Parameter Folder Names

[bardurPW3UA]

Currently in the parameters window, when you link to one or more parameters from different parts/assemblies, the parameters are grouped into folders by part/assembly. This is quite useful, as it makes it easy to find the parameter you're looking for when writing formulas. However, the names given to these folders is just the directory of the part/assembly, which is usually longer than the box for it, which means that you can't see what the part/assembly is called, and multiple folders look identical at a glance (see screenshot 1). Hovering the mouse over the directory will show more of it, but this is also often not enough to see the part name.

So, it would be nice to change that box so it either showed only the part name, or shortened the front end of the directory, rather than the back end.

I don't know if I should submit these next two points as separate idea posts since they are so closely related to this one, but I'll start by putting them here:

1. It would be nice if you could select that directory so it can be copied/pasted into a folder, to find that part/assembly.
2. It would be nice to have the part/assembly name displayed somewhere when editing one of those folders (see Screenshot 2

Both of these points would further reduce any doubt about what part/assembly is being linked to.

[DRoam]

Thanks for posting, I was just recently wishing for some of these improvements, too! I really like your suggestion to prioritize showing the file name (end of the path) rather than the beginning of the path, when there's not enough room to show the whole thing. I hadn't thought of that but that's a great point. Maybe the ellipsis should come just after the drive letter, so you can at least see that, and then show as much of the path as you can, starting from the right. So at different widths, we get:

C:\My\Long\Path\To\A\File.ipt

C:\...th\To\A\File.ipt

C:\...File.ipt

I also like your idea to be able to copy the directory to the clipboard. My thought was just to add "Open" and "Open Containing Folder" buttons. ("Open" would only be present for Inventor files, since those are the only ones Inventor can open itself). But it would be nice to get Copy as well, so we can paste it into Inventor "Open"/"Derive"/ etc. dialogs or do whatever else we want with it. Adding any of those (Open, Open Containing Folder, and Copy to Clipboard) should be trivial to implement, so hopefully all of these can be bundled into a single project and delivered at the same time.

Here's a summary of both our requests:

• Fix tooltip to show full path
• Prioritize showing file name (end of path) rather than beginning
• RMB-->Copy Path to Clipboard
• RMB-->Open (for Inventor files)
• RMB-->Open Containing Folder
• Display filename somewhere in "Link Parameters" dialog when editing a linked Parameter folder.

[bardurPW3UA]

I disagree about the drive letter, because I think seeing the folder the part is in is more useful than seeing the drive. Especially since it is quite common to have several similar parts in different assemblies. For example, I often use copy design in Vault, giving me many versions of the same part. I would say that the drive becomes more useful than the folder once I've gone up about 2-3 folder levels, at which point it is unlikely that it all fits in the box anyway. However, this is probably different for each person, and it isn't really that important to me. As long as I get the name of the file in the box, I am satisfied.

I hadn't thought of having a button that opens the part. That would actually be quite useful. Especially if you've forgotten what feature the parameter name is referring to (for example if several features are similar, and difficult to distinguish). 

This line of thinking opens up several new ideas:

1. When editing a parameter folder, it would be nice to have a similar interface as the parameters window, which shows the values of the parameters, and the formulas associated with them. As mentioned above, it is not uncommon to have several similar parameters that are difficult to distinguish, so having the values and formulas really helps to select the right ones to link.
2. Have a "open and highlight" button on each linked parameter, which as the name implies, opens the part/assembly and highlight/show the parameter. (I get the feeling, that this is a lot of work for relatively little gain, so I wouldn't set this at as high a priority as the others)
3. It would be nice to be able to edit (or browse) the directory of the parameter folder, in order to replace the part that is being linked to. So if for example I have Part1.ipt which has linked to parameters P1, P2, and P3 in C:\My\Long\Path\To\Part2.ipt, and they are both used in Assembly1.iam, and I then decide to copy Part2.ipt and call it Part3.ipt, and make some minor changes (the parameters P1, P2, and P3 might change but they have the same names), then replace it in Assembly1.iam. Then it no longer makes sence to link to Part2.ipt, so I just delete the 2 and add a 3 (or there could be a browse button), such that the directory is now C:\My\Long\Path\To\Part3.ipt.

I might think of more later, but this is what I have for now.

[dan_szymanski]

As of Autodesk Inventor 2021.2, within the parameters dialog, a tooltip will display the full path of a derived parameter.  per Derek's first bullet above.  

• Fix tooltip to show full path

Regards,

Dan

[DRoam]

Nice little improvement, meets the most basic need. Thanks, Dan!

[bardurPW3UA]

Excellent. This was also the most important part. I haven't upgraded to 2021.2 yet, but assuming this works as you described, then this alleviates about 70% of the frustrations I had with linking parameters.

Thanks Dan.