Datasheet

Waguespack c01.tex V2 - 08/30/2008 1:44pm Page 4
4 CHAPTER 1 INVENTOR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
Starting at the upper left of the Inventor screen, the title bar shows the software version and the
filename of the current file. Moving downward to the next row, you can see the typical File, Edit,
View, Insert, Format, Tools, Convert, Applications, Window, Web, and Help pulldown menus
typical in most Autodesk applications. You can go ahead and select each of the pulldown headers
and examine the contents of each pulldown menu. Each of these will be covered at the appropriate
time in the future pages.
The last three icons in this row are Help icons:
◆ The Help Topics icon launches Inventor’s Help. You can also press F1 to access Help at any
time. Pressing F1 while in a command will activate Help for that specific command.
◆ The Visual Syllabus icon activates a different type of Inventor help file that will take you
through various animations that will visually describe how to follow a specific task. If
you are having difficulty following text instructions, you should make it a priority to access
the visual syllabus while learning to use Inventor.
◆ The Recover icon is usually grayed out. It will turn into a red plus sign when there is a
problem with your file. Clicking the red plus sign will take you through several steps to
attempt to correct your problem.
In the row below the menu bar are the typical Windows command options for New, Open,
Undo, and Redo. Beyond the standard Windows command options, the following options are
specific to Autodesk Inventor:
◆ The Select icon allows the user to set the object selection priority.
◆ The Update icon updates the file, refreshing the graphical display and recalculating all
features. If the icon is grayed out, then the file does not require updating.
◆ The Sketch icon creates a new sketch on a planar face or work plane. Clicking the Sketch
icon while a face or plane is preselected automatically creates a sketch on the plane or face.
You can also use this icon to activate an existing sketch for editing. If a surface is prese-
lected, the sketch will be placed on that face.
◆ Zoom All provides the standard Zoom All command option where the user view will
zoom out to include all objects visible within the open file.
◆ Zoom Window provides the user with a selection method to allow zooming to objects
contained within the Zoom Window box.
◆ The Zoom +/− icon provides a standard zoom in or out using the mouse button. You can
also achieve this function by scrolling the wheel on a standard wheel mouse.
◆ The Pan icon allows the user to pan from one location to another within the file. You can
also achieve this function by pressing and holding down the wheel of a standard wheel
mouse.
◆ The Zoom Selected icon will zoom to a feature or component selected in the graphics
window.
◆ The Rotate icon allows the user to rotate around the 3D model. This is not to be confused
with rotating the model itself within the 3D environment.
◆ The Look At icon will orient the user viewpoint perpendicular to a selected planar face or
perpendicular to a browser-selected sketch.