Up until the release of Inventor 2025, the Open dialog box had largely remained the same (as shown below). In general, you could select folders in the Workspace pane, navigate to other folders in the Look in: area, change and load projects as needed, search for files, and flip to the Create New File dialog box, if needed.
Since 2025, this dialog box has been going through an overhaul to improve usage and provide all the tools in easy-to-access locations. For example, by version 2026.2:
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How to navigate the folder structure in the Open dialog box has changed the most. The left-hand navigation pane now contains Workspace and hard-drive folder access, so you can navigate to your files like you would in Windows File Explorer.
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You can also access the Projects dialog box using the
icon, or you can activate loaded project files from the adjacent drop-down list.
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The Options button that has always been at the bottom of the dialog box, enabling you to customize which model state or design view would be displayed when the file was opened, is now an option in the right-hand pane that you select to customize the file’s configuration, allowing you to remain in the Open dialog box the entire time.
And now, with the release of Autodesk Inventor 2027, the Open dialog box has changed again, introducing an even more customizable Tree View in the left-hand pane. This allows you to select whether you want the entire left-hand navigation pane to display as the Inventor Workspace Tree View (
) or the Windows Navigation Tree View (
), as shown below.
This allows you to decide for yourself which folder view you would like to see and flip back and forth as needed. Other than a small relocation of the Options option in the right-hand pane, no other new functionality was added.
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