Overview
Every year Autodesk puts out a new version of Inventor with new features and enhancements. Today we'll overview the features announced by Autodesk in their 2023 release. In another article, we'll cover API updates for programmers. This article is intended to help regular users and administrators be aware of new features they can start taking advantage of. Let's jump right in!
General Enhancements
Home Screen
As soon as you begin using Inventor 2023, you will see a difference in the Home screen display. As you would expect, it provides easy access to recently opened files and other helpful content. This is similar and consistent with the interface for Fusion 360, AutoCAD, and other Autodesk products making it easy to transition between them.
Ray Tracing - Ability to use GPU
Are you using the Ray Tracing capability to quickly create a rendering of your design as you work? Inventor 2023 introduces a new display option that takes advantage of support for hardware ray tracing in recent graphics cards (GPUs). This feature is called GPU Ray Tracing. It is in a pre-release state and will be improved in future updates.
In earlier releases of Inventor, selecting the “Ray Tracing” display option in a viewport would use the Autodesk Raytracer (ART), which provides interactive results using only the CPU. Now you choose to use either CPU or GPU Ray Tracing, with the potential for higher performance and quality using your GPU.
Interoperability Enhancements
Revit to Inventor data exchange
Inventor can already open Revit data and even choose the appropriate portions of the design for their needs. The same is true in this release, except there is no longer a need to export a separate file from Revit and email it to the Inventor user.
Now, the Revit user selects the data they want to send and creates a data exchange that gets uploaded to Autodesk Docs. The Inventor user can then access the data exchange to load into their project. If the Revit data gets updated, it will remain associative inside Inventor without emailing a new revision file.
Inventor to Fusion 360
Have you considered some of the capabilities of Fusion 360 that complement Inventor? If you would like to create tool path strategies, advanced simulations, electronic design, or run a generative design study, you will find some one-click workflows in the Fusion 360 ribbon. The updated ribbon will provide a more intuitive approach to downstream workflows.
Part Modeling Enhancements
New Feature Type: Mark
There is a new mark feature that has been introduced to Inventor 2023. Use sketch geometry to add marking features to your standard or sheet metal components. It can be displayed in 2D and 3D and exported within a flat pattern as a DXF or DWG. This feature may be useful for Laser Etching or other CNC marking procedures on manufactured components.
Sheet Metal: Asymmetric Contour Flange Extrusion
The contour flange tool now supports asymmetric distances.
Sheet Metal: Export Curved Edges as Tangent Arcs
New option to export curved edges as tangent arcs, giving you more control over your DXF geometry.
Tolerance Settings and Model States
You can now change the tolerance settings of each of the model states in your components. You can configure the tolerance, text, and Boolean parameters in an Excel spreadsheet if you prefer.
Assembly Modeling Enhancements
New BOM Settings Option
A new BOM Settings option was introduced in this release that lets you control zero quantity visibility and item number sequencing. Click BOM Settings and see the following options:
Hide Suppressed components in BOM
Automatically number items sequentially
Documentation Enhancements
3D Annotations: Subassembly iProperties
When adding a 3D annotation, you may already know that you can reference iProperty information to the selected item using a leader. However, there hasn’t been a way to choose iProperties from the subassembly level or part level in the past. In the 2023 release, you now can reference the iProperty from any of the subassembly levels associated with the selected object.
Detail View: Change Boundary Shape in Context Menu
When editing a detail view, use Edit Detail Properties to change the detail view boundary shape from circular to rectangular. The command is accessed from the view context menu in either the browser or the sheet.
Datum Target Added to General Annotation Panel
The Datum Target command is added to the general annotation panel so you can establish datums on irregular surfaces. You can now create point, circle, and rectangle datum targets.
Weld and Surface Finish Symbols: Additional Options
There are several enhancements made to weld and surface finish symbols for additional options in the command dialog and updates to industry standards.
Performance Improvements
Threads in Models
Do you prefer to display threads in your design? There is now better performance even when showing a large amount of them in your assembly.
Punch Tool
The Punch Tool has also been improved significantly when you have several in your sheet metal components.
Express Mode
If you enjoy working in Express Mode for large assemblies, you will notice a boost in performance for changing the visibility of components.
Conclusion
Testing Inventor 2023, we didn't encounter any major performance decreases, and all of our existing automation continued to work as expected. At this point we think it's safe to say that Inventor 2023 is a safe and worthwhile addition to the family.
What features were missing that you were hoping to see? Let us know in the comments below!
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