Where to store new Inventor 2014 adsklib Materials & Appearance Libraries?

[Anonymous]

I wish to create both several material libraries and appearance libraries that can be associated/used with any project I wish to create.  I'm running a single-seat license of PDSU 2014 (Inventor 2014 Professional) on a Windows 7 Professional machine.  I currently do not have Vault 2014 installed.  I work alone and have no need to share resources with others.

Besides being associated with any project I wish to create, I would like the libraries that I create to be available to all applications that use adsklib files to describe either physical or appearance properties that can be installed with Product Design Suite Ultimate 2014.

Where do I save the libraries to?  Is there a standard location?  Must I set the location per application?  Would installing Vault 2014 sometime in the future have any ramifications?

Is there a different methodology that should be employed that will allow me to create custom materials and appearances that can be made available to any Inventor 2014 project I wish to create, yet be made available to other applications within PDSU 2014?

Does making separate material and appearance libraries make sense, or should my custom libraries contain both materials and appearances?

Any tips, suggestions, errata or comments would be welcomed!

[blair]

I would just install them to their default location. You will have access to them from all projects.

Being a single user, I don't use Vault either as it's more of a hindrance than benefit for me. I work from both a work office as well as my home office and use a sync program to keep my files current at both locations (also gives an additional level of backup).

[Anonymous]

Where exactly should the adsklib files be stored?  I see that they are currently located in several different locations.  Which location would be best?

[blair]

The default should be:

%PUBLICDOCUMENTS%\Autodesk\Inventor 2014\Design Data\

[Anonymous]

In Windows 7, the complete path is:

C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2014\Design Data\Materials

By the way, by default, Inventor 2014 will attempt to save your newly created adsklib file within the current project.

Thank you, Blair for pointing me in the right direction.  It is appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I have one more question. I installed Inventor with default links. When i launch it there isn't any material.

When I keep up .adsklib from C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2014\Design Data\Materials

I've got this:

[Anonymous]

And I have no idea what i do wrong

[ChrisMitchell01]

What do you have defined for your material & appearance library file paths in your current project file ?

-Chris

[mitcham_boy]

I have similar yellow triangle for our custom .adsklib on our server... used to be fine but now yellow triangle! Does it mean a corrupt database file??

[ChrisMitchell01]

It could be corrupted, or it could also be a network issue, or due to it being incorrectly defined in your project configuration. Also, you can get this error if you try to load 2 adsklib files in the same session, which contain the same GUID information; this could occur if you copied say the Inventor .adsklib file on disk, renamed the file & then add them both to your project definition.

What happens if you use the Default project & open the material browser & from the bottom left corner dropdown, select Open Existing Library & pick your file. Does it load OK ? You could also remove the Inventor library definition fromt he project & only define your own file - does it load then ?

Thanks

Chris

[mitcham_boy]

Thanks for those ideas - tried them but no luck - possibly the file has got corrupted.  Would be handy if there was a tool to check/repair adsklib files.

[ChrisMitchell01]

H,

Please attach the adsklib file here or send it to me & I'll see if we can see what's wrong with it. Do you recall anythign that happened between when it was last "good" & when this problem started occurring ?

Thanks

Chris

[Anonymous]

Hi Chris - i've uploaded the file here - we were using if for a month or so and then it stopped working.  The file is stored on our server with up to 4 of us using it simultaneously from our different pcs.

Thanks for the help.

[ChrisMitchell01]

Thanks - all I can do for now, is to confirm that it is indeed corrupted....I'll ask the Dev team if they can identify what is wrong with it & why.

-Chris

[petestrycharske]

@ChrisMitchell01,

Good afternoon!  We've been having some corrupted library issues with a client and so we told him to make a backup copy, but then my backup copy was throwing the error, just like you described.  I made a copy of a new library and renamed it with a "backup" moniker, but then it wouldn't load up.  Only after I removed the original library and relaunched Inventor did the "backup" library load.  Is there a way to change the GUID somehow for the backup library?  Thanks in advance for your consideration, hope all is well and have a most blessed day!

Peace,

Pete

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Pete,

A few things to avoid corruption. First, whenever you make change to the library, the change may not take effect immediately. You will need to close Inventor and restart it. It is because the library was not ready to consume the change yet.

Second, it is better to keep the libraries local on the users' machine. They should be locked up and managed by Vault. Only Admin is allowed to change. The new appearance and material library does support shared library workflow but due to the behavior above, you can get corrupted thumbnails or styles from time to time.

Many thanks!