Cannot Import from Inventor

[BrotherkennyhDWR]

Hi,

I am trying to import Inventor assemblies into Showcase. I am using Inventor 2014 and Showcase 2014 with current updates applied.

I am running this on windows 7 on a Pc with two Intel Xeon 2.3Ghz quad core processors, 12 GB RAM and a NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics card with 2Gb graphics memory.

Individual Inventor parts import just fine, and I have had some success with small assemblies, but I cannot Import any larger assemblies.

Showcase tells me it cannot import some files and fails to show any parts. On some assemblies the conversion process also fails. I have tried the different level of detail setings and this does not help. I have also tried using the workflow buttons in Inventor rather than opening and importing directly in showcase.

I have also tries saving the assemblies as STEP or IGES files. I still get the message about failing to import some of the parts, but at least some of the parts do show up after this.

It would be nice if Showcase would at least give me some feadback on why the parts failed to import.

Can anyone help me with this?

Cheers

Kenny

[MarionLandry]

HI,

1- when you run the direct import from Showcase, are you identifying the project folder? Doing so will help Showcase find every necessary parts and component. 

2-If some parts are not opening in Showcase, that means there is something that is not working.. Check to resolve any error in Inventor first. If there are missing parts in Inventor or any errrors, it will not be resolved by Showcase. 

3-Are you using any plug in or component that are not recognized/supported by Showcase in your Inventor model? This would be problematic for Showcase.

4-I am assuming your model was recently save in Inventor?

5-Do you still have space available on your computer for Showcase to save all the translated files? This is stupic question you might thing but does happen to a lot of us.. check that there is plenty of space available on your computer. 

6-You might want to export your model in different parts.. lets think of a car for example. You can create multiple files that can be imported in Showcase (the weels and suspensions-the body-the engine) Dividing your project in multiple files will accelerate the Showcase import and will be easier to identify where the problem reside. 

Hope this helps. 

Marion

[jdkriek]

I've found #6 to be the best approach in most cases. Especially with larger models. I'll usually shrinkwrap to a single solid different portions of the model that I don't need to manipulate - reducing the number of potential problems. However, if you absolutely must have all individual parts - 16 to 32GB of RAM seems to be about the minimum to convert it all over.

[BrotherkennyhDWR]

hi,

Thank you both for your replys.

1. Yes I have identified the project file.

2. The inventor Assembly reports no problems, but I have only tried a few. I will try a few more individual files to see if there is a problem with one of them.

3. I am using no plug in. Most of the parts are basic Inventor parts, a few are Imported fiels that do not have a feature tree, but they are saved in ipt format. Some are sheet metal parts.

4. some of the files are newer than others, I resaved all the files to ensure everything was recent.

5. Yes plent of space.

6.  I will look at breaking the model into cub components.

Also, my Pc has 12GB ram, but I don't think I have ever seen showcase use more than 2GB despite the 64bit version being installed. Is it possible something is limiting the ram available to the program? I have several Gb of ram free, but showcase just doesn't use it.

Thanks again.

Kenny

[jdkriek]

It's possible, mine always maxes out 8-16GB systems.

Try this. Start Menu > In the search box type MSCONFIG and hit enter.

Look under the Boot tab. Then select Advanced options button.

Is Maximum memory checked? 

[BrotherkennyhDWR]

Hi,

no this is not checked.

Should it be?

Cheers

Kenny

[jdkriek]

No. It's supposed to be unchecked 🙂

[Ahatz]

Hi Marion,

I've been following this thread and have a question on workflow #6. How can one control the position of the imported Inventor assembly files in 3D space? In other words, when importing mutilple files and assemblies, they come in a certian orientation, if they are subassemblies, it seems to work fine, and they appear in the right place, but if a part or assembly comes in the wrong position, how can we reassembly accuaratley? I know you can use the transform tool, but it looks to be "by eye", and not precise.......does this question make sense?

