Finish feature not visible on PDF

[Aristos_ANDROUTSOS]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently using Inventor and Vault Professional 2024 and I recently discovered the new finish feature.

Before we used to paint everything by using the appearance menu, but the finish feature is much better for us. The main issue that it solves for us is that we offer our clients the choice of paint. In the past, we tried to experiment representing this through the representations tab, but I hear that it was not a success (I was not actually here at the time and I have not confirmed for myself). With the new finish feature, we can easily have multiple paints for the same part/assembly and all we have to do is select the appropriate model state as necessary.

The issue I ran into is that when we release parts/assemblies (vault automatically creates PDFs and DXFs for us), the drawings do not include the finish that is linked to the primary state. Any views with that have the primary state have the default colour of the material of the part/assembly. Any views that refer to other model states work fine.

Was I wrong to link a finish to the primary state? When I first tested this, I created a manual PDF and it worked fine, but now the same PDF created through Vault shows the primary state without the finish, as if it's no there. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you all in advance!

NOTE: Attached PDFs have the view on the left as the primary state, and the right one as the other state I created, both have been created at roughly the same time

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Aristo,

The behavior does not look right to me. The PDF exported via Vault should look the same as the one exported from Inventor. If possible, please share the files. I would like to work with the project team to understand the behavior better. It looks like an Inventor API bug.

Many thanks!

[BDCollett]

I did a quick test, and it works fine for me. It could be that it's a specific finish type that is not working.

I do have CoolOrange Powerjobs installed but using the out of the box Job Processor. It is possible the add-in is still helping this, I can't confirm.

Inventor/Vault 2024.2

Inventor IDW: Primary left, Model State 1 right.

PDF via the Job Processor:

Expected behavior currently with Model States and Visualization/dwf files not displaying non Primary. (Big flaw)

After changing the Finish around a bit, it seems to lose it completely in the visualization as well.

[Aristos_ANDROUTSOS]

Hello @johnsonshiue,

Apologies for my late reply.

Please see attached files. I am only allowed to upload 3 files so I have excluded the .idw file. Please let me know if you also need me to attach that as well.

[Aristos_ANDROUTSOS]

Hello @BDCollett,

Apologies for my late reply. 

I forgot to mention that the yellow colour that I am using is a custom one (created by me and saved in the template), but the pink one is a stock colour in inventor. I did not think of this before, but could this explain what I am experiencing? Perhaps I have not done something correctly when creating that new colour?

I have attached the files in another reply if you would like to inspect them for yourself.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Aristos,

Many thanks for sharing the files! It does look like a bug to me. Somehow the Finish appearances are not properly exported to DWF and 3D PDF. I need to work with the project team to understand the behavior better.

Thanks again!

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi Aristos,

I have got the confirmation from the project team. These behaviors are limitations at the moment. The export support is indeed on the near-term radar (INVGEN-63991 and INVGEN-65716).

Many thanks!

[Aristos_ANDROUTSOS]

Hello @johnsonshiue,

Thank you very much for your help!

I must admit that I am slightly eager to make full use of the finish feature, but I am more than happy to wait until the relevant personnel has sorted out those limitations. Thanks again for your help in this matter!

While we are on the subject of model states and the finish feature, I would like to ask you the following:

Let's say we have an assembly with 5 or so parts. I then create my second model state and apply two different finishes, one for each state (similar to the above attached part, but instead of a part we have an assembly this time).

Let's then say that my job is done and everything is good. Later, for some reason, I want to add another part to this assembly. If I add the part in either of the two states, then that same part will be suppressed in the other state and vice versa.

Is there an option to disable this suppression of parts between the states? My goal here is only to link the model to the finish, as I want to be able to show the same parts/assemblies but with different paints for different customers. Is there maybe a better way to achieve this that I am not aware of?

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! I guess you will need to switch the edit scope to Factory Scope (enable all pencils next to the Model State nodes), before adding the new part.

Many thanks!

[Aristos_ANDROUTSOS]

Hello @johnsonshiue,

Thank you very much for your help! That was exactly what I was looking for!

[jason44]

Has there been any work on solving this issue?  I can generate a PDF directly inside Inventor and the finishes appear correct, but if i let the job processor generate the PDF inside of Vault, the finishes are not appearing on PDF.

[hkeny]

I am still having the same issue as @jason44 

I assume it is because when the job processor generates pdf through the job processor account, that account does not have the document appearances you have set on the document you are working within.. that being said I also tried using the finish tool with the appearances set within the inventor material library and that still did not seem to solve the issue.. 

[maxDQ7PY]

Hi 

any updates on this issue? has it been resolved in 2025.2

Max

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! If you are talking about INVGEN-63991 and INVGEN-65716, the latest status shows that they have not been resolved yet.

Many thanks!

[jason44]

Any word if this issue has been resolved yet in 2025 or 2026?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Jason,

Unfortunately, there isn't any meaningful progress on both tickets (INVGEN-63991 and INVGEN-65716). There seems to be some dependency on software components that are out of Inventor team's control.

Many thanks!