Right-click, "Open File Location"

[mluterman]

When I right-click on the upper node of the Browser and click "Open File Location", it opens Windows File Explorer...Shouldn't it default to open the Inventor Open Dialogue box at that location...or give me a choice?..

[kacper.suchomski]

NO. Location is location.

[mluterman]

Then there needs to be another option here because once you get there, you want to do something, not just get there.

[CStilesCARE]

Well, once it opens the Explorer window, you're free to interact with any files in there, including to open them.

Did you have any specific task in mind that you needed to do which can't be done as easily from the Explorer window?

[CCarreiras]

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@mluterman wrote:

Then there needs to be another option here because once you get there, you want to do something, not just get there.

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So.... what you wanna do?!

Give an example... 🤔

[mluterman]

OK, I would like it to have the option to open the "Inventor Open Dialogue box" at that location. That's what I need to do 99% of the time when I right-click on that top node.

[CCarreiras]

Hi!

In my point of view, doesn't make sense to open a file from another file, that doesn't have any relation with the opened file.

Anyway, you have the "open file" or "create a new file" buttons near.

If you want to open a part or assembly related to the drawing, you can open it directly on the views, or on the browser:

[CStilesCARE]

Ok, so you've clarified that, in most cases at least, your intent with "open file location" is to go to the folder which the open file is in so that you can open one or more other files within the same folder (or another folder close by).

Assuming you use Windows (I don't know how it works on Mac), once the Explorer window opens, you can open any files you want right from there just by double-clicking them (or select multiple, right-click, and select open).

From within the Inventor Open dialogue, once it's pointing to the right folder, it's a very similar amount of effort to open the files as from Explorer. 

Considering all the other things you can do with files from the Explorer window, that are harder or even impossible from the Open Dialogue, why might someone then prefer the latter over the former?

Thinking it over myself, one thing could be that all non-Inventor files have been filtered out in the Open Dialogue, so it could be much easier to find the files you want if there are many other non-Inventor files in the folder.

If that's the case, you could potentially create a work-around by using an external iLogic rule to run the File Open window using the active file path as the base point.

[pcrawley · Accepted solution]

@mluterman - I agree with you.  I think there should be two options.

Because there is inconsistency with where Inventor's file open dialog puts you in your folder structure, I created two external iLogic routines; one to "Open" and the other to "Explore" the current file location.  I've shared them both below.

I realise you can't customise the right-click menu, but you can now (Inventor 2022 onwards I think) put iLogic rules as buttons on your ribbon menu and on the marking menu - and that's where both these rules live for me.  

"Explore current folder":

'Dim Foldername As String
Foldername = ThisDoc.Path

Shell("C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe """ & Foldername & "", vbNormalFocus)

"Open current folder" - this is a bit longer, but easy to edit so you can preselect the file-type filters you want to use.  I noticed from your screenshot that you use DWG file type, so you could remove the two "*.idw" entries on the 3rd line.

Dim oFileDlg As Inventor.FileDialog = Nothing
ThisApplication.CreateFileDialog(oFileDlg)
oFileDlg.Filter = "Inventor Files (*.iam;*.ipt;*.idw;*.dwg;*.ipn)|*.iam;*.ipt;*.idw;*.dwg;*.ipn|All Files (*.*)|*.*"
'oFileDlg.Filter = "XML Files (*.xml)|*.xml"
'oFileDlg.Filter = "Excel Files (*.xls;*.xlsx)|*.xls;*.xlsx"
'oFileDlg.Filter = "Text Files (*.txt;*.csv)|*.txt;*.csv"
'oFileDlg.Filter = "SAT Files (*.sat)|*.sat"
'oFileDlg.Filter = "IGES Files (*.igs)|*.igs"
'oFileDlg.Filter = "Step Files (*.stp)|*.stp"
'oFileDlg.DialogTitle = "Select a File"
oFileDlg.InitialDirectory = ThisDoc.Path
oFileDlg.CancelError = True

On Error Resume Next
	oFileDlg.ShowOpen()
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
	'MessageBox.Show("File not chosen.", "Dialog Cancellation")
	ElseIf oFileDlg.FileName <> "" Then
	selectedfile = oFileDlg.FileName
	'MessageBox.Show("File " & selectedfile & " was selected.", "Dialog Selection Made")
	oDoc = ThisApplication.Documents.Open(selectedfile)
End If

[mluterman]

Wow! Thank you so much! At least I can stop explaining it now... (and can't wait to try it out)...