Sets behavioral options for operations in the application.
Access
File 
Options General tab
Start-up
Controls default startup behavior.
- Start-up action
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Enables startup dialog box and document options.
- File Open dialog
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Display File Open dialog box upon startup.
- File New dialog
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Display File New dialog box upon startup.
- New from template
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Specify template and project files. The default template file is standard.ipt. You can browse for a template file or enter a template file name. Inventor searches in the Templates folder defined in the project file. The default project file is default.ipj. You can select from a list of known Inventor project files.
The default template file is standard.ipt. You can browse for a template file, or enter a template file name. Inventor searches in the Templates folder.
- Show My Home on startup
- If selected, displays Inventor Home upon startup. Clear the check box to cancel the display on startup.
Prompting interaction
Controls the appearance of tooltips, and autocomplete behavior.
- Show command prompting (Dynamic Prompts)
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When selected, command prompts display in a tooltip near the cursor.
- Show command alias input dialog
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When selected, displays the command alias input dialog box next to the cursor when you enter the first character of a command name.
- Show autocomplete for alias command input
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When selected, displays the Autocomplete list box when you enter an ambiguous or incomplete command.
Note: Autocomplete does not affect the user interface when Show command alias input dialog box is not selected.
Tooltip appearance
Sets the tooltip display criteria.
- Show Tooltips
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Controls the display of tooltips when you pause the cursor over a command in the ribbon.
- Seconds to delay
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Sets the length of time (in seconds) for the tooltip in the ribbon to display.
Note: To disable the display of tooltips, select Show Tooltips. - Show second-level Tooltips
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Controls the display of second-level tooltips in the ribbon.
- Seconds to delay
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Sets the length of time (in seconds) for the second-level tooltip in the ribbon to display.
- Show document tab tooltips
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Controls the display of tooltips when you pause the cursor over a command in the ribbon.
User name
Sets the user name for notes and other functions.
Text appearance
Sets the text font for dialog boxes, browsers, and title bars.
Enable creation of legacy project types
When selected, you can create Shared and Semi-Isolated project types.
Help Options
These settings allow you to control the default Help behavior. Specify whether to access the ONLINE help or the downloaded/LOCAL Help when accessing Help from within Inventor.
- Autodesk online help
- Makes the ONLINE help the default. When accessing Help, the ONLINE help launches.
- Installed local help (requires that you install local Help first)
- Makes the OFFLINE/LOCAL help the default. To install the local help, click the link.
If a CAD Administrator installs local help on a server and that machine becomes unavailable, the Information icon will indicate that the server cannot be accessed.
The ONLINE help launches if you are online.
If you are OFFLINE and have downloaded the Local help, the Local help launches.
If you are OFFLINE, and the Local help is NOT installed, the Help Information page launches explaining that you are not online and you need to download local help to access help when you are not ONLINE.
Spell Check
Controls availability of spell check. The settings available from Options allow you to control the default Spell Check behavior and manage custom dictionaries.
Physical Properties
Controls how and when mass properties are calculated.
- Calculate inertial properties using the negative integral
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Controls how the inertial properties are reported in the Properties dialog box Physical tab, and on the clipboard.
When selected, the negative integral, and either the Global or Center of Gravity is selected in the Properties dialog box, Physical tab, Inertial Properties section. The data shown is the rigid body inertia tensor of the selected component. Any of the off diagonal elements (Ixy, Iyz, Ixz) can be negative or positive, depending on the coordinate system and the component mass distribution.
When cleared, the positive integral flips the sign of the off diagonal elements to report only the integral part of the value.
- Update physical properties on save
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When selected, on the Manage tab, Update panel, the Update Mass Properties command executes before saving the file. By not requiring a manual update action, it keeps mass properties up to date. If you have Inventor, select either Parts Only or Parts and Assemblies. Updating mass properties for assemblies can take considerable time.
Undo file size (MB)
Sets the size of the temporary file that tracks changes to a model or drawing so that you can undo actions. For large or complex models and drawings, increase the size of this file to provide adequate Undo capacity. Enter the size, in megabytes, or click the up or down arrow to select the size.
Annotation scale
Sets the size of non model elements in the graphics window, such as dimension text, arrowheads on the dimensions, constraint and degree of freedom symbols, and so on. You can adjust the scale from 0.2 to 5.0. The default is 1.0.
Grip Snap:
Selection
Sets the object selection criteria.
- Enable Optimized Selection
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Improves graphics performance while prehighlighting in a large assembly. When selected, the Select Other algorithm initially ranks only the objects closest to the screen. If you click through this first group of objects, it ranks the next group.
- Select Other delay (sec)
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Sets the length of time (in seconds) for the selection cursor to pause over geometry before Select Other displays.
Note: You can set to Off instead of a numerical value. - Locate tolerance
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Sets the distance (in pixels) from which clicking selects an object. Enter a number from 1 to 10 or click the up or down arrow to select the distance.
- My Home
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Sets the number of recent documents that display in the My Home environment. The default number is 50, and the maximum is 200.
- Spell Check
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If enabled, Inventor checks spelling automatically as you type in the Format Text and iProperties dialog boxes. Click Options to set additional spell check options.
- Spread Sheet File Editor
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Specify the default editor for opening spreadsheet files. If the "Spread Sheet File Editor" is set to an application that is not installed, a prompt dialog will be displayed.