Hit & Miss MDT Import

[kstate92]

Yesterday I was able to import an MDT file without issue - it even correctly converted several AMCOMBINE cuts!

Today, a much simpler part and even after 3 tries, all I get is the old middle-finger dialog (attached).  I also love that the dialog still mentions MDT 6.  Updating it, saving it in the current project folder, having it open in MDT 2009 during the import wizard process within Inventor: same result.

After all this time, I still can't figure out the method to do an MDT import with odds of success at any better than a scratch-off lottery ticket.

[kstate92]

Update: Maybe it works by NOT having the target file open in MDT 2009 during the import procedure, which is what I just (successfully) tried.

Or, maybe it only worked because it's Wednesday.

kstate92 wrote:

Yesterday I was able to import an MDT file without issue - it even correctly converted several AMCOMBINE cuts!

Today, a much simpler part and even after 3 tries, all I get is the old middle-finger dialog (attached).  I also love that the dialog still mentions MDT 6.  Updating it, saving it in the current project folder, having it open in MDT 2009 during the import wizard process within Inventor: same result.

After all this time, I still can't figure out the method to do an MDT import with odds of success at any better than a scratch-off lottery ticket.

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[Ray_Feiler · Accepted solution]

One thing to try is to make sure MDT 2009 was the last opened version of AutoCAD. If you open any other version like Mechanical 201? it will not work. My standard practice is to close all versions of AutoCAD, run MDT 2009 and close it and then try the import.

Well it's been awhile so maybe I don't close MDT, really can't remember.

[kstate92]

Last AutoCAD run.  I bet that's it.

Now, if I can only remember for next time.

[ampster401]

Starting with the 2014 version, you no longer need to have MDT 2009 installed and functioning, at least to import individual MDT part files using the info found here;

http://www.cadalyst.com/cad/inventor/import-mechanical-desktop-drawings-directly-inventor-2014-17225...

Just a note however that that process does not work for assemblies created in MDT and last I heard Adesk is looking into this;

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Inventor-General/Importing-MDT-Assembly-Files-to-Inventor-2014-2015/td...

[kstate92]

Just my opinion, both Ray's advice and the method as described in the Cadalyst article linked by you should be permanent sticky links in this forum, and  easily found on the support site.