Skeletal Modeling in Express Mode

What's New: 2020

Express Mode was designed to reduce the amount of data loaded into memory while working on large assemblies. Initially, only a handful of commands were enabled for Express Mode. The list of available commands has been expanded to enable skeletal modeling workflows while in Express Mode.

Legacy Assemblies

To take full advantage of skeletal modeling workflows in Express Mode your legacy data must migrated to the latest release. Migration ensures that the legacy data is updated to work with the current commands and their options. Depending on the number of files involved, it is often easiest to migrate data using Task Scheduler.

Why the need to migrate data?

During Inventor's progressive performance improvement one byproduct has been that some legacy work features and sketches may not be visible when you open a document in Express mode. There are two methods that can be used to update the files and enable visibility for those objects.

Scheduled Migration

Use Task Scheduler to migrate all parts and assemblies in advance of working on them. See the following references for migrating data using Task Scheduler.

• About Migrating with Task Scheduler
• To Migrate Files (Task Scheduler)
• Migration Options Reference
• If you use Autodesk Vault, review Vault documentation for information about migrating databases.

Manual Migration

Manual migration can be done as needed as opposed to scheduling the migration. To manually migrate a top-level assembly and all its parts, do the following:

1. Open the top-level assembly document in Full Mode.
2. Ensure the [Primary] Design View and [Primary] Model State are active so that all data migrates.
3. File Menu > Manage > Migrate.
4. On the Manage tab > Update panel click Rebuild All.

   This migrates the data to the latest release. The time to do this step can vary widely between assembly files as it is dependent upon the size and complexity of the assembly and components.

5. Click File tab > Save > Save All. Saving completes the migration process. If you do not save the migrated components, the migration is incomplete.

Note: Manual migration can be done with any component.