Hi John-
That is how I have tried to do that, with a completely empty file. It does default to "select file". I just tried it in the same folder as the Inventor assy and it still will not let bring in the view.
Above is the warning i receive.
Above is the dialogue box i receive when i try to open an autocad file that uses viewbases of inventor assemblies when the project in autocad is not set to the inventor project that created the viewbases. (I hope you can follow that.)

The above is the dialog box that you can change the inventor project file in autocad, but i can only find this box when i open an existing autocad file which needs a different project than what it is set to. I tried looking back in the command line to see if i could tell what prompts this but to no avail.
On a side note, Autocad mechanical (which our company does not use) has a button on the lower right that allows you to select different projects. That is how I made these files. If i change the path in mechanical, close it and open Autocad the path has changed in Autocad. That is how i created these files but it is a pain in the hinder to do that.
Thank-you for the reply.