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Knurled Appearance doesn't show in 2013 Pro

40 REPLIES 40
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Message 1 of 41
trumpy81
8053 Views, 40 Replies

Knurled Appearance doesn't show in 2013 Pro

GDay All,

 

I have been playing with appearances and no matter what I do I cannot get any knurled pattern to appear on my parts.

 

The knurl pattern and settings appear perfectly fine in the appearance editor but when I apply it to a part all I see is a chrome effect, no pattern.

 

I have tried using many differnet .bmp's, templates, importing from 2012 pro etc... all with the same results.

 

Anyone know why I am not seeing the knurl?

 

I am running Inventor 2013 Pro on

Win 7 64bit

Intel i7 960

Asus Sabertooth x58

Asus ATI HD 6970 graphics card

1x Patriot Pyro 120g SSD

6x Hard drives - 8.5 TB total

Corsair CMP12GX3M3A1600C9 - 12 gig Ram.

 

Regards
Andy M
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2013 Pro SP1.1, Win7 Pro - 64Bit - SP1, Intel i7 960 @ 3.333 GHz
Asus X58 Sabertooth, Corsair 12Gig DDR3, AMD Radeon HD6970, Samsung 830 Series 256G SSD, 2x 3TB Seagate, 2x 2TB Hitachi,
1x 1TB Samsung, 4 x 2TB Seagate in Netgear ReadyNAS NV+, Dual Asus VE278Q Monitors
40 REPLIES 40
Message 21 of 41
ChrisMitchell01
in reply to: trumpy81

Hi Chris,

 

These files eem to behave correctly on my machines with the beta SP1 build, the SP1 build & also a newer internal build.

 

Perhaps the problem lies within the appearance library that you currently have active in your project. Are you also able to share that adssklib file ?


Thanks,
Chris



Chris Mitchell
PDMS Customer Engagment Team
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 22 of 41

Hi Chris,

 

see it attached. It's zipped because otherwise I cannot attach it

 

Greetings

 

Chris

Message 23 of 41

Chris,

 

You seem to have made some changes to the library appearance definitions for the 02_Alu Anodized & Metal-Steel (Knurled) appearances that are cuasing these effects. Looks like you changed the color & also added a reference to a weld bmp file.

 

Working against my good library, I extracted these appearances corrected them & added them back in to yours & then all seems to work OK again - see attached .adsklib file.

 

If you temporarily rename your library, then put this in place & rename to InventorMaterialLibrary then use Update from library you should be OK.

 

BTW - If you're making changes to the libray definitions then I would recommend creating a custom library, adding that to your project definition & then storing changes there instead of modifying the as-shipped Inventor library.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Thanks,

Chris



Chris Mitchell
PDMS Customer Engagment Team
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 24 of 41

This works,

 

So as usual, it was not the PC it was the guy sitting behind 🙂

 

thanks alot for the help!

Message 25 of 41

Well, that's very magnanimous of you, Chris; since this relates to the new material/appearance library, how about we split it 50-50 ? Ideally, you shouldn’t have been able to make such changes in Inventor without understanding why/what the end results would be…..

 

Pleased to help.

 

Cheers,
Chris



Chris Mitchell
PDMS Customer Engagment Team
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 26 of 41
avedianj
in reply to: trumpy81

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone involved in this thread. I am new to Inventor 2013 and have no CAD experience whatsoever and this knurl issue was driving me mad for the last 48 hours until I finally came across this thread. Hats off to you guys.

John

Message 27 of 41
karthur1
in reply to: trumpy81


@trumpy81 wrote:

 

Relief Pattern
Type - Knurl      <---- Change the type to Custom Image
Amount - 0.80
Scale - 1.40

 

After changing to custom image, select C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Textures\surfaces\knurl_3.bmp then click the triangle to the right of the image to edit the bitmap settings.

 

 


Andy,

Are you using Vault by chance?

 

Kirk

Message 28 of 41
trumpy81
in reply to: karthur1

Kirk, no, I don't use vault at all.

 

I'm not sure I would use vault even if it was installed. I tried it once but I had a lot of problems with it. It may have been my inexperience with it, at the time, but I really couldn't see a need for it. It probably works in a multi-user environment but as I am the only user here it's easier to do without it.

 

Anytime I need to send models or drawings I simply zip them up. Any changed models or drawings are sent and then overwritten at the other end to save any confusion caused by different versions. So far, this has worked well for me.

