Color styles being reset to source file color style upon Assembly open

[scottmoyse]

1. Create a solid body model. (material is set to default)
2. Make components
3. Set individual materials on the resulting parts, which in turn sets the parts color style to match. Choose something which contrasts the default color style.
4. save everything and close.
5. open the solid body model, modify the overall size, so multiple parts will need to be updated.
6. open the assembly, the color styles of the parts reset to the color style of the default material in the source file (the solid body model).

Needless to say this is extremely counter-productive and troublesome. The only way I have found to stop this annoying bug, is to edit the derived instance in the browser of each part and turn off, 'Use color override from source component'. 

This behaviour existed in 2010 and 2011 pre SP1, it seemed to resolve itself, although in the last couple of weeks for some reason it  has started to appear in 2011 SP1 again (windows update by any chance?).

Is there a workaround which is more productive?  I am hoping there is a registry key I can change to set the toggle to permanently be off. See attached image.

I don't see why we should have to write some VB to post process parts that have been created from a solid body model just to turn this option off and stop the parts colors changing all the time.

[scottmoyse]

Does anyone else have this issue or can validate it for me?

I know this individual does, they have posted about it on the same day as me and no one has commented on either post so far:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/Parts-derived-from-assembly-parts-lose-color-2012/m-...

Dennis? This seems like something you would get your teeth into.

J D surely this would get on your nerves?

[scottmoyse]

how aren't more people having this issue?

[scottmoyse]

I've reposted and edited this from the other similar but different thread, where i probably shouldn't have posted it.

To reiterate; This is happening in 2011 and 2012 (only just started happening again in the last 3 weeks with 2011, for some reason) with solid body models being exported to assemblies. So no derived assemblies involved (in my case at least). See my topic thread (there is a link to it in this thread) for a workflow, it has been replicated by the support team and forwarded to the Dev team. 

  However, as much pressure as possible from as many fronts will convey how serious this is for us and I can't believe it wouldn't be for anyone else using solid body modeling. A WELL ADVERTISED & MARKETED new modeling technique for Inventor, so I would imagine a lot of people will have introduced it as the defacto way to model in their organisations, as much for the marketing hype from Autodesk and its obvious work flow benefits.

 I see there are design reps involved in derived parts now. I'm guessing its this, that has caused the issue in 2012's case. Also I question the value of this feature, since setting the material of a part is WAY more important than setting the pretty color style, this is an engineering package afterall and not a graphical one, you'd be forgiven for thinking that in the last 12 months given the way the Autodesk Marketing guys have been rattling on for the last 12 months. Don't get me wrong I like the pretty stuff as much as the next guy, I'm also appreciative of the new suites, we will definitely be putting the rendering and visualization side of things to use. But this will happen outside of Inventor, since showcase and max's sole purpose in life is to achieve that!

  A great visual way of being able to tell the correct material has been applied is through the use of color styles. Hence why the materials color styles being overwritten forcefully is such a problem. In our case I have 9 employees sitting here constantly chasing their tails because we manufacture wood based products, and use the 'grain direction' of the bitmaps to orientate the parts for CNC cutting. Suddenly that process is constantly in doubt, 1 sheet of 18mm marine grade ply double sided with Oak veneer is just under $1000 NZD, once the parts have been cut and then had timber edges glued onto them, the cost of those parts jumps up massively. The grain directions must be correct when they go to be programmed and nested for the CNC. Fundamental stuff!

  I feel like doing a pack n go for every model we have this issue with and sending it to Autodesk to constantly fix up, I don't see why we should be hemorrhaging the time to do it. Look i get there are bugs in a new release, and its impossible for Autodesk to capture them all, this one however, should have been potently obvious!

Cheers

Scott

[johnsonshiue]

Scott,

I must have missed this thread. I usually look at the first page of the day. Somehow it did not appear on my radar.

I have reviewed the exact same issue you reported to Product Support. This is indeed a workflow issue. Basically, the control to configure whether or not derive part colors need to obey source colors is not exposed in Make Components dialog. As a result, all bodies are being pushed out to individual derive parts with default Derive options, where the option "Use color override from source component" is turned on by default. The design intent here is to preserve the source colors in derive parts as higher priority and that is why it was turned on by default. Currently I am not aware of any setting to change the default from users' perspective. To resolve this issue, on top of my head I can think of two ways.

#1, Adding "Use color override from source component" option to Make Components dialog. This will involve change in User Interface meaning it can only be done on new releases in the future, not retro-fitted.

#2, Maybe, just maybe, altering Make Components command behavior so it looks for a registry key controlling this default. I am not 100% sure how feasible this will be. I will need to confirm with development.

Thanks!

[scottmoyse]

Thanks for your response.

are you saying the via #1 this won't be possible until 2013? or until SP1?

with #2 are you confirming that a registry key doesn't exist to turn the default behaviour off? Reading between the lines, i suspect this is the case simply because, if you create a new part, and derive to another one, that option is greyed out. The only time you can change it is by accepting the derived options, and then editing it again to turn it off.

I would love to know the rational behind this workflow process of forcing the use of the source color style into the parts.

Of course there is a 3rd option:

#3 Autodesk create an add-in/macro that when loaded will turn off that option as soon as a derived object appears in a part, maybe with the option to disable it locally. This would be an acceptable stop gap until such time as its fixed internally within the code.

I look forward to your response

Cheers

Scott

[scottmoyse]

Johnson,

What did you think to my option 3?

cheers

Scott

[karthur1]

Johnson,

I have the same issue as Scott when I use the Make Component command. Would be good if the "Use colors from source" was made available during the make component command.  I am having trouble getting individual parts to show the correct color even without the override.  I have the "Use colors from source component" un-checked in the derived part. When I change the material for the part, it should show the color from the styles for that material, but it does'nt., it stays the color of the source.

I've attached an assembly here.  The problem part is Top Down Solid1.  I cant get it to show the correct material color.

And another problem that I just noticed.  Look at Top Down Solid2.  This part should follow the color of the parent part because the "Use colors from source component" is checked.  It does for the most part, all except for the thickness on the OD of the part.  That one surface stays the gray color even though it should be a gold color. The surface property shows "As Feature" like all the other surfaces. If I change it to "as Part" then it shows correctly, but I shouldnt have to do this, right?

[johnsonshiue]

Kirk and Scott,

Many thanks for the ideas! I have confirmed the behavior Scott and Barry (from the other thread) described. It is not a designed behavior. The new behavior started in R2011 SP1. I am working with engieering team to find out the cause and how to correct the behavior.

Regarding adding the option to Make Components dialog, that will be a separate issue. I will talk to people directly working on that.

Thanks!

[scottmoyse]

karthur,

In addition to turning off that use source color option, you need to expand the derived part node, then RMB on the derived body, properties, and then reset the color style to As part.

Hopefully once that is reset and the horrid tick box is removed the colors won't continually reset themselves to the source colors.

Cheers

Scott

[scottmoyse]

Johnson,

Can the engineering team give us a productive workaround in the meantime please? hint ... option 3 or something similarly appropriate.

Cheers for working on this all the same

Scott

[scottmoyse]

This bug is well and truely embedded in 2011 SP2. Most of our PC's weren't doing it with 2011 SP1, having just installed SP2 ALL of them are doing it now!

[scottmoyse]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/Hotfix-required-for-color-styles-being-reset/td-p/30... here you go karthur