by Paul Normand, SME/Technical Writer, Autodesk Manufacturing
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This page is dedicated to providing you with tips, tricks, cool links and tutorials to enhance your digital prototyping experience.
Here is an alternate drawing file template you can use. This template uses the AutoCAD method of prompted entry to input title block information as opposed to iProperties.It also contains general notes, a revision block, confidential statement and other useful bits. If you like it, copy to your templates folder to make it available. This template is 11 x17 - B size only.

/@api/deki/files/52848/=11_x_17_TITLE_BLOCK_%2526_BORDER_COPY.idw
UK & Ireland MFG Technical Sales Engineer Steve Bedder posts some great information on the Autodesk Northern Europe Manufacturing Blog . Check it out!
http://autodeskmfg.typepad.com
Our Inventor support staff has their own blog you can check out here:
http://beinginventive.typepad.com/
And of course, technical evangelist Rob Cohee has many entertaining and educational videos posted on his YouTube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/robcohee?blend=1&ob=5
Coding wizard Brian Ekins developed a very cool macro in response to the question "How do I replay how a part was built if I don't want to use the end of part marker?".
The macro he wrote allows you to step through a model feature by feature, or fast forward to the end. Check it out here:
http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/06/stepping-through-the-features-of-a-model.html
Want to export an Inventor parts list with thumbnails to Word? Brian Ekins created an awesome add-in for Inventor that will do it for you :
http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/02/parts-list-with-thumbnail-image.html
Here's another Brian macro. A customer wants to export Work Point X, Y, Z locations from Inventor to Excel. Brian worte some code that will do it:
http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/06/writing-work-points-to-an-excel-file.html
You can use the Table of Contents below to navigate the remaining topics on this page.
The question "How do I turn the Inventor browser display back on after someone turns it off?" comes up frequently on forums.
To restore the Browser to the display:

TIP: Use Clean Screen (Ctrl+0) to toggle the display of the browser, ribbon, document tabs, and status bar on and off.
The form editing tools for Inventor 2011 have been moved to Fusion for the 2012 release. To use the freeform edit tools, click Edit Form or Edit Copy of Form in the Inventor Model tab, Fusion panel. These images show the transition from a prismatic block shape to an organic shape using the shape manipulation tools.

The following video shows editing a cylindrical extrusion with the Alias edge manipulation tool in the 2011 release. These tools were moved to Fusion for the 2012 release, but the edit steps are nearly identical.
Inventor Fusion and Moldflow Simulation Video
Watch this video to see a sample workflow using Fusion and Moldflow.
Once you discover view reps, you will want to know the answer to these 2 questions:
To prevent new components from showing up in a view rep, right click the view rep(s) in the browser and select Lock. If you have already inserted the parts, you will have to modify each viewrep. It may be faster to delete, lock, and re-insert.
To prevent new components from appearing in a drawing view, lock the view rep in the assembly as previously noted and check the associative box in the drawing view dialog box.
Watch the following video for an overview of View Reps.
Watch the following video for an overview of Pos Reps.
Watch the following video for an overview of LOD Reps.
Have you been frustrated trying to simulate a mechanism using Drive Constraint to show movement? Did you know you can use Inventor Studio to create complex movement? The following video was created by driving multiple positional representations in an Inventor Studio animation.
A very nice fixture design module is live on labs. Automated fastener placement, cloud assets and more - check it out!

Download the Inventor 2012 Jig and Fixture module from Autodesk labs here:
The following animation shows the steps to create a part or mold fill analysis. You can display defects in the fill such as air traps and weld lines.
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A new Skill Builder has been posted that uses the following functionality:

Click here to access: