So I went through this with Inventor 2012 and now it looks like I get to go through it again with 2013. The hole note for a 1.50-6 UNC hole has a space between the "1" and the "1/2" when in fraction form. I don't like the way this looks and it causes confusion for our shop. In 2012 I was able to change the descriptions in the Thread.XLS to fix this issue. So far I have changed every Thread.XLS that I can find for 2013 (there are about a dozen in different places) so the note will use a decimal format and I still get the fractional format.
What file location does Inventor use to get its thread descriptions?
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Solved by SBix26. Go to Solution.
Look at your Project definition under Folder Options- the path listed for Design Data is where Inventor is looking for thread data (in the XLS\<location>\ folder). If instead of a path it shows as Default, then look in Application Options > File tab and find the Design Data path there.
The format of Thread.xls has not changed for several releases, I believe, so when you figure out where your active one is, you can just copy your old one into that location.
Thank you. I found that specific Thread.XLS (which was one I had already changed) and changed all of the fractional descriptions to decimal (both the description and the alternate description). I then restarted Inventor and reopened the IDW file and the hole description had NOT changed. I created a new note and still the old fractional description was used. I started a new IPT and IDW with a tapped hole and the new description was used so I went into the original IPT I was working on and edited the holes in question. Sure enough the description shown in the hole dialog box was the OLD description with the fraction. I reselected the designation with the decimal and the IDW updated.
I had not counted on the thread description being stored in the IPT from the time of hole creation and had thought that the IDW was grabbing the description from Thread.XLS when the IDW was opened or when the hole note was created.