 

HTH

Regards
Andy M
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2013 Pro SP1.1, Win7 Pro - 64Bit - SP1, Intel i7 960 @ 3.333 GHz
Asus X58 Sabertooth, Corsair 12Gig DDR3, AMD Radeon HD6970, Samsung 830 Series 256G SSD, 2x 3TB Seagate, 2x 2TB Hitachi,
1x 1TB Samsung, 4 x 2TB Seagate in Netgear ReadyNAS NV+, Dual Asus VE278Q Monitors
Message 29 of 41
karthur1
in reply to: trumpy81

No problem.  Only reason I ask if you are using vault, is because when I assign the C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Textures\surfaces\knurl_3.bmp as a texture and then check in the file, it wants to check the knurl_3.bmp into vault.

 

Still trying to figure out the "NEW" materials and appearances.

Message 30 of 41
trumpy81
in reply to: karthur1

Kirk, I hear ya re: Materials & Appearances. For something that should be quick and easy Autodesk sure have made it difficult. I think I prefer the 2012 setup rather than this new go round.

 

I recall that I had an issue with that .bmp file also, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I think Inventor was complaining about it not being in the project folder, it may have been on an imported part, whatever it was it must have been easy enough to fix because I don't see any errors with it now.

 

 

Regards
Andy M
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2013 Pro SP1.1, Win7 Pro - 64Bit - SP1, Intel i7 960 @ 3.333 GHz
Asus X58 Sabertooth, Corsair 12Gig DDR3, AMD Radeon HD6970, Samsung 830 Series 256G SSD, 2x 3TB Seagate, 2x 2TB Hitachi,
1x 1TB Samsung, 4 x 2TB Seagate in Netgear ReadyNAS NV+, Dual Asus VE278Q Monitors
Message 31 of 41
kwilson_design
in reply to: karthur1

karthur1,

 

i am using Vault Pro  with Inventor 2013 Pro and I am having a heck of a time trying to check in a file now that I had to do the custom image "trick' to get my knurled surfaces to show up correctly. 

 

Now Vault will not let me check in the file as it says: "You must either move the file into one of the defined search paths or add a new library search path to continue".

 

I don't get it as all I did was click on 'custom image' and then drive down to where the Appearance folders are mapped to my project file. I don't want to have to add a new Library Search Path in my Vault just for times where I need to edit the scale of a default Inventor bitmap.

 

What to do? 

 

Regards,
Kenny
If this post solved your issue please mark "Accept as Solution". It helps everyone...really!
Message 32 of 41
karthur1
in reply to: kwilson_design

The only way I could get this to work is to create a new appearance and "Generic Appearance" (at the bottom). I narrowed this down to the "Metal" type causing the issue.  If you want to retain the name you have now, purge your existing style before you create this new one.

 

I am using SP1.1 and this is still so screwed up, its not funny anymore.

 

Below is a shot of the settings I used.  The preview still doesnt work if you close and restart Inventor.... I have totally given up on that.. not much use anyway.

 

Kirk 

 

2012-10-23_0957.png

 

Windows 7 x64 -12 GB Ram
Intel i7-930 @ 3.60ghz
nVidia GTS 250 -1GB (Driver 301.42)
INV Pro R2013, SP1.1
Vault 2013

Message 33 of 41
kwilson_design
in reply to: karthur1

But how do I go about checking in the file without having to create a "edited textures" folder in my Vault? As of now unless I place the bitmap in my local Vault workspace I can't check in the file since Vault wants to check in the bitmap as well. This is nuts!!!

 

I just want my knurled surface to look correct and to do that I have to do a custom image only so that I can scale the values down. If autodesk would of just let us dial in the scale value more than 5.00 on the default editor then this wouldn't be an issue. But since we're limited on how much we can scale the value we have to set it up as a 'custom image' only so that we get more control to scale the values accordingly. Once you do that and you're a Vault user it opens up a whole other can of worms. Sigh

 

As I'm sure any Vault/INV user on here knows, Vault + Inventor + image files (bitmap, jpeg, etc) do not like each other as they always want to overwrite or update the image file aqny time it's checked out. They are in constant conflict with one another causing your workspace to get all out of sync. Grrr

Regards,
Kenny
If this post solved your issue please mark "Accept as Solution". It helps everyone...really!
Message 34 of 41
karthur1
in reply to: kwilson_design

I hear what you are saying. I would create a texture like I outlined above and then apply that to the surfaces.  Basically, redo what you have done. 

