Use Inventor Model Preview Image to Help Control Use

As a engineering project develops and changes, engineers and designers will have Inventor parts and assemblies that need to be retained for reference purposes but it is imperative that they never be used for production work.  Every design firm has their own way of making sure that these reference models are not mistakenly used.  These vary from creating reference folders, squirreling them away on a archive workstation and those using the Autodesk Vault will place them in an archival Vault folder and may attach them to the final assembly so they are ready reference.

This article explains a method of tagging the model thumbnail image so there will be one more safeguard that the assembly or part model will not be used by mistake for production work.  We all are familiar with the thumbnail image created by default when saving an Inventor model.  We see these when we browse for a model to open, when we browse in Windows Explorer using thumbnail images, we see them in the "Home" screen in later version of Inventor, and we also use them in the Autodesk Vault.  This is the image I want to change to give one more level of warning.  Below are two images, one of a production ready assembly and one of a reference assembly with a warning thumbnail.

The great thing about this thumbnail, it will be used by other applications such as Autodesk Vault and Design Assistant so once it is assigned, it follows the model throughout its life history.

The first step is to create an image file containing the message you want to disply.  This image file can be in any of the popular image formats, I use JPG but others work just fine.  The image should be 180 x 180 pixels or Inventor will complain but you can accept the message and use your image anyway.  I would not recommend it being much larger.  I developed mine using Techsmith Snagit Editor but any good graphic program can be used.  IrfanView is a great free editor. 

Save the file in a folder of your choice, I would recommend somewhere in your local workspace but that is not a requirement.  To assign the image as the thumbnail image of an Inventor model, open up the model in Inventor and then select "Save As" or "Save Copy As" from the File menu or Application menu if you are using an older copy of Inventor.  Enter the new model name and the desired folder, then select the "Options" icon at the bottom of the dialog box.

In the File Save Options dialog box, make sure the "Save Preview Picture" option is checked and then select the "Import From File" radio button.  The "Import" icon will become active, select it and browse for your image file.  Select the image file and select "Open" in the dialog box to return to Inventor.  Select "OK" and the dialog box will disappear.  Select "Save" and you are finished.

The next time you view the thumbnail image for the model it will display your image file instead of an image of the model.  The screen shot below is taken from the Home page of Inventor 2017.

Below I finish I want to give another tip on how to make sure Windows File Explorer will show Inventor thumbnails images instead of generic icons.  Navigate to the Folder Options  dialog box, View tab in Windows Explorer and remove the check mark beside the "Always show icons, never thumbnails".  It is not necessary but I would place a check mark beside "Display file icon on thumbnails" also.