Hey all. First, I want to say thanks to all the guys in this group. While I have never posted, I have been lurking around for quite some time and have found answers to almost every problem/unknown encountered so far.
Second, I love Inventor. I detail circular ladders and platforms on stacks/vessels and have found that spreadsheet driven models greatly decrease the time and greatly increase the accuracy. However, after completing several jobs, I have noticed a couple of things that would help to increase my speed. Maybe I'm just missing the "how to part" or maybe these options don't exist...yet. I would like to get your thoughts or work arounds for the following:
1.) In IDW I would like to be able to copy individual lines, a sub assembly, or part from the main view and make a second view of the lines, sub assembly, or part. I know that I can create a section view, detail view, etc and turn visibility of lines off, but sometimes, it would be much easier to simply select the lines or parts that I want and create the new view. I can also simply insert a view of the desired part or sub assembly, but then I can't easily item ball the new view.
2.) When I create section views, I edit them and "tie" the section view lines down. However, after a major change they seem to "stray" or flip across the object. This seems to happen most often, of course, on the round stuff.
3.) Be able to put sketch dimensions in the part's description field. i.e. "Angle, (sketch dim) X (sketch dim)". I do make the lengths appear in the BOM, by the usual method. But not having the description update is something that does change, and is easily missed. Sending all the required fields to the BOM is not an option.
4.) The ability to open a part from the IDW. I'm sure that we've all been there in the IDW and see a change needed. It would be simplest to select the part and open versus going and digging for it.
Don't get me wrong guys, Inventor is the best thing I've ever seen and I'll never go back to anything else. Just some thoughts. Advise is always welcome and wanted.
Thanks guys
Darrell
