This is a quick post just outlining some of the changes that were made to the “experience” of using Autodesk Inventor.  I am just touching on some of the changes that have been made to the user interface (UI) and explain how they are still making changes to get everything up closer to where they, and I’m sure all of us, see things are trending.

If you haven’t seen their new Dark Theme, you should check it out.  Now, keep in mind that they are not complete with updating all of the environments, command popups, and prompts, and they even warn you of that, but things are moving along quite nicely and it looks great.  As you might have seen in newer updates to many other software, there are color themes that you can adjust your application window to.  For example, you might see something like “Light” or “Dark Grey”.  In Chrome you can add all sorts of themes.  Well, now you can with Inventor.  They have the new “Dark” theme.  It is exciting.  I changed it as soon as I knew about it.  It really takes the brightness down several notches.  I hope you try it out and enjoy it as much as I do.

This next one, I think, is nice as well.  They are working to move all of the popup windows into the “Properties” panel that can be docked with the Model Tree, which is typically at the left of your screen.  With this movement to the Properties panel, you are getting a lot more than just the old popup moved to a new location.  They are incorporating into each command properties the ability to use presets, rename features while the command is still running, and automatically generate sketches.  You will see that they have been able to add this functionality to the following commands:  split, thicken, decal, coil, combine, copy object, and bend part.  The main thing that I like about this new Properties panel is that it really cleans up your workspace, as it is getting the popups off the screen and out of your way.  It is putting them in a space that you are not using during the process of the command and keeps everything in the same convenient location.

Here is their release video, take a look as they explain.