Blocks for IDWs

[Anonymous]

My company has recently purchased autocad to help with our drawings. For years we have used dynamic blocks from autocad and now we have to create new blocks for Inventor. I know all about the migrating blocks from autocad to inventor. My question is on creating new and smarter blocks to utilize the power of inventor.

We have a few blocks that are our bread and butter. The first one is what we call a material block. This block has a number or letter designation in the center which relates to a material/hardware legend. (see attached image)....What we want is to create a new block in inventor which work a bit like the balloon feature. That way we can point to a surface or a screw and have it automatically pull up a custom field we fill out which gives the surface or hardware the appropriate number. 

The second block we use all the time is our "Title Block". This block gives the drawing a title like Plan View or Elevation view. This block also carries additional information in it which relates back to a set of arch. drawings. I know inventor has a preset title which appears below a drawing that gives it a name and or a scale. Either we want to not use that and use a block to do the same thing or modify how inventor does. The important part is we want to retain that intelligence that inventor has where it knows what a view is already called.  (see attached image)

The final one is the section block. This one is a lower priority as we don't mind the section block that inventor has already however if there was a way to change it we would prefer it. We work in the arch. world and the arch. reference for a section view is a bit different then in the mech. world. Also we typically have the section view on different pages so that call out has to be present. 

Basically the point of all this is to see if someone can direct me to some material which will teach me about the more advanced features of sketch blocks. As I said drawing a block is not a problem for me but giving it intelligence and perhaps some of the features that dynamic blocks has in autocad is what I am really after. 

[Frederick_Law]

Look into Custom Properties.

Every part and assembly has its set of Properties.

You can use those in Leader Text, BOM Balloon and TieleBlock.

Beside all the standard properties, you can add your own.

For example, I have Hardness and Finish in all my parts.  So when I make a drawing, they will show up in Title Block.  Like: Rc 48-52, Zinc Plated.

Next is Style.  Default Balloon show item number.  You can add a new one that show other properties, like Surface Finish.  I have one the show part number.  One show material.

Then let forget AutoCAD for a while.  Inventor is not AutoCAD.  The work flow is different, like layer and blocks.  Check out what Inventor can do and how to do it.  You could get the drawing to looks like its in AutoCAD faster, most of the time.

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