Being Inventive

Part Number and Description always in synch for Frames

You want to insert the Structural Shape components in your assemblies in the way that in the iProperties, the Description Field value is equal to the Part Number one.

So, you have copied the Structural Shape Families you want to use in a custom library.

For each of them you have edited the Family Table adding a column with the properties as in the image below.

By the way, doing this you get the result you want inserting the Structural Shape components in your assembly with the command Place from Content Center

But not inserting them with Frame Generator.

In order to get the desired result inserting the components either way, you need to replace in the column property Expression “{PARTNUMBER}” with “=<Part Number>” as in the image below.

Ale

Mandatory ECO Materials Adviser coming this week-end

For those of you that use or are planning to use the ECO material Adviser in Autodesk Inventor 2012, be aware that we are updating this add-in this week-end.

We have provided such updates in the past and I am sure you have seen this message after running ECO Materials Adviser the first time.

Until now, you could opt out of the update process.

The difference is that this new update is a MANDATORY update and this is clearly communicated in the following dialog which you will start seeing this week-end:

Even if you refuse to "Click here", we will still redirect you to the Granta resource center from which the update can be downloadedJ.

The other novelty is that the update is multi-language.

Let me explain why you should install this January 2012 update (version number v3.9.15.0).

1. Additional features and performance

In addition to general refinement and performance enhancement compared to the original version shipped with Autodesk Inventor 2012, the following specific features are provided in this update:

• Support for mapping your own custom Inventor material styles to suitable equivalents in the ECO Materials Adviser database.
• Updates to the information in the ECO Materials Adviser database itself.

2. Ability to upgrade to Full Version

If you want to upgrade to the full version and take advantage of all the following extra features, you'll first need to have installed this update:

• Analysis of Autodesk Inventor assemblies of any number of parts, removing the twenty-part limit of the base version.
• Substantially extended materials database, offering a choice of around 3,000 materials.
• Include transport and use phase details in eco impact analyses, thus considering all phases of the complete product lifecycle – raw materials, manufacture, transport, use, and disposal.
• Include the eco impact of surface finishing processes, in addition to the primary manufacturing processes supported in the base version.

3. Ensure continued operation and support

As part of the policy of on-going enhancement to ECO Materials Adviser, which can involve server as well as client changes, it's not possible to guarantee that superseded versions will continue to work.
Update now, and be sure of on-going access to the latest functionality!

Thanks
Bob

Using Environments tab (Optimization) in Inventor Professional (PDS) will request activation

You have installed Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate and  you have successfully activated the product.

When run Autodesk Inventor Professional and you click on the "Environments tab", it will try to re-activate your software.

 

NOTE:  The Activation request will be for Autodesk Product Design Suite Premium.

 

To resolve this issue, you will need to:

1.  Set following registry key : 

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\Current Version\OptimizationUpdateNotified to 1

2.  Download Inventor Optimization manually from Subscription Center.

• Install Optimization first THEN go to the Environment tab to run Optimization.
• When you open Optimization from Inventor, you will be prompted for your Subscription center username and password.

Epilogue

This issue should be solved in Inventor 2012 SP1.

If you are a PrDS user the Optimization patch will be downloaded automatically once you launch Inventor, the downloading location is the folder " %Temp%", the time of the downloading depends on your network speed, when the downloading is finished a automatic prompt message dialog will be shown in Inventor, and Optimization patch named "centaurupdate.exe" will be in folder " %Temp%".

via upandready.typepad.com

Change the default templates for the assemblies and parts created with Make Components

You have created some sketch blocks or solid bodies in your part file.

You want to create assemblies and parts out of them with the command Make Components, but you want to set some different from the Standard ones default templates for them.

You can change these settings in the Make Components Options dialog accessible from the Part Document Settings, Modeling tab.

From this dialog you can change also other default settings as you can see from the image above and read in more details in the WikiHelp under “Make components options”.

Of course, if you want, you can save these settings in your part template.

Ale

Inserting components using Composite iMates names

You have defined three Composite iMates in your component naming them A, B and C.

You have inserted this component in an assembly.

Now you want insert another component in the assembly and automatically position and constrain it to the first component using one specific Composite iMate.

For instance, you want to use for this purpose the Composite iMate A.

In order to do this, in the second component, you need to define the same Composite iMate, as the Composite iMate A of the first component.

The name of this Composite iMate is not important.

What is important is that the name of the Composite iMate A of the first component is in the top of the Match List of the second component Composite iMate Properties.

Once you have done this, you can insert the second component in the assembly where you have already inserted the first component selecting the option “Automatically generate iMates on place”.

