Toolbar and "File" Tab - Home Screen (Part 1) | Autodesk Inventor 2021 IN DEPTH

Summary

In this Autodesk Inventor tutorial, Alex guides viewers through the home screen's user interface, focusing on the top toolbar and 'File' tab. He explains the Autodesk Inventor icon's window control functions, the 'New' button's options for creating various file types, and the differences between '.dwg' and '.idw' files. Alex also covers the 'Metric' section for different standards, the 'Help' launcher, and project file management. He emphasizes the 'Home' icon's utility for quick navigation and the 'File' tab's common Windows application features, concluding with a prompt to subscribe for more content.

Takeaways

• 👋 The video is part of a tutorial series on the Autodesk Inventor home screen and user interface.
• 🖱 The Autodesk Inventor icon at the top left corner provides window control options like restore, minimize, and maximize.
• 🆕 The 'New' button has a drop-down for opening different file types, such as assembly, drawing, part, and presentation.
• 📁 In the 'Create New File' dialog, users can select templates based on file types, such as part, assembly, drawing, and presentation.
• 📐 The folder structure allows selection between English and metric units for files, including options like mold design.
• 📄 Drawing files come in two formats: 'ANSI .dwg' and 'ANSI .idw', the latter being Autodesk Inventor's native drawing file format.
• 🔧 The presentation file type supports creating exploded views and animations, useful for manufacturing instructions.
• 🔍 The 'Open' command allows users to search for files, navigate their directory, and open various types of models and drawings.
• 🏠 The 'Home' icon quickly navigates back to the main screen for easier access to different files.
• 🔗 The 'File' tab contains standard options like new, open, manage, and share, useful for collaborating on designs with customers and suppliers.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the Autodesk Inventor home screen tutorial?

The purpose of the tutorial is to guide users through the Autodesk Inventor home screen user interface, explaining the functions and options available, and making it easier for users to navigate and use the software effectively.

How can users access different parts of the tutorial series?

Users can access different parts of the tutorial series by checking out the other segments of the module, as the series is broken down into easily digestible segments for user convenience.

What is the significance of the Autodesk Inventor icon in the top left corner?

The Autodesk Inventor icon in the top left corner provides control over the application window, offering options to restore, minimize, close, and access other window management functions.

What options are available under the 'New' button in Autodesk Inventor?

Under the 'New' button, users can choose to open a new window for creating different types of files such as assembly, drawing, part, and presentation.

How does the 'Create New File' dialog box assist users in starting a new project?

The 'Create New File' dialog box assists users by providing a variety of templates and options for different types of files, including part files, assemblies, drawings, and presentations, tailored to the units and standards being used.

What is the difference between a standard part file and a sheet metal variant in Autodesk Inventor?

A standard part file is used for creating a normal 3D model with basic functions like extrudes, while a sheet metal variant is specifically designed for sheet metal part creation.

Why is the mold design option in the assembly section useful?

The mold design option is useful for users who are creating injection mold designs for injection molded parts, providing a specialized utility for the manufacturing space.

What is the significance of the 'ANSI .dwg' and 'ANSI .idw' file formats in Autodesk Inventor?

The 'ANSI .dwg' file format is compatible with AutoCAD, allowing for collaboration and editing of 2D drawings without affecting the 3D model, while the 'ANSI .idw' file format is the original Autodesk Inventor drawing file format.

How does the presentation section in Autodesk Inventor benefit users?

The presentation section is beneficial for creating animations, exploded views, and other visual aids, which can be used for work instructions and assembly demonstrations, streamlining the creation of instructional content.

What does the 'metric' section offer in Autodesk Inventor?

The 'metric' section offers options similar to the 'English' section but with different standards and units, catering to users based on their geographical location and industry standards.

How can users customize their quick access toolbar in Autodesk Inventor?

Users can customize their quick access toolbar by adding or removing buttons such as 'projects' or 'save' to suit their workflow and the tasks they are performing within the software.

Outlines

00:00

💻 Introduction to Autodesk Inventor Home Screen

Alex begins the tutorial by introducing the Autodesk Inventor home screen and user interface. He mentions that the tutorial is divided into segments for ease of understanding. The focus is on exploring the top toolbar and the 'File' tab. Alex explains the Autodesk Inventor icon's function, which controls the application window, including options like restore, minimize, and maximize. He also discusses the 'New' button's functionality, which allows users to open new windows for assemblies, drawings, parts, and presentations. The tutorial walks through the creation of new files with different templates, emphasizing the 'English' folder for unit-specific part files, assembly options like mold design, standard assembly, and weldment, and the drawing section with 'ANSI .dwg' and 'ANSI .idw' file formats. The distinction between '.dwg' for compatibility with AutoCAD and '.idw' for native Inventor drawings is highlighted, along with the benefits of each format.

