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: 

Project File Structure

12 REPLIES 12
SOLVED
Reply
Message 1 of 13
dexterdweller
1447 Views, 12 Replies

Project File Structure

As a new Inventor user I wanted to get some insight and pointers on good practices for Project Files and their structure while using a stand alone Inventor seat with no Vault I am a single user at our company and just upgraded to Inventor. I have been using SolidWorks for years and things are a little different. Just thought I would see if i could get some ideas before I move forward and make a mess of my file structure...

 

Thanks!

12 REPLIES 12
Message 2 of 13
Cadmanto
in reply to: dexterdweller

I feel your pain.  Smiley Very Happy  I used SW for 12 years before switching to Inventor a year and a half ago. 

Since you have a stand alone license, my advise is leave the master project as is and get to know the software.  Once you feel semi comfortable revisit this and see if there are changes at that time that make more sense or are more condusive to your work style or work climate.

 

check.PNGIf this solved your issue please mark this posting "Accept as Solution".

Or if you like something that was said and it was helpful, Kudoskudos.PNG are appreciated. Thanks!!!! Smiley Very Happy

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


Message 3 of 13
JDMather
in reply to: dexterdweller

You might search here a bit - this same question was asked within the last 3 weeks.


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


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


EESignature

Message 4 of 13
swhite
in reply to: dexterdweller

You can designate any folder as your project folder, but best advice, keep all files inside that folder. You can have multiple folders included, but it will soon become a painful experience if you have multiple project folders. In other words don't create a new project folder for every job, just create a sub-folder inside your project folder.

 

Sample File Structure.PNG

Sample File Structure Settings.PNG

 

Otherwise you will have problems like such.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/Project-file-disappearing-from-navigation/td-p/38043...

Steven White
Lee C. Moore, Inc.
www.lcm-wci.com
Inventor 2011
Intel Dual Xeon E31225 @ 3.1 GHz CPU
16 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 600 GPU
Windows 7 - 64 Bit
Message 5 of 13
SBix26
in reply to: dexterdweller

It depends a great deal on what kind of work you do.  Are you designing products for sale to the public?  Custom one-of-a-kind machinery?  A line of products customized for each customer?

 

The kind of project structure you need will vary quite a bit depending on this answer.

Sam B
Inventor 2012 Certified Professional

Please click "Accept as Solution" if this response answers your question.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor Professional 2013 SP1.1 Update 2
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, SP1
HP EliteBook 8770w; 8 GB RAM; Core™ i7-3720QM 2.60 GHz; Quadro K4000M
SpaceExplorer/SpaceNavigator NB, driver 3.16.2
still waiting for a foreshortened radius dimensioning tool in Drawing Manager

Message 6 of 13
dexterdweller
in reply to: Cadmanto

This may be the way to go while I continue to weigh all of my options.

Message 7 of 13
dexterdweller
in reply to: JDMather

10/4 JD I will take a look around the site and see what other discussions are out there to refer too.

Message 8 of 13
dexterdweller
in reply to: swhite

Thanks for the input didn't think of doing it that way I was looking at doing each job as a separate project and the last thing I want to do is complicate my life more...

The images are a great help! Thank you!

Message 9 of 13
dexterdweller
in reply to: SBix26

We are a custom fab shop and an ASME code shop we are a weld shop with a machine shop to boot. We do not focus on oil and gas ASME code vessels we do build them but we focus on a broad range of products. Various material grades etc... we do however build quiet a bit of vessels that share common parts such as flanges and couplings etc. I wasn't sure if I could create a new project for each job and reference the commonly used parts from the library.

 

I was the PDM admin / Super User at my last company so I am familiar with working with read only parts etc. so I had hoped having these parts in a referenced state would help me to insure that I am not copying multiple copies of the same parts that could get multiple versions. I will be creating several parts for my library that I want to be smart with multiple configurations that will also include the information to populate my BOM.

 

Does this set a tone for what I am hoping to achieve?

 

Thanks for you help!

Message 10 of 13
swhite
in reply to: dexterdweller

yes, you can put commonly used parts or assemblies in a library, which is what we do, this is why we have the library modification project as well. As once in a library it cannot be modified unless you have a project path to the library. of course to modify library parts you have to switch projects, but that does not occurr too often anyways. Even if its not in a library you won't need to copy it multiple times unless you are going to rename it every time, but a library wont let you do that anyways. As long as the same assembly is inserted in multiple places it will always use the same one and does not make copies. Only if you wanted to leave an old set the same for old assemblies and change it for a new one would you need to design copy it and rename it and the parts. but that's another post in the future 🙂

Steven White
Lee C. Moore, Inc.
www.lcm-wci.com
Inventor 2011
Intel Dual Xeon E31225 @ 3.1 GHz CPU
16 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 600 GPU
Windows 7 - 64 Bit
Message 11 of 13
dexterdweller
in reply to: swhite

Thanks for the help!

Message 12 of 13
dexterdweller
in reply to: swhite

Sorry to continue bothering you I have one last question. If you delete a project does it automaticly redirect the files back to the default project?

Message 13 of 13
swhite
in reply to: dexterdweller

It should, but it may also error out asking where the project is. if so just go to the get started tab > projects and set your new project location. But note that even if you delete the project location from inventor, the files will remain until you delete them. Files not in the project path will give you an error notice upon opening that they do not exist in the path and no edits will be saved. Only by moving them to the project path or creating a project path to them will they become editible.

 

Have worked with multiple projects paths and it makes sharing same assemblies or parts extremely difficult, although there is a file path setting for commonly used folders not within the direct path.

Steven White
Lee C. Moore, Inc.
www.lcm-wci.com
Inventor 2011
Intel Dual Xeon E31225 @ 3.1 GHz CPU
16 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 600 GPU
Windows 7 - 64 Bit

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

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report