Inventor Performance Optimization slides from John Kavusaks' session at Synergis Univeristy 2014.

1. Inventor 2015
Performance Optimization
John Kavusak
MSD Solutions Engineer

2. Overview
• Inventor’s Application options
• Express mode
• The Inventor Project File
• Windows settings
• Graphics Cards and Workstations
• Other useful Links and Information.

3. Inventor’s Application Options
General Tab:
 Set the Username Field to how you would like to see it in
the models iProperties.
 Check “Update physical properties on Save” so Inventor
does not have to be running to query accurate data. This
will ensure that the correct data is extracted during a
check-in by your DM application as well.
 Set the undo file size as small as possible. The size of the
undo file size directly effects the amount of available
RAM. Also a large undo file will cause less RAM to be
given back to the OS requiring a restart of Inventor and
Windows to reallocate that RAM.
 Adjust the Annotation Scale to increase the size of
dimension text in a sketch.

4. Inventor’s Application Options
File Tab:
 If possible move the Undo file location to another
physical hard drive for increased performance. Moving
the file to a RAM disk, Flash, or USB hard drive is not
recommended.
 Let your project file control the locations of the Default
Templates, Design Data, Content Center Files. This will
help enforce CAD standards throughout your company.
 Set the Projects Folder to the location of your projects.

5. Inventor’s Application Options
Colors Tab:
 Avoid using a gradient or image background. This
uses additional graphics memory and on larger
models could cause regen issues during an orbit.
Using a solid background color is the least taxing on
your systems resources.
 Avoid using High Res images for the Reflection
Environment unless making presentation quality
renderings of the models. Using lower quality
.bmp’s or .jpg’s will use less graphics memory and
improve the performance of orbits and panning.
 Turn off “Enable Enhanced Highlighting” on large
models. Have this option on will cause a
performance drop in making selections.

6. Inventor’s Application Options
Display Tab:
• Most items are user preference and have little effect on
performance
• Display Quality should be set to smooth or smoother
but can be set to medium or rough on large models to
improve the quality of real-time orbits and panning. If
you find that you must work in medium or rough you
may want to consider a graphics card with additional
VRAM
• Reverse Direction can be used to control the scroll
wheel zoom to be like Inventor or AutoCAD. (unchecked
is the Inventor zoom direction which is the default)
• The display quality of silhouettes, edges and
transparency will depend on the quality of the graphics
card in your system. Most Nvidia Quadro and ATI
FireGL/FirePRO class graphics hardware will do very well
with any of these options. Unsupported hardware such
as the Intel GMA adapters may cause performance
issues, artifacts left on the screen, or crashing.

7. Inventor’s Application Options
Display Appearance:
• Avoid working in “Realistic” Visual Style with
Ray Tracing active. This will severly degrade
system performance.
• During Ray Tracing all CPU cores are utilized at
100% until processing is complete.
• Any change in point of view or Graphics settings
will cause the processing to start over
• The options highlighted at the right all require
addition CPU / GPU processing and additional
RAM and VRAM

8. Inventor’s Application Options
Hardware Tab:
Quality - This setting favors graphics presentation over system
performance. For machines running Windows 7 or
higher, turns on anti-aliasing and improves the visual
quality of the graphics display.
Performance - This setting favors system performance over
graphic presentation. Anti-aliasing is turned off
for machines running Windows 7 or higher. This
is the default setting.
Compatibility - This setting uses the same graphics processes as
the Inventor 2009 and earlier releases.
Advanced display options, such as Visual Styles
and Realistic Appearance materials, are not
available
Software graphics - Specifies the use of software based
graphics processing rather than
hardware based. The setting has often
been seen as a last resort for graphics
choices.

9. Inventor’s Application Options
Drawing Tab:
• Only use Memory saving mode when running out of
memory. Using memory saving mode could prevent
running out of memory but will slow down
performance of drawing creation. If you must use
this option consider a workstation with a 64bit
operating system to accommodate additional RAM.
• Show preview as is by default set to “All
Components” If you notice that the view jumps
around or has a slow regeneration when trying to
place a view select the bounding box mode instead.
This will show only a bounding box of the view and
will make placement of the view much faster.
• Inventor 2012 and later now uses multiple cores to
process drawing views.
• Use of bitmap views allows complex calculations to
run in the background while still being able to detail
the drawing.

