Increase material drop-down

[Neuzzo]

Hi, how can i increase drop down material in inventor? It's too tiny and i can't read all the material name from preview even if i click on it.

Thank you

[Gabriel_Watson]

Would it work for you by checking instead under Tools (tab) > Doc. Settings > Standard > Physical > Material?

I think you would need a dev to tell which registry to mess with, to maybe alter that pull-down menu size... Another alternative may be an iLogic button of sorts that has a large enough size to show this clearly.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! What release of Inventor are you running? It used to be in fixed width. As of Inventor 2022.4, the dropdown menu automatically expand to the longest material style name.

Many thanks!

[Gabriel_Watson]

I think the wants to see the collapsed menu already at a larger width, before clicking to dropdown/list/expand all materials or appearances. In order to quickly read the full material name. I'm not sure this is stored in registry entries or if only doable via API nowadays.

[Neuzzo]

No, it doesn't work

[Neuzzo]

Inventor 2023.3 build 359

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am not sure I see the behavior. Try a few things to see if it helps.

1) Go to Windows Display settings and select the recommended resolution and scale.

2) Right-click on Inventor desktop icon -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Change High DPI settings -> check both boxes.

If neither helps, please share a screenshot of the Material Style dropdown menu expanded.

Many thanks!

[Neuzzo]

Both checked but not work

[Frederick_Law]

Your drop down won't do this?

[Neuzzo]

Yes, absolutely. 

But what i want to do is enlarge the material drop down before click on it. I want to see the entire material name without open material list

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! Many thanks for the clarification! Then there is no way to expand the dropdown width before selecting a style unfortunately.

[Neuzzo]

Thank you anyway

[dan_inv09]

It shouldn't say "Accepted Solution" - that got my hopes up that there was going to be a way to do it.

So, how am I supposed to find out what the appearance is set to so that I can make the other pieces in the assembly look the same (as whatever the heck this bozo from ten years ago used for just this one piece for whatever reason)?

[I think I might have an answer - and it might even be a better solution: I'll open up the Bill of Materials in the Assembly and then I can add the Appearance Column and Copy and Paste them all at once! I can stretch that column, but doesn't anyone think that it is foolish to have that tiny little window and then go and give the appearances names like this:

You can kind of tell if it is one of the first four vs. the next five vs. the next pair of Stainless appearances, but how are you supposed to see what it is before you go picking one from the dropdown?

I wish I knew what sort of workflow these guys had in mind when they go and make decisions like, "Duhh, let's make that window so small that you can't hardly see anything in it!" I'm surprised that they didn't go, "Let's make the appearance window 5 characters wide and make all the appearance names start with "Color"!"