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Announcement
March 26, 2018

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Synergis Product Support Specialist, Mark Lancaster
It’s that time of year again when Autodesk starts releasing the next version of their software.  Today I’m reviewing Inventor 2019 and sharing with you “What’s New” for this release.  As always I have my favorites and most likely you will too.  However, before I get into sharing my favorites with you, I wanted to point out a few things:

  • If you have a perpetual network license (on an active maintenance plan) or a multi-user subscription that entitles you to Inventor or Inventor Professional, it is mandatory that you upgrade your Autodesk License Manager to version 11.14.1.3 and generate a new license file.
  • While installing, you may notice the add-ons for Autodesk Design View, Vault (Basic) client, and other items have been removed from the installation in order to streamline this process. These add-ons can be installed separately when required.
  • When launching Inventor 2019 (the first time), you may notice the “Migrate Custom Settings” dialog as shown in the image below.

If Inventor 2019 detects Inventor 2018 on your machine, a “Migrate Custom Settings” dialog appears when you first launch Inventor.   In the past, if you wanted to migrate your existing Tools/Application Options or Ribbon/Interface settings you had to export the information to a XML file (from your existing version of Inventor) and then import it into the newer version of Inventor.    This new feature allows you to do it now or later.  If you elect to cancel (select red “X”), you can perform this operation later using the migrate function under the Tools tab.
Additional notes about the migration tool

  • Appears only if Inventor 2018 was being used.
  • Solely based on the current registry entries under your Inventor/Windows profile. It is not using any existing Application Option or Interface XML file you may have already exported from any version of Inventor.
  • Must restart Inventor 2019 in order for the migrated settings to take effect.
  • When migrating, there’s no indication of its progress. Don’t panic…  At the end you should see a message like this.
  • For those who create deployments, you’ll now have an option to restrict users from using the migrate tool and/or define what application and customizing settings that will be applied while installing the software.

Image directly from Inventor 2019 What’s New help section

Now that we got that covered, let’s move onto my top three (3) favorites of Autodesk Inventor 2019.
FAVORITE #1: Hole Function
FAVORITE #2: Assembly Constraints
Although I didn’t cover this within the assembly constraint video, another constraint enhancement was made to the directed and undirected angle constraint.  The enhancement ensures the constraint will maintain its setting and won’t flip when a related component position change.
When it comes to my third favorite enhancement for Inventor 2019, I have to say there’s a tie again this year. I couldn’t really decide which one took that spot, so I’m covering both of them next.
FAVORITE #3.1:  In previous versions of Inventor, the Inventor Color Scheme Editor was a SDK (Software Development Kit) offering that you had to install and the information was based on entries in the Windows registry.  With Inventor 2019, the Color Scheme Editor is now built into the Application Options interface and uses the same XML file that the overall Application Option uses.
FAVORITE #3.2:  Lately I haven’t programmed a lot in iLogic, but the new enhancements that are part of Inventor 2019 seem to give you more control over your models and another reason why it made my top 3.  Here’s what has been added…

  • iLogic Enhancement #1: Manage assembly to add, modify and delete components and constraints (The following information is directly from the on-line help).
    • Components.Add: Ensures the component exists
    • Components.AddiPart: Creates/updates an occurrence using an iPart factory and specification of a member
    • ThisAssembly.Begin and <code here> ThisAssembly.End: Allow you to delete components without specifically calling Components.Delete
    • In the following example, OptionA is a True/False parameter in the assembly. If the parameter is set to True, the component named Occ A will be added or updated. If it is False, the component won’t be added or it will be deleted. iLogic ensures that Occ A is present if-and-only-if OptionA is True

When the EndManage code runs: If OptionA is false and if the component named Occ A already exists in the assembly, it will be automatically deleted.  The principle is: Every time a BeginManage/EndManage block runs, you must call a function to add only the components you want included in that block.

  • iLogic Enhancement #2: New functions to use document units instead of database information related to coordinate values of points, vectors, and matrices.
  • iLogic Enhancement #3: iLogic functions added to build relationship different types of relationships, occurrences and constraints via rules.

Image directly from Inventor 2019 What’s New help section

  • iLogic Enhancement #4: Function related to capturing the current state has been added (The following information is directly from the on-line help)
    • Capture Current State (Components.Add) Captures the state of the selected components using Add. Ignores related constraints.
    • Capture Current State (Components Constraints.Add) Captures the state of the selected components and related constraints using Add.
    • Capture Current State (Constraints.Add) Captures the state of the selected constraints using Add. Only available if the file contains a constraint.
    • Capture Current State (Patterns.Add) Captures the state of the selected pattern. Available if the file contains an assembly pattern.
    • Multi-select components in the Model tree in the Rule Editor to capture the state of multiple components all at once. If you are capturing constraints between components, this ensures these are only captured once.
  • iLogic Enhancement #5: Apply names to faces and edges and create rules that adds the constraint directly to the named faces  or edges.  See help for additional information
  • iLogic Enhancement #5: iLogic functions are now part of the iLogic API Help section.

