Inventor (2020) not seeing step files

[merkamp]

Well, this is new.  Never had a problem opening step files before.  Today, for reasons unknown, when I try to open a step file from within inventor, and I navigate to the folder the step file resides and...nothing.  Filetype is set to step, but Inventor just shows a completely empty folder, even though I am looking at that exact same folder in a file folder and the files are clearly there. 

I have tried restarting Inventor, but it made no difference.  The only way I can open a step file now is to right-click on the file itself in a file folder (outside of Inventor) and then select "open with" and then select Inventor.  Why Inventor suddenly doesn't recognize step files is beyond me.  Even using "open with" is a pain, because it doesn't list Inventor as one of the apps that will open it.  You need to go to "browse this computer" and then navigate to the inventor.exe file just to open the file.  Extremely cumbersome compared to opening the file from within Inventor. 

Has anyone else encountered this before?  

[j.palmeL29YX]

Can you post the step file please, so we can check it - perhaps something with the file is wrong. 
Or do you have suddenly the problem with all step files? In this case I would consider an "Inventor reset to default settings".

[JDMather]

Screenshots of what you see too.

Shift Win S and Ctrl v to paste into a Reply here.

[merkamp]

Images added.  First one is the view from within a file folder.  Second is the same folder as viewed by Inventor.

[wrw0007]

Instead of changing file type to step files, have you also tried changing the file type to "All Files (*)" ?

[merkamp]

Tried what you suggested - as far as Inventor is concerned, the folder is completely empty.

[JDMather]

@merkamp 

Can you expand the down arrow next to Downloads...

and show this image from your machine?

What if you move all of those files to a different folder (other than Downloads), set your Project *.ipj to point to the new folder?

[merkamp]

Update:  I was just attempting to do as you asked (@JDMather) and now it is working properly again.  I can once again open step files from within Inventor.  I did nothing to correct the problem - the issue has apparently corrected itself.  Baffling.  Short-term glitch?  Windows issue?  Who knows?  Just happy it's working again.

[kacper.suchomski]

I think the problem didn't solve itself, it was solved by @JDMather

Mark his suggestion as a solution so others can easily find it in the future.
Turns out you had the link to the wrong folder path. For example, it could be the Downloads folder for everyone's library and not for your account.
Either way, nothing happened by itself.

[merkamp]

Actually, it wasn't (solved by JDMather).  Problem has resurfaced.  I just tried once again to open up a step file from within Inventor and again the folder appears completely empty, regardless of the filetype selected.

I have been opening step files for years without an issue (my image showed how many step files I have in that folder).  Problem did not exist before today.  File folder structure has not changed in at least four years, so I'm not doing anything differently than I was before.  Why it worked briefly a short time ago I cannot explain.  Nor can I explain why it is not working yet again.

At least the workaround works, however clunky.

[wrw0007]

At this point, I think it makes most sense to recognize that inventor 2020 is 4 releases ago and I believe no longer supported officially.

I would reinstall fresh.

[Frederick_Law]

Does the folder backup/sync to Cloud or network drive?

How many files in the folder?

There was a limit on how many files in folder.

[merkamp]

I created a new folder just for step files and moved them all there.  Seems to have solved the issue.  Time will tell.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[j.palmeL29YX]

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@merkamp wrote:

 Problem has resurfaced. 

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Can it be that you use the wrong folder name? Perhaps a (unwanted) space at the end of the folder name?

[merkamp]

As I said earlier, file folder structure has not changed in at least four years with no issues whatsoever when opening step files from within Inventor.  There may have been some truth to what pineapple.law1972 said about reaching a limit to the number of files in that folder (it was pretty stuffed), since moving the files to a different folder corrected the issue (at least for now).  That's just speculation, though.