Can STEP files still be used in an assembly?

[flipdarkfuture]

Basically, my school has the 2012 version of Inventor while I have 2013, and I was wondering if I can still use STEP files in an assembly, and also in my drawing sheets.

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

Thanks for your posting !!!

Inventor 2013 should be same as Inventor 2012's behavior at this point, so the answer is Yes.

Regards,

Kevin Li

Quality Assurance Team

Autodesk, Inc.

[flipdarkfuture]

Thank you for the quick reply!

Another thing related to this. I have to work with two different versions of the program, 2012 at school, and 2013 at home. How do I convert a STEP file back into the IPT format, with all of the sketches and extrusions intact and ready to be added to?

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

Hi flipdarkfuture,

Thanks for your reply !!!

When you open STEP file back in Inventor 2013, sketches, constraints and features of the model creation in Inventor 2012 will not be converted in Inventor 2013. This is not Inventor specific but other 3D CAD softwares will also not convert sketches and extrusion feature when import STEP file (actually not only STEP file, but also IGES and other formats). 

I think your scenario is create original model in Inventor 2012, convert it to STEP format, then do further design in Inventor 2013 at home, so you need not to convert original model to STEP, you can just save the original model as *.ipt or *.iam format, Inventor 2013 can open *.ipt or *.iam (2012 format) directly.

Regards,

Kevin Li

Quality Assurance Team

Autodesk, Inc.

[flipdarkfuture]

hmm. 2013 and 2012 are similar to each other, so I should be able to get away with it. So basically I do all the work I need to at home, convert them to STEP format, and begin the drawing sheets at school on the 2012 version?

[JDMather]

Download the free Feature Recognition add-in from http://labs.autodesk.com to rebuild your feature tree from base solid.

[flipdarkfuture]

Umm... sorry about this... but how do I install it?

*Edit*

I've figured out where to put it, but it keeps coming up with an installer error. And the installer exits prematurely. Not sure why.

[JDMather]

Make sure UAC and anti-virus is turned off during install.

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

Hi flipdarkfuture,

Just one more comment, please close Inventor application before you install it or you can restart your machine firstly then try it again.

I try to install it in my side and it can be installed successfully.

So your scenario is Inventor 2013 to create model -> convert it to STEP -> import it to Inventor 2012 at school for drawing design. So you need to install feature recognition enabler for Inventor 2012 at school.

If still have install errors, please attach some images here for us to narrow down and figure out the issue.

Regards,

Kevin Li

Quality Assurance Team

Autodesk, Inc. 

[flipdarkfuture]

Okay. I've managed to install it, and the program is recognizing it as loaded. But how do I use it?

I mean, when I loaded all of my STEP files a pop up came up asking if I wanted to recognize features. So I clicked yes, but nothing seems to have changed, the only thing in the assembly tree is the solid.

*edit*

Alright, got it working. This isn't integral, but is there a way to recognize the features of every open part at once, or do I have to through them one-by-one?

[JDMather]

Right click on the Base solid and select Recognize Features (or something like that - I don't have Inventor in front of me).

I always use the Manual method rather than Automatic, and only recognize those features that I actually need to change.

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

Hi flipdarkfuture,

Sorry for the late reply!

It needs to do it one by one for each Base solid as JD's comments, if you multi select all the base solids in the open part, you cannot find "Recognize Features" context menu.

Regards,

Kevin Li

Quality Assurance Team

Autodesk, Inc.