Exporting to STEP yields transparent Models

[Clay_N]

I am using Inventor Professional 2019 to create models for our tool maker to use in making injection molds for our company. The tool maker has informed me that the STEP files of the part and mold assembly I send to him are “transparent” when he opens them. He has to change the color of each piece before he can even see the part. The tool maker is using Solid Edge ST8 software.

We also have Inventor LT 2019 installed on another computer, which is what I used before we purchased the Inventor Pro. I used the Inventor LT to export to STEP the very same file I exported from the Inventor Pro. When I sent the file to the tool maker, He said the file opened fine, no transparent parts.

My question is, what is different between the Inventor Pro and the Inventor LT that one makes transparent parts and the other doesn’t? What can be done to make the inventor Pro produce STEP files that are not transparent?

Thank you for your assistance.

[amoreno]

this works!

Thank you for the help.

[Anonymous]

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@johnsonshiue wrote:

Hi! I will check the defect status first thing in the morning tomorrow and provide an update.

Many thanks!

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Hello Johnson,

Do you have an update on the resolution of INVGEN-23710 yet, please? Whilst there is a workaround, the ongoing impact to our team's workflow efficiency is not acceptable.

Thanks.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Neil,

The defect has been fixed on 2019.4. So, non-transparent appearances should not be exported as transparent appearances in STEP. But, the STEP files exported earlier will need to be re-exported or edited manually.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Any update on this issue? 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Did you read my prior reply? It has been resolved as of 2019.4. But, if you already have exported STEP files containing (TRANSPARENT) set to 1. You will need to edit the STEP files in Notepad to change the value from 1 to 0. The issue should not happen on 2019.4 exported files.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I am sorry it did show that you had replied yesterday. It only showed that you were checking. 

[michael_marx]

Hi Johnson,

may be it´s fixed inside Inventor but not inside VaultInventorServer 😞 

Is there any other workaround to disable the transparency?

Thanks

Michael

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Michael,

How are you doing? I am not sure what you meant by VaultInventor server? For already corrupted STEP files (exported from 2019.1, 2, and 3) which contain TRANSPARENT = 1, there is no way to fix the import behavior except manually changing TRANSPARENT to 0. For 2019.4, Inventor files should not be incorrectly exported to STEP with transparent appearance, when the components are not transparent.

Many thanks!

[DeerSpotter]

Johnson,

Programatically there is always a way. Open as text in inventor and do a (cleaning up model bar) and have a find and replace function. This is a Inventor screw up, why the customer has to deal with this is beyond me. 

8/2/19 having this problem like crazy we are on the same version as the place that is sending us step files. build 330 release: 2019.4 

[DeerSpotter]

you are the real MVP here, saved our company countless of hours, thank you. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am very sorry for the trouble. Like I explained earlier and in the other thread you replied, the existing STEP files created on 2019.1, 2, and 3 with the wrong TRANSPARENT flag, will need to be edited manually. But, on 2019.4, the freshly exported STEP files should not carry the wrong TRANSPARENT flag.

To elaborate on the cause to the issue, it was related to an enhancement to support transparency in electronic components interop workflows. We were caught by surprise to. Again, I am very sorry for the trouble it has caused.

Many thanks!

[michael_marx]

Hi Johnson,



Good thank´s, how are you? If you attend to the gunslinger this year we meet up together. 🙂



With the VaultInventorServer i mean exact this piece of headless software (like Apprentice) from Inventor which Vault takes for the Jobserver functionality to export files.

And i think the fix which have been done in 2019.4 was not done in that area. 😞 Because if i export directly from Inventor all is good but if use the Jobserver automatism the step is transparent. Maybe you know which people are involved for this piece of Software. I don´t know if it´s Vault or Inventor, but i thought that all are together in one team.

tThank´s

Michael