HELP!

Besides being the title of what is possibly my favorite up-tempo Beatles song, HELP is a word typically associated with a useless function in most software applications. Not if you're talking about Inventor though.

Over the last few months when I've sporadically posted on this blog I've mentioned the Help system more than once. Recently I spent some time getting caught up with the "Ask a question" portion of the Autodesk Student Engineering & Design Community and it occurred to me that I should point out some of the best features of Inventor's Help system to show people that it is truly different and a great resource. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to help new users find the answers. I just want to let people know that when I need help, I don't call some secret phone number inside of Autodesk or bring up a special database; I press F1!

When you start Inventor 2010 you'll be greeted by the Get Started tab of the new ribbon interface. I absolutely love this new interface and the Get Started tab is where I started to get all warm and fuzzy toward it. On the Get Started tab you see the usual New and Open file tools along with the 'User Interface Overview'panel is the first great tutorial resource on the Ribbon. It contains three tools that will give you an overview of the Ribbon interface concept, a step by step tutorial on modifying and controlling the interface and even a tool that will allow you to select an icon you already know if a previous version of Inventor and the system will show you where it's now located.

Next to the User Interface Overview is our old friend 'What's New'. Stump your neighbors, impress your friends and make the rest of the class jealous by using this tool to give you the inside information on every notable update to the latest version of the software. The frist think I do with a new release is go through the descriptions offered in the New Features Workshop. Everything is categorized with descriptions of the feature, images, and even a direct link to the in depth help.

It's the fourth panel in the Get Started tab that I find truly amazing. First is the Getting Started Guide. A document that has been available to Inventor users every release. It largely goes unread but it is a great way to understand what Inventor can do and why it does it. Next is the Tutorials. Forty-nine step by step lessons on everything from how to sketch in Inventor to creating rendered animations to finding the stress in a part of an assembly. It's simply amazing how much is in these tutorials. When I do instructor lead training on campus I use these materials. They work, the files needed install with the program and they even include animations of many of the steps. They're a fantastic way to learn above and beyond what you cover in class. The Learning Path will show you alternative sources to find information and communicate with other users.

The last element in the Learn about Inventor panel is the Show Me Animations. I've separated these from the rest because I think that they're the most under-utilized feature in Inventor when you consider their value. Nearly every individual tool or technique in Inventor is represented here. And it's all done with an animation to show you how these tools work. I can't even imagine the amount of work that goes into creating an animation for all of the tools in Inventor. In the image show  here you can see a list of the major categories. Under Sketch Dimensions I've expanded Circular and under that are animations for creating a Diameter and Radius dimension in a sketch. These animations step through the process of using a tool and include text to describe what's being done.

Finally the Get Startedtab has a link to the Student Community and to a program where you, the user can tell Autodesk what you think about Inventor. Positive, negative, "gee it would be great if I could do this". It's all valuable.

Explore Inventor's Help system and if you do find it lacking in some way use the Customer Involvement function to let Autodesk's developers know so that they can make it better. The system is there for you and it's a great system. If you want to ask a question on the Student Community that's wonderful but don't pass up the opportunity to learn more about the tools that you have at your disposal as soon as you install Inventor.

It's always OK to ask for Help.

Comments

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