What's New in Autodesk Inventor 2017

Sketch

New 3D sketch commands provide greater control, speed, and ease of use.

• A new 3D Transform command provides a rich set of geometry manipulation tools for moving and rotating geometry quickly and precisely.
• New constraint types are added to provide greater control and allow you to sketch curves on 3D faces.
• Copy/Paste supports copying and pasting in the same 3D sketch or between 3D sketches, reusing 3D sketch information for faster model creation.

What's New Video: 3D Sketching

For more information, see 3D Sketch Enhancements.

Surfacing

Several new tools provide greater control when building surface geometry in Inventor 2017.

Guide Rails are added to the Boundary Patch command. You can now use curves and points to shape the patch and more precisely control continuity and form.

Ruled Surface has a new Angle option for all surface types. The Sweep option is renamed Vector, and supports both edge and sketch selections to set the direction.

For more information, see Part Design Enhancements.

Part Creation

A new Feature Relationships tool identifies parent and child relationships between part features. This helps you quickly understand how parameters define the model, and can be used to execute or automate geometry changes.

Multiple patterning enhancements have also been implemented to help you model parts faster.

• The Sketch Driven Pattern command quickly generates features or bodies in complex arrangements defined in a 2D or 3D sketch.
• iFeatures support patterning and mirroring on multibody parts.

  

• Circular patterns provide a new option for a fixed orientation to streamline modeling of circular arrays.

  

What's New Video: Modeling Enhancements

For more information, see Part Design Enhancements.

Assembly Definition (not available in Inventor LT)

Enhanced reporting of cross-part references within assemblies helps you more easily identify and access related parts.

Similar to sketch-driven patterns for parts, sketch-driven patterning for assemblies enables you to position parts in complex arrays defined by a sketch.

Mesh data can now be brought into Inventor and managed similar to other 3D CAD data. Interference detection now also identifies clashes between mesh parts and other geometry.

For more information, see Assembly Enhancements and Mesh Component Enhancements.

Drawings

Several new options enhance Drawings capabilities and give you more control over formatting. New options include:

• Jagged cut edges in section views
• Rectangular balloon style
• Default link setting in options dialog box
• Automatic text wrapping and other formatting enhancements
• Background text color options
• Ability to directly open a part from drawing parts list

For more information, see Drawing Enhancements.

Shape Generator (not available in Inventor LT)

Shape Generator, introduced in Inventor 2016 R2, helps with the conceptual design of structurally efficient parts. For Inventor 2017, several enhancements were made to the Shape Generator workflow and new controls were added.

Glyphs provide feedback on the location of Fixed, Pinned, and Frictionless constraints. These glyphs also now appear in the Stress and Modal Analysis environments in Inventor Professional.

• Interactive controls are provided for preserved region sizing and positioning
• New minimum member size criteria influences the size of features in Shape Generator outputs
• Users may directly assign the target mass rather than use a percentage reduction
• A new optional symmetry constraint causes outputs to be symmetrical about one or more planes

Preserve Region

Minimum Member Size

Symmetry

What's New Video: Improved Shape Generator

For more information, see About Shape Generator.

Sheet Metal

New workflow options and controls were added to the sheet metal environment in Inventor 2017:

• Expanded defer options
• Improved flat pattern warnings
• Ability to individually control punch reps
• New corner relief options

For more information, see Sheet Metal Enhancements.

Tube & Pipe (not available in Inventor LT)

Several efficiency enhancements were made in the Tube and Pipe commands including:

• Find in Browser command is enabled within routes.
• There is support for Multiple Intermediate Point Creation on flexible hoses with fittings.
• A new Show Violations dialog box provides visual feedback for flexible hose violations.
• The Tube and Pipe Authoring and Tube and Pipe Styles dialog boxes are resizable.
• The destination folder in the Location for Run File field automatically updates when you change the name in the Tube and Pipe Run Name field and Run File Name field.

What's New Video: Tube and Pipe Design

For more information, see Tube and Pipe Enhancements.

