imported file default location

[Anonymous]

Good day. It seems that my imported file settings have gone wonky last week, and I can't seem to fix them. We typically try to save all work on our file servers, rather than on the desktop so that they can be accessed from any computer. When working with imported components my work flow is typically this. 1. Download the component in step format (i found that step files import with fewest errors) 2. Copy downloaded from from downloads folder to clipboard 3. Select place from the assemble ribbon 4. Change the file selection dialog to display all files. 5. paste the downloaded file from the clipboard direction into the file open dialog, which places it into my working folder. 6. place files in assembly and work with them as needed. This worked fine in the past, save for the IPT version of the downloaded file would be placed in WORKINGFOLDER/Imported components/component file name/component filename.ipt. The extra folders weren't helpful, but they too much of a bother. However, sometime last week the IPT of the imported components started getting saved in C:\Users\%username\Documents\Inventor. This is a pretty big problem, since now my assemblies can only be opened on my computer an nowhere else. The only way I found to get around it is to edit the component in question, select save copy as, select working folder, finish edit, select component>replace all, select component in working folder. This is a time consuming task and pointless task. Is there a way to modify these settings?

[Mark.Lancaster · Accepted solution]

What version of Inventor are you using?  I assume its not 2016 since the ANYCAD technology has created a new workflow when imported CAD files.

It's not a bug, something has changed in your Inventor.

First place to look.  Single select your STEP file and the option button.  What do you have configured here:

The other thing which it sounds like (since your said it going here C:\Users\%username\Documents\Inventor), check to make sure you are using the correct project file.   And in your active project file you can also name the (imported) folders as well

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply Mark. I'm using inventor pro 2015. The strange thing about this particular problem is that it started during an inventor session. I opened inventor, selected a project, and got to work. For a while, all imported parts imported as expected, into the workfolder subfolder. Then at some point they started going to the local drive user folder. Changing the options in the file open dialog (the first solution you presented) worked, but only on the part being opened, they would reset on the next part. The options in the project file look exactly like yours with "imported components" being the folder name. This is where I started looking at some of my other project, and found that those two fields either had "imported components" in them, or in other projects they were blank. So I tried switching the fields on the current project to blank to see if that would give any insight to this problem. However, I couldn't edit the settings because inventor insisted that there were files still open, when there were none. So I shut down and restarted inventor, and all of a sudden files are importing directly into the work folder without me making any changes to any settings. So, problem solved, I guess? Thanks again for your help.