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: 

iProperties in Windows explorer

51 REPLIES 51
Reply
Message 1 of 52
jparks_79
8266 Views, 51 Replies

iProperties in Windows explorer

Hello,

 

I see this post a couple of different places but without any real answer.

 

Does anyone know of a way to display the inventor iproperties in windows explorer or in the inventor open dialogue box? This would be useful for us in a lot of situations. If there isn't an inventor trick, maybe a windows trick?

 

Thanks,

Jeremy

51 REPLIES 51
Message 2 of 52
Cadmanto
in reply to: jparks_79

Jeremy,

If you RCon the file in windows explorer and select properties, click ok then this dialog window comes up.

PROPS.JPG

Then just select "iPROPERTIES and the dialog that comes up with mimic the one you see inside of Inventor.

Best Regards,
Scott McFadden
(Colossians 3:23-25)


Message 3 of 52
gcooper79
in reply to: jparks_79

I don';t know what version you are using, but I pretty sure the method below works for the last 3 realses of Inventor.

 

If you RMB click the file and select properties, there should be an IProperties tab you can select.  There is a button which will open the Iproperties for that file.

 

Hope this helps,

Regards,
Graeme
Message 4 of 52
Ray_Feiler
in reply to: jparks_79

Can you not just right click on the file in Explorer and select iProperties?

iProperties.png


Product Design & Manufacturing Collection 2024
Sometimes you just need a good old reboot.
Message 5 of 52

Hi jparks_79,

 

I suspect what you're wanting is a way to view the iProperties in the meta-data grid that is available in Windows Explorer and the Open dialog when the view is set to Details.

 

Unfortunatly, I'm not aware of a way to do so. But maybe someone else knows of an add-in or trick.

 

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com


 

Autodesk Inventor iProperties Windows Properties.png

Message 6 of 52
jparks_79
in reply to: jparks_79

Hi Guys,

 

I am sorry for not being more clear. I am aware of the right click, I was more curious of getting the properties to display in the grid. Does that make since?

 

For example, I would like to see Project and Part number iProperties displayed in the properties grid to easily sort through files. Or even more so, I would like to see custom iProrperties displayed in the grid. Right now, I only see a way to have the standard windows properties.

 

Thanks,

Jeremy

Message 7 of 52

Hi Curtis,

 

You are right. This exactly what I was hoping for. I thought maybe there was some feature I was over looking. But it sounds like it isn't in the interface 😞

 

Thanks for the help!

Jeremy

Message 8 of 52
wseaston
in reply to: jparks_79

I have just posted the same question.... Jeremey did you ever get any solution to your enquiry. I really would like a way to show the properties in the Windows grid.

 

It is one of the main things preventing us from enforcing that Inventor files only get saved by part number as the file name.

 

From Vault this is not a problem but it poses challenges for the user when the files are not yet in vault but are being accessed from the local drive before check in.

 

Thanks

Message 9 of 52
jparks_79
in reply to: wseaston

Hi Wseaston,

 

There was some improvement with the 2013 release(which we are not using yet). And the improvement only comes if you are using vault and the vault addin for inventor.

 

When using "Open from Vault" you supposedly can select the same properties which are available while you are in the vault explorer. I do not have an installation available to test, but i sounds like it works.

 

Here is the link I found for it under vault 2013 Whats new;

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vault/enu/Help/Help/0000-What_s_N0

 

Under streamlined workflows, you can see open from vault.

 

Good Luck!

Jeremy

Message 10 of 52
mrice
in reply to: jparks_79

Looking for a solution to work for Windows Explorer. I access Vault over a VPN connection and don't stay connected all day. When I try to drag and drop a file from vault into Inventor 2014, the following pops up:
"The selected file c:\temp\.....ipt may not be found in this location the next time you open the referencing document ..."
Even though I have a local copy on my hard drive, it still wants to point to the Vault version and I won't be connected to it the entire time I'm using Inventor. I can check Vault to get the description, then go to Windows Explorer or Inventors Place command. I can also hover over a file name (need to click any file name first) in the Place command & the iProperties that I need to see pop up for that file. The issue here is that there is a 2 second delay for each file that I hover over.
The biggest issue I see with Inventor is too many clicks to get to what I need to do. Very frustrating.
Message 11 of 52
Randooley
in reply to: Cadmanto

What is "RCon the file"

 

Message 12 of 52
SBix26
in reply to: Randooley

Right Click on the file (with a space missing).

Sam B

Message 13 of 52
DRoam
in reply to: jparks_79

FYI, for anyone interested, a request has been made in the IdeaStation for the ability to display iProperties in Windows Explorer columns. You can vote for it and give your feedback here: iProperties available in Windows Explorer [Columns].

Message 14 of 52
ThomasB44
in reply to: DRoam

YES ! Smiley LOL


Thomas
Mechanical Designer / Inventor Professionnal 2023
Inventor Professional EESignature

Message 15 of 52
Bert_Bimmel
in reply to: ThomasB44

I assume, what you actually want is this:

 

iProperties.PNG


Until Autodesk manages to ship Inventor with an appropriate Property-Handler for Windows Explorer that shows more than only the Thumbnail, here is the workaround that enabled the screenshot above. I hope it might suit your desire:

 

You can "borrow" the Property-Handler of MS-Office using the Registry-Tweak attached below (change the prevented Suffix!).

