To Work with Design Assistant

We recommend you use Vault for all file management tasks.

Design Assistant is a tool to find, track, and maintain Autodesk Inventor files and related word processing, spreadsheet or text files. Use Design Assistant Properties to help find, track, maintain, and report on the Inventor files, using iProperties as the key to the files. Design Assistant also provides a way to manage linkage relationships between Inventor files, such as rename files, revise files, replace files, and create product configurations.

• To work with files currently open in Inventor, open Design Assistant from Inventor.
• To work with many files or groups of files in the same session, open Design Assistant from Windows Explorer.

Use Design Assistant Properties to help find, track, maintain, and report on the Inventor files, using iProperties as the key to the files. You can also work with other files, such as word processing or spreadsheet documents, that are referenced by Autodesk Inventor files.

Set file location for the current session in Design Assistant

Design Assistant uses the project currently active in Autodesk Inventor to specify search paths. You can change the active project or create a new project.

Note: In the Project wizard, Semi-isolated and Shared project types are unavailable by default. It is recommended that you use Autodesk Vault Basic to manage multi-user projects. If you have a requirement to create legacy projects types, in Application Options dialog box General tab, select the Enable creation of legacy project types check box.

1. Open Design Assistant from Microsoft Windows Explorer.
2. Click File Projects to open the Project Editor.
3. Click the Project in the top section of the dialog box.
4. Click Apply to apply the specified project, and then click Close to close the Project Editor.

Note: Changing the project file also changes the active project for subsequent sessions of Inventor.

Copy properties from a file to another file or group of files

Copies specified design properties from one file to another file or group of files. The available options are determined by the method used to open Design Assistant. You can initiate a Design Assistant session from Autodesk Inventor to work with the properties of the active file. If the file is an assembly, you can also work with the properties of its referenced component files.

Note: If the active project is set to shared or semi-isolated, you cannot copy properties to a file that is checked out to someone else or into the workgroup version of a file.

1. Open the Design Assistant [version] dialog box from either Inventor (File iProperties) or Windows Explorers.
2. Select Tools Copy Design Properties.
3. In the Copy From box, set the source file for the properties.
4. Select the property group and the properties to copy.
5. Select the destination files for the properties.
6. Click Copy to copy the properties.

Note: When you initiate Design Assistant from Inventor you cannot work with links between files or with files other than the active file and its components.

Customize properties

You can define a new custom property or add a property from an existing file.

1. Open Design Assistant, either within Inventor or from Microsoft Windows Explorer.
2. Select View Customize.
3. Select the appropriate property group.
4. Select the properties to display. To move a property between the Available Properties and Selected Properties lists either double-click it, or select it, and then click Add or Remove. You can select up to nine properties to view. The Name property is added by default and is required in all displays.
5. Move the properties in the Selected Properties list to the desired display order. To move a property, highlight it and click Move Up or Move Down.
6. Click Done to accept the properties selected.

Create reports on hierarchy or design properties

Use the report options in Design Assistant to create reports to help you track and manage Autodesk Inventor files and other related files. Reports are saved as text files that you can view, edit, or print.

1. Open Design Assistant, either within Inventor or from Microsoft Windows Explorer.
2. Select Tools Reports:
   • Select Hierarchy to create a report that shows the hierarchy within the selected folder or assembly. If the selected item is a folder, the report shows the subfolders that it contains. If the selected item is an assembly file, the report shows the paths for the files referenced by the assembly. For example, it can provide a list of all component files for an assembly. It does not show properties or other information about the files in the hierarchy.
   • Select Properties to create a report that shows the hierarchy within the selected file or group of files, and the specified properties for each file. Before creating a design property report, use View Customize, and then set the properties to include on the Select Properties to View dialog box.
3. Set the number of levels on which to report.
4. Click Next to open the Report Location dialog box.
5. Specify the location and file name for the report. The report is saved to the specified file.

Preview files

1. Click File Manage Design Assistant, and then click Preview.
2. Select Preview to view thumbnail images of selected Inventor files open in the current session of Design Assistant.

If the file does not have a thumbnail image, select File iProperties or right-click a file name, and then select iProperties. Click the Save tab and then select the Save Preview Picture check box.

Note: If you drag an Autodesk Inventor file from Microsoft Windows Explorer into an active Design Assistant session, the file in the active session is replaced with the new file. Unsaved changes in the current file are lost.