Inventor can't find parts when opening assembly

[vance]

Good day all;

The subject line sounds simple, but this isn't a matter of me moving part files around after an assembly is created (I've been using Inventor for about 6 years, so I know better!).

Here's the problem...  I just recently installed Inventor 2014 (with the latest SP & update) on a workstation at the office, and have begun creating parts & assemblies with almost no problems… until now.  Beginning about 2 or 3 days ago, I started having issues with Inventor 2014 “losing” parts when I try to open an assembly (.iam) file.  In a nutshell, here is what’s happening:

1. Created part (.ipt) files.  (For this example, I’ll call them Parts A thru D.)
2. Created assembly (.iam) file using Parts A – D.
3. Save iam file, close.  Able to reopen & close at a later time with no issues.
4. Attempt opening same iam file later, but receive the following error messages: “Error opening a storage in database P:\[Client folder]\[Client project folder]\Part A.ipt.” and “The database in P:\[Client folder]\[Client project folder]\Part A.ipt could not be opened.”  Cancelled open command for iam file…
5. Attempted to open Part A.ipt with no success.
6. Went into “OldVersions” folder, found previous version of Part A, copied/pasted into working folder & re-named as Part A.  (Original Part A deleted.)
7. Attempted opening same iam file – successful this time!  However after closing iam file & re-opening later, I get the same error messages as before, but this time for Part C.  Go through the same steps as with Part A.
8. Attempted opening same iam file (again) with success.  Close iam file.  A little while later, attempt to open file – now Part B is missing (same error messages).

I did some searching around on the forums & found something similar to my problem.  The fix seemed to be setting up project (.ipj) files (yeah, I know I should have done this from the beginning...).  I tried this & then re-started Inventor.  Once again, the same problems keep happening.

The weird part is that the ipt files that Inventor can’t “find” were previously opened, not changed, and not moved around in Windows Explorer.  When attempting to open the iam file, the dialog box asks for the location of the file, but the correct file path is shown & I can see the ipt file in among all the others.  So I selected the file & clicked “OK”… only to be returned to the same query for file location.  When I try opening the ipt file itself, the preview window is blank with a message stating “Preview can’t be shown” or words to that effect.  There doesn’t seem to be any logical pattern to the errors – it’s almost like the errors are randomly happening (i.e. Can’t find Part A, solve problem… Now can’t find Part D, solve problem… Now can’t find Part B, etc.).  To say that this experience is frustrating is an understatement.  (I could add a few adjectives to describe, but none would be forum-friendly…)

Is there something that I’ve overlooked or haven’t done?  The wrinkle in all this is that I have an older version of Inventor (2011 or 2012) on my computer at home, and have experienced nothing like what I’m going through here at the office…  Does anyone out there have any suggestions, solutions, or other?  Please help – thanks!

[cbenner]

No ideas right off the top, but I would suggest posting your full system specs for the computer that is having the problems.  I assume from your original post there is no Vault being used, so this is not in the equation?

[jletcher]

 What happens if you find all parts and assemblies put them in one folder and try to open?

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi vance,

I just went through something like this a couple of days ago. In this case I had to fix errors in the assembly and/or part files and then explicitly save the files (parts and assembly). I think I even used the Replace tool to replace the problem parts with themselves in the assembly, but I don't recall if that was part of the solution or just something I tried in order to force the file paths to update.

Keep in mind that the assembly file contains paths to the part files, and sometimes (particularly if we handle an assembly with the wrong *ipj file set active) we can get in a situation where even though we say Yes to save assembly option, the error in the part is preventing the part file path in the assembly from getting updated.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

Sounds more like a "corrupted" file error message and not a project file/location issue..

"seems" thats a networked location and maybe there is some backups or virus checks or something thats corrupting the files.. 

[Curtis_Waguespack]

---

@mcgyvr wrote:

Sounds more like a "corrupted" file error message and not a project file/location issue..

"seems" thats a networked location and maybe there is some backups or virus checks or something thats corrupting the files.. 

---

Hi mcgyvr,

You might be correct. And those are certainly things to check (probably first off).

But what I think happens in some of these cases, is something like this:

• Try to open Assembly 101.iam
• Get Resolve Link dialog box, concerning PartA.ipt
• Browse to PartA.ipt to resolve the path.
• In the >> area of the Resolve Link dialog box the Search for other unresolved references using this path and/or Substitution Rule paths help the assembly find the other files.
• Save the Assembly 101.iam
• Reopen Assembly 101.iam
• Get Resolve Link dialog box, concerning PartB.ipt
• rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat....

