reply to: kmccoy

From IV2010 Help"

"Create browser folders and use them based on your design needs. You can
choose to populate your assembly browser with folders before you have placed
a single component. Then, as you place components and create features, you
move the browser nodes into the appropriate folders. Alternatively, you can
completely design your assembly, then define your folders and move browser
nodes into them. Use these techniques, or a combination thereof, to order
and simplify your assembly browser.

You have two methods available to create your browser folders. You can
create empty folders, or pre-select browser nodes and add them to new
folders."


--
IV2010-Pro-sp2
Vista Business 64bit Sp2
Core i7 950 @ 3.07Ghz
12Gb DDR3-1600, 240Gb (4 x 60 Gb SSD - RAID0)
Quadro FX3800 - 191.78
SpacePilot 3.8.3 / 6.8.1
AVG9.0
"JDMather" wrote in message news:6325701@discussion.autodesk.com...
>Have you looked at "Browser folders"?

For features?
Message 11 of 35
kmccoy
in reply to: kmccoy

From IV2010 Help"

"Create browser folders and use them based on your design needs. You can
choose to populate your assembly browser with folders before you have placed
a single component. Then, as you place components and create features, you
move the browser nodes into the appropriate folders. Alternatively, you can
completely design your assembly, then define your folders and move browser
nodes into them. Use these techniques, or a combination thereof, to order
and simplify your assembly browser.

You have two methods available to create your browser folders. You can
create empty folders, or pre-select browser nodes and add them to new
folders."

Okay I knew I'd seen it somewhere, but it's only for assemblies I think and I'm talking about within a single part file.

Thanks,
Keith.
Message 12 of 35
Anonymous
in reply to: kmccoy


"I'm working on a fairly complex
single part model in Inventor 2010..."

 

"Use these techniques, or a
combination thereof, to order and simplify your assembly
browser."


size=2>

Hmmm... <scratching
head>






Брайян Р.
Ивашкевич


style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">inventor
specialist


style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">core furnace
systems
Message 13 of 35
Anonymous
in reply to: kmccoy

I guess you could re-name your features to help them make sense in your
model

--
IV2010-Pro-sp2
Vista Business 64bit Sp2
Core i7 950 @ 3.07Ghz
12Gb DDR3-1600, 240Gb (4 x 60 Gb SSD - RAID0)
Quadro FX3800 - 191.78
SpacePilot 3.8.3 / 6.8.1
AVG9.0
wrote in message
news:6325753@discussion.autodesk.com...
From IV2010 Help"

"Create browser folders and use them based on your design needs. You
can

choose to populate your assembly browser with folders before you have
placed

a single component. Then, as you place components and create features,
you

move the browser nodes into the appropriate folders. Alternatively, you
can

completely design your assembly, then define your folders and move
browser

nodes into them. Use these techniques, or a combination thereof, to
order

and simplify your assembly browser.

You have two methods available to create your browser folders. You
can

create empty folders, or pre-select browser nodes and add them to new
folders."

Okay I knew I'd seen it somewhere, but it's only for assemblies I think and
I'm talking about within a single part file.

Thanks,
Keith.
Message 14 of 35
Anonymous
in reply to: kmccoy

Since folders are not available yet in part files for features, one
technique I use to reduce the confusion factor is to use "shared" or an
empty sketch (with an appropriate naming scheme)for each face to
segregate the features associated with that face. Then by moving the
End-of-Part marker up and down the part I can keep the features for that
face together.

At some point, depending on the complexity of the part, you get back to
a point that you can no longer continue this, but usually by that time
you are adding fillets and chamfers.

This works especially well with sheetmetal parts, but I find it useful
an some larger machined parts as well.

kmccoy@e-tecpowerman.com wrote:
> I'm working on a fairly complex single part model in Inventor 2010 and I'm finding myself scrolling up and down the browser bar quite a lot to get to the Solid Bodies folder for example, and I was wondering if it was possible to group features into folders or something to make the journey quicker, with the benefit of also being able to just organize things a bit better.
>
> I'm guessing if you could it would be fairly obvious, but still I have a feeling I have seen some mention of this before but I can't find where.
>
> Thanks,
> Keith.

