IV 2012 acting stupid (again) - No preview on constraints

[divingdoug]

Out of the blue, my IV 2012 has decided to stop showing the preview when applying contraints.  I have made no changes to any options or configurations.  Preview check box is checked.

I tried unchecking and rechecking it to no avail.   Any thoughts on this behavior ?

2nd out of the blue issue - when I insert a part into my assy (part file is in the same folder where the assy file is located) IV decides it needs to create a sub-folder and re-saves that part to the sub-folder. I mean, WTF ?  The part file is already there.  Why create another version of the part in a sub-folder. And why would it just start to do this out of the blue.

Again,  I have made no changes to any configurations, options, settings, templates, etc, etc.  Any thoughts are welcome.

[mrattray]

In regards to problem 1, do you have defer updates enabled?
In regards to problem 2, are you referring to the Old Versions folder?

[SeanFarr]

I also had an issue when applying constraints and there was no preview.

Solution to my problem was my assembly had an adaptive part.

Turn off any adaptivity parts and the preview snap should work again.

Good Luck!

[mrattray]

Constraint errors cause this, also. If the design doctor is lit up, you usually wont get a preview.

[divingdoug]

Defer updates was indeed selected.  Must have gotten clicked inadvertently.  That solved that issue. Thanks.

OldVersions folder is not the one being created.  It already exists. 

Part-1 (and 2, 3, 4.....) are copies of a base part (Part-zero) I made in win explorer. Simple copy/paste and rename. 

If I am in Models folder and place Part-1.ipt, it created a folder Models\Part-1 and created a new part file with the name Part-Zero.ipt.

I closed IV, deleted the folder and part, reopened the assy and pointed to the Part-1 I originally placed.  It found it ok but broke any contraints I had even though it was the identical part.

I guess IV doesn't like it when you use copies made outside of it's environment?

I suspect this is yet another symtom of the whole project file extravaganza which in my opinion, needs to go to the shredder.

[mrattray]

Was Part-0 an iPart? iParts always have a folder full of files associated with them.
No, IV does not like it when you manipulate files in explorer, it's generally not recommended unless you have enough experience to know exactly what the consequences of certain actions will be.
This doesn't sound like a project file problem.

[divingdoug]

Just noticed the icons on my parts have something not typical. The littel checkerboard pattern. I have never found a good reference for what all the assorted icons mean and have not seen this one before.  Likely a clue to the folder creating behavior ?

[mrattray]

That icon means those parts are iParts. (It's supposed to look like an Excel spread sheet) Like I suggested earlier, it's normal for iParts to create a folder full of files. Those files are referred to as "members" and shouldn't ever be edited or manipulated directly. Instead they should be manipulated through Inventor using the "factory" part, the file that resides outside of that folder.
I recommend you look through the help file and perhaps do some tutorials for iParts/iAssemblies to gain a better understanding of what's going on here.

[divingdoug]

After a little digging, I came to that conclusion as you posted.  So, since I have a part that contains a table, it is automatically going to be converted to an ipart?  I have no choice in the matter?

I would much rather just insert the part then be able to select the option I want from the table directly but it appears that I cannot do that. When I replace the created (i)part with the original part that I made, the table is visible in the tree (in the assemblly file) and cab be expanded but I can't select which option in the table I want the part to display as.  I have to open the part, select the alternate version, and save it with that version being active.

This seems broken to me.

The whole concept of having common parts with in-file options is to reduce the number of required files.  If using different options of a part with a table creates an entire folder structure with specific versions of the parts, that is pretty counter productive to the process.

Oh well.....