Great Use of the Inventor Home Page

The Inventor "Home" page can be used for a lot of useful functions such as creating new models and drawing from standard or custom templates, opening previous files and if your company uses the Autodesk Vault, you can use it to mange Vault file status.  In this article I want to focus on "Shortcuts" panel.  I have expanded this section to give me more area to manage my shortcuts.  As you can see it consist of two main areas, "Folders" and "Links".

I will start with "Folders".  This section directly links to the Inventor "Open" command.  If you ever wished to be able to more quickly navigate to a project folder or file you probably set up "Frequently Used Subfolders" in your company project file. 

Once set up, you could quickly select one of the configured folders from the "Open" command dialog box.  This made the process of browsing  the endless project folder structure a little easier, but it had some limitations.

Two of the main limitations were that since this configuration was inside the project file, it could not be edited easily or in some cases not at all due to set CAD administrator restrictions.  The second limitation was it only allowed you to navigate to the folder level, you could not specify a file you may work on everyday for some period of time.  Of course you could "Pin" this file on the Home page but that is another topic.

The "Home" page "Folders" solves both of these limitations.  The Home page is managed on the Inventor user level, you are in complete control to change it any time you desire.  When adding a folder link you have the option to drill down to a project folder or even a file within a folder.  Since the Home page is normally always open in the Inventor Status line you can get to it quickly.   As you can see below, I have a few files open but at any time I can select the Home tab or if it is not visible. you can use the up arrow to find it.  

If it has been closed completely, you can reopen it from the Get Started tab, My Home Panel in the Inventor Ribbon.

To set up a folder entry, simply select the "Add Path" icon.

In the resulting Add Shortcut Path dialog box, type in a shortcut name and then select the "Browse" icon to navigate to a project folder.  After selecting the folder, select "Add" to finish the process.

My favorite method is to add not only the folder but an assembly file, within the folder, as a shortcut.  You do with by opening up the desired assembly file, right click on the assembly in the Browser and select "Properties" from the context menu.  Next highlight the complete "Location" path and copy it to the Windows clipboard.  Close the "Properties" dialog box, select the "Home" page tab, create a new Folder by selecting "Add Path" icon, give it a name and paste the copied path into the "Folder Path" box. 

When you use one of your shortcuts, if it points to a folder, you are taken to the folder inside the "Open" dialog box.  If it points to a file, you not only are taken to the folder but the file is automatically entered into the "File name:" line, all you have to do is select "Open".

"Links" are just what the name implies, links to other files or possibly a website you use all the time.  The best thing about links is that it will open the associated Windows application for the link if it is available.  As you can see from my links I have three websites I use often in my design work.  When I select one of them my default web browser is open and the website is loaded.  The last link "Shipping..." is a link to a Microsoft Word document and when selected it will automatically be open inside Word.

Links are added using the "Add Link" icon but unlike the "Add Path" dialog box, you can browse all the way to file level.

I will sum up by helping you overcome the very short names of both your created folders and links.  After awhile, it may become hard to recognize the names in this shorten form.  The solution to this is just to hover over the entries.  If you hover over the folder or links name, the fill name will be displayed.  If you hover over the icon itself, the full path or hyperlink will be displayed.

You will soon find the "Home" page "Shortcuts" a very valuable tool enhancing your Inventor experience.