Can a Detail View circle be changed to a square?

[ToddPig]

Once I have chosen a round fence shape, can I go back and change it to a square?

[Sergio.D.Suárez]

Hi, I think you could use a crop view to achieve what you are looking for, however I leave you the link of an idea to vote to be able to change this behavior. Regards!

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/change-shape-of-idw-detail-view/idi-p/3739162

Forget something, when you have not yet created the view you can edit its rectangular shape as in the next video.

[mdavis22569]

@ToddPig 

Do you mean can you go back in and change it from the circle to rectangle after it's been made .... 

Nope

[ToddPig]

Yes.  I currently have a detail view that is a circle, but now would like it to be a square (I would prefer it to be whatever shape I want, like another CAD package), but I'll settle for a square in this case.

[mdavis22569]

don't think it's possible to change it once it's made ... 

I've been trying a few different things and nothing has let me get back to the pick option dialog box again from the created view. 

[ToddPig]

If you can't find it, then I'm sure it can't be done.

I'll move on. Thanks again for the help.

[rhasell]

Hi

No, it can't be done.

I have had to re-create many views because I changed my mind. Sometimes very frustrating, because you have re-do all your work.

[ToddPig]

Re-doing work seems to be part of using Inventor. Once you accept this, and accept all the unnecessary mouse clicks, Inventor is less frustrating to use.

[mdavis22569]

Todd, 

Throw it up on the Idea's station an option to change it. 

The only issue I see is, I know some company's have set standards. You do a detail the following way and that's it. 

Might be why there isn't an option to change it.    My concern if it was, if you have dim's / balloons, and you change the area you could lose the attachment for those items and make them orphaned. 

[ToddPig]

It's already in the Ideas Station (another user posted the link above), but it's been on there for 7 years, I'm not holding my breath.

Solidworks has had this ability for I can't remember how long, and it's very useful. SW, also lets the user use a sketch to define the detail shape (Inventor calls this the fence). Again, this is very useful. I use elliptical, square with corner radii, pie shaped, etc... detail views in SW all the time. It really cleans up the drawing by only showing what is relevant.

[jtylerbc]

All of that would be helpful, especially the ability to change the shape after creation.

I deal with this limitation for now by simply changing my view creation habits.  I tend to favor creating rectangular detail views initially, so I won't have the situation come up where I want to change from circular to rectangular.  I found that typically when I needed to change shapes, it was from round to rectangular, not the other way.  So by defaulting to rectangular, I mostly avoid the problem.

[mdavis22569]

I prefer the rectangle too. 

But I have had a few places that make you use the circle 

[jeffg28CLY]

An update for anyone else who's found this old thread in a search:
According to this post, the ability to switch between circular and rectangular has been implemented in Inventor 2023:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/change-shape-of-idw-detail-view/idc-p/11073018/highlig...

[jmenier · Accepted solution]

Confused here, are you still on 2018? Because in 2023 and for every version before I believe this is possible to do. See attached video. Is this what your trying to achieve?

[jeffg28CLY]

Sorry, I updated the thread with this reply; wish I could post a reply without bumping the thread.

Maybe @ToddPig could edit the title/post to say it's been added in the latest version. 🙂

That said, not everyone will have 2023, or be able to update right away. I'm still on 2022 myself; not sure when I'll be able to update to 2023.

I just wanted this info present in the thread for other people who found it via search engine like I did.