Inventor: Learning never stops

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Synergis Product Support Specialist, Mark Lancaster
Granted I haven’t been using Inventor for years like others have, but recently I passed the 10 year mark.  Anyhow I’m not here to share how long I’ve been using Inventor.  Instead my article is about Inventor learning and that it doesn’t stop just because you have been using it for “X” number of years.  For me I learned something new the other day and wanted to share what it was.
I had a customer (Will Wagner/CSC Advanced Marine Inc.) contact us about an issue he was having with his drawing template.  When a drawing is started from a template, the (occurrence/browser) name in the Inventor browser pane should state “Drawing1” or some “Drawing”<sequential drawing number> (depending on what’s in memory).  In addition, the Inventor session tab and Inventor title bar should also state the same information.  But in Will’s case this is what he was seeing:
The session tab was correct but the browser and title bar information still represented the name of his drawing template.  If you place a base view onto the drawing, the information within the browser, session tab, and title bar should update to the name of the model that was used (for the based view).   This is what Will ended up seeing after placing his base view:
The session tab and title bar were correct but the browser/occurrence name still represented the name of his drawing template.  If he tried to save his drawing, it would default name it as the drawing template name and not what the session tab stated.
At this point when I see occurrence names not updating (in the browser pane), my first instinct is that someone over-wrote it and now it’s considered static.  When I slow double clicked the occurrence name in the drawing template, deleted it, and hit an enter (key), the same (occurrence) name returned.  Although I thought this was odd at first, I concluded the occurrence name must’ve been changed (static) to the same verbiage.  But when Will and I repeated the new drawing process, nothing had changed and the results was the same.  What else could be impacting this?  After a few troubleshooting attempts I decided to let Will get back to his normal duties and I would look at his problem offline.
I know we all been there when troubleshooting…  You get to a point where you have tried everything and you decide to have a fresh pair of eyes on the subject matter.   So I took my problem to the Inventor Forum, asking why this was occurring…   Within minutes, one of my forum/CAD buddies (Curtis Waguespack) chimed in and said how did you clear the occurrence name in your drawing template?   He said, I think with drawings, you have to put a space in after you delete the static occurrence name.  At first I had questioned Curtis’ reply in my mind about needing the space.  But his solution was right on the mark and it resolved the issue.
Like I said even after 10 years I’m still learning new things about Inventor and I wonder if others knew about this as well.  Thanks to Will for sharing his issue with us and to Curtis for teaching me something new about Inventor.  Until next time…