Inventor 2012 - Materials & Appearance Library missing in Project File

[Anonymous]

Inventor 2012 SP1, Windows 7

I have lost the ability to use Realistic views for rendering.  Appearance>Realistic view returns message appears "Autodesk Materials Library is not available..."

First image below is my PROJECT file structure.  I do not have the "Materials Library" nor the "Appearances Library" selections, as shown in the second image (sample of what should be appearing under the project file, at least on later versions of Inventor).

I browsed to the location of the Materials Library (third image below), to confirm the files are present.

It worked well for many years.  Not sure if this could be tied in with Showcase or not, but it lost the Materials Library after using Showcase.

My thought is, if I can get the Materials & Appearance Libraries to appear in the Project file, then I can point it to the correct locations

FYI, I've checked the Options>Hardware settings, it's set to Performance.  Changing it to Quality doesn't fix it.

Any help?

[The_Angry_Elf]

If I'm understanding what you're saying and you know the path of where the files are, edit your project file to point to those paths and you should be good to go, no?

I just noticed your project file is set to "read only", set it to "read/write" so you can edit it and then add the correct paths as needed.

If that still doesn't do the trick, maybe a repair install will reset things to how they were?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply.

My PROJECT file does not have the "Materials" or "Appearance" Library showing up.  If it did, I would think it would simple to point to the correct location.  Maybe these only appear on later versions of Inventor, I'm using 2012.

I've added a location on the greyed out "Libraries" folder to point to the location of the Materials Library, however, no result.

Stumped....

[Mark.Lancaster]

@The_Angry_Elf

In Inventor 2012, materials and appearances were actual styles or styles that were edited by the styles editor.  There was no library file that we have now-a-days.  The change in the materials and appearances was over-hauled in Inventor 2013.  Also the 2nd image of the Inventor project file is not from Inventor 2012.. 

@Anonymous

The information is located in your designated design folder.  Can you confirm if the information is there?

[The_Angry_Elf]

Mark, I can't be expected to remember that far back...I'm too old....;)

So if that's not from 2012, what release is he on? He stated he's on 2012.

Confused. Time to head home and have a Guinness or two...or three....

[Anonymous]

Mark, thank you for replying.

you said "The information is located in your designated design folder.  Can you confirm if the information is there?"

Are you referring to this?

I am also missing the LIGHTING STYLES when I attempt to switch from TWO LIGHTS to say DRY SALT BED environment too, so it's likely tied with STYLES.  It was all working recently, so I know it has to be a simple fix

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

That's one place but what does it state under your current Inventor project file/folder option for design data?  [DEFAULT] or something else.  If listed as default it uses the location as specified in Application Options/File tab.  If its not default, the information designated in your project file is the location.

[Anonymous]

My PROJECT file shows a DEFAULT location for the Design Data.  Which, when you hover over it, shows the same location as under OPTIONS>FILE>Default Design Data

I've browsed to the contents of the DEFAULT Design Data folder & do not seem to find a folder for MATERIALS (for Inventor 2012)

Now, at one point I temporarily had Inventor 2017, so I also browsed the DEFAULT Design Data folder & it does show a folder for MATERIALS

Could this mean that Inventor is looking for MATERIALS, STYLES, ENVIRONMENTS under the Default Design Data folder for 2012 but they are not present?

[Anonymous]

FYI, Here's the message I still get when attempting to switch to REALISTIC view....

Further, when I attempt to change the Lighting Style, I notice the image is missing for all of the other Environments...

It's like either the files are either missing or there's a path that's not set correctly.  Again, this worked great recently.  Used Showcase, then it stopped working, not sure if that's tied in with it or not.