Represent! With Level of Details or View Reps

*Edit: Autodesk Inventor Level of Detail representations have been replaced in Inventor 2022 with ‘Model states‘.

Click here to read more about Model states in Autodesk Inventor 2022.

Today we’re talking about assembly representations, specifically Level of Detail and View Representations.

Nothing new here in recent years [Edit: See the note on ‘Model States’ above!], however what became apparent on my travels around the world is that assembly representations are one of the most misused and misunderstood features within Autodesk Inventor.

That’s not to say that there aren’t people who understand how they should be used and the major differences between the two, but in my experience most users fell into one of two categories:

• I have no idea what the difference is between Level of Detail and View Representations, I don’t use them, but I think I should be?
• I have no idea or I thought I knew what the difference was between Level of Detail and View Representations, I’ve been using one of them anyway and didn’t realise I was doing it wrong.

Although there are always exceptions, in most cases everybody who uses Inventor has a need to use these representations at some point in their work, even if they don’t know it right now.

The chances are, proper use of a Level of Detail or a View Representation will help automate a manual task they’re doing right now.

So to help clarify the different use cases for either or, hop on over to TFI CAD Tips where I’ve created a comprehensive guide to both Level of Detail and View Representations.

If you thought that creating a Level of Detail was a good way to turn off parts in your drawing view, you might want to watch this!