Autodesk Inventor 2012-New Features Part 1-User Interface and Productivity

Inventor Help Experience
Autodesk Inventor Wiki HelpThe Wiki provides the most robust, relevant, and up to date information. In addition, the Wiki enables you to partner with Autodesk to share your knowledge with others.

-The online Wiki Help is the default help in Autodesk Inventor.
-If you are connected to the internet when you access Help in Inventor, the Wiki Help displays.
-If you deployed Inventor, and during the deployment you disabled the Wiki Help, it is no longer the default Help.

Basic installed Help
When you install Inventor, a subset of the help that contains customer favorites is installed by default.
-A basic Help of reference topics, tutorials for the new user, and a What's New are installed with the product.
-If you are not connected to the internet when you access Help in Inventor, and you did not download full Help, the basic installed Help displays.

Full Help download
When you are not online, you can still have access to the full Inventor Help.
-Download a full Help from Autodesk.com, Data and Downloads section.
-If you are not connected to the internet when you access Help in Inventor, and you previously downloaded full Help, the full Help displays instead of the basic installed Help.


Marking Menu

The marking menu replaces the right-click context menu. You can perform a selection from the marking menu in either menu mode or marking mode.

Menu mode
-Right-click in the graphics window. The marking menu displays centered on the current cursor position. Menu items surround the cursor and each item, or the command name and corresponding command icon display.

Mark mode (also called gesture behavior)
-Draw a mark. To enter this mode, press and hold the right mouse button, and immediately move the cursor in the direction of the desired menu item. A trail follows the cursor. Release the mouse button to select and execute the command that corresponds to the direction of movement of the cursor. 
The marking menu helps to indicate next steps in a process and identify further options to facilitate workflow. Additionally, it greatly reduces mouse motion and is easily customizable to suit user preferences.

Custom Settings
Previous Inventor versions stored customized ribbon and keyboard settings in separate XML files. In Inventor 2012, customization settings for the ribbon, keyboard, and the new marking menu are stored in a single XML file. This new convention makes it easier and faster to restore customized settings when you install a new version of Inventor. It also facilitates sharing customized settings between different computers or with other users in your organization.

Enhanced Mini-Toolbars

The mini-toolbars are larger, easier to interpret, and feature greater functionality. Mini-toolbars are added for the following commands:
-Extrude
-Revolve
-Chamfer
-Fillet
-Hole
-Face Draft
There are two new mini-toolbar options:
Pin Mini-Toolbar Position
Use the grip button at the upper left of the mini-toolbar to move any mini-toolbar to a different location. You can pin the mini-toolbar so that it remains stationary in the graphics window.
Auto Fade
When enabled, if you move the cursor away from the mini-toolbar, it displays in a minimized state. When disabled, the entire mini-toolbar displays, regardless of the cursor position.
Dialog Boxes

Expand and collapse dialog boxes easily:

-To expand, click the down arrow at the top of the dialog box.
-To collapse, click the up arrow at the bottom of the dialog box.
The expand and collapse feature:

-Increases available work space in the graphics window.
-Reduces mouse motion.
-Enhances your focus on the mini-toolbar command options.

Dialog boxes for commands that do not have mini-toolbars display in an expanded condition. Dialog boxes associated with the enhanced mini-toolbars display in a collapsed condition. All of the command options are available from the enhanced mini-toolbars. To see the dialog box interface rather than the mini-toolbar, expand the collapsed dialog box.
‘Select Other’ Behavior

The Select Other procedure in previous Inventor versions required you to hover your cursor over an object, and then click the left or right arrows to toggle between adjacent faces, edges, and features.
Hovering your cursor over an object in Inventor 2012 presents you with a drop-down menu listing all available selection options. You can eliminate guesswork and speed the selection process by making your selection directly from the list.
Performance: Raster Drawing Views

Raster views increase your productivity when you work with drawings created for large assemblies. You can review the drawing or create drawing annotations before precise calculations of all drawing views finish. Precise drawing views are calculated in the background while you work with raster views.
Raster views are marked by green corner glyphs in the graphic window, and by a special icon in the browser. If you place the cursor on a raster view icon, a tooltip showing the progress of precise calculation displays.
NOTE You can control the use of raster views in Application Options. Select or clear the selection for the Enable Background Updates option on the Drawing tab to enable or disable the display of raster views.
Orientation of Drawing Views

You can change the orientation of base views and independent child views.
Double-click a view, and in the Drawing View dialog box, click Change View Orientation. Then, in the Custom View window, specify a new view plane.
When you change the orientation of a base view, all dependent child views inherit the new orientation.
Rotation of Drawing Views with Sketches

The Rotate View command is available for drawing views that include sketches.
Only sketches that are constrained to projected model geometry rotate correctly with the drawing view.
Origin Mark for Ordinate Dimension Sets

You can override the style setting and change the origin mark for ordinate dimension sets. Double-click the grip point next to the origin mark. Then select a new origin mark from the list.
To change the default origin mark for ordinate dimension sets, edit the dimension style. When you change the origin mark in the style, the existing ordinate dimension sets with By Style origin mark display the new mark.
Wizard to Copy iLogic Designs
Provides a wizard to copy an Inventor iLogic template project. Use an Inventor iLogic project as a template to produce design variations. Embed design copies as subassemblies in larger designs, or as copies of a unique and complete product definition.
Features include:

-Selects linked documents automatically.
-Copy files to a new or existing project destination.
-Copy Inventor and non-Inventor files.
-Rename file copies by defining a naming prefix, suffix, or both, that can be applied globally to the copy set.
-Set the Part Number (iProperty) of the copy destination file the same as the copy file name.
-Remove iLogic rules from Inventor documents included in the copied set.
-Use even if the documents do not involve iLogic rules.
Custom User Interface Forms

Design your own user interface using drag and drop methods in a fraction of the time it took to use programming methods. Create a custom form to drive the model.
You can use the controls in the forms to drive changes to an existing design. Either save form definitions with a design document, or store them for use across multiple documents.
Create and connect the custom user interface to the parameters, properties, and rules of an Inventor part, assembly, or drawing document.
View Display
Ray tracing is added as a view setting option for the Realistic (default: enabled) and Monochrome (default: disabled) visual styles. If you select Realistic, the display refreshes using ray tracing.
You can interrupt the process with the Orbit command, after which the display refreshes with ray tracing again.


Autodesk Inventor 2012-New Features Overview
Autodesk Inventor 2012-New Features Part 2-Enhanced Modeling
Autodesk Inventor 2012-New Features Part 3-Interoperability,Simulation,Sustainability
Autodesk Inventor 2012-New Features Part 4-Tooling