How to copy customized inventor settings from one PC to another?

[schnautza]

I'm the first one in my office to start using Inventor - I've gotten mine set up how I like it with our comany standards and templates.

How can I transfer all of the customizations from my PC to the several new Inventor users in my office?

Is there a way for Inventor to pull things off of the network instead of off of my hard drive to keep all of our systems uniform?

[JDMather]

Are you using Projects or are you using Vault?

[schnautza]

Sorry - forgot to mention the nitty gritty details.

I am doing single user projects - not vault.

We are running Product Design Suite 2014 with a mix of premuim and standard users on windows 7.

[Curtis_Waguespack · Accepted solution]

Hi schnautza,

You will want to place your project file on the network, then edit your project file and set all of the Folder Option paths (found on the bottom pane of the project editor) to a network path. This will allow everyone to use the same Templates, Content Center part files, and Design Data (styles and libraries).

Those Folder Option paths will get you most of the way there, but you'll also likely want to go to the Tools tab > Application Options button > Content Center tab and set the paths to a network location. See this link for a bit more clarification on the Content Center paths:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/Several-Problems/m-p/4340292#M477460

Note that you can copy the Desktop Content Center library files to a network and share them. The only reason to use the Vault Server content center files is if you end up using Autodesk Vault.

Another suggestion would be to go to Tools tab > Application Options button, and then use the Export button to export all of your settings as an XLM file, then you can do the same and use the Import button on the other machines. This will get everyone started with the same settings. Many users will likely change some of the interface related settings later, but that generally isn't a problem.

Also, someone is probably going to come along and tell you that if you're going to work with other users, you MUST use Vault or a multi-user project type, rather than the single user project type. But you can use a single user project type with mutilate users in many situations. It really just depends how often users are "hitting" the same file at the same time. If that is unlikely or rare, then you can use a single user project type for multiple users. But if users work on the same design concurrently, you are going to want to use Autodesk Vault.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[schnautza]

I found the options for file mapping - If I copy over my Templates and Design Data folders onto a network location and then set up the other computers to pull from there, are there any other settings that I may be missing?

[schnautza]

My previous reply was written before I saw what Curtis wrote - my question in response to that - Is there a reason to have the content center files pull off the network if they are installed on each desktop?

And right now, it is unlikely that any of us will be working on the same project as we are all in different departments, but I may investigate vault in the future. I hear that it has it's own learning curve and complications at times.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi schnautza,

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@schnautza wrote:

Is there a reason to have the content center files pull off the network if they are installed on each desktop?

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There are three reasons to do this that come to mind:

1. It saves a lot of space on the local machines.
2. It saves a lot of time on the installs, re-installs, and upgrades, since you don't have to install the CC libraries on each install.
3. If you ever end up creating a custom Content Center library it allows one place for those customizations to be made, rather than having to maintain 6 different custom libraries.

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@schnautza wrote:

And right now, it is unlikely that any of us will be working on the same project as we are all in different departments, but I may investigate vault in the future.

---

With that in mind, I think you'll still want to set up all of your Inventor stations to use the same Inventor project file (*ipj). This allows you to all use the same settings, and reuse common parts more easily, and it positions you to move to Vault easily in the future.

 Most likely you already have some folder structure to organize your design projects, just keep that same structure under your single *.ipj file and all will be well.  If using one *.ipj file per design project seems like a more natural fit, then it might just be. There are companies that use this approach, but most often a single *.ipj file approach works best.

These are my general recommendation, but if you have further questions feel free to ask, there are a lot of users on this forum who have been through the same thing and can offer advice on the particulars of your situation. Setting all of this up correctly from the beginning is important, and it is often a good opportunity to look at how and why things are setup the way they are.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[schnautza]

I may be confused on the function of .ipj files. 

The nature of our company is to do projects for many other companies, so our network is set up that every client has their own folder and every job we work on is a separate subfolder under the client. Those subfolders contain CAD, PDF, emails, etc related to the specific job.

So my understanding of Project files was that you have a separate project for every job we do...so each subfolder has it's own project file.

Is that an inefficient way to use inventor? Is there a better approach? How would you go about setting up only one project file to use on every project?

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi schnautza,

---

@schnautza wrote:

So my understanding of Project files was that you have a separate project for every job we do...so each subfolder has it's own project file.

Is that an inefficient way to use inventor? Is there a better approach? How would you go about setting up only one project file to use on every project?

---

 the *.ipj file's primary function is to define the search paths that Inventor uses to resolve file links.

As a rule of thumb, if none of your design projects ever share common parts, then using multiple project files generally isn't an issue. The problems arise from when we're working on project 123-001 and we create a bracket part named 123-001_BR.ipt and it's stored at N:\123-001\CAD then 6 months later we're working on project 123-002 and we want to use the same bracket in 123-001_GA.iam, but it is stored at N:\123-002\CAD. Because our 123-002.ipj file resides at N:\123-002, Inventor will not search or resolve files across projects well (at least not without a lot of renaming, moving, etc.)

If using files across projects is likely you might be better to create a single*.ipj file at the root of the N drive, and then Inventor's "search cone" will include N:\123-001 and N:\123-002, as well as anything else found in the N drive.

I'm not intending to promote a product here, but you can find more information on this subject at this link:

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/62/11185448/1118544862-3.pdf#page=22&zoom=auto,54,180

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[schnautza]

So what you are suggesting is to have one IPJ file in our clients folder so it branches out to all forlders below. That sounds great, but when you are saving files, won't it default to dumping everything into one predefined folder (parts, assemblies, drawings) regardless of job?

In my mind it seems to make more sense to have separate projects and then duplicate an old part from an old project if needed and place a copy of it in the new project.

(I'm not trying to be difficult - just trying to wrap my mind around the whole system for a better understanding!)

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi schnautza,

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schnautza wrote:

In my mind it seems to make more sense to have separate projects and then duplicate an old part from an old project if needed and place a copy of it in the new project.

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Copying parts in order to reuse them is the part of the mulitple project file setup that gets most people in trouble down the line. You can use Library paths to help with this, as described in the Job-Based IPJ Setups section of the link last link I provided, but it does take some managment.

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schnautza wrote:

... won't it default to dumping everything into one predefined folder (parts, assemblies, drawings) regardless of job?

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Correct, the user will need to browse to the correct folder. We often add Fequently Used Subfolder paths to the *.ipj file to help with this.

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schnautza wrote:

(I'm not trying to be difficult - just trying to wrap my mind around the whole system for a better understanding!)

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No worries, questioning all of this now is the correct thing to do. A little planning goes a long way when it comes to setting up Inventor file structure to use with multiple seats.

You might decide to stick with you multiple *.ipj strategy, as it might just make more sense for your situation. But it's wise to look at all of the options and try to choose the best method.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com