I have had multiple issues with Inventor DWG's lately. My company is using Product Design Suite Ultimate 2013. If I double click on a DWG generated in Inventor, whether from Windows Explorer or Vault Basic 2013, the file will open in AutoCAD 2013 or DWG TrueView. DWG's are set to open using the DWG Launcher which is supposed to be able to differentiate between AutoCAD and Inventor drawings. This has been an ongoing issue for many months. I just haven't had time to sink into discovering the cause. Still don't, but I ran across an irritating dilema today.
I tried to use the Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard today to copy a bunch of settings and blocks and such from one drawing to a bunch of others for a particular project. An assembly drawing I've been working with for almost two years in Inventor gives me the following:
'The selected file is not an Inventor Drawing (DWG), and has no transferable resources.'
WHAT????
As I said, we've seemed to have this issue for a while, so I was curious and tried the Wizard on my company's template default.dwg. Same dialog box despite the fact that it has Inventor Title Blocks, Sketched Symbols, and custom iProperties (which I've just noticed, haven't been mapped by the Vault for some time).
This template is used by everyone in my company all the time. This means that we have potentially dozens, or hundreds of drawings which are not registering as Inventor files!
Can anyone tell me what's going on and how/if I can fix it, please?
Product Design Suite Ultimate 2013
Inventor Professional 2013 SP2 Update 5
Vault Basic 2013 SP1 Update 2
Windows 7 64-Bit
Brian Zirkle
Manufacturing Design Engineer
CAD Manager
This happens from double clicking on the files in Windows Explorer as Windows will associate the file to the last program that opened the file. Please remember that the DWG extension is used in multiple products so at some point this happens when you open the file from Windows Explorer. It may only happen on machines were users are double clicking on the files in Windows Explorer.
To correct this you not only need to set the dwg to open using AutoCAD DWG Launcher but there should also be a listing for DWG & IDW that has Inventor as the current default. You can find this in your Control Panel under Programs, Default Programs, Set Association.
Thanks for the response, mercerc; but that's already set correctly. Have even checked it out in the registry to make sure something isn't screwed up there. I haven't gone so far as to hunt down UUID's in the registry, but I don't believe my boss would consider that productive use of my time.
In any case, the issue isn't just with my machine, we appear to have the issue across the board.
BTW, I don't believe I have ever seen the Autodesk Inventor Drawing icon associated with an Inventor DWG, even from inside Inventor. It's always been this one:
As far as double-clicking in Windows Explorer, it also happens if we try to open a DWG from the Vault.
All that aside, it still doesn't explain why the Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard doesn't see them as Inventor Drawings. Surely there has to be something in the headers of the DWG file that tell Autodesk programs who the file belongs to?
As I'm unsure of my company's policy toward throwing our logo around for public consumption without getting Legal involved, I would be happy to send a copy of the offending Template file via secure email or upload somewhere that's not public.
Thanks
providing the file will do no good. It's an O.S. thing.
I fully understand this isn't what you want to hear - but I am truely Thankful the place where I provide support has deemed we do not support simply clicking on any CAD file to launch it's respective CAD app. If anybody calls seeking support and mention they have done that, we advise them to first open the CAD app and then use the Open command from within there.
If your company doesn't use Project Files, or modify the way AutoCAD or Inventor works, then it might be OK to click on a CAD file to launch what ever program. But where I work, most of the CAD apps used have some sort of customization added, which clicking on CAD file to launch the program - causes the customization portion to be avoided.
Good Luck solving this, I recall seeing posts here recently about the same issue.
ampster,
I appreciate the feedback. We use a single project file for everything since we started using the Vault back in 2006. We have no customizations. Most of the time drawings are opened from inside the program that generated them. That was just the symptom that started this whole thing a while back.
The real point is that now I've found that even Autodesk's Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard is not seeing my DWG's as Inventor DWG's when they've been created in Inventor and been worked with exclusively in Inventor. Even our default template 'default.dwg' isn't recognized as an Inventor DWG.