Guided Tutorials (not available in Inventor LT)

The Guided Tutorials have been enhanced for greater visibility and usability. The Videos and Tutorials pane is removed. Click Tutorials in My Home to view the new gallery. The gallery contains a live display of all tutorials currently available for download, and all installed tutorials. In addition, progress tracking is displayed in the gallery image and the active tutorial.

For more information, see General Enhancements.

User Interface

Graphics adjustments compensate for the Gamma (luminance) and Linearization (data transfer relative to perceived brightness) used to display the graphics scene. These changes yield a more equalized cross-product viewing experience.

Environment and Standard Lighting styles used for model scene lighting are separated into Style types for an improved style management experience. The new tabbed interface complements the lighting style workflow and ensures compatibility with legacy styles. Shadow settings are managed individually with the lighting style.

Inventor 2017 supports high-resolution 4K monitors. Icons and dialog boxes throughout the application take advantage of the larger screens at 4K resolution.

Several new shortcuts speed up common tasks and allow you to customize Inventor for your specific workflow. You can configure shortcuts for visibility, transparency, routed systems commands, and more, in addition to prior commands. A transparency toggle switch enables quick investigation of the interior of assemblies.

For more information, see General Enhancements.

AnyCAD Reference Model and DWG Underlay Technology (not available in Inventor LT)

Inventor 2016 introduced a method of associatively linking nonnative geometry to your Inventor model using a technology called AnyCAD. In Inventor 2017, significant enhancements were made to the Reference Model update behavior for CATIA, Solidworks, NX, and Pro-E/Creo files. Increased support for multithreading in import workflows results in increased performance and faster updates for reference model workflows. As well, Reference Model also supports STEP neutral file format. A STEP model can be referenced into an Inventor assembly. When the STEP file is updated, Inventor accounts for the design change in a manner similar to other 3D formats.

DWG Underlay workflows are streamlined with new cropping and profile selection tools for greater productivity. DWG information can also be included in drawings as a reference.

What's New Video: Expanded Interoperability

For more information, see Updating Files from Other CAD Systems Enhancements.

For more information, see DWG Underlay Enhancements.

Mesh Handling

Mesh data can be brought into Inventor and managed, in the same way as other 3D CAD data. Measure and section tools can be used on mesh faces. Mesh can be selected and projected into sketches. The Fit Mesh Face command optionally allows users to convert a mesh face to a native Inventor surface, enabling the geometry to be edited downstream.

What's New Video: Improved Mesh Handling

For more information, see Mesh Component Enhancements.

Design Shares with Inventor Connected Design on Autodesk A360 (not available in Inventor LT)

A Design Share capability was added in Inventor 2016 R3 to facilitate design reviews with your team and other project collaborators anywhere, on any device. Several enhancements in Inventor 2017 make it faster and easier to collaborate. Collaborators and feedback can now be reviewed and managed directly inside Inventor. New controls permit you to share part properties and part names in addition to the model graphics for more detailed reviews.

What's New Video: Connected Design

For more information, see Inventor Connected Design on A360 Enhancements.

Presentation Enhancements (not available in Inventor LT)

The presentations environment is enhanced to make your documentation creation tasks easier and faster.

• You can easily arrange components in exploded views for drawing creation and quickly create powerful and expressive animations.
• Snapshot views allow you to capture specific model and camera arrangements for use in drawing views and raster image outputs.
• A new timeline-based story panel makes it easy to control and edit assembly sequences or movement. You can change the duration or order of actions appearing in an animation.

What's New Video: Amazing Presentations

For more information, see Presentations, Exploded Views, and Publishing Enhancements.

3D PDF Publishing (not available in 32-bit Inventor LT)

Inventor 2017 can export your models in 3D PDF format, which can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Select design view representations, model properties, and attachments to include. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader to open 3D PDF files. Create a custom 3D PDF template to change arrangement of exported elements in the output files.

What's New Video: 3D PDFs

For more information, see 3D PDF Export Enhancements.