Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I am using Inventor 2012 on a high-end PC with dual monitors.

Sometimes the program loses focus within Windows and I can't do anyhting. It loses the big 'I' button and won't respond (see attached)

Inventor still shows up on the applications list in Task Manager with a status of 'running' but I am unable to return focus to the program. I have also noticed that when this happens Inventor is missing from the Alt-Tab or Windows-Tab menu as if Windows has forgotten that Inventor is running.

At first I thought this was only happening when running multiple sessions of Inventor, but today I have the same problem with only one session open.

The only solution is to kill off Inventor from the Task Manager and lose any work I haven't saved. Very annoying

[#2]

Some of our PCs suffer the same from time to time.

[#3]

!!! BUMP !!!

I need an answer to this problem as it is occuring on a regular basis, and on multiple PC's.

Been hanging for the last 20 minutes. Inventor displays "Saving <path name>" in the status bar but nothing is happening. Task manager says Inventor is "Running", Process is using CPU, but no action whatsoever from Inventor, the window is dead. Not greyed out, all icons are in place, just can't click on anything. Inventor is missing from the Alt-Tab menu... again. Can't save my work, time to kill the process again and redo my work.... again.

REALLY FRUSTRATING!

NEED A FIX FOR THIS BUG!!!

[#4]

Hello, is anybody there.....

I would REALLY like an answer to this problem.

Any developers out there who could look into this fro me please

[#5]

It sounds like inventor is trying to show a dialogue prompt which is stealing focus but is stuck in the background or off-screen.

Next time this happens click on your inventor window then press [alt + space] and without using the mouse use your cursor (arrow) keys to select move, press a few cursor keys again (any) and then move your mouse this should unhide the window that is taking focus and follow your cursor until you click to place the window.

I've had this situation happen a few times before, it will even send my inventor into a not responding state. If this is the problem the above fix should work, and windows should remember the position of the window for next time.

[#6]

Doesn't work sorry, tried the alt+space fix as you suggested, but no effect.

I don't believe it's another window taking focus as it doesn't happen during a command which would launch a window.

Seems to happen mostly when I'm saving a file.

Inventor shows saving "filename" in the staus bar and never comes back.

Also, when it does happen I'm always left with a .newVer file in my directory alongside the one which crashed Inventor.

Do you think this could be network related maybe?

[#7]

We get this from time to time, in our case it's (usually) a vault dialogue behind a VBA macro dialogue.

Sounds like your's is something else, but give this a shot anyway. Right click on an empty space on the windows start bar, and click 'Cascade Windows', or 'Tile Vertically' etc... this will re-position all windows whether they show up with Alt+tab or not.

Worth a shot.

Cheers

[#8]

Thanks for the fresh suggestion. I will give it a try next time

[#9]

Sorry Gerrard, this didn't work for me.

I have found that there is also a problem when Inventor comes back from doing a lot of work (i.e; a big rebuild) sometimes the big "I" button (Ad Application Button?) is unresponsive. All others icons/commands work, but the big "I" button is dead.

The only fix is to restart inventor...

Also, another "bug" is that if I ever have to switch users on my PC, which I do from time to time for IT reasons, Inventor behaves really badly when I return. The only way to make it behave is to do a full reboot.
No other program I have ever used behaves this badly in a windows environment.

When are Autodesk going to make Inventor interface properly with Windows?

[#10]

I don't have anything very specific to offer, but if this is an Autodesk bug, it is a very odd that nobody else is seeing it.  The hang on Save, coinciding with the .newVer file appearing indicates that something external to Inventor is going wrong with the save operation, possibly a network issue.

I also agree with what others have suggested: it sounds as if a dialog has focus but is not visible when this occurs.  This has happended to me on rare occasions with a custom add-in that we use, but in this case, since I know what is open and what input it is asking for, I can satisfy it and move on.  You can't do that if you don't know what's taking focus.

Or, there is also the possibility of graphics issues-- are your drivers up to date?