Avatech Tricks: Entering Property Information into

the Title Block

5 Sep, 2006By: Kevin Keene

Link part or assembly information, add a prompted value or add a custom

property to your Inventor title block.
This article discusses the procedure for linking part or assembly information, adding a prompted value and
adding a custom property to the title block. For this example, I'll use the Autodesk STANDARD.IDW template
with the ANSI -- Large title block located in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 11\Templates.
Link Data from a Part or Assembly
How many times do you currently enter data about a part or assembly in Inventor? If it's more than once, it's
too many. Linking part or assembly data to the IDW is a very useful practice that can prevent you from re-
entering information, and can also reduce the chance for error.

By default, the STANDARD.IDW template title block is set to pull information from the drawing iProperties and
place it into the title block. To change where and how these fields get their information, open this template file
by right-clicking on the title block and then choosing Edit Definition from the context menu (figure 1).

Figure 1. Edit the definition of the ANSI -- Large title block. 

After clicking the Edit Definition command, Inventor displays all of the properties, lines and
dimensions that define the title block in a 2D sketch (figure 2).

Figure 2. Title block sketch representation. 

To begin, right-click on the Title property and select Edit Text. Make sure the word Title is highlighted in red to
that the Format Text dialog box comes up (figure 3). First delete the red Title in the text area. Next, in the Type
drop-down menu, select Properties -- Model. This command tells Inventor to look at the model for the
information instead of the drawing file.
 Figure 3. The Format Text dialog box. 
Once you have selected Properties -- Model, click the Property down arrow (figure 4) to display a list of
properties associated with the model. Select Title from the list.

Figure 4. Setting the property in the Format Text dialog box. 

Once you have selected Title from the list, click the Add
Text Parameters button to
apply the change. Title once again shows up in text area, only this time it's pointing to the title field
in the model, not the drawing. Click OK.

You have just modified the first property to pull from the model. Continue the same process with any additional
fields.

When you are done, right-click and select Save Title Block. Inventor takes you back to the drawing
sheet. Once this file is saved as a template, this dialog box appears each time you start a new drawing with it.

Add a Prompted Value

Prompted entries force a dialog box to appear when a new IDW is created. This dialog box requests that
you provide information to be placed in the title block (much like an AutoCAD attribute).

For this example, let's change the revision number in the STANDARD.IDW template to be a prompted entry.
Right-click on the Revision Number property and select Edit Text. Make sure the word Revision
Number is highlighted in red. This brings up the Format Text dialog box. In the Type drop-down menu,
select Prompted Entry. You can now enter the revision number in the dialog box when creating new
drawings. Click OK.

When you are done, right-click and select Save Title Block. Inventor takes you back to the drawing sheet
and a dialog box requesting the revision number appears. Once this file is saved as a template, this dialog box
appears each time you start a new drawing with it.

Create a Custom Property

So far, I've talked about default properties that exist in every model or drawing. However, there are
occasions where companies need additional data that's relevant to them, but Autodesk doesn't have a property
for it. This is when custom properties come into play. The use of custom properties lets you add any relevant
data to a model or drawing. Once you add the custom property to an IPT or IAM file, you then can pull that
information into the title block of an IDW file.

Using the same example as above, let's create a custom property within the IPT template file and then pull
that information into the title block of the IDW template. Start Windows Explorer and navigate to your template
file location (I found mine at C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 11\Templates) and locate the
STANDARD.IPT template file. Right-click on the STANDARD.IPT file and click iProperties. In the Properties
dialog box, click on the Custom tab (figure 5). In the Name field enter the custom property name (Part Crib
Number), change the type if needed and click Add. Close the Properties dialog box.
 Figure 5. Custom tab in the IPT Properties dialog box. 
In order to add the custom property to the title block in the STANDARD.IDW, create a temporary model using
the newly updated STANDARD.IPT template. Start a new part file using the updated IPT template. Save the
file as Part 1. Switch to the IDW template file that you are modifying above. Place a blank view from Part 1.
Right-click on the title block and select Edit Definition. Using the Text command, place text in the title
block area. I'm placing mine in the lower left corner. When the Format Text dialog box appears (figure 6),
change the Type to Custom Properties -- Model and the Property to Part Crib Number. Click the Add
Text Parameters button to apply the change. Click OK. You should see Part Crib Number in the
lower left corner of the title block (figure 7).
 Figure 6. Modifying the type and property in the Format Text dialog box. 

Figure 7. Adding a custom property to the title block sketch. 

Right-click and select Save Title Block. Inventor takes you back to the drawing sheet. In the tree
browser, right-click on the View from Part 1 and delete it. Save the STANDARD.IDW template file. Close all
files.

Now it's time to practice using this file as you would in everyday business. Start a new model using the
STANDARD.IPT. Create a part. In the iProperties of that part, modify the Title field located on the Summary
tab, then add 1234 to the Part Crib Number field located on the Custom tab. Save the file. Start a new
drawing using the STANDARD.IDW. Inventor prompts you for a revision number. Enter A. Place a view from
the new part you just created. The Title, Author and Part Crib Number should all be filled in (figure 8). Save
your IDW.
 Figure 8. Finished title block. 
Hopefully you can see the benefit of editing your title block to create prompted entries and to automatically pull
standard and custom properties into your drawings.
Edit Property Fields, Prompted Texts,
Attributes dialog box
Feb 09 2016
Applies to Factory Design Suite 2016, Inventor 2016, & Product Design Suite 2016

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Sets or changes the values of prompted entries and iProperties in a title block, border, or
sketch symbol. The iProperties are edited in the Properties dialog box, which is displayed
when you click iProperties in the Edit Property Fields dialog box.

 In the browser, right-click a sketch symbol, border, or the Field

Access: Text entry of a title block, and then select Edit Field Text.
 The dialog box displays automatically when you insert a title
block, border, or sketch symbol containing prompted entries in the
drawing.

Property Type Selects the type of property to display in the table. Properties of all
list other types are filtered out from the table. Choose All to display the
list of all iProperties and prompted values.
Lists the titles of iProperties and prompted values included in the
Property Field selected title block, border, or sketch symbol.

Tip: To change the titles of prompted values, edit the definition of the object
in the Drawing Resources folder. To change the order of prompted entries,
right-click the object (for example title block or sketch symbol) in Drawing
Resources, and select Reorder Prompted Entries.

Shows the current value for each property and prompted entry.
Value Double-click a value to edit, and then enter a new value.

Note: Only values for prompted entries can be edited in the Edit Property
Fields dialog box. To edit iProperties, click the iProperties button.

Displays the iProperties dialog box. You can edit the iProperties,
 save the edits, and return back to the dialog box.
Parent topic: Sketch symbols

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