10. Inventor’s Application Options
Sketch Tab:
• If you don’t need to see the Grid lines, Minor Grid
Lines, Axis, or the Coordinate system indicator turn
them off. Like anything else on the screen they use
resources and create clutter. With the introduction
of the view cube it is easier to orient yourself in the
model with the common names of front, back, right,
etc instead of a red, blue, or green arrow.
• Turn off “Autoproject edges for sketch creation and
edit” and “Autoproject edges during curve creation”.
Keeping these turned on results in a bloated sketch
and large file size. Turning this option off will allow
you to use project geometry and project only what
you need.
• “Autoproject part origin on sketch create” is useful
to constrain your sketch to the origin. This could
also be manually projected if you want this option
off.
• You can increase the size of Contraint Symbols using
the “Constraint and DOF symbol scale”

11. Inventor’s Application Options
Sketch Tab:
• Check Edit dimension when created. Most often you
will edit the dimension anyway.
• Inventor 2015 has added new option in the sketch
settings to control how you view, place, and work
with sketch constraints

12. Inventor’s Application Options

13. Inventor’s Application Options
Part Tab:
• No new sketch! This is now default in Inventor 2013 and
later. Manually create the sketch you want on the plane
you want. Many users would often create their new part
on the x – y plane because it was the default. Setting this
option to No new sketch should make the user think
about how this part might be placed in an assembly. It
may be better to start the first sketch on the x – z plane
so when it is placed in an assembly it is already oriented
correct in 3D space. Also keep in mind that if you extract
dimensional data like length and width on a drawing you
may be getting the values transposed.
• 2015 now labels the origin planes when creating a your
first sketch.
• Another option is to Redefine the sketch after the initial
creation. However, you will have to project the center
point and re-constrain the geometry if it was previously
constrained.

14. Inventor’s Application Options
Part Tab:
• Display Extended information after feature node name in
browser. This option will help you easily identify the
design intent of the features in the model tree by
displaying the key parameter values.
• The construction environment is now disabled by default.
The repair bodies tools will work transparent in the part
environment eliminating the need to create the copy to
construction and maintain associativity to any link
geometry from the derived component model (Derived
ipt or iam, Derived Alias import)

15. Inventor’s Application Options
Assembly Tab:
• Defer update should usually be unchecked. If you
have a large assembly that you are going to be
making many changes to and do not want to wait for
each update you could turn this on. This will require
you to manually do a “rebuild all” from the tools
menu. Keep in mind this is an application wide
setting so don’t forget to set it back.
• 2015 adds a new option (off by default to place and
ground first component at origin). Previous versions
always placed the first component in an assembly
grounded at the root (0,0,0). In 2015 on placement
of all components the user can right click and choose
to place at the origin or free place.
• Display component names after constraint names.
This option allows users to quickly identify both
halves of a constraint just by looking at the browser
name.

16. Inventor’s Application Options
Assembly Tab Continued:
• “Features are initially adaptive” should be kept off.
Setting everything initially adaptive can easily lead
to unpredictable results when constraining parts or
driving constraints.
• Unless for special cases, adaptivity should not be
used. When it is used adaptivity of the part should
be then turned off once the desired results have
been obtained. Keep in mind that a given part can
only be adaptive in one assembly.
• Always be cautious with the adaptivity options!
• “Component opacity” When “active only” is
selected and a user is editing a part or subassembly
in the context of a parent assembly only the part or
subassembly being edited with be opaque.
• Uncheck Both options for Cross part Geometry
projection. This also uses adaptivity. Other
methods to eliminate the need for this are skeletal
modeling and the use of the Feature migrator on
Autodesk Labs

17. Inventor’s Application Options
Content Center Tab:
• You have the option to keep the content libraries on a hard drive without using the Autodesk Vault Server
 Windows 7 or Later default location = “C:ProgramDataAutodeskInventor 2015Content CenterLibraries”

