Inventor Search Shortcut And Better Drop Down

Discuss Inventor software with other users.
Natustell
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:55 pm
Answers: 0

Inventor Search Shortcut And Better Drop Down

Unread post by Natustell »

I am forced to transition from Solidworks to Inventor. Inventor is pretty good except for one glaring fault that massively slows my workflow: no shortcut for Search Commands.

In Solidworks, I almost never used the ribbon. I hit "S" then rapidly typed part of the command or menu that I needed then selected it with the arrow keys.

In Inventor, I have the fuzzy searching, but it's not usable with only the keyboard. The drop-down highlight is not visible so I can't select commands quickly with the arrows keys. I have to move my mouse to and from the search box constantly, making it slower than the ribbon sometimes. I am about 50% slower using Inventor compared to Solidworks because of this insane oversight. This is unnacceptable.

Is there a plug-in or ilogic to enable keyboard-only searching like in Solidworks?
User avatar
Frederick_Law
Posts: 1944
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:09 pm
Answers: 8
Location: Toronto
x 1634
x 1466

Re: Inventor Search Shortcut And Better Drop Down

Unread post by Frederick_Law »

As you have noticed, IV kinda move away from the keyboard.
I moved away from the keyboard in SW with a 15 button mouse.
Left hand on 3D mouse, right hand on mouse.
I don't have another hand for the keyboard.

Right click at the end of the ribbon, you can get to Ribbon options. Go to Customize User Commands.
CommandCustomize-01.jpg
In Ribbon Tab, you can customize ribbon commands.
In Keyboard Tab, you can set aliases for commands. Like AutoCAD.
I don't use that at all.
CommandCustomize-02.jpg
This I've customized and use.
Marking menu:
CommandCustomize-03.jpg
It is context sensitive. Like auto filter.
Select a line and right slick, menu only show commands for lines.
Select a dimension, commands for dimension.
It's better than SW right click menu.
Right click, it works like a menu you can click the command.
Hold down right mouse button, it become gesture. Move in direction of command and release the button to execute the command.
Natustell
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:55 pm
Answers: 0

Re: Inventor Search Shortcut And Better Drop Down

Unread post by Natustell »

Frederick_Law wrote: Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:24 am As you have noticed, IV kinda move away from the keyboard.
I moved away from the keyboard in SW with a 15 button mouse.
Left hand on 3D mouse, right hand on mouse.
I don't have another hand for the keyboard.

Right click at the end of the ribbon, you can get to Ribbon options. Go to Customize User Commands.
CommandCustomize-01.jpg

In Ribbon Tab, you can customize ribbon commands.
In Keyboard Tab, you can set aliases for commands. Like AutoCAD.
I don't use that at all.
CommandCustomize-02.jpg

This I've customized and use.
Marking menu:
CommandCustomize-03.jpg
It is context sensitive. Like auto filter.
Select a line and right slick, menu only show commands for lines.
Select a dimension, commands for dimension.
It's better than SW right click menu.
Right click, it works like a menu you can click the command.
Hold down right mouse button, it become gesture. Move in direction of command and release the button to execute the command.
This is better than nothing, but far from being able to access all commands with a few button taps. Maybe I am out of luck.
User avatar
Frederick_Law
Posts: 1944
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:09 pm
Answers: 8
Location: Toronto
x 1634
x 1466

Re: Inventor Search Shortcut And Better Drop Down

Unread post by Frederick_Law »

Not out of luck.
Just need to learn to do it differently.
Forget about SW.

I still have my AutoCAD aliases file.
Never needed it in IV.

Get used to Right click menu in IV.
Select what you want to work on first. IV will give you commands for that object.
Making menu can be customize.
Ribbon can be customize so it only show what you want to use.
Post Reply