Getting Feature Recognition to work

[Anonymous]

I am using Inventor 2008
I have loaded the feature recognition down load on my computer and have restarted it as well. I have the feature recognition toolbar showing, however when I open a STEP, IGES or SLDPRT file, the feature recognition toolbar icons are shaded and I can not use them. It does not even ask me if I Want to recognize features while I am opening drawings.
Does any one have any idea what I need to do use this feature?
Thanks for any help.

[Anonymous]

It only works on base solids. If you have surfaces, then it will not
function. When opening a STEP, IGES file or another format that is a surface
model or that contains surfaces it will not work untion the surfaces are
stitched into a single solid. When opening non-inventor files always select
and check OPTIONS before opening the part (attached)

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Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
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[JDMather]

Try creating a simple cube in Inventor and Save As *.stp.

Then try reading that back in.

[Anonymous]

Dennis:
Since I am a new user with Inventor, my guess is that these files are saved as surfaces. May be that is our suppliers way of keeping me from changing them, even though I would not.
JD:
I did try your suggestion and it did work. As I told Dennis above, I guess it is the file it self.

Thanks to both of you for the assistance.

[JDMather]

Post an example file - it will probably be easy to stitch to solid.