Inventor Form Minimum field sizes

[To_Efficiency_and_Beyond]

I have been trying to work through some frustrating behavior in the Form creation process.

• I want to make some fields much smaller in the X-direction but it seems that the sizes shown in the image below are the minimum (or very close to it). Is there a way to work around this?
  • For example, I want the field under "Prefix (REF)" to be much shorter.
• Currently if I make changes to one field or add a new field, it adjusts the sizing of all other fields. Is there a way to stop this behavior so each field is independently customized and never affected by another?

[Frederick_Law]

Nope, that's the limitation of iLogic Form.

I think there are ways to load a "external" Form.

[WCrihfield]

Hi @To_Efficiency_and_Beyond.  The limitations of an iLogic Form can definitely be frustrating at times, but it is a trade off for beginners being able to quickly, and easily create them, without having to know that much about the process.  There are a few settings for controlling size, but they are sometimes tricky to use.  When you have a line item in the upper right area selected (not just editing a text field in the upper right area), then you will usually see some 'Properties' shown for that item in the lower right area.  Within that area is a sub group named 'Appearance'.  Within that group of properties is one called 'Size Limits'.  It can be tricky to find how to use it, but click on the far right end of where its value should be, where sometimes there will be the 3 little dots, like for options, or a menu, or drop-down.  That will open a small dialog, where the Min and Max sizes can be controlled.  You can also capture currently shown size, then go from there.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

@To_Efficiency_and_Beyond 

Here are some tips to help with this.

( Edit: sorry for repeating some of the earlier info, after I posted I saw WCrihfield's post covering some of the same options) 

• You can use Empty Spaces in rows to make input boxes shorter.
  • In the example below, I used empty space controls in Row2 to shorten the ASSEMBLY input box
• And you can use Groups to isolate some of the automatic formatting that occurs when rows pick up their sizing from the rows above them.
  • In the example below, I used a Group ( with Show Boarders = False) for Row3, so that Row3 would not size off of Row 1

 

• Once the form is made, you can run the form, then right click on it and choose Resize Controls
• This will give a grid that you can click on and use to resize inputs as shown below

• Then edit the form again and click the Size Limits [...] button
• Click Capture for Min and Max and that will lock the form size down and preserve the input grid arrangment

[Curtis_Waguespack]

@To_Efficiency_and_Beyond , one other tip on this is that if your form is a Global Form ( aka: external form) there is a *.state.xml file that accompanies the form *.xml

You can set the *.state.xml file to be read only and that will preserve the size of the form, and some other things such as where the form pops up on screen.

So if you have a form called MyForm you will see 2 files 

• MyForm.xml
• MyForm.state.xml