18. Inventor’s Application Options
Save Tab:
•Turn off prompt to save for re-computable updates. This
options will have a “Yes” in the save dialog box even
though nothing has changed in the model. This is
common when running iLogic rules. The rule may cause
the file to be marked as “dirty” requiring and update and
save.
•Prompt to save for migration should be turned on if
different users in your office are using different versions
of Inventor. Remember you cannot save down like you
can in AutoCAD.
•Do not check “Do not list referenced files that default to
“No” in the Save dialog” off. You can click yes on library
files to force a save.
•The save Reminder is Annoying so turn if off. It is not an
AutoSave

19. The Inventor Project File
• Let the Project file set as many of your
company standards as possible.
• Setting the Design Data, Templates, and
Content Center Files will override the paths in
the application options – file tab for these
paths only.
• Only use Libraries if they are needed. Any
parts that would be considered a purchased
or library part should be published to content
center.
• Do not use a library folder for ilogic smart
assemblies, iassemblies or iparts if any
changes are to be made. Making these
changes in a Vaulted environment can be
difficult.
• The use of Vault is recommended for the
management of Inventor data. Vault now has
a plugin for almost all the Product Design
Suite Applications. So managing workflows is
seemless.

20. Windows Themes
• Setting windows to “Adjust for Best Performance” will turn off most
of the animated or cosmetic features in Windows and switch to the
Classic theme. This will improve performance by shrinking the
graphics memory footprint required to run the OS freeing up more
graphics memory for your model.
• Win 7 or later = This is set at Control panel – System – “Advanced
system settings” Advanced – “Settings” Visual Affects tab:
• The Classic Themes will also reduce the chance of graphical
artifacts, disappearing pull down menus, and flickering or
shuddering in the graphics windows of Inventor.
• Win 7 or later = “Control PanelAll Control Panel
ItemsPersonalization”
• Avoid the “Aero” themes.
• Note: Setting the Theme from the Display options does not make
all necessary changes.
Windows Settings

21. Windows Settings
The Page file
• Only set a page file if you need one.
• Minimum should be equal to the amount of RAM
• Maximum 1.5 times the amount of RAM
• Never let Windows manage the size of the page file.
• If using the 3gb switch (32bit) both values should equal the amount
of 4096KB
• If possible put the page file on a physically different hard disk as
the application is installed. This will reduce the butterfly affect
accessing the hard disk. If your system disk is a SSD this is not
needed
• This is set at Control panel – System – Advanced – Performance
Settings.
• Win 7 = This is set at Control panel – System – “Advanced system
settings” Advanced – “Settings” Advanced tab:
• The use of windows defrag will move this page file to the outer
most sectors of the hard drive improving performance of the page
file. For SSD drive defragmentation is not recommended or
needed.
• Defragmenting regularly will keep performance at its peek
• Turn off live scanning of this page file and the undo folder in your
anti-virus software if the option is available

22. Windows Settings
Disable recycle bin and system restore.
NOTE: consider these only if you are comfortable with them.
• Disable the Recycle bin or any other product that keeps
copies of every deleted file. (Right click on the recycle bin
and select properties.)
• Disable System Restore. This saves disk space and access
time. Bring up the system properties dialog (Windows key +
Pause key, or right click on My Computer and select
properties) > System restore and turn it off.

23. Periodically check running processes.
• With the help of your IT staff disable all processes that are not
needed.
• To see what is running use the windows task manager.
• Do not disable it if you do not know what it is. Googling the
process name will usually identify what the process is.
• Use Msconfig.exe or Ccleaner to enable and disable processes
and services.
Windows Settings

24. Picking a Graphics Card
• Graphics card should be on the certified list.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?id=18844534&siteID=123112
• Be sure to use the Certified Driver recommended by Autodesk
• If using Windows 7 or later be sure the card you choose is WHQL Certified.
• Cards good for Gaming are usually not good for CAD
• Choose a card intended for use with CAD and other professional graphics applications.
• Nvidia Quadro and ATI FireGL and ATI FirePRO are recommended.
• Nvidia Quadro NVS cards are compatible but not great performers.
• If working with large models or complex surface data a card with 2gb RAM or more is
recommended.
• Check the Autodesk website for compatibility before using the graphics card utilities such
as Nview by Nvidia or Catyist Control Center by ATI.
Graphics Cards and Workstations

