To Embed Autodesk Inventor View in a Microsoft Application

Inventor includes an ActiveX control that provides the ability to support viewing Inventor files within an application that supports ActiveX controls.

For example, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, and custom applications written using most of the popular programming languages.

With Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel you can embed the Inventor View control and reference a part file inside of a document. You can then distribute the document to others who have installed the Inventor View control. To do this, create a link to the file name of the part that you want displayed in the document. Make sure that the file resides on a LAN or WWW server that users can access if you plan to distribute the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file to other users. The alternative is to distribute the file with the document.

Note: Embedding Inventor View is supported in Microsoft Office 2000 or later versions.

1. Register the InventorViewCtrl.ocx file in a command window if this is the first time you are embedding Inventor View.

   From the Windows Start menu, select Run. Type "command" or "CMD" in Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP to start the command window. In the command window, navigate to the following location assuming that Inventor View is installed in the default location (C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Autodesk\Inventor {release number}\Bin) and type 'regsvr32.exe InventorViewCtrl.ocx', and then press Enter.

2. Start Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.
3. Select Insert Object. The Object dialog box is displayed.
4. On the Create New tab, choose Inventor View Control from the Object Type list, and then click OK.

   A box representing the control is placed in your document and you are automatically in the Design Mode.

5. Use the grips on the box to position and edit the drawing area. You may need to click outside of the drawing area, and then click back inside the drawing area to activate the sizing grips.
6. To set the filename that you want to display, right-click inside the viewer control, and then select Properties. Enter the file path into the Filename box.
7. You can also edit other property boxes to customize your own control.
8. Click Exit Design Mode in the control toolbar to exit the design mode and display the selected file.

   When you are running the control, you are no longer in the design mode so you cannot change the properties or position of the control in the document.

9. Move the cursor to the control to display the floating toolbar. Right-clicking in the control window displays the context menu.
10. To return to design mode, click Design Mode again. If the Design Mode command is not displayed, select View Toolbars Control Toolbox.
11. Save the document and close the application.