Property Editor - Selecting Documents

Document selection in Autodesk Inventor

The document selection tools described below are complimentary tools to user selection in the Autodesk Inventor graphics window or browser. A common method of document selection for iPropWiz in an assembly is to make a selection of one or more component occurrences in the Autodesk Inventor graphics window or browser. In general, when you switch to a new document window in Autodesk Inventor the iPropWiz Property Editor, if open and active, displays the properties for the document. The following table outlines selecting documents in Autodesk Inventor and the resulting display in the iPropWiz Property Editor ( PE ).

Note: New - Oct 2023: For Inventor 2023 and later, selection of occurrences of a specific model state can display the properties for that model state. See the Document Selection topic below for for more information.

Active Autodesk Inventor Document	Selection	iPropWiz Property Set Displayed	Notes
Part	Any	Part

Assembly	Nothing	Assembly	Displays properties for top-level assembly document
	Single or multiple part occurrences or virtual parts	Part	If multiple documents selected, properties with different values display VARIES or local language equivalent. See Selection Toggle below.
	Single or multiple subassembly occurrences	Assembly	If multiple documents selected, properties with different values display VARIES or local language equivalent.
	Mix of part and subassembly occurrences	Custom (common properties in both part and assembly property sets)	If multiple documents selected, properties with different values display VARIES or local language equivalent.

Drawing	Nothing	Drawing
	View	Part or Assembly	The model documented in the view ( part or assembly ) is the source for the properties shown in the PE
	Single or multiple part occurrences or virtual parts	Part	If multiple documents selected, properties with different values display VARIES or local language equivalent. See selection toggle below.
	Single or multiple subassembly occurrences	Assembly	If multiple documents selected, properties with different values display VARIES or local language equivalent.
	Mix of part and subassembly occurrences	Custom (common properties in both part and assembly property sets)	If multiple documents selected, properties with different values display VARIES or local language equivalent.

Selection Toggle

You can select multiple documents for property display in the iPropWiz Property Editor using a number of different methods in Autodesk Inventor.

In an assembly or drawing of an assembly, you can select component referenced documents by selecting the referenced top-level document ( drawings ) or by selecting part or assembly occurrences.

In an assembly you can select first level part and subassembly occurrences in the graphics window, but direct access to parts in subassemblies is not available with the default selection tool. You can switch to Select Part Priority from the Selection drop down on the Quick Access Toolbar. You must switch back to Select Component Priority to restore the selection of first level components in the assembly.

In an assembly drawing, you can also change the selection priority to parts from the Selection drop down. You are then able to select parts directly in the drawing views.

To speed up the selection priority change, iPropWiz provides a selection toggle on the iPropWiz Property Editor toolbar that toggles between the default selection method and Select Part Priority. Click the button to switch to part selection, click again to restore the default selection method for the document type ( assembly or drawing ).

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Document Selection in iPropWiz

The iPropWiz Property Editor is divided into two vertical sections. The left side of the editor provides tools for selecting documents referenced in the active Autodesk Inventor document. The tools include a drop-down list of common selection groups, document filters and sorting tools, a document browser, and a thumbnail viewer. In part and presentation documents, the selection tools are disabled and the you can only work with the properties in the active document. When the active document is an assembly or drawing, you can select one or more documents referenced in the assembly or drawing, and then edit the properties of all selected documents.

Click the button to view a video that demonstrates how to select documents for the iPropWiz Property Editor.

Expand / contract button

Click the button to collapse or expand the Selection group. Optionally, double-click the Selection title bar to collapse or expand the Selection group.

Quick selection

The Quick select tool drop down list contains a set of common selection scenarios for documents referenced in an Autodesk Inventor assembly or drawing.

Select an item from the list to select the specified documents in the assembly or drawing.

Selections are included for both first level components or components at all levels. Components include various types of parts and subassemblies, including parts, sheet metal parts, virtual parts, iPart members, and library parts.

From a drawing document, the document referenced in a view is taken as a first level child of the drawing.

On selection of a list item, the document selection browser is updated to reflect the selection. All valid documents are checked and the document properties are displayed in the property grid.

You can clear the selection by clicking in the Autodesk Inventor graphics window.

Selections are included for both first level components or components at all levels. Components include various types of parts and subassemblies.

From a drawing document, the document referenced in a view is taken as a first level child of the drawing.

Document filters

The selection filters affect the display in the iPropWiz Property Editor document selection browser. You can include/exclude parts, virtual parts, subassemblies, and library parts in the document browser.

Note: Virtual parts use the same property set as standard Autodesk Inventor parts..

