Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

karthur1,

i am using Vault Pro  with Inventor 2013 Pro and I am having a heck of a time trying to check in a file now that I had to do the custom image "trick' to get my knurled surfaces to show up correctly. 

Now Vault will not let me check in the file as it says: "You must either move the file into one of the defined search paths or add a new library search path to continue".

I don't get it as all I did was click on 'custom image' and then drive down to where the Appearance folders are mapped to my project file. I don't want to have to add a new Library Search Path in my Vault just for times where I need to edit the scale of a default Inventor bitmap.

What to do? 

[#2]

The only way I could get this to work is to create a new appearance and "Generic Appearance" (at the bottom). I narrowed this down to the "Metal" type causing the issue.  If you want to retain the name you have now, purge your existing style before you create this new one.

I am using SP1.1 and this is still so screwed up, its not funny anymore.

Below is a shot of the settings I used.  The preview still doesnt work if you close and restart Inventor.... I have totally given up on that.. not much use anyway.

Kirk 

Windows 7 x64 -12 GB Ram
Intel i7-930 @ 3.60ghz
nVidia GTS 250 -1GB (Driver 301.42)
INV Pro R2013, SP1.1
Vault 2013

[#3]

But how do I go about checking in the file without having to create a "edited textures" folder in my Vault? As of now unless I place the bitmap in my local Vault workspace I can't check in the file since Vault wants to check in the bitmap as well. This is nuts!!!

I just want my knurled surface to look correct and to do that I have to do a custom image only so that I can scale the values down. If autodesk would of just let us dial in the scale value more than 5.00 on the default editor then this wouldn't be an issue. But since we're limited on how much we can scale the value we have to set it up as a 'custom image' only so that we get more control to scale the values accordingly. Once you do that and you're a Vault user it opens up a whole other can of worms. Sigh

As I'm sure any Vault/INV user on here knows, Vault + Inventor + image files (bitmap, jpeg, etc) do not like each other as they always want to overwrite or update the image file aqny time it's checked out. They are in constant conflict with one another causing your workspace to get all out of sync. Grrr

[#4]

I hear what you are saying. I would create a texture like I outlined above and then apply that to the surfaces.  Basically, redo what you have done. 

I guess an alternative would be to move the bmp file to a location under your path, and then edit the appearance to look at this bmp file.  I wouldnt want the bmp file in there for the reasons that you stated.

Are you using SP1.1?

[#5]

There is some useful information regarding this in the discussion thread - Inventor 2013 projects over networks

If you are defining a custom image file for use in an appearance & you do not want to suffer the vault check-in issues, then there are really 2 options:

• Put the image file in a folder that is defined as part of your project structure, & then reference that file in your material/appearance library
• Put the image file in the default texture file location, as defined in the registry - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion17.0\System\Preferences\File - You can relocate this by changing C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe:TextureDir to where you want your image files to be stored.

Hope this helps,

Chris

[#6]

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chrismitchell01 wrote:

...

• Put the image file in the default texture file location, as defined in the registry - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion17.0\System\Preferences\File - You can relocate this by changing C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe:TextureDir to where you want your image files to be stored.

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Chris,
I have never changed the location that is listed in the register, nor edited any of these file locations.  Just checked my registry and the location is "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Textures".  There is a couple subfolders in this folder (bumpmaps and Surfaces).  The file that I was using for the texture was located in the"Surfaces" subfolder.

Is that why it wanted to check in the .bmp file is because its in a subfoder?

Kirk

[#7]

Registry edits???

Why are we having to do this now? This was never an issue before we went to the new materials/appearance of 2013. In the past I could easily edit and scale the bitmaps and would never have to resort to this sort of thing or ever had Vault request to assign a folder or library for the bitmaps upon check in.

I don't understand why all this is necessary when we're just trying to get the scale edited of the bitmap more than the factor of 5.00. Why did Autodesk decide that a value from 0-5.00 is all that would be needed for adjust the relief pattern scaling of knurl? 

This is frustrating. I just want to check my file in and go on about my work lol. At this point I decided to physically knurl my model Sure it will drive my file size thru the freaking roof but it just seems crazy that we have to do all this just if we want to tweak a bitmap and have to save it out as a 'new' Appearance. Seems the logical thing would of been to allow more a more generous scale factor of the knurled relief ands this would solve the issue would it not?

[#8]

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kwilsonamerex wrote:

....when we're just trying to get the scale edited of the bitmap more than the factor of 5.00. Why did Autodesk decide that a value from 0-5.00 is all that would be ....

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Have no idea why they only allow 0-5 on the scale. 

If you would create a new appearance using a Generic appearance instead of Metal type, you can control the scale anyway you want it.

Your model looks great.  Can you control the scale of the knurl you modeled?

[#9]

It doesn't seem to make any effect if I try putting it as generic or leaving it as a metal. Both ways I'm able to manually edit the bitmap scale. When I'm done and try to check in the file it stills wants to go thru the whole bitmap check in ordeal. See attached when I tried using it as a generic (same result).

My model shows a physical knurl I did. I used a 2D sketch, emboss feature (wrap to surface), then circular pattern until I get the desired look I'm after. Not the best way AT ALL to do this nor would I really recommend it as it's overkill. But I don't seem to follow why we have to jump thru these hoops to avoid what it apparently an oversight with 2013 Inventor and Vault users. It never was this cumbersome in previous releases of Inventor as we never ran into this issue when editing bitmap scale in the old Material/Styles library.

[#10]

Here is a video on how I change the scale on a Generic appearance. You cant do this with the Metal type.

On my system, the location of the Texture is the same as whats listed in the Registery.  The path to the texture can be seen in the Appearance Editor>Information node.

Are you using SP1.1?