One of the best tools in Inventor is Common View...a mode where a block comes up superimposed on the model and the user can select an arrow at any corner or face to switch the view.

 

SolidWorks gives you one iso view and makes it torturously hard to change your view.  Oh, you can use your arrow keys, but nothing as elegant as Inventor.

 

My work-around is a little macro.  Download it, run it inside your model and all the iso views are automatically generated.  You still have to switch them using the View tool, but at least you can get the views you want and need.

 

 

One of the most popular LISP routines I ever wrote was XOFF, which won an award from CAD Depot as a valuable tool for users.  The routine is pretty simple.  It allows a user to select the line or polyline on an external reference (without opening the XREF) and offsetting the line/pline a specified distance. 

 

This free routine has been downloaded and passed around by thousands of users around the globe.   It's pretty cool that something I wrote is helping out AutoCAD users in their day to day lives.

 

A user alerted me that he was having problems using the routine in AutoCAD 2008 and asked for an update.  I updated and tested it in AutoCAD 2009 just to be safe.  It seems to work just fine, but I'll let my readers be the final judges.

 

Next month I start talking about the new releases from Autodesk.  Readers who have hung in there will get some free tutorials, tips and tricks, work-arounds, and ways to be more productive in the new releases.

 

I will start by talking about AutoCAD as that is the first text I updated.  Next up AutoCAD Architecture, then Revit, and Inventor.  So, have patience, your software will get a mention...sooner or later.