by Clint Brown
Inventor 2014 allows you to open models in “Express Mode” which is essentially a light weight model. The benefits of this, are that you can open models faster and that you can open, and work with lots of complex geometry that may have previously been a bit too much for your graphics card to process.
There are a few tricks to Express mode that may not be apparent from the start. The first thing to remember is that you cannot open an old 2012 or 2013 file in Express mode, these files will need to be migrated to 2014 format first.
That’s great, but now what? When you open a model in 2014, you might not see Express mode at all! These are the things to look out for:
1) When opening an Assembly file, you can choose to open the file in Express mode, by clicking on the Options Button in the Open Dialogue
2) If you already have a model open, and you are not sure how to load it in express mode, the tool may be hidden. This is because it is one of the Tools nested under the Productivity tools on the Assemble Tab
3) When Loading Express, the file will need to be saved, and a conversion will occur.
A Load Full Icon will now appear on your Assemble Tab
4) In your Application Options. Tools > Application Options, on the Assemble Tab, you have additional Express Mode Settings. You can choose to Enable Express Mode workflows, and you can decide how many parts are in an assembly before Express Mode is automatically enabled.
Enjoy faster large assemblies in Autodesk Inventor