You have to repeat the procedure for other components you want to insert using the Composite iMates B and C of the first component.

You can find more details in the video below.

Ale

Enhanced Task Scheduler log file

Ever tried to make sense out of a huge Task Scheduler log file while searching for the string "error" to pinpoint a particular problem?

Fear no more, a brand new tool has arrived to make life easier when hunting for that elusive error after running a Task Scheduler job.

Read all about it in this support article.

Bob

Setting the Filename, Browser display name and Part Number for Content Center parts on insertion

You want to be able to insert a standard part from the Content Center, saving the file with a given name and get the same name for the Browser display name and the Part Number.

For instance, you want to insert the part UNI EN 10219-2 - 508 x 8 – 100 from the Content Center in an assembly of your Project 1.

You want to save the file as “Project1 Part-100” and get the same name for the part in the Browser and the Part Number.

Then, you place the same member in another project/assembly and you want to call it “Project2 Part-100”, where the Browser display name and Part Number would then be “Project2 Part-100”and so on.

The procedure to follow for getting this behavior is the following.

• In the Content Center Editor, copy the family of the parts you want to insert in this way in a custom library.

• Select the family you have copied, right-click, Family Table.

• In the Family Table, select the Part Number column, right-click, Column Properties.

• In the Column Property dialog clear the field “Map To Inventor Property”.

• Publish the changes.
• Insert the part from the Content Center with the option “As Custom”.

• Save the file in the desired location applying the desired name.

The Part Number and the Browser display name will be the same as the saved file name.

Ale

When deployment images have a short memory

**** Update ******
The Microsoft hotfix to cure the problem as described in this article is now available here  

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2663352

You will need to provide an email address to download the fix.
Thanks.
*********************

Recently it was brought to my attention that you could end up in a situation where a reinstall of Inventor might take forever to finish without any visible signs of activity or progress.

If you would leave the reinstall run over night (or for several hours), the process finishes successfully.
The problem is that not many users will have the patience to let the process sit and run for so long and they will probably kill the reinstall process.

The reason why I wrote this blog post is to just ask you to be patient and let the process take its time because otherwise you might end up with a corrupt Inventor installation.

The scenario that can bring you in this situation is:

1. Create a deployment image with Inventor 2012 and place the image in a network location
2. Append Service pack 1 to the deployment image via the setup wizard (choose the Install service Pack(s) from local network option, see image)
   
   
   
   
3. Hit the Add button and enter the network location (that requires login credentials) of the service pack you want to add.
4. Enter the user name and password but don't check the option "Remember my credentials" in the Windows Security dialog
5. Install the deployment and run Inventor once to fully register it
6. From the Control Panel, try either a reinstall or a repair of Inventor

The result is that the installation process will seemingly hang because of a Microsoft defect that causes the installer to do a check on the credentials for every file that is part of the deployment image.
Every check takes a couple of seconds, multiplied with a large amount of files, gives you this long delay that might take hours.  

Note that when you try to click the Cancel button or the Exit "X" button, there is also no response which tempts users to kill the process from Task Manager.

While we are actively pursuing a solution with Microsoft for this problem, momentarily the only two remedies are:

1. Always check the "Remember my credentials" option when you create deployment images
2. If you prefer to continue to work with a deployment image that has the "Remember my credentials" option unchecked, disconnect the machine from the network before you try to reinstall Inventor.
   A dialog asking for the source file location will pop up and allows you to input the correct location and the reinstall will proceed successfully without excessive delays.

 

We will update this blog post once Microsoft makes a fix available.

 

 

 

 

 

Extruding and Shelling all the closed loops in a sketch

In your part sketch you have a large quantity of closed loops.

(I.e.: You have imported in the Inventor part sketch a dxf or dwg generated from an external application.)

You want to extrude and subsequently shell all them in one go.

For doing that you can do the following:

• Download and unzip this VBA Macro to your local drive.
• Menu Tools > Options > VBA editor.
• Load the file ExtrudeShell.ivb via the File > Load project command in the VBA editor.
• Run the macro called PipeExtrusion.

• In the following Pipe shape dialog enter the Height and Wall thickness values.
  • The values need to be entered as digits without units nor formulas.
  • The input is in default length units as set in the Document settings.
  • Entering a positive wall thickness adds more material to the outside of the sketch curves, entering a negative wall thickness adds material to the inside.
• Click on the Select sketch button and select the sketch in the browser.

• Click OK and get the result.
  • If the result is not the one you want, click on Undo and repeat the steps entering the appropriate values.