Thanks

alex

[MarionLandry]

Hi Alex,

Actually, you need to set up the Z axis up upon exporting out from Inventor. But if you forget, not a big deal, you can easily fix it via the Import Status window of Showcase. Have a look at this video for help:

http://youtu.be/RzXN4zWYMJc

Marion

[J_palmer]

Hi Marion,

I'm having the same problem, however my issue stems from how we impliment LODs in our design workflow here at this company. The primary assembly I work with has around 5000 parts within several separtate sub-assembly modules. The problem is that each of the sub-assemblies contains multiple reference components which are excluded from the top level assembly through nested levels of detail. The master level of detail for the top level assembly therefore has around 15000 parts and will not load in showcase properly or at all depending on the export/import method.

I use Vault Pro, and the proper project file location is specified in Showcase.

My workstation has window 7 Pro x64, 3.60 GHz, 32 GB RAM.

In addition to everything discussed in this thread, here's what else I've tried so far:

1. I tried saving the top level assembly at a custom LOD and importing it into Showcase. Showcase ignores the level of detail and weird things happen.

2. I tried copying the LOD to a view rep, and importing it with that same LOD activated. Still disregards the level of detail and doesn't import properly.

3. I tried deriving a new part from said top level at the desired LOD. model fails to load.

4. I tried setting the top level to Master LOD and creating a view rep to hide all 10000 reference components. The model is so heavy Showcase wont load it.

Ideally I'd want Showcase to allow me to import the model at a non-master level of detail. Or if Inventor allowed me to have a top level assembly's Master LOD referencing a sub-assembly with a custom level of detail activated.

What Showcase workflows are in place to allow companies to create presentations from large assemblies that require custom levels of detail?

Why does Showcase ignore Inventor LOD's when utilising them is the recommended best practice workflow for dealing with large assemblies?

How can I get around this?

Thanks in advance,

Jordan Palmer,

Industrial Designer

Ps. Thanks for all your video tutorials, they're always really helpful.

[J_palmer]

Ok so incase anyone runs into this problem in the future the solution ended up being pretty simple...

if you import a large (heavy) model from the showcase interface, and your converted model is missing parts, close showcase and use the insuite workflow from Inventor to load your model. I used the EXACT same model and got two complettly different results; loading from showcase consitantly DID NOT WORK, loading it from Inventor worked EVERY TIME.    

hopefully this gets back to the software developers at Autodesk.

also a few suggested improvements:

add a REDO function. like, seriously. you can UNDO but you can't REDO? that should be easy.

how about an option to fix or lock the envrionment and lighting to the camera, this way when you orbit a model with a plain or gradient background, it doesnt look like the light is following the object around. like it looks really bad when you get to 180 and you can't see any detail because you're on the dark side. it would be nice to be able to decouple the object from the environment. that way when you rotate, the model STAYS LIT. no dark side because it will always be BEHIND the model in that setting.

also, how about an option to turn on/off a cross section. as above, maybe there's already a way to do that, but if there is, it's not intuitive.

for example, if i want to orbit 360 and reveal the model sectioning from the ground up, I have to set the sectioning plane ABOVE the model and run the keyfram animation in reverse, otherwise the model will dissapear in all my other shots. this seems round-about. If you give us the ability to right click the x-section and enable/disable it an any given shot, you wouldn't have to worry about how it will affect your other shots. this would be better. 

and lastly, to the original point, give us the functionality of importing Inventor Levels of Detail as Alternatives.

Hope that's useful feedback.

all in all I really like this product so hopefully it keeps getting better.

J.Palmer

[J_palmer]

Ok, so again, I'm posting this incase someone out there ran into a similar problem and could not find a solution.

regarding my comment about locking the lighting to the camera, this would still be a useful function, but in the mean time, if you only want to ROTATE the object indepent of the lighting/environment, the turntable behavior will accomplish this. (I just figured that out)