"The attempted operation did not produce a meaningful result."

[str8zstar]

Getting the dreaded "The attempted operation did not produce a meaningful result. Try with different inputs." error. At first it was just if I tried to extrude something (in a weldment currently but seems to do it across the board). It was also giving me the error when I tried to Place a Content Center file. It said it couldn't build the extrusion and gave me a red cross. I'm baffled by this error since it seemed to just start here and there, so I'd reboot IV and it would usually work for at least a while. Now, it's doing it for pretty much every operation I try (except constraints, it seems). Such a weird deal, I wonder if anyone has come across this before? I thought it was a Graphics Card issue from my experience in the past, but could it also be a software issue?

I'm running Inventor Pro 2013 on an HP xw8600 Workstation with Windows 7 SP1 64-bit. Intel Xeon 3GHZ CPU, 8 GB of RAM, NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 Graphics Card with 768MB GDDR3 RAM.

Any suggestions?

I've attached the extruding & Content Center errors as well.

[olaf.peterson]

Hi,

are there any solutions?  Because we have the same errors in our company with Inv2013 Sp2 Update5

Thanks in advance, Olaf

[JDMather]

Can you Attach *.ipt file that returns this error.

[ryan.straits]

I dealt exclusively with an Autodesk Support Tech on this issue for nearly a year and they weren't able to provide me any solutions to the problem. Just had to remodel a lot of the geometry and even that hasn't eradicated the problem. I'm dumbfounded.

Olaf, o you use a lot of 3rd party parts in your models? That seems to be where our issues originated.

Best,

Ryan

[frank.gavilar]

Hi Olaf,

we have had the same problem with corrupted assemblies because of 3rd party files. It seems it didn't 'infect' the project file though all files open in Inventor will apear to have this problem. It originates when opening and editing the same corrupted assemblies. Rebuilding them and checking after inserting each 3rd party file seems to be the way to find the culprit though very time consuming. 

It's not much help but waiting for over a year for Autodesk to (not) solve this problem doens't fit in our workflow.

Kind regards,

Frank Eisenga

[str8zstar]

Frank,

We are having to do the same thing here though I'm dealing with an assembly of over 2000 parts. I have isolated the issue to a few assemblies but haven't had time, as you said, in my workflow to disect each assembly for where the problem has originated. I dealt with Autodesk for almost a year and was amazed that they weren't able (or didn't seem to have the time) to try to fix this issue. Apparently theren't aren't that many of us that deal with this. I just can't believe that Inventor obviously has flaws when dealing with 3rd party parts and they don't feel like finding a solution to it. A few times they promised it would be dealt with at the next SP but so far, nothing.

In the meanwhile, I've gotten very good at dealing with the error and commonly work with several Inventor windows open to try to get around the issue while creating new parts within large assemblies. My coworkers who use ProE just sit around and laugh. I'm a big Autodesk fan but it was shameful to me that they couldn't come up with a fix (besides tediously going through every file to check it, which is what the Support Tech wound up saying in the end).

Frank, what ways did you find to work around the error?

Ryan

[frank.gavilar]

With 2 out of 3 I got lucky (the projects where canceled) with one project I ended up having to start from scratch because of time limitations. In doing so I solved engineering chalenges differently and had to use less 3rd party parts. I now have a rough 20 or so suspect files that apear to cause this problem. The main suspects are files from 3d library websites. The work there is often done by less skilled 3D-CAD engineers and the conversion method they use to allow you to download multiple formats of the same model is also a big risk of corruption. All I can say know is check your 3rd party files before adding them to your assembly. 

It is weird that Autodesk seems to be unable to fix this problem from occuring but from my experience with 3D-CAD software developers I can say they are a bit disconnected from the users of the programs they write. 

We make heavy use of Autodesk Vault and it won't allow you to open files if you have multiple inventor windows open at the same time. And I think your ProE collegeaus will have troubles of there own. Every CAD system I worked with in the past has had multiple problems of this nature that would just pop up when ever they felt like it and ruin you day.

Hope this helps

[str8zstar]

It helps by providing me some level of commiseration. This error has wracked my brain for nearly 2 years now. And unfortunately, I've been on this same project since then so I haven't had much relief. The issue didn't happen right away but seemed to kick in right after we upgraded to Inventor 2013. Could've just been a bad set of files I downloaded around that time, but I wasn't able to track it back to any certain subset of files. I determined that it was 3rd party parts after I isolated a few problem files through Task Scheduler.

I agree on those parts libaries, I try to check them all for errors and "heal" them when they come in but who knows if that always works. We also have a good many files that were converted to Inventor from Mechanical Desktop, so who knows.

