Document Switcher

The Document Switcher is a visual, Alt-Tab-style overlay for your open Inventor documents. Instead of squinting at the Window menu, you see a thumbnail of every open document and switch with the keyboard. It is part of the Basic tier.

Quick Start

1. Open two or more documents in Inventor
2. Press Ctrl+Tab
3. A centred overlay appears with a thumbnail tile for each open document
4. Hold Ctrl and tap Tab to move the highlight forward (Shift+Tab to go back)
5. Release Ctrl to switch to the highlighted document

You can also click a tile to jump straight to it, or press Esc to close the switcher without changing documents.

What each tile shows

• The document’s thumbnail (the same preview Inventor stores with the file)
• The file name
• A document-type indicator (Part, Assembly, Drawing, Presentation)

The currently active document is offset to the start, and the switcher pre-selects the next document — so a quick Ctrl+Tab, release flips you to the last document you were in, just like Alt-Tab.

Speed

The switcher is built to feel instant:

• The window is created once and reused, so it opens with no lag
• Thumbnails are cached after the first time you see them, so repeated Ctrl+Tab presses are immediate

Changing the hotkey

Open CadShift Settings: in Inventor, go to the Tools tab, find the CadShift panel, and click CadShift. Under Hotkeys, click the Document Switcher box, press your new combination, and click Save. It applies immediately; no file editing and no restart.

Use Reset beside the box to return to the default (Ctrl+Tab).

Next step

Once you’re switching documents by keyboard, group the ones you work on together with Document Groups (Professional) — the switcher gains tabs for each saved set.