Customize drawing templates
| The following steps get you started quickly with your company standard for drawing files. These steps are overview of the main components of a customized drawing template. The Drawing Resources folder in the Drawing browser contains folders for sheet formats, title blocks, borders, and sketched symbols. Each can be reused in new sheets and saved in the template file. |
Custom IDW template setup overview
Options
panel
Document
Settings dialog box.To make a template the default, save it in the Templates folder with the file name standard.idw:
Microsoft Windows XP: Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor [version]\Templates.
Microsoft Vista: Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor [version]\Templates.
Note: Alternatively, you can specify a different template location for each project in the Projects dialog box.
To avoid replacing the existing default template, move or rename the existing standard template before saving the new template. Files that reside in the Templates folder appear on the Default tab of the New dialog box when you create new files.
Note: To add tabs to the new dialog box, create new subfolders in the Templates folder, and add template files to them. The New dialog box displays a tab for each subfolder in the Templates folder.
Configure Document Settings
Use the Tools
tab
Options
panel
Document
Settings dialog box to
set the options in the templates.
Tip: You can copy iProperties from one Autodesk Inventor file to your template by selecting Copy Model Properties, and then selecting the desired iProperties in the Properties dialog box. Copied iProperties are not associative so do they do not update when the source file is updated.
Clean up the browser
For optimum workflow, create the title block formats and any custom borders and sketched symbols before creating the templates, so that they are available when you set up the sheet formats.
Setting the border
The default border is parametric. It automatically adjusts its size and labeling when the sheet is resized. All sheets using that border automatically update to display your changes when you edit a default border definition.
Custom borders can be created and saved in the current drawing. To create a custom border, right-click Borders, and select Define New Border. To make a user-defined border parametric, use the General Dimension command to define the distance from each side of the border to the theoretical sheet edge.
Note: The input value for Number of Zones must be even numbers. Alternately, you can use your custom border as described previously.
You cannot edit the default border after it is placed. To change the border, delete it and insert a new border with the appropriate properties.
Title block basics - Part A: Set up and maintenance tips
The title blocks used in an Autodesk Inventor drawing are dynamic and include information about the drawing, the sheet, and the design properties. The title block automatically updates to display current information, as information changes.
Dynamic information in a title block is referred to as a property field and is added through the text command. The information can be entered through the Drawing Properties dialog box or through user input (as prompted entries).
Define
panel
Title
Block .Tip: For
better visibility, turn off the Grid Lines in Tools
tab
Options
panel
Application
Options . Select the Sketch
tab, and cancel the Grid Lines selection.
Note: Dimensions used to set the size of elements in a title block or border are hidden upon exiting sketch mode.
You cannot directly modify the title block on a drawing sheet. To change a title block, edit the title block definition that you used to create it. Editing a definition changes all title blocks in the file you are editing from it.
Note: To copy a titleblock from one template or drawing to another, right-click the titleblock in the browser and select Copy from the menu. Paste to the titleblock folder in the browser of the other drawing.
Use the Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard to make a change in one template and apply the changes to any existing drawing files. It comes in handy in many circumstances. For example, you can use the Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard to distribute a company area code on a title block that was used to create many drawings by updating the existing title blocks in selected drawings with the new area code.
Title block basics - Part B: Adding Properties
Use the Text or Edit Text commands to set or change the values of Properties (including prompted entries) in a title block, border, or sketched symbol.
Note: In drawings, the default text format is controlled by the active object default style of the standard. To change the default text format for a drawing or template, modify the text style and object defaults style using the Styles Editor.
Draw
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Text .Note: Use Fit Text to sizes the text to fit the designated space, such as a text box. Use Stretch to specifies the text width. For example, enter 100 to display the text as designed, enter 50 to decrease the width of the text by 50%. Single line text removes all line breaks from multi-line text.
Title block basics - Part C: Format text tips
The Format Text dialog box provides several formatting features that can be applied to sketch text:
Setting Sheet Formats
A sheet layout contains a sheet format, border, and a title block. You can edit the information in the default sheet layout for the sheet name, sheet size, orientation, count attribute, and print attribute. The default sheet format is the last layout used or edited in the drawing template.
You can define one or several sheet formats and then add them to the Drawing Resources folder. Once you add a sheet format to a drawing, you can use it to add new sheets to that drawing.
To be included in the format, views must be completely within the border of the sheet.
Sheet formats are added
to the Drawing Resources folder in the browser. To add a sheet using
the new format, expand Drawing Resources
Sheet Format, and then double-click the
appropriate sheet.
Note: A sheet format cannot be edited directly. To change an existing sheet format, use it to create a sheet, delete the unwanted format, then use the sheet to create a format with the same name.
Sheet formats contain a predefined of border, title block, and views. The format corresponds to a standard sheet size with an appropriate title block and border.
Updating styles
You can create new styles or rename styles in a document, but they affect only that document. Take a separate step to save a new or changed style to a style library because doing so replaces the library version. The CAD Administrator can control access to the style library.