--
Hal Gwin
Mechanical Designer
Caliper LifeSciences

R2010 Pro SP2 D3D10
Vista x64 SP2
Dell Precision T5400
3.00 GHz Xeon 8 GB RAM
Quadro FX 1700
nVidia Driver 191.66 w/registry update
Dell UltraSharp 24" Widescreen LCD
Message 15 of 35
kmccoy
in reply to: kmccoy

This aspect wasn't really my motivation for asking the question it was more about the scrolling up and down to the Origin and Solid Bodies folders, but it's a good idea for creating marker points which I will definitely use.

Thanks,
Keith.

> {quote:title=Guest wrote:}{quote}Since folders are not available yet in part files for features, one
> technique I use to reduce the confusion factor is to use "shared" or an
> empty sketch (with an appropriate naming scheme)for each face to
> segregate the features associated with that face. Then by moving the
> End-of-Part marker up and down the part I can keep the features for that
> face together.
>
> At some point, depending on the complexity of the part, you get back to
> a point that you can no longer continue this, but usually by that time
> you are adding fillets and chamfers.
>
> This works especially well with sheetmetal parts, but I find it useful
> an some larger machined parts as well.
>
Message 16 of 35
skhuam
in reply to: Anonymous

May i know is there any solution for this in latest version of Inventor, version 2013? Do share with me if there is any. Thanks.

Message 17 of 35
SBix26
in reply to: skhuam

There is nothing different in 2013.  Solids, Surfaces, View Representations and Origin folders are still at the top of the browser, and the features are still in the browser in modeling sequence.  You can rearrange features to the extent that it makes logical sense, but you can never move a feature above something that it depends on.

Sam B
Inventor 2012 Certified Professional

Please click "Accept as Solution" if this response answers your question.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor Professional 2013 SP1.1 Update 1
Windows XP Pro 32-bit, SP3
HP EliteBook 8730w; 4 GB RAM; Core™ 2 Duo T9400 2.53 GHz; Quadro FX2700M
SpaceExplorer/SpaceNavigator NB, driver 3.7.18
still waiting for a foreshortened radius dimensioning tool in Drawing Manager

Message 18 of 35
mrattray
in reply to: SBix26

I doubt this will ever be an option due to the fact that rearranging features in a part actually changes the way the part solves and can have an effect on the geometery of the part, as opposed to assemblies where the browser order of components means nothing.

Mike (not Matt) Rattray

Message 19 of 35
SteveMDennis
in reply to: mrattray

That is a pretty astute assumption!

 

Believe me though this is always on our minds as a very nice thing to have and if we can find a way we will.



Steve Dennis
Sr. Principal Engineer
Inventor
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 20 of 35
JimmyDoe
in reply to: SteveMDennis

Take a lesson from Creo... 🙂

 

I find it interesting how, in the browser at a part level, you can't move geometry above the datums or other geometry that it uses as references (makes total and logical sense)

But in the assembly browser, part/component relationships seem to have no logic or meaning behind them: in that you can move one component up past the component that it uses to constrain itself in the assembly.

 

I have been using Inventor for about 4 months and I come from 8 years experience with Creo. I love how in Creo the assembly browser was the same as the model browser is in Inventor. Where components had relationships to other components in the order that they were brought into the assembly. That made total sense to me and I still find it difficult and confusing in assemblies in Inventor, how you can just drag components anywhere you want in the browser?!?! I Don't understand why this is? It makes it so much more difficult to know which parts are associated to other parts. And the biggest problem I find is when i delete a part that had a reference to another part then all of a sudden the part that had a relationship to the part I deleted becomes no longer fully constrained and there is no warning to let me know that one of my parts is now floating in space. I know I need to check with degrees of freedom, but that seems a waste of an extra step and it is a step that can be forgotten. And from my training with solidCAD, I am told there is no way to have degrees of freedom set to 'on' as a default.

 

Shouldn't the assembly browser work like the model browser?

 

I always hear how Inventor is so much easier than Creo and how Creo is such a pain and not user friendly, blah blah.. But it is a program that I find so much easier to work with. Granted, it doesn't have little windoows that come out and tell you exactly how to make an extrusion, and doesn't explain every little thing. But I find it so much more logical in the way it works.

 

Anyways, thats just a little sample of what I think of Inventor and Creo. There are some great parts about Inventor that far exceed parts of Creo, but my main thing is in the assemblies, how the browser seems to have no logic to it.

 

Sorry for writing in such an old post, but I saw that you are an employee and hopefully you will see this and could maybe offer a little explanation to the thought behind how and why the assembly browser is what it is. Thanks.

 

Also, about finding a way to group features in the browser of a part: make 'groups' a great feature that Creo has had since way back in the days of Pro/E

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report