Let’s discuss the other new features that are part of Inventor 2019.  Maybe they will make your top 3 list.
GENERAL:

  • Performance Improvements (see What’s New section for additional detail improvements)
  • The “Guided Tutorials” has grown significant for this release

SKETCHING:

  • Helical curve function (3D Sketching) now supports creating a helix with a variable pitch
  • Application Option/Sketch tab, the “Auto-project edges during curve creation” works the same in drawing view as in parts. Additional information can be located in the “What’s New” section.
  • The mechanism for rendering images has changed and thus the quality of rendered images has been enhanced. See help for additional information.
  • In previous versions of Inventor, certain modifications could impact changes to the length of the spline in the 3D Sketch environments. Inventor 2019 now supports locking the length of the spline.

PART MODE:

  • An inverted fillet (convex or concave) can now be created.

Image directly from Inventor 2019 What’s New help section

  • Model-Based Definition (MBD) has been enhanced to show face coloring status via the “Tolerance Advisor”

Image directly from Inventor 2019 What’s New help section

  • Prior to Inventor 2019, pattern quantities could only be shown under MBD tolerance features. In 2019, pattern quantities can now be shown in MBD general annotation hole/thread notes.
    • Requirement: There’s a new MBD style in Inventor 2019 to support this and your custom (part) style library must contain this new style, in order for the quantity information to appear.
  • Direct editing now supports automatic blending. See the related video in the What’s New section.
  • Information related to the “Thicken” function now appears in the browser when the extended information is set to display in the browser (Application Options/Part tab).

SHEET-METAL MODE:

  • Prior to Inventor 2019, you could only extrude a sheet metal face in a single direction, now there’s a way to create a symmetrical face.
  • Corner relief shape now supports laser welding. See help for additional information

ASSEMBLY MODE:

  • Prior to Inventor 2019, images related to solids, surfaces and multi-body had different browser icons when in Express mode compared to Full mode. Going forward with Inventor 2019, the icons are the same between the modes.

Images directly from Inventor 2019 What’s New help section

  • Prior to Inventor 2019, values generated by applying the Frame Generator “Trim/Extend” function to cut angles was not available. This has been added for Inventor 2019.
  • The “Frame Generator” G_L parameter in earlier versions of Inventor didn’t always report properly. This too has been resolved in Inventor 2019.
  • In “Tube & Pipe”, there’s now a “Lock Hose Length” option to prevent flexible hosing from changing when the desired hose length is achieved.
  • For those using Vault to manage your content center
    • Content center information is now cached into memory and stays in memory until the Inventor session is ended.
    • Under Tools/Application Options/Content Center tab there’s a new option

Option is currently disabled in image due to not having Vault 2019 installed

  • This option (when un-checked) addresses a performance issues when dealing with numerous linked custom (read/write) content center libraries residing on your Vault server. In the past when the copied family was displayed in content center, it would always check to see if there was an update to the original linked content center library.  When un-checked, this check no longer occurs and speeds up the response time of content center.

SUBSCRIPTION BENEFIT (only):  [Customers on an active maintenance plan are not entitled to this enhancement]

  • Shared View: A cloud interface to provide a better way for your team to give feedback while designing in Inventor.   Team members do not require to have Inventor installed to review the information.
  • Autodesk Drive
  • Desktop Connect
  • ANYCAD for Fusion 360: This is preview/test interface to reference Fusion 360 files into your Inventor models.  Requires the Desktop Connect interface.

EASTER EGG:  As with any other Inventor release, there’s always 1 or 2 features that are new but not documented in the “What’s New” section.  The one I found is under the Tools/Application Options/Content Center tab.  If the Vault client is not installed on your machine, you are no longer permitted to switch over to Vault Content Center.
What “Easter Egg” will you find in Inventor 2019?  Let me know if you discover any.
As a side note, Autodesk has also released the 2019 version of Vault.  The Vault Client (2019) add-in for Inventor now permits you to check out your files directly from the Inventor BOM (Bill of Materials) interface.

Image directly from Vault 2019 What’s New help section

Anyhow, take Inventor 2019 out for a test spin and let us know what your favorites are.
Until next time…