When dealing with Autodesk, it did seem like the Development team was very detached from the issues of users. The Support Tech I dealt with acted like they were the gods of Mt. Olympus in how they took requests or had time for any outside problems.

I wish we used Vault here. My previous jobs have only used Vault but due to this also being a mostly ProE shop, they've invested a good amount of money in Windchill so we few Inventor users get to twist in the breeze while we wait for the Inventor-to-Windchill connection to be improved. Fun times.

Regards,

Ryan

[olaf.peterson]

Thanks for all the answers

@Ryan 

Yes, we are using a lot of 3rd party models (mostly STEP, created by various CAD-Systems). I will discuss this with our engineers (to be careful using these)

@Frank

yes indeed, repairung those "infected" files is very time consuming:

- start inventor

- open the file

- move EOP marker to the top

- save the file

- close Inventor

- open Inventor

- open the file again

- move the EOP marker down to the end

- save the file --> ready. (Autodesk recommends to disable Vault Addin, but in our case it works also with VaultAddin)

Maybe important: in some cases we realized that a normal part (like a flange or so, has become a sheetmetal part) after that, it has to be "repaired".

Our Autodesk Support Contact just announces, that 2 fixes should be ready soon. Let's see...

Olaf 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! The error message is a bit generic. There are several potential causes triggering the error. Could you tell me the Case ID or the Defect ID? I would like to take a closer look and see where the problem is.

Thanks!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Do you have an exmple exhibiting the behavior? If yes, please post it here or send it to me directly (johnson.shiue@autodesk.com).

Thanks!

[str8zstar]

Johnson,

I had 2 cases opened over the past 2 years: 08015663 & 08894235.

I believe you've looked into this before for me as well.

Regards,

Ryan

[str8zstar]

Olaf,

We use a lot of .step files as well from 3rd Party sources.

I know that to "clear" the error from my working environment, moving the EOP marker doesn't seem to help. I have to physically close that instance of Inventor down (which is why I work in multiple windows at once right now: one that has an infected assembly open and one that is "clean" that I can create new parts or features).

Our Support guy said that we would see our issue resolved with a new SP as well. Still waiting on that..

Regards,

Ryan

[olaf.peterson]

Johnson, I want to see if someone else has this errors and maybe a solution or some other interesting experiences that will help to find the root cause.

Our Autodesk contact seems to be very motivated to get these problems solved. They have all descriptions, error messages and sample files.

The cases are: 09740513 and 09827647. They will appreciate your support.

Regards, Olaf

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am sorry that I did not remember we discussed this issue before. I did find a few old emails about this issue. There was a defect reported and it was due to feature history mismanagement. There was indeed fix in R2015 addressing the specific case. If you have R2015, you will see the behavior is no longer reproducible.

I am not sure if the fix can be ported backward to prior releases. I am investigating it with development team.

Many thanks!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I have located the Case IDs and I will let Product Support folks follow up with you. If the cases are proven to be the same as Ryan's, it could have been fixed in R2015. And, whether or not the fix can be ported back is still under investigation.

Thanks!

[str8zstar]

Sounds great, thanks for looking back into it for us, Johnson. We have 2015 here but don't have it installed yet. I've informed our IT guys to get cracking on getting it installed on our machines.

So then, if 2015 does fix the "feature history management" issue, will these files that I've created in 2012, 2013 and 2014 releases be "healed"? Or just future files that I create in 2015?

Thanks,

Ryan

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! It should work on any dataset having similar behavior caused by the same issue on R2015. I cannot reproduce the behavior on R2015.

Thanks!

[str8zstar]

Johnson,

I don't know if I believe it but after installing 2015, it looks like the error has been fixed. I've been able to create new features/section views/detail views in assemblies/drawings that I wasn't able to before installing 2015. Wow, didn't think I'd see the day! After dealing with this headache for nearly 2 years now, I'm finally breathing a sigh of relief.

Thanks for your help!

Regards,

Ryan

[olaf.peterson]

Hi all,

maybe you have already realized it: Autodesk has officially published "Update 6" for Inventor 2013.

In some first tests, it can confirm, that the errors are now fixed.

in some cases a rebuild all is necessary, but than everything is fine. No corrupt parts/features, no corrupt/missing drawing views.

in the end a good job, but much too late.

Regards, Olaf

[str8zstar]

Exactly my sentiments. Shouldn't have taken 2 years since I started this thread or put in my request with Autodesk Support to get this resolved. In the end, though, I'm glad it's resolved. My workflow has dramatically improved.

Best Regards,

Ryan