Inventor Custom Material Library Locked Cannot Add or Edit

[thejustincheung]

Hi all,

I am trying to add new materials to my custom material library but its locked and will not let me. I've tried a few things to no avail: 

1) Going to local file>properties; wasn't set to read only so I assumed that wasn't an issue

2) Checking out file/deleting from vault

I used to be able to open any part file and edit the material library from there but no I cannot edit/ add materials at all no matter which part file. Any help is appreciated. 

kelly.young has edited your subject line for clarity: Custom Material Lib Locked

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I guess it depends on where the actual .adsklib file is stored on your machine. Take Autodesk Material Library 2019 for example. It is saved in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials\2019" by default. As a result, the library is basically locked.

Where do you store the custom library locally?

Many thanks!

[thejustincheung]

Thanks for the quick reply!
Right now the material library is saved in the :C drive here

C:\$WorkingFolder\Engineering Data\WIP\Material Library

Where can I move the material library to bypass this lock?

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! I did not catch that you were using Vault. Did you manage the Vault? If yes, I believe the lock was probably enabled by Vault. If you don't manage the Vault, you will need to talk to the Vault admin to get the write access to the library.

Many thanks!

[thejustincheung]

Hi Johnson, 

This seems to be the problem as another user at our company was able to check out the file and have read and write access without any problems. I will troubleshoot to find out how to get Vault privileges.

Thank you! 

[Anonymous]

I am the Vault admin, how do I unlock these files?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Kayla,

I am sorry if I miss anything basic. If you are Vault Admin, you should have total control to the files, right? Close Inventor or any Autodesk Applications which may use the library. Is it unlocked now?

Many thanks!

[t_fransman]

Sorry having a similar issue in 2022 My Custom Matl and appearances wont let me migrate them seems to be broken and  is in bold red please help.

[SBix26]

Material & Appearance libraries do not change formats from year to year.  Each new release, I simply copy my custom library to the new location: from \Inventor 2022\Design Data\Material\ to \Inventor 2023\Design Data\Material\, for example.

Where do you see them in bold red?  Can you show an image?

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Sam B

Inventor Pro 2023 | Windows 10 Home 21H2

[t_fransman]

Thanks for the response, apparently the drive was renamed by IT . Got it figured out. Is there a way to easily update the custom library to get any new stuff from new release. TIA>

[SBix26]

I'll have to defer to Autodesk folks on this one.  I'm not aware of any changes affecting the format of the library itself since implementation in Inventor 2013(?).  I expect that if there were to be changes we users would be informed regarding a migration process.

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Sam B

Inventor Pro 2023 | Windows 10 Home 21H2

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am not aware of major change except some bug fixes (bad data in some material styles or some isolated updated appearance styles). If you are using custom libraries, none of the change would matter.

There is indeed a migration workflow. It isn't a hard requirement. But, you can go to Material Browser and click on the gear button at the lower left corner -> Migrate Material Styles. It should not matter if you migrate it unless you were using 2012 or earlier releases.

Many thanks!

[ChrisMitchell01]

I'm not aware of any material library changes between 2022 and 2023.

Note that it's generally recommended to store your custom materials/appearances in a separate library to the as-shipped  Inventor version. That way you can manage your custom library & then simply reference the Inventor library as/when needed.

Hope this helps,
Chris

[t_fransman]

yes, i have it on a shared drive. Just wanted to "copy" and update with any material and appearances that may have changed in 2022 and add al of the new ones, without loosing the ones I have made proprietary etc..... I really would prefer if they simplify this and let you add to the existing than on migration keep your custom stuff but have it all in one place instead of two. This is to me the most confusing thing in inventor. I Just don't like how it works and how confusing it seems to simply add a material and not loose it but also get new appearances and materials in one place. it should allow you to add to the existing "as shipped" and let you move the as shipped to a network location instead of two different ones imho. Obviously then it should let you migrate it every install to get their latest greatest and not loose or not remove your custom ones. It's clunky at best and totally confusing at it's worst.