I think the other files get automatically resolved initially using the actions taken to resolve the first part file, because of the More >> options, but the paths in the assembly don't actually get updated when the assembly is saved, when there is an error in one of the part files that causes some hiccup.

This is all just theory, as I've never taken the time to hunt down the particulars of these issues, because I only encounter them from time to time. But in the case I dealt with the other day, an iPart factory was missing a row in the table. That ipart member / row wasn't involved in this assembly, but it was still preventing the assembly file paths from updating when the assembly was saved. And I'm pretty sure the assembly had been handled with the Default *ipj in the past by an unknowing user.

So I suppose my suggestion for vance, is just that one more thing to check is that none of the parts have some unknown, seemingly unrelated error that is in the mix here.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[howardlee306]

Do you use a single project for all files, or one project per "project"?

[mrattray]

In addition to the other suggestions, is it possible somebody (IT) messed with the Windows file permissions on your server or your user profile?

[vance]

I'm planning to use one project (.ipj) file per project.

[vance]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

mcgyvr: I suspect that your theory about corrupted files vs. location issue may be right.  After carrying out the process of copying a particular "uncorrupted" .ipt file from the "OldVersions" folder, saving & renaming, then successfully opening the .iam file, that same ipt file will generate error messages when re-opening the .iam file at a later date.

(Example: Assembly can't locate Part A.  Solve issue.  Open assembly, save, close.  Re-open assembly, can't locate Parts B & C.  Solve issues.  Open assembly, save, close.  Re-open assembly, can't locate Part A again...)

Curtis: I can't even get past the Resolve Link dialog box.  I select the part file (.ipt) that is supposed to be used and click "OK", but then the Resolve Link dialog box pops up again, asking for the same part. Essentially, I'm stuck in a continuous loop.

I also tried skipping past the affected parts (there were a number of them), then tried to do Component > Replace to replace the part with itself.  All I got was the same message ("Error opening a storage in database... etc. etc."), and after clicking "OK" a second message comes up stating "[File name].ipt is not valid for placement in an assembly".

I'll try a few other things at my end & see what happens...

[vance]

cbenner: Sorry, I meant to provide that info in my original post...

Inventor 2014

Windows 7, 64 bit

Intel Core2 Duo, E8400 @ 3GHz

8G RAM

Nope, not using Vault.

[cbenner]

This is off topic, but IMHO, single project is the way to go. Especially if you will have a lot of shared or Content Center parts. Ok, back to the main topic.

[jletcher]

You use vault don't you ChrisB?

[mercerc]

Here are a few things that came to mind reading this thread. First was the location of the files and using mapped drive names. Another was the comment to check the network location and the permissions on the folders and the files themselves.

After checking to see if the folders and files have the correct permissions. Have you tried creating a new project file locate at the top of the folder on the server were the files are located. In this case in place of using mapped drive name use UNC pathing. Then try opening the assembly file.          

[vance]

Problem solved!  To test a theory, we installed Inventor 2014 on another workstation here at the office a couple of days ago.  So far, so good!  Part & assembly file locations remained where they were before, and opening the assembly files hasn't generated any more error messages, part files are no longer being corrupted, etc.  I can finally get some work done!

Now to deal with the older workstation that was causing the corrupted .ipt files in the first place.  But that's a different issue altogether...

Thanks everyone for taking time to post your suggestions, comments, etc.  Much appreciated!

[mrattray]

Sounds like a corrupted user profile on that local machine. Does your company use local profiles or roaming profiles? If local, then do some googling for rebuilding a damaged user profile.

[cbell1007]

This was the only part out of my assembly that did not load after I upgraded from 2014 to 2015.....Anyone have any ideas why?

[adm_tfk]

Ah thanks . really works.

just uncheck option and load manualy the ipt files. thanks

[jtrillos846FQ]

Just shining a bit more light to this topic, one of our customers had this same issue; they managed their files with Google Drive. Inventor was not able to open the files from drive, and apparently it was an issue with the synchronization of the files. Reinstalling Drive fixed the issue. 

[JDMather]

@jtrillos846FQ 

This is an ancient thread.

Are you using Vault or are you using Projects (*.ipj)?