What’s New in Autodesk Inventor 2018 – General

19 April 2017All, Manufacturing

Carol Dunn

What’s New in Autodesk Inventor 2018 – General

Productivity and Performance Enhancements

Productivity Improvements

Easier access to Express mode Open for assemblies.
In drawing views, a delay has been added to the view update when you are editing the scale. The delay allows you to enter the new scale without the view reacting to each number entered.
You can exclude surfaces from drawing views. In the Drawing View dialog box, on the Recovery Options tab, clear the checkbox on Include Surface Bodies.
In a deferred drawing, you can access Defer Updates from the context menu. The behavior is the same as if you were accessing the option from Document Settings.
You can change the view preview option from the Open dialog. Clear the check on the eyeglasses and the preview is a bounding box.

Browser state icon for out of date components. Views with out of date components also get the state icon.

Parameters

A Consumed by column is added to the parameters table to make it easy to identify where a parameter is used.
By Features is added to the parameter filter options.

Tip: In a part with multiple bodies, use Consumed by with the By Features filter option to identify dependencies.

Performance Improvements

All documents benefit to some degree, but the most noticeable improvements are seen when working with large assemblies and large assembly drawings.

Faster view compute for hidden line removed views such as: shaded, section, and detail.
Zoom in and zoom out and the related methods of input, such as a mouse, keyboard, 3D mouse, ViewCube, Navigation Bar, and Ribbon commands now use the minimum frame rate setting.
Faster Move, Pan, and Rotate views in models and drawings.
Assembly Open – particularly for nested file structure.
Drawing view creation, preview, edit view, and change view representation.
Faster 2D graphics rendering including sketch, drawing view, and DWG Underlay.
Faster component selection in drawings.
Faster raster view rendering.
Faster selection and highlight in both express and full mode.

The performance improvements make some application options and document settings obsolete. The following have been removed:

Application Options

General tab – In the Tooltip Appearance section, Show ToolClips
File tab – In the File Open section, Enable Quick File Open
Drawing tab – In the Capacity/Performance section, Memory Saving Mode
Assembly tab – Enable related relationship failure analysis

Document Settings

Drawing tab – Memory Saving Mode

Browser Enhancements

Save time with the exciting new browser tools.

Search

Find things quickly and easily in the current active document with the new browser search.

File nodes, both collapsed and expanded.
iProperties: An icon displays next to search results with matching iProperty fields. Hover over the icon to display the information.
Relationships (not available in Inventor LT).
Features

Click to display the search field. The quick search field searches as you type.

In an assembly file, use the filter tools to narrow your search (not available in Inventor LT).
- Clear the filter.
- Filter out unresolved files.
- Filter out out-of-date files.

Additional Browser Enhancements

The Model panel displays by default. Select to select to display a browser panel. Click the x to remove a panel.
Each tab can be moved and docked. Below is an example side by side docking.

New Browser menus: Select to access display options and Help:

In an assembly and presentation file, you can select the new browser menu option, Edit Values in Browser, to enable or disable the browser edit box (not available in Inventor LT).

Note: The browser edit box displays when selecting a constraint in an assembly browser or a tweak in a presentation browser. The edit box now displays near the selected item instead of at the bottom of the browser.

You can now easily switch between model, assembly, and other environment browsers with a single click. For example, when the Inventor Studio environment is active, you can now simply click to switch between the Inventor Studio browser and the Modeling browser.

Measure Enhancements

New and Improved Measure Workflows and Graphics

The Inventor measure tools and workflows have been greatly simplified and improved to be more user friendly and intuitive.

One measure command.
Perform all measure workflows from the new measure tool panel.
Each selection displays rich information with a single click in the measure tool panel.
Simplified angle measuring.
Easily identify measure selections in the graphics window.
Additional productivity enhancements.

An Inventor® Ideas Submission

One Measure Command

Access all measure workflows from a single Measure command on the Tools tab on the ribbon in the part and assembly environments.

One Tool Panel for Measure

Set Dual Unit and Precision Values.

Note: When one or more User Coordinate Systems (UCS) are defined in a file, you can specify the coordinate system to use.

View precision and units for all length, area, and angle values. Each selection displays rich information with a single click. For example, select a cylindrical face: The diameter, area, and total loop length display. Results update if you change a dual unit or precision value.

Switch the selection priority between Component, Part, and Faces and Edges in assemblies (not available in Inventor LT).

Copy one or all values to the clipboard.

Simplified Angle Measuring

Use one of the following methods to measure an angle:

Select a line or axis and then select a planar faces.
Select an arc or circle.
Select 2 points, and then hold down SHIFT and select the third point of the angle.

1. Select the first point of the angle to measure in the graphics window.	2. Select the next point of the angle to measure in the graphics window.	3. Press and hold SHIFT and select the third point of the triangle.

Easily Identify Measure Selections in the Graphics Window

The geometry you select to measure remains highlighted in the graphics window.
Clearly distinguish between the first and second selection: The Measure selection set 1 and selection set 2 display different colors in the graphics window so that you can identify the information for each selection in the Measure tool panel.

Note: You can change the color of the highlighted selections using Application Options Colors tab by selecting a color scheme from the Color Scheme list.

Additional Productivity Enhancements

Minimum Distance, Center to Center Distance, and Maximum Distance
Minimum Distance and Center to Center distance now display at the same time when at least one of the following types of geometry are selected.

Arc/Circle
Ellipse
Cylinder/Cone/Torus
Sphere

Maximum Distance also displays when 2 of the following types of geometry, on the same plane, are selected: Vertex, line, arc and circle.

Easily toggle between Minimum Distance, Center to Center Distance, and Maximum Distance for the distance delta value.

Center Distance	Minimum Distance	Maximum Distance

Sorting Enhancements

New Sort Option

Use the new options on the Sorts Parts List and Bill of Materials Sorts dialog box to control the sort behavior. You can specify whether to sort by numerical order or by a leading digit (string).

General Enhancements

Inventor Connected Design No Longer Loads by Default

(not available in Inventor LT)

Connected Design on A360 functionality is no longer loaded by default when you open a part or assembly file. You must load Inventor Connect Design add-in using the Add-in Manager. Once loaded, the Connected Design entry button displays in a part or assembly file in the bottom right corner of the graphics window.

Mini-toolbars No Longer Display by Default

The min-toolbars that display alongside of the 7 Inventor dialog boxes, Extrude, Revolve, Fillet, Shell, Face Draft, Chamfer, and Joint, no longer display by default. You can elect to display or hide the mini-toolbars. To set your preference: On the ribbon, View panel User Interface panel Mini-toolbar.