Rules Explorer

The sidebar on the left is the Rules Explorer. It has two groups: Document Rules (internal rules stored inside the active Inventor document) and External Rules (rule files on disk, from your configured iLogic directories).

The rail switches the sidebar between Rules (described here), Search rules, and Snippets, in that order. Clicking the active entry collapses the sidebar.

Document Rules

Document Rules lists the internal iLogic rules of the document that is currently active in Inventor, each shown with a icon. The list refreshes automatically when you switch documents. Each rule opens into an editor tab when you click it.

Like iLogic's own browser, the list follows in-place editing: while you edit a part or subassembly in place inside an assembly, Document Rules shows that component's rules, and finishing the edit switches back to the assembly's. Open document-rule tabs are handled as on any document switch. Model-state, iPart, and Content Center members edited in place show no document rules, as in iLogic.

External Rules

External Rules is a tree of the rule files found in the external rule directories configured in Inventor's iLogic options. Folders () are shown as a hierarchy and can be expanded and collapsed; external rule files show a icon. Use Expand all and Collapse all in the group header to open or close the whole tree at once.

External rule directories are managed in Settings → iLogic Configuration. The same setting controls which directories Inventor itself uses.

The editor watches these directories. When a rule file changes on disk outside the editor (the AI agent, another editor, a Vault get), the tree follows added, removed and renamed files, and an open tab of the file reloads with a short note. If you have unsaved edits in that tab, they stay: a banner offers Compare, Take the file's version or Keep mine (which keeps your text to save over the file). Open tabs are also checked when the editor gets the focus back, for folders on network shares that don't report every change.

Opening rules

How a single click behaves is set by Open rules with in Settings → Rules:

• Single click (preview): a click opens the rule in a reusable preview tab (shown in italics). Opening another rule reuses that tab. Double-click the rule, or its tab, to keep it open.
• Double click: a rule only opens on double-click, and always as a kept tab.

See Tabs for more on preview and pinned tabs.

Creating rules

Each group header has buttons for creating rules and, for External Rules, expanding the tree:

Button	Action
New rule	Create an empty rule: in the active document (Document Rules header) or in the first configured external directory (External Rules header). Right-click a folder to create one there.
New rule from template	Create a rule seeded from a template
Expand all	Open every folder in the External Rules tree
Collapse all	Close every folder back to the roots

The header buttons create document rules in the active document, and external rules in the first configured directory. To create an external rule (blank or from a template) in a specific folder, right-click that folder and choose New Rule or New Rule from Template.

Managing rules

Right-click any rule for its context menu:

Action	Available on	Description
Rename	All rules	Rename the rule (a case-only change is allowed)
Duplicate	All rules	Duplicate the rule with an auto-incremented name
Delete	All rules	Permanently delete the rule (with a confirmation)
Open in Explorer	External rules only	Reveal the rule file in Windows Explorer (Alt+O)

Right-click a folder for New rule, New rule from template, and Open in Explorer.

You can also choose Open in Explorer from the right-click menu of an open external-rule tab or an external-rule heading in Find in Rules.

Moving rules between folders

Drag an external rule onto another folder (or a root directory) to move the file there. The folder highlights as you drag over it, and if the rule is open in a tab, the tab follows it to the new location. A move is skipped if a rule with the same name already exists in the target folder. Document rules live inside the document and can't be moved this way.

Resizing the sidebar

Drag the divider between the sidebar and the editor to change the sidebar width, and the divider between Document Rules and External Rules to change their split. Drag the sidebar narrow enough, or click the active Rules () icon in the rail, to collapse it entirely. The layout is remembered between sessions.