iFeature Folder paths......

[tdswanson]

Hey everyone:

I'm a single user at a small company tooling company.  I've created a handful of useful iFeatures that I've saved just in the default path:  C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Catalog

However, we're in discussions now about hiring another designer, so as I do new projects, I've been trying to do things cleaner and making sure that the method to my madness is obvious.  So I'm considering moving the contents of this folder to a network drive, and also one that's independant of Inventor upgrades (version # in the folder path). 

My question is this:  In the application settings, there are (3) different path settings on the iFeatures tab.  How are these different and how do they help? 

When I've developed iFeatures I've usually had them initially in the Workspace directory for the current project.  Once completed and tested, I would put them in the default folder.  When I go to insert one later, the "Insert iFeature" dialog box doesn't take me to this path and I have to look it up all the time.  It just takes me back to wherever I inserted the last one from.  So what does this path in the settings box actually do for me?

If there's no "shortcut" to point to the iFeature root folder quickly, why do I care where I put them?  Couln't I create a network folder such as "Z:\CAD\ifeatures" for these and add it as a Library to my projects and save myself time?  I'd also not have to change the settings and/or make copies when we upgrade to IV2014.

Would there be a downside to doing this?  It almost seems too easy and like there's room for product improvement here.

Thanks!

[krystianwiatr]

you can see detailed description here:

http://docs.autodesk.com/INVPRO/2010/ENU/Autodesk%20Inventor%202010%20Help/index.html?url=WS1a919382...

generally:

iFeature root - Specifies the location of iFeature files used by the View Catalog dialog box

iFeature user root - Specifies the location of iFeature files used by both the Create iFeature and Insert iFeature dialog boxes (so you need to change this one)

Sheet metal punches root - Specifies the location of iFeature files used by the sheet metal Punch Tool dialog box

I've changed all three to same path, as I keep my ifeatures and iparts for sheet metal cuts in the same network folder.