Disappointed with Inventor's UI progress...

Brodholm — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 10:15:41 GMT

Coming here to vent a bit... I made this thread back in 2019 when I was disappointed at the 2D sketch environment in Inventor. Especially compared to Fusion 360. This is basically the function we use the most. Creating sketches. I cant fathom why this have not been getting at least some love over the years?

There is to my knowledge today no way of changing the width/thickness of the axis lines in the 2D sketch environment. This is so frustrating since constrained lines you make basically becomes invisible unless you hover over them.

Take a look at the picture below.

Inventor 2023 "default theme"

Here you can see what I mean (or can you). There is a fully constrained line to the right of the center and 2 points placed above the Y axis on each circle. These are basically impossible to see if you dont know what you are looking for. And this is a rather simple sketch to begin with.

And yes, I know you can do a custom theme and change the color of fully constrained lines to make it more visible. But that "Light" is the standard theme shipped with every new install as default with this big flaw boggles my mind. The first experience you as a customer get is this really weird and bad theme that you as a user should change. Going into the settings and changing the theme is not something most new user would do.

Just compare the same sketch with vanilla Fusion 360

Fusion 360 same sketch

Just for a second compare the UI on these and see how much better and clearer this sketch is in Fusion.

You can easily spot the COLORED GREEN Y axis and COLORED RED X axis color coded (You know right away know you are sketching on the XY plane).
The line I drawn is clearly visible with it being black on top of the red line.
The inner circle is colored different from the background indicating this is a closed loop not a open loop. Sometimes a line is placed just a hair wrong that you dont notice and you try to extrude and it wont since the loop is open. The points are clearly visible.
The length numbers on the axis is also a nice addition as well as the very subtile grid lines with minor and major lines.
The snap that is by default is really nice in fusion and I cant tolerate it in Inventor. In fusion I dont feel constrained by the snap and are easily able to place both on the grid and outside if I want. It just feels "natural" i dont know how to describe it. In inventor it ALWAYS snaps in the grid unless I hold down ctrl.
The dimension lines are different thickness and color from the axis's/grid and it also indicates this is a circle with a Ø symbol.
If I place another line on top of the line in fusion the second line becomes darker since the "black" lines are basically black that are slightly translucent. So adding another line darkens that part of the overlapping line indicating you have 2 lines on top of another.

There are soooo much more visual information being given here in a much nicer and cleaner format. I cant believe the inventor team have not copied/borrowed some of the features and thinking behind this. Or at least making it an option.

If I want minor and major grid lines in inventor it looks like this...

I mean, this objectively just looks bad and confusing with no separation on color, thickness etc. The Major grid lines are the same width and color as dimensions and so on. I could go on...

I get that this might not be that high of a priority but the 2d-sketch is something we use every time we make a new part. It is really important. At least for me. I have been using Inventor for a long time now. Basically 2010 or something when I started using it in school. And I really feel like Inventor is falling behind on its UI and how nice it looks and feels compared to other software and its brother Fusion 360 for example.

You have the ability to make this happen. Or at least make it an option for us that want it. I know I cant be alone

At the VERY LEAST please let us change the color, transparency and line width/thickness on sketch axis and minor and major grid lines.

TDLR: I just want to be able to make the sketch axis colored and be able to change line width (X-RED, Y-GREEN, Z-Blue) and minor and major lines GRAY in different translucent and width.

Re: Disappointed with Inventor's UI progress...

Brodholm — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 11:20:12 GMT

Here is the current setup I am using right now with dark theme and a custom color scheme

Is it me who just immediately after installing changes the theme? I don't think that should be the gut reaction.

Please tell me I am not crazy and the only one thinking and doing this. If I could change it to look like Fusion in the sketch environment with a click I would do it in an instant.

Re: Disappointed with Inventor's UI progress...

JDMather — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 12:10:31 GMT

I turn the Visibility of the axis off. I don’t need them.

However, if you want to change the lineweights in your Template - you can do that...

I also increase the dimension text height for my old eyes.

Re: Disappointed with Inventor's UI progress...

mcgyvr — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 12:25:47 GMT

I agree that a "default theme" shouldn't be like that and that a new user may become frustrated before they know that they can address the issue via theme or template changes.

At least you know now that it can be modified to not be a problem.

Change thickness, change colors,etc...

Re: Disappointed with Inventor's UI progress...

Brodholm — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 13:16:17 GMT

Thanks for the tip! I actually did not know you could change the font size. Do you do that under styles?

But the linewidth is not something that goes as a global setting? You have to change that on the template, correct?

Re: Disappointed with Inventor's UI progress...

mcgyvr — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 15:19:37 GMT

@Brodholm See tools...application options..general tab... "Annotation Scale"..

And yes the sketch line weight is not in the application options or theme and must be set in the template for everything going forward in time..

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