Browser Folders in Part Environment

[dan_szymanski]

Original Author:  

MattH_Work

Whilst I appreciate that we cannot move features up & down the browser without changing the Part (we are free to move components up & down in the Assembly, therefore browser folder 'restructurng' has no impact), it would be nice to have a second browser (ala the Vault browser) where we can sort, reorder, add to folders, the content of a file (group all extrusions, revolves, sketches etc)

Even if this was just a visual  display of the 'sorted' feature tree with no editing capability (maybe a right click option to 'Goto Feature' in main browser for editing) it would make it easier for finding, renaming etc

[dan_szymanski]

Hi Johnstda,

I am marking this Idea as a duplicate of this Idea:  http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideastation/browser-folders-in-part-environment/idi-p/3780620

As, if we receive them in parts, they will likely come along in MB parts as well.  Please be sure to cast your kudo to the master idea as to not split votes.  Thanks!  -Dan

[Anonymous]

This would be beneficial for parts created for configurators. The ability to group planes and other work features with the features tied to them would make maintenance much easier.  I have planes being rotated around a block and a feature on that plane that can be on any face of the block.  When the sketch is disconnected from the plane I have no clue which plane to redefine it to if no one has renamed the plane to something meaningful.  Having the plane and the feature in the same folder even if it is just a visual organization would eliminate a guess and check maintenance methodology.

[CAD_CAM_MAN]

Yet another handy feature I miss from Creo / Pro-E. Why not allow folder creation or "group" creation in the feature tree on part files in which features can be grouped together. This would help keep the feature tree organised and easier to work with parts having a lot of features. Similar to the way components can be grouped together in a folder in an assembly.

[Anonymous]

Ha, I was just looking for that 5 minutes ago. I used them extensively with SolidWorks.

[Anonymous]

Please see this post of a similar idea.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideastation/browser-folders-in-part-environment/idi-p/3780620

[manuela_zelinka]

it's really usefull when working with complex shapes

[JimmyDoe]

I miss family tables, pattern tables, mapkeys and being able to see a part highlighted through the model when it is selected. And having highlighting show through other parts. I just miss Creo...

[mwighton]

It would be nice if part files also had the option to add features in the browser into folder; similar to how you can put parts in folders in an assembly.

[Anonymous]

Yes this would be useful but I think a "Right click" "Find feature in browser" would be more useful

Similar to find part in assemblies.

[Anonymous]

I feel it would be useful to have the ability to organise solid bodies by selecting multiple solid bodies and collecting them into a folder.

You could potentially do it the same way as collecting parts in an assembly into a new folder -> shift+select the desired parts and right click then "add to new folder."

[AlexFielder]

What's annoying about this is that you CAN create custom folders inside of the Part Model browser using the API and place a whole bunch of features into the newly created folder.

But you can't then do anything with any of it.

Unless that is my own misunderstanding of the API as it currently stands?

This code:

 Sub CreateBrowserFolder()
        Dim oDoc As Document
        oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
        Dim oPane As BrowserPane
        oPane = oDoc.BrowserPanes("Model")
        Dim oTopNode As BrowserNode
        oTopNode = oPane.TopNode
        Dim colNodes As ObjectCollection
        colNodes = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateObjectCollection
        Call colNodes.Add(oTopNode.BrowserNodes(oTopNode.BrowserNodes.Count))
        Dim oFolder As BrowserFolder
        oFolder = oPane.AddBrowserFolder("MyFolder", colNodes)
        Dim sItemName As String : sItemName = "MyFolder"
        Dim oFolderGotten As BrowserFolder
        oFolderGotten = oTopNode.BrowserFolders.Item(sItemName)
        Debug.Print(oFolderGotten.Name)
    End Sub

copied from this blog post from 2012(!):

http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2012/05/create-new-folder-by-api.html

I've trained people recently who have used CATIA & SolidWorks extensively and even these new to Inventor users noted how much more intuitive it makes working with complex part files and (on the surface anyway) seems like a simple addition given that you can already do it inside of the Assembly environment.

Fingers crossed for adding this in Inventor 2017 R3?

[benedikt_zeilinger]

Yeah, 2017 - R3 on my machine, no options to create folders. 

This idea has been accepted in 2014!

You can easily make parts much more complicated than an assembly. This should't be too hard a task tbh.

If it's not going to go in 2018 i'm leaving this idea station crap. Because obviously it has no meaning what so ever.

[Anonymous]

Totally agree benedikt. Nothing ever gets fixed or improved. I've made simple suggestions from years ago and they never get implemented. 

[Anonymous]

Folders in the model browser work beautifully and usefully in Creo. How Inventor can't get it's act together to include them, I cannot imagine.

[Anonymous]

Because they don't listen to customer requests.

[chrisw01a]

Absolutely.  A lot of good ideas here!  Thanks

[JoyceZhou]

HI

In R2018, there is Search in Part environment, you could input the feature's name in the search bar, then you could find out the feature in the main tree and in the multi-body folder.

Thanks,

Joyce

[Anonymous]

SolidWorks has the ability to group features into folders.  Typically,I would group all the reference planes and other construction geometry into a folder.  I would also group all the features for a particular section of the part, e.g., "Back Side Fillets", " Screw Bosses", etc.  This keeps the feature tree at manageable length.  You, also, then can see all the features you are working with at the time.

Feature folders are desperately needed!  I would vote for this 1000 times, if I could.

J.C.

[dan_szymanski]

Idea added to backlog for future consideration [401]. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hmm, "future consideration"?

Heck, as long as you are considering folders in the part environment, why not go all the way and add configurations (similar to Autodesk "Level of Detail") to parts? This is also extremely useful and SolidWorks has had this feature since before 1999 when I started using it.