Trouble with stp file

[mrattray]

I'm having trouble opening this step file in Inventor 2013. I get the below error message which is what you usually see when you try to open an Inventor file that was saved in a newer version, but why would I see it with a step file? If I try more than once Inventor crashes. I tried opening it in 2014 and it opens fine; I then tried saving it back to a new step file from 2014 and still encountered the same error in 2013. Has anybody else encountered this problem before or open the file in 2013?

[DeerSpotter]

sometimes i get that error too, this code fixes it for me weird. 

My_extension_1 = InputBox("Enter Extension", "Type in the Extension you Want", "Fill in Extension ex: .stl .jpg .pdf")

'My_extension_2 = ".pdf"



ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(ThisDoc.ChangeExtension(My_extension_1), True)

'UPDATE: Using the line Of iLogic code above will save the files in the same folder As the 2D drawing. If you want To save it In a different folder you can predifine the location Using the following:

'choose the place to save at? Possibly ask to save?
'strFolder = "D:\files\" & ThisDoc.FileName(False) 'without extension

'ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(strFolder & (".jpg") , True)
'ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(strFolder & (".pdf") , True)

MessageBox.Show("All file formats saved", "File Save")

[mrattray]

That doesn't do anything for me.

[DeerSpotter]

does this open up for you? 

i saved this in 2014

[mrattray]

No that doesn't work. I tried it myself earlier, too.
I've also found that:
1) It appears that all of the designers at my company are affected as of yesterday.
2) We can't open any neutral format files in 2013 including files that we successfully imported previously.

[DeerSpotter]

Try this

Go and open new .ipt 

go to manage tab, import and find your file and import it. 

might need to export as iges or something else untill issue is resolved.

[rdyson]

Rhino opened it fine. Here's the 3dm, it opens in 2014 mostly solids and 1 surface that looks like it will be simple to fix.

[mrattray]

The .3dm doesn't open for me in 2013, either (no error message, just a crash). Interestingly, I tried teleguz's suggestion not expecting anything different and I found that:
With a .stp I get a different message: "File Translator Operation is not yet Supported"
With a .sat it works. How odd is that?

[DeerSpotter]

I worked for a company one time that had issues exporting .dxf one time. I fixed that by reregestering the files. Ill attach something here soon.

Correct me if im wrong, you guys just recently switched to 2014? I know we had issues similar to this exspecially with Vault 😕 

[mrattray]

We have not yet switched to 2014, we're still on 2013. I have a copy of 2014 installed on my machine to "play with".

[DeerSpotter]

here is a .bat script i created for you... Good Luck! 

this is for 2014 inventor

for 2013 right click edit the bat and change the 2014 in the links to 2013 and it should work. 

[rdyson]

I just opened the step in 2012 (took forever) and the 3dm in 2013 with no problem.
Sounds like you have a user permission problem. You might try logging in as a different user to see if that might be it.

[mrattray]

I tried your batch file, it was no help.

[mrattray]

I am having this problem with other users on other machines.

[CESAR200]

Hello Mike,

Your problem seems to happen only in your company's machines.  I can open the file without any issues in 2013 in a matter of seconds.

It might be a good idea to follow rdyson's advice and test with a different user account.  I would create a brand new account with Administrator privileges to see if the problem is reproducible.

If this started happening just a few days ago, check if there were any updates or changes in your network that may have affected all users.

[MechEng_1]

Oh Dear the might mrattray has an issue, we are all doomed!!! 🙂

Just to rub salt in the wound I just tried to open your .stp file in 2013 and it worked no problem opening also in a few seconds. So it appears to be your company.

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

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@mrattray wrote:
..... we're still on 2013. I have a copy of 2014 installed on my machine to "play with".

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It sounds to me like Inventor is looking at the wrong default *.ipt and/or *.iam TEMPLATE

[mrattray]

You got it, JD. I had a 2014 format template in my default templates location. I changed the extension to test your theory and I'm back to normal. The funny thing is that file has been in there since one of the beta releases and I just started having problems when I started this thread.
Thank you!