05:01

📏 Exploring File Formats and Interface Customization

This section delves into the 'metric' section, which parallels the 'English' section but with different standards. The tutorial then moves to the 'mold design' utility and the help launcher button, which directs users to Autodesk's online help page. The 'project file' feature is introduced, allowing users to manage and access different project workspaces efficiently. The 'open' command is explained for file navigation, and the 'home' icon's role in returning to the home screen is emphasized. Customization options for the quick access toolbar are discussed, along with the minimization arrow for the 'search help and command' bar. Account information, including sign-out and license management, is accessible through the account drop-down. The App Store icon is highlighted for purchasing Autodesk plugins, and the 'help' button is reiterated for accessing support. The 'file' tab's common functions like 'new', 'open', and 'share' are outlined, with a special mention of the 'share' feature's utility in collaborative environments.

10:03

🔖 Wrapping Up the Tutorial

Alex concludes the tutorial by summarizing the key points covered, including the home screen's user interface and its functionalities. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the home screen for effective use of Autodesk Inventor. The tutorial ends with a call to action for viewers to subscribe and turn on notifications for future content, and an invitation for feedback on additional topics of interest. The segment also includes a brief overview of the 'file' tab's options, reinforcing the tutorial's comprehensive nature.

Keywords

💡Autodesk Inventor

Autodesk Inventor is a CAD software application used for 3D mechanical design, simulation, and visualization. In the video, it serves as the main platform being explained, with a focus on its user interface and various functionalities.

💡Home Screen

The home screen in Autodesk Inventor is the main interface where users can start new projects or access existing ones. The video explains how to navigate this screen, including the options available in the toolbar and tabs like 'file,' 'open,' and 'new.'

💡File Tab

The file tab is a common feature in many applications, including Autodesk Inventor. It provides access to key functionalities such as opening, saving, and sharing files. The video walks through how to use the file tab for managing different types of design files.

💡Part File

A part file in Autodesk Inventor represents an individual 3D model of a component or object. The video explains how to create a part file and the different templates and units (e.g., standard, sheet metal) that can be used to start a new part design.

💡Assembly

An assembly is a file type in Autodesk Inventor that allows multiple parts to be combined into a larger system or structure. The video discusses different assembly options, such as standard assemblies and weldments, which help in modeling more complex projects.

💡Drawing

Drawings in Autodesk Inventor are 2D representations of 3D models that are commonly used for technical documentation. The video explains how drawings are created in both the ANSI .dwg and ANSI .idw formats, which are useful for different stages of design collaboration.

💡Template

Templates are pre-configured file setups in Autodesk Inventor that define standard settings for a new project. The video illustrates how templates, stored in folders like 'en-US' and 'English,' simplify the creation of new part or assembly files with preset configurations like units and standards.

💡Presentation

A presentation file in Autodesk Inventor is used to create animations or exploded views of assemblies, useful for demonstrating how parts come together or creating instructional guides. The video mentions that this tool is particularly handy for manufacturing and documentation purposes.

💡Mold Design

Mold design refers to a feature in Autodesk Inventor used for creating molds for manufacturing processes, particularly in injection molding. The video touches on this option when exploring the 'new file' dialog, where users can choose mold-specific templates.

💡ANSI .dwg vs. ANSI .idw

ANSI .dwg and ANSI .idw are two drawing file formats used in Autodesk Inventor. The .dwg format is compatible with AutoCAD, making it useful for cross-software collaboration, while the .idw format is native to Autodesk Inventor. The video discusses how these formats affect file sharing and compatibility with other teams or software.

Highlights

Introduction to Autodesk Inventor home screen user interface tutorial module.

Overview of the top toolbar and 'file' tab functionalities.

Explanation of the Autodesk Inventor icon and its window control options.

Description of the 'new' button and its drop-down options for file creation.

Guidance on creating a new part file with different unit standards.

Details on creating assembly files for various purposes like mold design and weldments.

Clarification on the differences between 'ANSI .dwg' and 'ANSI .idw' drawing file formats.

Advantages of using 'dwg' files for compatibility with AutoCAD.