25. Hard disks
• Multiple hard disks can improve performance
• SATA, SAS, SSD
• RAID 0 or 1 Recommended
• 7200 RPM or better for mechanical drives
• High IOPS for SSD drives
• Many of the high speed disks come in smaller sizes. Using a RAID configuration will give
you the larger capacity you may desire without loosing performance.
Graphics Cards and Workstations

26. Other Hardware and Software
• 3d Connexion devises can increase productivity by eliminating the need to initiate the
zoom pan and orbit commands. Using the 3d device is transparent and does not require
initiating any command.
• Avoid using vendor specific mouse drivers like Microsoft Intellipoint. These drivers have
been known to cause issues in the past.
• If you store your cad data on a network share be sure you have a 1gb network adapter
and you have 1gb connectivity to the switch and server. This will greatly reduce the time
to open your CAD data.
• The use of a document management system such as Autodesk Vault will copy the data to
your local hard disk. Accessing data from your local hard drive will give you the fastest
possible access during open, save, close and updates.
Graphics Cards and Workstations

27. Other Useful Information
Inventor Task Scheduler
When having model or drawing performance issues and RAM is not the issue use the Inventor Task Scheduler to perform an Update Design
on your model. The log file that is generated will often point out possible issues in the model. These files with issues should then be handles
from the lowest file type to the highest. (ipt first, idw/dwg last). Look at each of these problem files for the Design Doctor (red cross) or an
update button that will not go away. DO NOT IGNORE THEM! Often these errors are caused by bad modeling practices. Once these issues
are resolved rerun the task to perform another update and again look for errors.
I look for the following:
• Failures migrating, Mass property updates, Update failures, Rebuild failures, Files access issues (such as read only, un-resolved,
etc)
• Dwf generation issues. (this is for vault, If you check in a model and inventor crashes or the check-in fails during dwf creation you
have no way to know which file caused the error. Using the task scheduler will start and the bottom of the tree and go up allowing
you to identify which file is the problem.
• The other data is the length of time needed to complete the task. So if I don’t see anything that stands out as the problem you can
look at the time it took for a file and judge whether or not it finished in a reasonable time. Also sometimes you may see which files
are hanging up the process. It is usually these files that will cause inventor to crash.

28. Other Useful Information
So Inventor crashed what should I do?
Send the error report. Autodesk needs to know about the problem. Also many times you will may
receive a notice that there is a service pack or a hot fix to resolve the problem.
Is the problem reproducible?
There are many possible causes for crashes including bugs in Inventor or Windows, low system
resources, bad modeling, bad 3rd party data, and anti-virus programs.
After a crash always reboot your workstation.
Check to be sure of the following:
• Windows is up to date.
• Are you out of RAM. Crashing caused by a lack of ram is not a software problem and cannot be fixed
by software. Free up RAM or install additional RAM.
• Has anything changed on your system marking the start of the problem?
• Check the Autodesk site for Hotfixes and Service Packs!
.

29. Other Useful Information
General Maintenance
• Defragment Regularly
• Clear out your temp locations regularly
a) C:windowstemp
b) C:Documents and Setting(username)local settingstemp
c) C:Documents and Setting(username)local settingstemporary internet files
• Reboot your system
• Check for updates to Windows, Inventor, and your Graphics Hardware.
• Check running processes
• Scan your systems for Viruses and Spyware
• Use the task scheduler to update your designs.
• Learn new techniques
• Work with clean data. When using 3rd party data with Inventor run the Quality Check.
• If using a data management software like Vault Keep you workspace clean.
• Avoid using the default file names such as part1, assembly1
• Avoid unneeded spaces in file names and feature names.
• Avoid Long file names. The total path of a filename cannot exceed 255 characters. Exceeding this
amount can cause many problems with Inventor, Windows and your data management system.
• Avoid having too many files in a single folder. Windows has a limit to how many files in a single folder
it can handle.

30. Useful Links
www.Synergis.com
www.Autodesk.com
Information on Inventor, Workstations, and Graphics Cards.
http://www.inventor-certified.com/graphics/index.php
3d Connexions 3d controllers.
http://www.3dconnexion.com/
Nvidia Quadro FX Graphics Controllers
http://www.nvidia.com/page/workstation.html
ATI FireGL Graphics Controllers
http://ati.amd.com/products/workstation.html