Autodesk Inventor what’s new 2022: Five quick tips

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Autodesk Inventor what's new 2022: Five quick tips

Revit project export? Model states? Assembly constraint display? What’s been your favourite new feature in Autodesk Inventor 2022 so far?

Aside from the headline features, the product team work hard to improve the useability of Inventor.

In this post, I want to highlight five new features that – while small, will make a big difference to your everyday experience with Inventor.

Click here to find out what else is new in Autodesk Inventor 2022.

Dimension intersection enhancement

To help the dimension values to be read clearly, centerlines and center marks with extended lines now break when intersecting with dimensions.

Centerlines and center marks break when:

  • A dimension is placed over a centerline or a center mark.
  • A centerline or a center mark is placed over a dimension.
Autodesk Inventor 2022 - enhanced dimension breaking

Extrude surface mode

Autodesk Inventor 2022 Extrude surface toggle

The Extrude property panel has been updated to make the Surface mode option more apparent.

The default extrude type is a solid body.

Turn ON Surface mode to extrude surfaces, turn OFF Surface mode to extrude solids.

The Surface mode setting is saved as part of a preset.

Update substitutes

In Autodesk Inventor 2022, substitute parts no longer show their update status on their browser icon.

You no longer need to open a substitute part and use the context menu command Check for Updates to synchronize a substitute with the source assembly.

Instead – when a substitute part is out of date, it displays the familiar update icon (Lightning bolt) in the source assembly.

You can choose to update the substitute part if desired or open the part and break the link with the source to prevent updates.

Autodesk Inventor 2022 update substitutes

Property Panel Navigation

Property panel navigation refinements to enhance the experience include:

  • Enter – apply value edits
  • Ctrl + Enter – end the feature definition, create the feature, and close the property panel
  • Tab – move progressively to the next field
  • Shift + Tab – move recursively to the previous field
  • Ctrl+ Down – accesses the RVEC Flyout menu
  • Up/Down keys – move up and down combo list controls
  • Text color – invalid values are red, valid values are black

OK. These next two came out in Inventor 2021.2 – but I think that they are worth highlighting!

Open multiple

Autodesk Inventor 2022 open multiple files from the browser

RMB (Right mouse button) any component in the browser or graphics window. Use CTRL+LMB or SHIFT+LMB in the browser, or windows select in the graphics window.

When you have your selection set, RMB (Right mouse button) and choose ‘Open’ to open all the components Individually.

Tip: In previous releases, you could open the BOM manager, select your components RMB and pick ‘Open’.

Open file location

RMB (Right mouse button) any component in the browser or graphics window, to find a new option ‘Open file location’.

This will open windows explorer at the file location of your component.

Autodesk Inventor 2022 Open file location

What is your favourite new feature in Autodesk Inventor 2022?

Click here to add your suggestions on how to improve Inventor to Inventor ideas

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Paul Munford

Paul Munford is a laugher, dreamer, raconteur, CAD geek and Industry Marketing Manager for Autodesk in the UK. Paul's background in manufacturing items for the construction industry gives him a foot in digital prototyping and a foot in Building Information Modeling (BIM). Paul was a speaker at Autodesk University for the first time in 2012, and he says it's the most fun anyone can have with 250 other people in the room.