By default, all pre-R9 projects migrated to Inventor 9 or newer are set to not use a Style Library. This ensures that active projects can continue to progress without requiring users to take Style Libraries into consideration. Most of the new styles functionality is available without using a library.
Note: While using a style library on new projects is simple, transitioning to style libraries in the middle of a project requires careful consideration.
Use the following general procedure to create a Style Library and template set for existing projects.
Step 1 - Collect Existing Styles
In this step, collect all the existing (pre-R9) styles into a set of working documents (Work Docs). In addition, create a "Sandbox Project" to use during the transition procedure to avoid interference in any active projects.
The following resources are needed for the transition process:
- Part Work Document
- Drawing Work Document
- Sandbox Project
- Temporary Style Library (Optional, see the following section)
Method 1 - Create Work Docs from Existing Documents
Note: Use this method when most or all pre-R9 styles are in well-defined templates.
Create copies of the templates (or possibly some other documents) as your Work Docs.
When you transition styles from more than one document, consider consolidating the styles from similar document types into a single Work Doc. For example, if you have templates for plastic parts, steel parts, and aluminum parts, copy all the styles from these templates into a single Part Work Doc.
Tip: The most efficient method for consolidation is using a temporary Style Library, but it can also be accomplished using style Import/Export in the Style and Standard Editor.
Method 2 - Harvest Documents
Note: Use this method when most or all pre-R9 styles you are interested in are scattered throughout files in a project.
- Use the Style Library Manager to create a Style Library to use as a temporary target library.
- Set the Sandbox Project to use the temporary library, and copy the styles from this library into a set of Work Docs.
Tip:
- Create the Work Docs from the templates used in the project you are harvesting to speed up the process.
- Include these templates in the harvest process. Template files are processed before any other files, so in all likelihood the preferred versions of the styles in your final library are in the templates to begin with.
Note: When harvesting styles from a group of documents into a specific library, the rule of harvesting is the first version wins. If a style of the same name does not exist in the library, it is copied. If a style of the same name exists, the style is skipped and not added.
Step 2 - Optimize Styles from Legacy Versions
Fundamental changes were made in Inventor R9 to how styles are used throughout the design process. If you are moving from version 8 or earlier, editing, cleanup, tweaking, and other optimizations are likely needed for your styles to take advantage of enhancements. Considerations for optimization include:
- Enhanced functionality for existing objects such as dimensions and balloons
- Flexibility improvements with drawing standards
- New functionality provided by object defaults and layers
Tip: (Drawing Standards):
- Any drawing-related style from any pre-R9 standard can be used in any standard.
- Styles that you want to use directly on objects in a drawing should be added to the Available Styles list of that standard.
- Formatting (style and layer) for a created object is determined by a standard’s Object Default substyle. A well-developed object default style can improve productivity by reducing the amount of clicks needed to apply the correct style when creating objects.
Tip: (Layers):
- Layers replace the pre-R9 line styles in drawings and add more flexibility for both formatting and compatibility with AutoCAD.
- All drawing objects get basic formatting from a layer (color, line weight, line type).
- Layers are useful for visibility control and grouping of objects.
- Some layers may be needed as direct replacements to the pre-R9 line styles. Generally these are needed for drawing sketches.
- Layers not included in the standard that are cached locally in your document are separated out at the bottom of the Layers drop-down list (located on the Annotate tab). You can create layers specific to a drawing that are not included in a standard.
Step 3 - Create the New Style Library and Template Set
- Use the Style Library Manager to create a new, empty Style Library.
- Set the Sandbox project’s Style Library folder to the new library.
- Open up each Work Doc, and save all appropriate styles from these documents to the library.
Alternatively, you can use the temporary Style Library as the new library, but be sure to delete any styles you do not want.
- To create the template set, reuse the project’s existing templates (we recommend that you make a new copy of the templates as the new template set), or use the Work Docs to create any needed templates.
- Set up the default styles for each template. Styles required for defaults are:
- Parts or Weldments: Lighting
- Assemblies or Presentations: Lighting
- Drawings: Active Standard
- Sheet Metal: Special - each sheet metal style must be set up to use a Material, meaning more than one material can be in the document. The default Material is whatever material is used by the default sheet metal style.
- Remove any unused styles from the templates by performing a manual purge using the Purge Styles command.
- Optionally, perform a full Update Styles from the library in each template so they are synchronized.
Step 4 - Set Up and Deploy the Style Library
After the Style Library and template set are ready, set up the project with the Style Library and deploy it for use.
- Create a project file for the project to be used by designers. You can modify the Sandbox project and save it as the final project.
- Save the new templates and Style Library to an appropriate location:
- Set the new project Use Style Library option to either Read Write (for administrators) or Read Only (for general users), and set the folder paths for the projects:
- For a global scheme, set the folder options to [Default] and set the Application Options default locations to the new templates and Style Library.
- For a project-specific scheme, set the project folder options to the locations of the templates and Style Library explicitly.
- Optimize project documents: Purge all the files of unused styles, and then update styles in documents that you want synchronized with the library.
- Distribute the new project file to the design workgroup. The designers then set the new project to be the active project.