Model States

We know that it is common to have several variations of a design that are similar but different.  Typically, these variations are managed as separate files that don’t associate with each other.  Model States is a powerful new workflow that enables you to create multiple representations of a part or assembly within a single document to provide a convenient way to engineer, manage, and manufacture your designs with different dimensions and parameters, components, properties, or simplification levels. Because variations exist in one document, there is no need to worry about breaking associations between files.

Model states can be used for the following:

• Machining operations from the casted model to the final part
• Sheet metal stages for multiple bend operations
• Weldments for weld preparation and other machining operations
• Product families that have different values for dimensions or features that are shown or suppressed
• Alternative assembly positions to quickly switch between them visually or used for drawing views
• Level of completion for each stage as your design gets assembled
• Simplification levels for removing intellectual property or high levels of detail before export
• Bill of Materials instance properties

Instance Properties

Let’s also take a look at a video demonstrating Model States for assemblies.  There is another thing you will notice while watching.  It’s a new feature called Instance Properties.  One of the best ways to increase efficiency in an assembly is to pattern or copy components for other locations in your design.  However, sometimes those copies contain different property values.  With Instance Properties, you can enter unique information for each instance of a component.  It won’t affect other assemblies that refer to that component because Instance Properties are stored within the assembly file.  You can then use the property value to propagate annotations and bills of material.

Interoperability Improvements

Every year the development team finds new ways to make interoperability with other design systems as seamless as possible.  The two major categories for this year are Revit and Fusion 360 workflows.  These enhancements will save time while working on BIM projects, additive and subtractive manufacturing, and exploring generative design technology.

Revit Interoperability

Collaboration on BIM projects has been improved for the ability to save native Revit project files from Inventor.  The entire export process has been placed in the property panel, including the new Simplify command that I’ll explain below.  There are also presets available to save your settings for future versions of your design that need to be exported.

Fusion 360 Interoperability

Interoperability between Inventor and Fusion 360 enables engineering workflows including Generative Design, electronics, manufacturing tools, and consumer product design.  A new command has been added to the Environments tab that allows you to bypass Desktop Connector and send your part file directly to Fusion Team.  Fusion Team is included with a subscription to Fusion 360 and the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection.

Simplification

It is essential to apply all the necessary detail and information to your design for manufacturing, but most of that detail needs to be excluded when sharing a representation of your design outside your organization.  Instead of doing this manually, try the new simplification tool that will automate the entire process all the way to saving the appropriate file type.

Productivity and Performance

Over the last several years, the development team has focused effort on performance objectives for all aspects of the Inventor product.  Parts, assemblies, drawings have all been enhanced year after year to deliver an efficient experience for everyone who works on complex parts and very large assemblies.

Inventor 2022 Performance

This year is no exception to the work that has already been done.  The improvements to graphics technology and hardware utilization have shown tremendous results across the board with everyday use. For those of you who enjoy editing your parts while working in the assembly, you will find several performance improvements while editing sketches and visibility improvements.  Visual styles use more GPU power to display wireframe and silhouette edges. Opening and closing documents are faster than ever so that you can get to work quicker and close your documents to get started on the next project.

Productivity

On the productivity side, you will see property panel improvements.  The fillet command was moved into three new property panels for fillet, face fillet, and full round fillet.  This will reduce the number of settings in the panel based on your intent.

Dark Theme

We saw Dark theme last year as a technical preview in Inventor 2021. If you tested the Dark theme out in the previous release, you might have noticed a few items we were continuing to work on.  This now includes the iLogic Rule editor.

Drawing Enhancements

In drawings, you can now change the look of your shaded views by changing the lighting style in your model.  To do this, pick the light style in the model you’d like to see in your drawing, and when you jump back, your drawing shaded view will update to show the new lighting style.  There are new drawing view options available to repurpose the camera views and 3D annotations created in the 3D model.  Centerlines and center marks with extended lines now break when intersecting with dimensions.  This makes it easier to read the dimension value.

Installation and Deployment

Autodesk Inventor and Vault 2022  provide a new installation and deployment experience, which simplifies and speeds up the installation of Inventor and Vault while providing CAD administrators new deployment options.