Associate inventor to step files.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I was asked today by a colleague if there was a way to make inventor the default program for Step or .stp files. I tried to do it through windows explorer as well as the right click/open with in windows, but inventor doesn't come up as an option to open them, and when I browse to the inventor.exe it doesn't allow it to come into the list of programs to use. Is there some way to associate inventor to step files?
Thanks,
Ozitag

[rclark]

Hi Sam,

Ok, I understand your point that you cannot necessarily apply the same rules to all software, but the response 'Why expect change' is more than a little ridiculous don't you think?

By that logic, we would still all be using the very first release of AutoCAD. I mean - it worked, didn't it? Why change it?

Could it be a policy of product improvement I wonder??

My comments stem from an unpleasant experience when dealing with the support team whereby there response to me was dismissive and simply untrue; As I have described before, I had two releases of Inventor on my PC and was attempting to check out files from the Vault. The problem was that it would open the wrong version of Inventor. Autodesk's response was that I shouldn't be doing it that way - I should be checking out from within Inventor.

Pointing out to them that the Vault help file itself described the method I was trying as valid didn't seem to change their mind on this.

The only solution at the time was to uninstall the older version of Inventor.

So you'll forgive me if I seem to be questioning the responses I get from Autodesk support, because my experience of late has been decidedly unhelpful. All of which I am paying for I might add.

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

1. .... Autodesk's response was that I shouldn't be doing it that way - I should be checking out from within Inventor.

2. Pointing out to them that the Vault help file itself described the method I was trying as valid didn't seem to change their mind on this.....

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1. See Post #14.  A very clear statement.

2. I suspect this isn't the first mistake ever found in a Help file.  I haven't checked the Vault help, but is it a "wiki" type help that allows the user to have input on changes?  One of the powerful functions of a collaborative environment (like this forum), unlike the books on our shelves.  The errors can be fixed for everyone.

[rclark]

1. My example was about checking-out and opening from Vault - Post #14 is referring to opening from Windows.

2. If Vault is not designed to be the platform to check out files from, why does it allow you to?

http://help.autodesk.com/view/VAULT/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-5BCDD9A4-8A2A-489E-9C02-4C51F6065E9D

^ Not a 'wiki' type help file as far as I can tell. Seems pretty clear to me what it is saying.

[ampster40]

When you really think about this situation, this isn't an Autodesk or Inventor thing. It's an O.S thing. The O.S. is allowing you to associate just what program to open it with, that's it (not counting a possible icon bitmap adjustment). The O.S. does not have the means to configure itself so that when clicking on a .prt file for example (I used this one for this specific example even though it isn't an Autodesk file), it knows to go out and grab either a Creo/Wildfire/Pro/E config file or perhaps a NX config file. What would be different for Inventor files? We can go back and forth about this all day, I just learn and live with not double-clicking on CAD files. We have to where I work, we have everything under the sun in terms of CAD and solid modeling software our clients use.

[rclark]

What? Issues when opening an Autodesk product from Vault aren't an Autodesk problem?

My postings touch on Vault issues too, and it is Vault's behaviour which I was questioning here, not problems when opening from Windows.

The topic may have evolved from the OP, but it is still relevant since it is about file association, and this is something I believe Vault has problems with too. No-one seems to be addressing this, claiming that I am using Vault in a manner other than originally intended. But, as I have proven, this is not the case. 

[ampster40]

sorry rclark, my intentions/replies were related to the OP 1st post - I'm not touching vault stuff.

[jacob.gondek]

I have used autodesk inventor 2011, 2013, 2015 and now 2017. It was only on upgrading to 2017 that I lost the ability to double click a step file and have it launch into autodesk inventor. To fix the problem it was as simple as updating the registry file that controls step files. For some reason it stuck on 2015. To update I changed

HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Classes\stp_auto_file\shell\open\command.

It was: "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2015\Bin\Inventor.exe" "%1"

I changed it to: "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2017\Bin\Inventor.exe" "%1"

I also did this for: HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Classes\STEP_auto_file\shell\open\command.

Now when I double click a .stp or .step file it will launch into Inventor 2017.

[rclark]

Hi Jacob,

Thank you for the info on registry settings.

As it turns out I'm still currently using Inventor 2016, and I'm able to double-click on a STEP file to boot Inventor and open the file. Initially this was not the case, but I can only assume subsequent patches / hotfixes have resolved the issue.

I do not know if my original issue has been resolved as I no longer have multiple versions of Inventor on my machine.

It seems to me this issue was caused by a problem at installation. If a change to the registry file can correct it (either manually or by installing patches), perhaps a 'glitch' during installation was the cause all along..?

I shall soon be upgrading to the 2018 version, and so would hope that these problems do not occur again.

One thing this would seem to prove though, is that my views on how the software should behave would appear to be correct, despite many people on this thread saying I was asking too much. Turns out that you can have Inventor boot from a STEP file, and if it can do that, maybe, just maybe it can launch the correct software version from Vault too.

😉