Introduction to the presentation section for animations and exploded views.

Discussion on the 'metric' section for different geographical standards.

Explanation of the help launcher button and its online resources.

Overview of project files and their role in organizing workspaces.

Demonstration of how to create and manage projects within Autodesk Inventor.

Customization options for the quick access toolbar.

Navigation tips using the 'home' icon to return to the home screen.

Customization of the 'search help and command' bar.

Account information management and access to the Autodesk App Store.

Details on the 'file' tab and its options for file management and collaboration.

Conclusion of the tutorial and call to action for subscriptions and notifications.

Transcripts

Hey everyone, I'm Alex. Welcome to part one of the Autodesk Inventor home screen

user interface tutorial module, where we'll be taking a look at the top

toolbar and "file" tab. I broke this series down into easily digestible segments to

deliver you the most relevant content for your convenience so if this video

doesn't contain what you're looking for, go ahead and check out the other parts

of this module. If you want to stay up to date on future tutorials like this one,

or fun engineering projects and other cool stuff, make sure you subscribe and

turn on channel notifications. In this tutorial, we're gonna start with the top

left corner of the screen and we're gonna work our way down into the right.

So with that said, at the top left, we see the Autodesk Inventor icon in the shape

of an "I"; this gives us some control over the application window itself so

when we click on this, we get some options here we get restore, minimize,

closed, and some other grayed out options, so if we were to click restore it would

actually shrink the window we could actually maximize the window from here

clicking the maximize button or we could go up here to the top right corner of

the window. So we're just gonna go ahead and use this. The other options are

self-explanatory and you can play around with those as you wish.

The next option here, is the "new" button. You'll notice that there's a little

drop-down arrow here, if we click that, it gives us some basic options for opening

a new window so it gives us assembly, drawing, part, and presentation. We could

actually go ahead and click this to launch the relevant workspace, but we're

gonna hold off on that for now, and we're gonna actually click on the "new" icon

itself. So when we click "new", it brings up this new dialog box titled, "create new

file". We get some options here, so let's just sort of step through and see what

we've got. We have our templates folder; if we click on that we don't see

anything in here. Obviously we have more stuff housed in it, let's step through

those. So if we go into "en-US", we get some options for some, some different types of

files. So we get our part files, assembly, drawing, and presentation. Let's take a

step further and start out with the "English" folder. This gives us an

additional option for mold design here. But let's go and start with part. So, the

differences in these folders is it gives you some different options for

part files with reference to the units that you're using. So we're using English

units here, hence the "English" title on the folder.

Starting with the top, we can create a part file this takes the form of either

a sheet metal variant or a standard part file. So, the standard part file is what

you would use if you're just creating a normal 3D model, so that would give you

extrudes or if you're a CATIA user, it would be called a pad, and all of those

other basic functions that you're probably familiar with or have seen

elsewhere. Stepping down, we have our assembly options. So, our assembly options,

we can click on these and you'll notice it gives us a brief description on the

bottom right-hand side. If you are away from your computer with this tutorial

video, or you just need a refresher on what each of these are, it's sort of nice

because Autodesk Inventor gives you a brief description of what these are. Our

first option is mold design. This is for those creating an injection mold

design for your injection molded parts; super handy utility if you're in the

manufacturing space. Stepping over, we have our standard assembly. So, this would

be your standard assembly file that you would be using to create your sub

assemblies, your main assemblies, whatever that you're doing with your project at

that time; and we have our weldment. So this is creating an assembly joined by

welding. So if you're dealing with welding parts such as frame structures

or anything of that variety, this is where you'd want to work. Moving down, we

have our drawing section. In our drawing section, we have two options here; and

this is something that comes up quite a bit on online forums with regards to the

difference between both files. so our first one is our "ANSI .dwg" file. And then

our next one, is our "ANSI .idw" file. So, what an "idw" file is, is the inventor

drawing file format that was originally with the Autodesk Inventor software back

when it first came out. Originally Autodesk Inventor would not

be able to read ".dwg" files or open those files in the beginning. However, over time,

they've actually added that functionality so you can now open ".dwg"

files and vice-versa with other programs. Moving over, we have our "dwg"

file. This is a file format that is common with AutoCAD. This is nice to be

able to start a file in this format because when you start a file in this

format you can actually open these files in AutoCAD and make some edits to the

dimensions and stuff themselves. It will not change the model dimensions. Those, to

do that, you'll either have to break the link to the model or save the file as

something else in AutoCAD so that you can edit the

geometry itself. But, this is really useful for keeping a nice compatible

environment with other teams. So, 9 times out of 10 you'll probably want to do

your 2D engineering drawing files in this format here. And then lastly, we have

our presentation section. The presentation section is useful for

animations, exploded views, and things of that nature. This is very useful if

you're doing, let's say, a work instruction in a manufacturing

environment. So maybe you want to do an exploded view and have step-by-step

assembly instructions, you can actually do that here and this is very valuable.