Document display

Select one of the three options to control the display of documents in the document browser. The document browser does not show the same information as the Autodesk Inventor browser tree. The document browser lists referenced documents, not component occurrences. For example, if there are ten occurrences of a part in an assembly, a single document node would be shown.

	Lists documents referenced in an assembly or drawing using a standard hierarchical tree layout.
	List all referenced documents as a simple list ordered by name (sorted from A to Z).
	List all referenced documents as a simple list ordered by name (sorted from Z to A).
	(New: Oct 2023 - Version 7.23+) Lists all referenced documents in an assembly or drawing, including specific model state documents. If occurrences include multiple model states of the same document, each of the model state documents are included as separate nodes in the document tree. Users can independently edit the property values for each selected model state document.
	(New: Oct 2023 - Version 7.23+) Lists all model states in the active (not edit in-place) document. No other documents are displayed in the tree. Users can select any combination of model states and edit property values for the selected model state documents.

Referenced documents browser

The document browser lists all referenced documents in the active assembly or drawing, less those excluded by the filter settings. The document browser is different from Autodesk Inventor's browser in that it only lists referenced documents, not component occurrences. With the Tree view display option active , each referenced document is listed only once under an assembly. For example, if an assembly contains eight (8) occurrences of C.ipt, C.ipt would be listed only once under the assembly. For document selection modes where model state documents can be selected, multiple model state versions may be listed in the browser.

Selected documents are checked in the document browser.

You can click a check box to add or clear the selection of the document.

Document nodes in the document browser are automatically checked when making selections in the Autodesk Inventor graphic window or browser.

Document nodes in the document browser are automatically checked when you select a selection item from the Quick Selection list.

Tip: Hold down the Ctrl key and click a subassembly node check box to check or uncheck all subcomponent nodes along with the subassembly node.

Panel splitter

Click and drag the splitter line between the Selection group and the property grid to resize the width of both controls. A minimum width for the Selection group is enforced.

Document thumbnail

When you click on a document name in the documents browser, the thumbnail from the part or assembly model is displayed in the Thumbnail picture box. You must click on the name in the document browser, selecting the document by it's check box will not display the thumbnail image.

Note: When the document display is set to display model states in the active document, selecting a model state node will display the thumbnail for that model state. The model state document must be saved to ensure the thumbnail is up to date. To save a model state document in Inventor, activate the model state and then save the Inventor document.

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Selected Documents

Note: New - Oct 2023: For versions 7.xx.1.207 and later the selection summary has been revised to provide improved indication of the selection and the property editability of the selected documents. Versions 7.23 and later include support for model states.

The current selection of documents in the iPropWiz Property Editor is summarized above the property grid. Hover over the summary text to get a list of the selected documents (maximum 20). The icons to the right of the selection summary provide visual information on the combined selected documents and the editability of the group of documents.

Note: For most configurations you are not allowed to edit property values of non-modifiable components (typically library parts). If the set of selected documents contains one or more non-modifiable documents, all property value cells will be read-only. The current selection icons will indicate that a non-modifiable component is selected. If one or more selected documents are unmodifiable, no edits can be made to the properties.

The following table outlines the selection summary icons that may be displayed in the summary label. These icons are displayed as the left icon in the pair of icons shown at the end of the label.

Icon	Selected File(s)	Version	Notes
	Standard Assembly / Assemblies
	Weldment(s)
	iAssembly factory / member
	Assembly - Primary model state(s)	7.23+
	Assembly - Custom model state(s)	7.23+
	Assembly - Substitute model state	7.23+	Assembly not editable, components may be
	Multiple assemblies		Mixture of different assembly types
	Mix of assemblies and parts		Mixture of any assembly / part types

	Standard part(s)
	Sheet metal part(s)
	Virtual part
	Part - Primary model state(s)	7.23+	Part and sheet metal part
	Part - Custom model state(s)	7.23+	Part and sheet metal part
	iPart factory / member(s)
	Library part(s)
	Multiple part(s)		Mixture of different part types

	Primary model state	7.23+	Part / Assembly model state select mode
	Custom model state(s)	7.23+	Part / Assembly model state select mode
	Substitute model state	7.23+	Assembly only
	Mix of primary & custom model states	7.23+	Part / Assembly model state select mode

	Inventor drawing
	Inventor dwg + parts/assemblies
	Inventor idw
	Inventor idw + parts/assemblies
	Presentation

The right icon in the pair displays the editability of all selected documents. If one of the selected documents is not editable, the entire group of documents will be not editable.

Icon	Status	Notes
	Editable	All selected documents are editable
	Not Editable	One or more document are not editable, therefore all are not editable

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