What’s New in Autodesk Inventor 2018 – Drawing

Drawing Open Enhancements

The following changes occur in the lower section of the File Open dialog box:

• The Find command is accessed via an icon  in the lower left section between the Help button and Quick Launch commands.
• The Last Saved information is now below the thumbnail preview.
• A combo box for opening in Full or Defer mode is added between the Options…and Quick Launch buttons. Defer combines the previous Defer Updates and Fast Open commands into one action causing the drawing document to open without updating or loading reference documents (parts, assemblies, etc.).

• In the File Open Options… dialog box the Full or Defer combo button replaces the Defer Updates and Fast Open checkboxes.

For more information, see To File Open Options – IDW Drawings Reference. 

Drawing View Dialog Box 

The Drawing View dialog box has been modestly rearranged to accommodate new options. These are the changes:

• General
  • • The Preview in the lower left corner is checked by default meaning the preference is to display a preview rather than a bounding box.
• Display Options tab 
  • • Center Justified – formerly, View Justification, the combo box option is now a checkbox. The box is checked as a default and keeps the view centered about the placement point. When unchecked, formerly Fixed, the view will extend or collapse in the direction of the geometry modification.
    • User Work Features – moved to the Recovery Options tab.
    • The contents of the Display Options tab have been rearranged.
•  Recovery Options tab
  
  • • Include Mesh bodies – Mesh body support has been extended to drawing views. By default mesh bodies are not included in drawing views. When placing a view you can include mesh bodies by checking the option on the Recovery Options tab in the dialog box.
    • Include Surface bodies – the option to include surface bodies in drawing views is added to the Drawing View dialog box. By default surface bodies are not included in drawing views. When placing a view you can include surface bodies by checking the option on the Recovery Options tab in the dialog box.
    •  All Model Dimensions – references all model dimensions in the view. You can remove any unneeded dimensions.
    • Use Work Features – moved from the Display Options tab.

For more information, see Drawing View Dialog Reference. 

Workflow Improvements 

After selecting an assembly document to place in a drawing, if the preview can display in under 3 seconds it will do so. If it takes longer a Preview progress dialog box displays. The dialog box is the only element you can interact with during its display.

Support for displaying and documenting mesh objects is added to drawing views. Mesh objects participate in all view types and can be annotated. The option to display mesh objects is OFF by default. When placing a view, go to the Recovery Options tab and specify your view preferences. When working with mesh objects in a drawing view, you may observe the following:

• Selection mode must be set to Feature Priority to access mesh objects.
• Mesh bodies are kept in browser folders. You control body visibility from the browser node.
• Mesh bodies are visible in Shaded drawing views.

For more information, see About Working with Mesh Geometry 

Text Annotation Enhancement

Add Text Border around Text

You can now add a text border around text and leader text. In the Format Text dialog box, select the drop-down arrow as shown below, and select Text Border.

The resulting text is wrapped in a border.

For more information, see Format Text Reference. 

Export to PDF Drawing Enhancement

Export to PDF Options Drawing Enhancements

• The From and To values specified for Sheets in range are no longer session based. The values specified for Sheets in range now persist across sessions.
• The new option, Display Published File in Viewer, when selected, displays the sheets in Adobe Acrobat Reader after clicking Save.

For more information, see PDF Drawing Reference.