If I right click on older DWG's created in Inventor, I get the option to open w/ Inventor View, Design Assistant, perform a Pack and Go, look at iProperties and Purge:
When I click on what I've been working on in Inventor recently, here's what I get:
If Windows Explorer can identify an older drawing as being an Inventor Drawing w/ iProperties and the like, why not the newer one?
Please don't mistake my frustration for anger and animosity. I don't need any flames, I just need help.
Possibly try re-registering Inventor:
Register Inventor: 1) Press [Windows] key to open Windows' start page 2) Type "cmd" to find "Command Prompt" > right mouse click on it > select "Run as administrator" 3) On "Administrator: Command Prompt" window, type cd "c:\program files\autodesk\Inventor 2014\bin" > Enter
4) Type inventor /install > Enter 5) Wait for 1 min (inventor will be executed background then exit silently)
Please see the attached link. This doesn't fit the criteria of your issue but it will reset Inventor and the user profile. Download the reset utility and give that a try.
Thanks mercerc. I'm sure there's a legitimate post you're referring to, but the link is right back to this thread. I'll be glad to try the reset.
I have found the older Inventor DWG's that are recognized as such (see message 6 above) do launch from Vault into Inventor, though as I said, that really wasn't the purpose of the post. The more recent ones are the ones that try to open in AutoCAD from the Open... button in the Preview Tab.
Sorry about that this should be the correct link.
Okay, I reset Inventor.
BTW, Somebody needs to fix the text on that page to warn users to not save the .XML files to the default directories. They actually get wiped by the reset. Saving my settings didn't do me much good. Just spent the last twenty minutes reconfiguring my personal customizations again. I tried to leave feedback but all it let's me do is give it a yea or nay.
Getting back to the issue of the OP, I've rebuilt the Template and new drawings made from it are actually recognized as Inventor Drawings. But the issue still remains for the drawings made from the "corrupted" template. Is there some way to rebuild the drawing files to make them recognizable as Inventor Drawings so the Vault can re-index iProperties it currently won't look for because Vault thinks they're AutoCAD files?
One thing to try would be to create an Update Design in Task Scheduler and select the dwg’s that are not showing up the Inventor association. Please add Total Rebuild and Compact Model History to the default settings. Once the task is completed see if the association has been restored.
Interesting thought, but apparently it only works with DWG's it already recognizes as Inventor files.
Just to be clear, this file was generated in Inventor, is linked to the assembly and BOM of the assembly, updates and everything like you would expect it to, has iProperties (that can only be seen from inside Inventor). I even tried to "Save As.." an Inventor DWG to no avail.
While composing this post, I just had an idea of something to try, because I was curious. Check this one out:
I was having the same issues as BLZirkle. Turns out my problem was that Inventor was set to save Inventor DWG with ACAD 2000 format. When I changed to ACAD 2004 format, the DWG files are recognized correctly by DWG Launcher.
No. Even got allegedly escalated up to QA & Development on 08/13/2014 to see if they could figure it out. Never heard anything back. It's frustrating trying to re-use design data when you can't find the drawings half the time, but we've figured out roughly the time-span the drawings aren't recognized as Inventor drawings and we slog through one at a time to find what we need when necessary.
Brian
when I draw a dwg(inventor) file into inventor it wants to import it as a autocad drawing.
Draw a dwg? Do you mean open a Inventor drawing file? How are you opening these files?
Import it as a autocad drawing? When you open an Inventor .dwg file its going through the motion to import as though its an AutoCAD drawing?
Mark Lancaster
& Autodesk Services MarketPlace Provider
Autodesk Inventor Certified Professional & not an Autodesk Employee
Likes is much appreciated if the information I have shared is helpful to you and/or others
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I think he meant drag a drawing into inventor.....
I have the same problem as I had posted 20 minutes ago.