This accelerates the amount of time it takes to create work instructions. You

don't have to create separate models to show various steps in the assembly

process. You can animate all of this and it's really useful.

Moving down on the left side here, we get to our "metric" section. These options are

the same as the "English" section, we just have different standards within each

subsection. So, you can see those here depending on where you're located

geographically, what type of standards you're adhering to within your industry,

you can explore all of these options and choose the relevant one for you.

And then lastly, we have our mold design. This just gets back to our basic mold

design utility that we saw in the other windows.

This folder just separates it from the other options. Let's see, on the bottom

left here, we have our help launcher button. So, if you click this

it'll take you to the Autodesk "help" page on the Internet.

Moving over, we see a box called project file. Now, I'll go into depth on project

files shortly here. But, essentially, what this is, is it subdivides your, like it

says your project, in two separate places and it allows you quick access to those

workspaces and projects individually and I'll show you how to do that here. The

next button, actually launches your project dialog box where you can create

new projects, edit projects, and move stuff around, rename files, whatever you

need to do. And then, of course, your create button actually launches the type

of file. For me, I typically use English units.

I would, let's say, make a 3D part in the standard part utility here and click

create. That would launch the part creator there. Next, is cancel, and at the

top right, is your view drop-down box. So, I can change how these tiles show up

here so if I choose extra-large icons, it gives me extra large icons, and so on and

so forth. We can see these different options in various ways depending on

your preferences. So we're gonna go ahead and click cancel here. And then moving

back up to the top, we have our "open" command. This is pretty self-explanatory.

You click "open", you can, you know, search through your file directory, you see your

workspace which is basically where your project directs your file explorer to, to

view your models, drawings, whatever you have in there that's relevant to that

particular design effort. Moving over, we have our "home" icon. This is really useful.

So, let's say for example we're in a separate "part" file. You can always come

up to the top here and click "home" and it'll take you back to this screen. So, you

can quickly navigate between various part, assemblies, drawings, whatever you're

doing. But you can always have a quick way to get back to the home screen here

which is super useful. And then, lastly, on this line, is just your customization of

your "quick access" toolbar. Let's say we want to see a

"projects" option here it will add that to your screen up here at the top. Let's say

we don't really need a "save" button here because we're not really saving anything

on this screen, we can take that away. But, we're gonna take everything back to

default there. Moving over to the right, we have our "minimization arrow", which

just basically collapses the "search help and command" bar. We're gonna open that

back up because that's pretty useful at times. Over here is your account

information drop-down tab. So, this allows you to sign out, see your account details,

manage your license, so on and so forth. We have a little App Store icon here. So,

this is so you can purchase various Autodesk plugins and other apps that

work with the software suite. And then, lastly, you have your little "help" button

here, you know again to access the Autodesk "help" menu. Moving over, we have

our "file" tab. Now, this is pretty common in most Windows applications. So, if we

click the "file" tab, you know we see our basic options here. "New", again, it takes

you back to your basic list of options here for starting at part, presentation, so

on and so forth. You can see that from here as well. So, we'll go back to "file",

you know, "open" you can open various file types, you can share views and such. But,

this is really useful if you're collaborating with suppliers, or a

customer. So, say for example, you have a part that you need the surface finish or

the color selection approved by your customer, this is a great way to share

some views with them; they'll be able to rotate it, zoom in and out, but they won't

actually be changing the file. So, this is very useful. It won't disturb any of your

geometry or any of the data that you've assigned to this model. "Manage" allows us

to create or edit projects and work through each of these drop-downs here.

There's a brief description provided under these so I'm not going to go too

in depth there. And that concludes this segment of the Autodesk Inventor home

screen user interface tutorial module. I hope this helped you obtain a better

understanding of the home screen and its user interface don't forget

to subscribe and turn on notifications to stay up to date on

future content as its released. And of course, don't hesitate to reach out and let

me know if there's anything else you'd like to learn about or see on this

channel. Thanks for watching!