I guess an alternative would be to move the bmp file to a location under your path, and then edit the appearance to look at this bmp file.  I wouldnt want the bmp file in there for the reasons that you stated.

 

Are you using SP1.1?

Message 35 of 41

There is some useful information regarding this in the discussion thread - Inventor 2013 projects over networks

 

If you are defining a custom image file for use in an appearance & you do not want to suffer the vault check-in issues, then there are really 2 options:

 

  • Put the image file in a folder that is defined as part of your project structure, & then reference that file in your material/appearance library
  • Put the image file in the default texture file location, as defined in the registry - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion17.0\System\Preferences\File - You can relocate this by changing C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe:TextureDir to where you want your image files to be stored.

Hope this helps,

Chris



Chris Mitchell
PDMS Customer Engagment Team
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 36 of 41
karthur1
in reply to: ChrisMitchell01


@ChrisMitchell01 wrote:

...

  • Put the image file in the default texture file location, as defined in the registry - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion17.0\System\Preferences\File - You can relocate this by changing C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe:TextureDir to where you want your image files to be stored.

Chris,
I have never changed the location that is listed in the register, nor edited any of these file locations.  Just checked my registry and the location is "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Textures".  There is a couple subfolders in this folder (bumpmaps and Surfaces).  The file that I was using for the texture was located in the"Surfaces" subfolder.

 

Is that why it wanted to check in the .bmp file is because its in a subfoder?

 

Kirk

Message 37 of 41
kwilson_design
in reply to: karthur1

Registry edits???

 

Why are we having to do this now? This was never an issue before we went to the new materials/appearance of 2013. In the past I could easily edit and scale the bitmaps and would never have to resort to this sort of thing or ever had Vault request to assign a folder or library for the bitmaps upon check in.

 

I don't understand why all this is necessary when we're just trying to get the scale edited of the bitmap more than the factor of 5.00. Why did Autodesk decide that a value from 0-5.00 is all that would be needed for adjust the relief pattern scaling of knurl? 

 

This is frustrating. I just want to check my file in and go on about my work lol. At this point I decided to physically knurl my model Sure it will drive my file size thru the freaking roof but it just seems crazy that we have to do all this just if we want to tweak a bitmap and have to save it out as a 'new' Appearance. Seems the logical thing would of been to allow more a more generous scale factor of the knurled relief ands this would solve the issue would it not?

Regards,
Kenny
If this post solved your issue please mark "Accept as Solution". It helps everyone...really!
Message 38 of 41
karthur1
in reply to: kwilson_design


@kwilson_design wrote:

....when we're just trying to get the scale edited of the bitmap more than the factor of 5.00. Why did Autodesk decide that a value from 0-5.00 is all that would be ....


Have no idea why they only allow 0-5 on the scale. 

 

If you would create a new appearance using a Generic appearance instead of Metal type, you can control the scale anyway you want it.

 

Your model looks great.  Can you control the scale of the knurl you modeled?

Message 39 of 41
kwilson_design
in reply to: karthur1

It doesn't seem to make any effect if I try putting it as generic or leaving it as a metal. Both ways I'm able to manually edit the bitmap scale. When I'm done and try to check in the file it stills wants to go thru the whole bitmap check in ordeal. See attached when I tried using it as a generic (same result).

 

My model shows a physical knurl I did. I used a 2D sketch, emboss feature (wrap to surface), then circular pattern until I get the desired look I'm after. Not the best way AT ALL to do this nor would I really recommend it as it's overkill. But I don't seem to follow why we have to jump thru these hoops to avoid what it apparently an oversight with 2013 Inventor and Vault users. It never was this cumbersome in previous releases of Inventor as we never ran into this issue when editing bitmap scale in the old Material/Styles library.

 

 

Regards,
Kenny
If this post solved your issue please mark "Accept as Solution". It helps everyone...really!
Message 40 of 41
karthur1
in reply to: kwilson_design

Here is a video on how I change the scale on a Generic appearance. You cant do this with the Metal type.

 

On my system, the location of the Texture is the same as whats listed in the Registery.  The path to the texture can be seen in the Appearance Editor>Information node.

 

Are you using SP1.1?

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