Being Inventive

Assembly view partially shaded

You want to create an assembly view where just some components display as shaded, but you don’t want to define the other components as “Reference”.

For doing this, in the assembly file, create or edit a color style, setting the opacity to 0.

 

Create a new Representation View.

 

In the assembly browser, make a multiple selection of the components you don’t want to display as shaded in the view.

 

Then, select the color you have created or modified from the Color drop-down menu for applying it to the selected components.

 

Finally, create the shaded assembly view selecting the Representation View created in the step above.

 

 

Ale
 

Unitless decimal quantity for Virtual Component in Parts List

You have created a Virtual Component in your assembly.

You want to define an unitless decimal quantity to display in the Parts List for the Virtual Component.

For doing this, define the quantity as Custom Property for the Virtual Component.

 

In the drawing, edit the Parts List and use the Format Column command for the QTY column.

 

Set the Substitution and define the New Property that should have the same name of the Custom Property created for the Virtual Component.

 

 

And get the desired result.

 

 Ale

Cannot create or edit thread features or tapped holes

You try to apply a thread to a hole but the thread table is not loaded and Inventor either hangs or produces an error.

The following steps will help you change the registry setting so that threads and tapped holes will use Excel to read the thread spreadsheet instead of Microsoft’s ADO.

Start, Run.

 

Type regedit in the Run dialog box.

 
 In the Registry editor go to the following key, depending on your Inventor version.

Inventor 2012:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion16.0\System\Preferences\Part

Inventor 2011:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion15.0\System\Preferences\Part

Inventor 2010:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion14.0\System\Preferences\Part

Inventor 2009:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion13.0\System\Preferences\Part

 
Under Part, select UseExcelToReadthreadFile and double-click. 

 

Change 0 to 1 in the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, OK.

Close the Registry editor and restart Inventor.

Ale

End Treatments for custom components to be used in a Flanged Tube & Pipe Style

You have created your custom Pipe, Elbow and Flange you want to publish in the Content Center Library and use for creating a Flanged Tube & Pipe Style.

 

 
 

The procedure below shows the End Treatments settings to be used when you make the Authoring of these components before publishing them.

 

For the pipe and the elbow, the End Treatments should be Welded.

 

  

For the flange, one of the End Treatments should be Welded which is used to connect to pipe or elbow.

 

The other End Treatment should be Flanged, which is used to connect to another flange.

 

 

In case the Style is Butt Welded and Flanged and not only Flanged

 

For the flange, one End Treatment should be Butt Welded instead of Welded.

 

Ale

Inventor 2011 SP2 released

As from yesterday Inventor 2011 SP2 was released. You can download it from the following link.

Inventor 2011 SP2

Jon

New MDT 2009 installer compatible with Inventor 2012 available

A new MDT 2009 installer is available on the autodesk.com web site.

The new installer is compatible with the 2012 versions of Inventor software including Autodesk® Product Design Suite 2012, Autodesk® Inventor® 2012 and Autodesk® Inventor® Professional 2012.

The new version is available only for download.

 

As before, you must have a valid installation of Inventor on the target computer before installing the MDT 2009 software.

For more information, please, read the Readme file before the installation.

For new installs you need to contact the Autodesk Registration Team for an Inventor 2009 license.

Style Library Migration

You have modified or added several styles in your current Inventor release and you want to migrate them to the new release of Autodesk Inventor.

Complete the following steps to migrate your style library.

First, back up the style library of the current release and of the new release of Inventor before the migration.

Start the Style Library Manager.

 

Use the browser button of the Style Library 1 at the left to navigate to the folder where the older style collections are located.

By default, the folder location is C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor <old version>\Design Data on Windows XP and C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor <old version>\Design Data on Windows Vista or 7.

The Style Library 2 pane at the right of the dialog should display, by default, the content of the new style library folder location.

If not, use the browser button of the Style Library 2 to navigate to the location of the new style library.

By default, the folder location is C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor <new version>\Design Data on Windows XP and C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor <new version>\Design Data on Windows Vista or 7.

In the examples shown in images below, the Material style collection has been selected from the Choose Style Type list at the far left of the dialog box, but the procedure described below is valid for the other Style Types as well.

 

Start the styles migration by clicking the Migrate button at the bottom of the Style Library 1 pane.

Note: this button is only enabled when a library requires migration. Once migrated, style libraries cannot be used with older versions of Inventor.

Confirm the migration in the Confirm Style Library Migrate dialog box.

 

When the migration is complete, a dialog box appears displaying the results of the migration.

  

Once the style library has been migrated, you can use the Show Mismatched Styles Filter Button to show the styles whose definitions are different in the two libraries.

With this setting, the style names display as bold, underlined, and red.

If you decide to copy some of these styles to the new library, they will function exactly as they did in the previous release. However, you will not be able to take advantage of possible corrections that have been added to these styles in the latest release.

 

You can use the Show Unique Styles Filter Button to show styles that exist in one library but not the other.

With this setting, the style names are italicized and displayed in blue.

 

Finally you must choose which (if any) style collection you would like to copy to the new library.

After selecting one or more styles from the Style Library 1 pane, click the Copy Selected Styles from Style Library 1 to Style Library 2 button to add them to the new library.

 

Ale

The Visibility context command is disabled in a drawing

You have created an assembly view and selecting one component of the assembly in the browser you notice that the Visibility context command is disabled.

 

The explanation for this is that the component visibility in the view is controlled by an Associative Representation View.

  

If you want enable the Visibility command, you can edit the view and uncheck the Associative box in the Drawing View dialog, Component tab.

By the way, by doing this you break the automatic update of colors, composition of assemblies, etc.

Alternatively you can leave the view Associative and control the component visibility in the drawing from the assembly.

Ale

Wrong Product Key

You have downloaded your product from the Subscription Center, but, when you enter the product key you see it is marked with a red cross.

 

In general this happens, if you have downloaded the wrong product from the Subscription Center.

There is an easy way to find out the the associated product key for the product you have downloaded.

1. Navigate to the location of the setup.exe file for your Autodesk product.
2. In that folder, look for a file named MID.txt, MID01.txt, MID02.txt or some variation on that name.
3. Open this file in notepad and verify that the product name is what you expected it to be.
4. The first five characters of the part number should also be the product key for that product.

Example:

MID: Autodesk_Design_Suite_Ultimate_2012_64bit_SWL_ENU_C009_EXE1
Product Name: Autodesk Design Suite Ultimate 2012
Platform: Windows XP/Vista/Win7
Media: ESD
Part Number: 769D1-05Y001-P503E, 769D1-05Y001-P504E

We recommend verifying the product name because sometimes customers who download their Autodesk software inadvertently download the wrong product and are then confused when the product key does not work as expected.

For more information read the solution http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1105767

Ale

Custom Tube & Pipe content unit

You have created your metric custom Tube & Pipe component and you have published it in the Content Center Library for using it in a custom Tube & Pipe style.

 

When you select the component for your style, by the way, the size displays in inch.

 

In this case, check if you have included the in the ipart table of the component, the column that specifies the unit format.

 

And that you have mapped the Nominal Size parameter to this column in the Tube & Pipe Authoring dialog, before publishing the component.

 

After you do this and republish the component, the size will display the expected unit when you select the component for your style.

 

Ale