Inventor freeze related to searching parameters

[ben.goodelliott]

Hi all, I've been running into a bug in Inventor 2021 [Build: 397, Release: 2021.4.4 - Date: Mon 10/31/2022].

Behavior: Total freeze of inventor, no response to any input, Alt+Tab to refocus windows is unsuccessful.

Steps to reproduce: 

1. Open a file (assembly or part) in Inventor
2. Open parameters and type Ctrl+F to search parameters
3. Click Find to search
4. Focus a different window: Click on a different open window (ie. Chrome, Vault, any other running program with a window in your taskbar)

You should find that you cannot do anything once you go back to Inventor. The program doesn't do the normal freeze behavior where you get an option to force close it or anything. I've only been able to close it using Task Manager and "End Task"ing it.

Some other folks in my team have been able to reproduce this as well, anybody know of any fixes?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Ben,

I am sorry I am confused. Inventor does not have the ability to search for a parameter within a document. Is this an Add-In? Please share the screenshot of this workflow.

Many thanks!

[ben.goodelliott]

Hi Johnson,

I've attached a video of how to reproduce the issue that I'm having. 

I'm searching the parameters from within the parameter browser: Opening parameters, pressing Ctrl+f. This should pop open a search field at the top of the parameters.

Thanks for looking at this!

[Electrik]

I am able to duplicate Ben's situation. As long as the "Find" window is active (within Parameters), accessing any other window will lock Inventor. Once you close the Find window, even if the Parameters window is still open, everything is okay.

Inventor Pro 2021, Build 397, Release 2021.4.1

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Folks,

I am sorry I am really confused. Inventor does not have the ability to search for a parameter. This must be an Add-In. What is "PM Assembly Tools"? Is it a custom Add-In?

Many thanks!

[SBix26]

@johnsonshiue I don't have any add-ins other than the default ones as installed, and this is what I see in Inventor 2021.4.4 when I key in Ctrl-F in the parameters dialog:

I never knew that was there, either.  But I have the same experience-- as long as that Find panel is open, switching to another application window freezes Inventor (it just happened when I captured the screenshot!).

However, Ctrl-F does nothing in Inventor 2024 and several other versions I have installed when the parameters dialog is open.  It must be an add-in for 2021, but I can't imagine which one.

---

Sam B

Inventor Pro 2024 | Windows 10 Home 22H2

[EdvinTailwind]

---

@SBix26 wrote:

However, Ctrl-F does nothing in Inventor 2024 and several other versions I have installed when the parameters dialog is open. 

---

Confirmed here too. How much I try, there is no CTRL-F function in Parameters in 2022.4.1 or 2023.1.1.

[gene.buckle]

Congrats, Ben!  You found a bug so heinous to fix that they just deleted the feature in future versions of the product. \o/

g.

[ben.goodelliott]

Hi folks, I'm relieved to hear that this isn't localized to me.

@johnsonshiue, the PM Assembly Tools that you pointed out is an in-house plugin that has nothing to do with the parameter form. As I previously stated, I'm using Inventor 2021, not anything newer. I've looked through my Add-Ins an there's nothing beyond our own plugin, 3DxInventor and "Anark 3D PDF Publishing" that aren't published by "Autodesk, Inc." As far as I can tell, this is completely default behavior, as verified by other users. I'm not sure what else I can say or do to show you this behavior beyond what I have done already. Thanks for looking into this.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Ben,

If possible, please share the screenshot of your Add-In dialog (Tools -> Add-Ins). I would like to compare notes to see what you have vs what I have. I think I know Inventor relatively well and I am not aware of such workflow of searching for parameters in Parameters dialog.

Many thanks!

[ben.goodelliott]

Hi Johnson,

Here's a couple screenshots of the Add-Ins that are in my version of Inventor (Inventor 2021, Build: 397, Release: 2021.4.4 - Date: Mon 10/31/2022). Viewrail Tools is proprietary to our company and as @gene.buckle can attest (he has written the Add-In), does not in any way affect the Parameters dialog box. 

To further test the bug, I have unloaded every Add-In here and restarted Inventor. When the Parameters dialog is active and I press Ctrl+F, I am still able to search the parameters, and Inventor still freezes up. I hope this is helpful for diagnosis!

[Electrik]

Here's a screenshot of ours. I think the only unique one is from QBuild - for processing BOM info into our ERP system.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! What is Viewrail tool? I don't have that add-in. If it is loaded, does the Search Parameters workflow still work?

Many thanks!

[gene.buckle]

As mentioned previously, the Viewrail plugin doesn't have anything to do with the issue at hand - this has been confirmed by other folks that aren't running our custom ribbon control. 

g.

[ben.goodelliott]

Hi Johnson,

The Viewrail tool is a custom ribbon created by @gene.buckle to call iLogic rules among other things. This has no impact on the parameter dialog box.

Yes, the bug is present with all of the add-ins that are shown to be active (in the screenshots that I sent) as well.

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi Folks,

After checking with the project team, I am embarrassed to say this is a known issue. It is specific to 2021 due to consuming a shared UI component. Unfortunately, "Parameters Search" was added by accident (reported as INVGEN-36405). It should be blocked in the first place. Please avoid using the function. It is problematic. The issue has been fixed on 2022.1 update and later releases.

Many thanks!

[ben.goodelliott]

Hi Johnson, thanks for looking into this! I'm relieved to hear that this is known and has been fixed. I look forward to updating to a newer version of Inventor in the future!

Thanks again - Ben