(You have to restart Windows Explorer (i.e. REALLY restart using the Task-Manager, not closing all Windows and open them again) to take these changes effect)

 

 

Unfortunately, there are two catches:

 

First, MS has abandoned its own container format and its benefits that served for its office documents:
The Windows CompoundFile-Container that granted random access to its content, and thus enabled the storage of iProperties and their access by the Property-Handler of Windows Explorer to display its properties as separate columns.
The new fashioned zipped-XML-Format-Office-Documents do not provide this feature any more (see screenshot above)

Anyway, Office 2007 which first introduced these new file formats still comes along with a Property-Handler that supports displaying the iProps of old Office Documents inside Windows Explorer.
I have no clue, how long MS-Office will continue to do so.


The second one has been introduced by Autodesk with Inventor 6 or 7:

Before, every Inventor File (which use the Windows-CompoundFile-Container and its iProperties-functionality until today) used to contain two Property Sets that were also present in every Office Document (i.e. the old fashioned, CompoundFile-based ones):

 

"Summary Information" and "Document Summary Information" - {F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9} and {D5CDD502-2E9C-101B-9397-08002B2CF9AE}

 

With the Release of Inventor 6 or 7 (I personally skipped 6, so i have no sample files to trace this exactly), they replaced these Property sets with their own clones:

 

"Inventor Summary Information" and "Inventor Document Summary Information" -

{3D38DE39-0588-4C14-BB37-18F4D5DD31C7} and {8CF58000-DA66-4AE6-8FF0-7B58406FB049}


Of Course, the property handler of MS-Office can't deal with these clones. To show some useful Information inside Windows-Explorer anyway, you have to reintroduce these property-sets to your Inventor files. Fortunately Inventor won't bother.

 

To do this, I see three possibilities:

 

-Manually copy the content of the desired Properties using the Property-Handlers inside Windows Explorer (Very unpleasant, as this would be muuuch work!)


-Use the Windows API to automatically copy them (Using this part of the Windows API within a VBA-Macro is VERY complicated, but possible - everyone interested is welcome to ask for a tutorial)


-Use the Vault to deal with these Property Sets. Although the Vault does not natively support them, there seems to be a way to enable this anyway:

http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2012/06/add-user-defined-property-by-vault-api.html - I cannot tell for sure if and how this works, as the one-eyed-King among the blinds in my company won't share his sceptre, and grant me administrative access to the Vault - thus i haven't yet tried this.

Message 16 of 52
JBerns
in reply to: Bert_Bimmel

I too wish we could display Inventor iProperties as Columns in Windows Explorer.

 

Not the best workaround, but you might try Inventor Design Assistant.

 

1. Browse to a folder and then select Design Assistant from the context menu.

01 - DesignAssistant.png

 

2. Select the Properties mode.

02 - DesignAssistant.png

 

3. From the View menu, select Customize to choose the iProperties to display.

03 - DesignAssistant.png

 

4. Use the Select Properties to View dialog box to choose the iProperty columns and their order.

04 - DesignAssistant.png

 

Now you can see your favorite iProperties in a Windows Explorer - like interface.

 

Be sure to explore the context menu options.

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

 

Regards,

Jerry

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAD Administrator
Using Inventor 2022
Autodesk Certified Instructor
Autodesk Inventor 2020 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 Certified Professional
Message 17 of 52
chrisw01a
in reply to: JBerns

Thanks for posting.  I learned something.

For me it's when you go to open a file from inventor it would be really fast and convenient to have those extra columns and be able to sort by them and such.

 

 

Message 18 of 52
JBerns
in reply to: chrisw01a

@chrisw01a,

 

Agreed, I would like these columns available so that you can view iProps when using Windows Explorer or when using Open, Place, Save, etc. inside Inventor.

 

Regards,

Jerry 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAD Administrator
Using Inventor 2022
Autodesk Certified Instructor
Autodesk Inventor 2020 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 Certified Professional
Message 19 of 52
sbecu
in reply to: JBerns

Hello,

The problem with design assistant is that it is only accessible for people with an inventor license.
How to do it for employees without CAD
.

 

Regards

Sébastien

Message 20 of 52
JBerns
in reply to: sbecu

@sbecu,

This is untested, but does Design Assistant install with Inventor View?

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/downloads/caas/downloads/content/autodesk-i... 

 

Now with the 2020 version, you can install a trial version of Inventor (no-license required). It becomes read-only after the 30-day trial expires. However, that is a lot of product to install just to access iProperties.

 

It would be great if Autodesk could provide a simple solution for showing iProps in Windows Explorer.

 

Regards,

Jerry

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAD Administrator
Using Inventor 2022
Autodesk Certified Instructor
Autodesk Inventor 2020 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 Certified Professional

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

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report