My Favorite New Features in Inventor 2017 By Jerry Berns From 3D sketch enhancements to a major overhaul of the presentations environment, Autodesk Inventor 2017 is packed with improvements. Autodesk has released Inventor 2017 - the 22nd release of its 3D mechanical design, documentation, and simulation tool. This version offers enhancements to core design tools, improved interoperability, and integrated communication capabilities. Inventor 2017 is also out-of-the-box compatible with Windows 10 and supports 4K monitors. There are many great features in this release that will benefit users. I have worked with Inventor since Release 1 and, since then, I have helped hundreds of companies with implementation, training, and support. So for this article, I thought I would share my top ten favorite new features based on the needs of the many Inventor customers I have assisted during the past 16-plus years. 1. AnyCAD Enhancements Exchanging files with non-Inventor CAD users is always a challenge. AnyCAD made it easier to share files with NX, Pro-E/Creo, and Solidworks users, but the most popular neutral format had been overlooked—until now. STEP files are now supported by AnyCAD, which means they can be used as an associative reference file. If you receive a new STEP version of a CAD model, just overwrite the original and it updates inside your Inventor design. Model properties for files from CATIA, Solidworks, NX, and Creo are now imported with the models. This will be a real time-saver now that you don’t have to fill in those properties in order to complete the Parts List. Of course, you can always override the values if necessary. For those of you leveraging DWG files in your Inventor models, you may find the DWG underlay support in drawings to be useful. In the model environment, you can now crop the DWG, place it associatively, and reinsert the same DWG for multiple usage. These are certainly some very welcome additions. 2. Component Transparency Up until now, if a component in an assembly was in the way, you had a few options: turn off its visibility, disable it, or change its appearance. If you chose one of the first two options, you had to resort to using the browser to restore the appearance. Changing the component’s appearance with a color override was effective, but that action impacted presentations and shaded drawing views. 14 www.cadlearning.com