Issue opening files with Inventor 2014 as default

[PBL_Engineer]

I am having an odd issue with the windows default for opening files for Inventor.  I previously had the full Autodesk 2013 software suite.  A couple of months ago I did the upgrade and installed the Autodesk 2014 software suite. 

My issue is now when attempting to open files the default is to open them in Inventor 2013 (still installed on my machine). 

I went through the windows default programs options and browsed/selected the Inventor 2014 .exe application.  However, this does not add the 2014 application to the list as it seems 2013 over rides it. 

I tried to manually changing .ipt/.iam/.stp etc. file types from Inventor 2013 to Inventor 2014, yet am still unable to have the 2014 application added to the potential list of default programs to open with.

One solution would appear to be to un-install the 2013 suite, is there any other way to fix this problem?  It is nothing crucial, yet very annoying.

Does anyone know of another way that I can get the default program altered to use Inventor 2014?  I have attached pictures showing my steps of attemping to change the file association for a .stp file.  However, this does not work.  I even brought this issue to my company's IT perssonnel and they were unsure.  It appears to be a Windows bug but I thought I may as well ask here...

[samiharada]

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your issue.

Inventor installer does not establish file associations between Inventor and *.STP and *.STEP files,

so I assume that you manually added them via Right Mouse Click on a step file on the Windows Explorer > Open With.

Once file associations are made in this way, there’s no easy way to modify it from Windows UI,

especially when you want to change the target application but the old & new applications’ executable names are the same.

(like “…\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe” and “…\Inventor 2014\Bin\Inventor.exe”)

This limitation is from Microsoft’s implementation and I don’t think there isn’t much Autodesk can offer about this behavior.

I was just wondering if following registry hack can help your situation (but this is just from my personal experiment.

This is *not* an Autodesk official solution).

1) Open RegEdit using Admin privilege

2) Locate “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\step_auto_file\shell\open\command”

3) Change the data from "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe" "%1"

    to "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2014\Bin\Inventor.exe" "%1"

4) Locate “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\stp_auto_file\shell\open\command”

5) Change the data from "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe" "%1"

   to "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2014\Bin\Inventor.exe" "%1"

(I am assuming that you are on Windows 7)

Hope this helps,

-Sami Harada

Inventor Framework QA

Autodesk, Inc.

[nsnw318]

i'm having association issues with the Inventor 2014 viewer.  Would this help also? Or is there another fix, my company upgraded from 2011 to 2014.  Do i need to completely remove 2011 viewer? I also did the Viewer patch for 2014 to see if this will work also, with no luck.

System Specs

Windows XP Pro, SP3

Pentium 4 CPU 3.2 Ghz, 3 Gig RAM

[mcgyvr]

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@nsnw318 wrote:

i'm having association issues with the Inventor 2014 viewer.  Would this help also? Or is there another fix, my company upgraded from 2011 to 2014.  Do i need to completely remove 2011 viewer? I also did the Viewer patch for 2014 to see if this will work also, with no luck.

System Specs

Windows XP Pro, SP3

Pentium 4 CPU 3.2 Ghz, 3 Gig RAM

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Whats the point in keeping the 2011 viewer on the machine? Uninstall it..

[nsnw318]

Still doesn't help with windows not recognizing Inventor View 2014!

[mcgyvr]

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@nsnw318 wrote:

Still doesn't help with windows not recognizing Inventor View 2014!

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Is Inventor loaded on the machine too?

Did you try to "open with" and pick the Inventor viewer and set as default (assuming Inventor is not installed)

I'd guess that simply uninstalling 2011 viewer does not reassociate the extention to the new viewer.. So either do it manually or reinstall 2014 viewer

[nsnw318]

Did the "right-click" open with method.  Only opens the file, but does not save the association.  Inventor is not installed on this machine.  Just use the viewer to print drawings.

When trying to add it manually it does not save the Viewer into the list of programs to open with.

[mcgyvr]

There should be check box to "Always use the selected program" or something like that

Or jsut reinstall the viewer

[lemensk]

I have the same problem (Inventer 2014).  Not only am I unable to associate *.step files by "open with default program," I am unable to even OPEN an inventor 2014 file with "open with," the inventer *.exe is simply not recognized as an executable program. 

My solution to the problem is to open up Inventor, and select "OPEN" and navigate to the desired file.  NOTE: uninstalling all inventor programs do not aid in this problem.  I haven't tried the registry suggestion,... that may work.

-Kenny