topic Re: TMP File Management in Inventor Forum

TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 16:38:44 GMT

Does anyone know a way to change where Inventor saves tmp files? Currently it saves them wherever the corresponding file resides and when I have a folder with over 3k ipts and dwgs, it gets pretty annoying when navigating.

Ideally there would be a separate, default folder for the TMP files that would automatically delete files when they reach a certain age. Is this possible?

Any response is greatly appreciated!

Re: TMP File Management

mdavis22569 — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 16:46:34 GMT

where do you have them set to save?

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 16:52:59 GMT

In the "Undo" path, I have the same as you. For some reason, the location where we save all our Inventor files is being populated by tmp files as well.

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 16:58:36 GMT

One clue, if you look at the example image attached to the OP, is that it is only the inventer dwg files that are creating these TMPs. Could it be the fact that we are using a template for all of our drawings? FYI I have the default template location mapped to a network location so multiple users can access.

Re: TMP File Management

mdavis22569 — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:02:44 GMT

where do you have your autocad tmp saving?

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:08:36 GMT

Same as you have there.

Just did a test and a tmp file is being created every time I make a new inventor drawing and save it for the first time. It is putting that tmp file wherever the drawing is located and it is only doing this for Inventor DWGs and not for IPTs or IAMs.

Re: TMP File Management

mcgyvr — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:11:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Same as you have there.

Just did a test and a tmp file is being created every time I make a new inventor drawing and save it for the first time. It is putting that tmp file wherever the drawing is located and it is only doing this for Inventor DWGs and not for IPTs or IAMs.

What about idw?

I refuse to use "Inventor" DWG files and luckily have no need to use them as I never have to deal with customers/etc.. that only use Autocad..

I think its absolutely silly to have the same file extension for 2 different programs.. Why not idg or idwg..

Re: TMP File Management

blair — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:19:27 GMT

Not really sure why you are spending so much time in the "TMP" folder, If you need to recover old versions, look in the Old-Versions folder within your Work Directory.

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:19:00 GMT

Well it's the easiest way for us to document our parts given the robust, automated view options that are available within. Unfortunately AutoCAD does not provide alot of the same tools for view creation and automated dimensioning.

But yeah I totally agree on the file extension piece. Why in the hell do Inventor Drawings have to have the EXACT SAME file extension and type description as AutoCAD Drawings when they behave totally differently when opened with AutoCAD???

Re: TMP File Management

Curtis_W — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:27:17 GMT

Hi ryan_linz,

I don't know if this fits your situation, but I have this issue with files other than *.dwg from time to time, and it is related to crashes (sometimes I abuse Inventor with iLogic during testing and crash it over and over ).

See this related link:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-general-discussion/turn-off-temp-files/m-p/3518314/highlight/true#M439903

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

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:31:28 GMT

I'm not spending any time in a TMP folder. Inventor is saving TMP files of Inventor DWGs in my working project folder and I don't know why. It isn't a life or death problem but it becomes taxing to have to scroll past these files all the time and I would rather they not accumulate in that location. I'm fully aware of the "OldVersions" folder and use it all the time. This is just a trash management issue.

Re: TMP File Management

blair — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:44:00 GMT

Never heard of that before, "tmp" files in the Work Directory.

Try a different User Account and see if the problem still remains.

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:51:18 GMT

I have already read through this entire post and it actually does not represent my problem. But I did delete my local tmp folder contents as a result which was nice to know.

Re: TMP File Management

blair — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 18:03:57 GMT

Since this is using a Users Profile location, try a different account. If it can't access the user's account directory, it will default to a work directory.

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 18:07:46 GMT

We have one other employee who creates Inventor DWGs and it does happen with her as well.

Re: TMP File Management

mcgyvr — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 18:13:54 GMT

Have you tried the Inventor reset utility?

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-use-Inventor-Reset-Utility-to-reset-the-local-environment-for-a-Windows-User-Account-Inventor.html

Note the warning

Warning:
This process will remove all customizations done in the following areas:

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 18:26:28 GMT

It is not using a users profile location. It is saving these tmp files on a network location which is where the working folder for the project is.

Re: TMP File Management

Ray_Feiler — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 20:21:33 GMT

Under windows system properties check your environment variables.

Re: TMP File Management

SBix26 — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 11:56:48 GMT

We don't use .dwg files, but I just tried creating one to see what happened-- in 2016, at least, when I have an Inventor .dwg file open, the corresponding .tmp file is created in the same folder, but is deleted when I close the .dwg file.

This looks like the same flow as MS Office files-- Word, Excel, etc. always create a scratch file in the working folder while a document is open for editing, but delete it upon closing (except for crashes, power failures, etc.).

Looks as if there is a problem in your setup that somehow prevents that close-out process from completing properly.

Sam B

Inventor Professional 2016 R3 SP1 Update 1
Vault Basic 2016 SP1
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, SP1

Re: TMP File Management

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 15:26:59 GMT

Yes that is exactly it. I've done an Inventor reset and just deleted all the unwanted tmp files. Currently they are deleting themselves properly and we shall see if the problem resurfaces.