Inventor Read Only Mode is a problem when using Vault

[JamieVJohnson2]

I'll keep it short (not!), we use Inventor 2020 and Vault Pro 2020.  

Inventor 2020 installed and read only mode became available, so I selected it and ran the installation.

Vault recognized the Inventor 2020 and allows you to bypass installing Inventor View and 'all is good'.

User starts working in Vault explorer and finds the command "View in Window..."  Thinking (as in the past with Inventor View) "this will open the file in the new Inventor Read Only mode, and allow me to see the structure, for a temporary info gathering session."  Then they run the command.  Inventor Read Only mode then acts like it was a different version of Inventor (because its a different exe for sure), then it creates a cloned .ipj in a temp folder and (can't find or set it displaying some kind of error).  Then it requests to close Vault to register Inventor Read Only mode with the system.

Problem #1:  InvRO should not be re-registering as a default Inventor file handler for windows (EVER), especially when the user has Inventor installed and uses a full license to keep using it.

Problem #2:  InvRO does not configure itself properly throwing out the errors of the ipj file.

Problem #3:  Inventor Pro now has a 'junk' ipj to confuse its behaviors and needs to be deleted.

Problem #4:  InvRO can't be uninstalled.

Problem #5:  Inventor View can't be installed as long as you have Inventor installed.

Problem #6:  Vault refuses to Open any file using Inventor Pro after it has opened it using InvRO, this because of the reregistration with Windows to handle the file use.  (if you set Vault to open Inventor files using last known configuration OR Default, you get this same issue).

I would like a solution to this oversight.  Perhaps I can modify the windows registry myself (if I knew where) to force it back to Inventor Pro (via code, not having to close and reopen all Inventor programs).  Best solution is to open the file in Inventor Pro instead of the other exe InvRO.  I get where they got this from and what good it means, but its only half baked if we have these problems in daily use.

And to add insult to injury, my Autodesk account won't display support cases, and the help chat dumped my request due to 'no agents available'.  Happy Friday all!!

[-niels-]

Not saying i have a solution, just wondering something as i'm not on 2020 yet and haven't seen how the Read only mode works.

What i'm wondering is: why do you need to install both a full inventor and a Read Only Inventor? (problem#1)
In previous versions you couldn't install Inventor view separate as it was part of the Inventor install, so Vault used the Inventor view that was part of the full install...

[DarrenP]

inventor RO is part of the main install of inventor 2020 its not optional through regular install

it just creates another icon in your start menu

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Jamie,

Many thanks for sharing the issues! We are investigating the issues and we will give you a status update soon. I am very sorry for all the trouble you have encountered in this workflow.

Thanks again!

[pball]

Just chiming in to say this is something my work place is interested in. As we have started using Inventor Read Only and plan on implementing Vault by next year.

[gandhey]

Hello,

Please find the feedback for some of the queries below :

Problem #1:  InvRO should not be re-registering as a default Inventor file handler for windows (EVER), especially when the user has Inventor installed and uses a full license to keep using it.

[Yogeshwar] - InvRO needs registration, this is highlighted in our Vault help :

http://help.autodesk.com/view/VAULT/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-18A5B6A9-933C-46AF-9865-79A15C3ED6E5

Problem #3:  Inventor Pro now has a 'junk' ipj to confuse its behaviors and needs to be deleted.

[Yogeshwar] - The junk files and folders are deleted if you close InvRO first and then vault client. Please see if that helps. Meanwhile I have reported your feedback to dev team. (Temp files/folders not getting deleted when Vault client is closed first and InvRO later)

Problem #5:  Inventor View can't be installed as long as you have Inventor installed.

[Yogeshwar] - This is expected, as the rationale here for users is use InvRO instead of InventorView.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/VAULT/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-18A5B6A9-933C-46AF-9865-79A15C3ED6E5

If you need Inventor View, please install Vault client first. (with Vault 2020, by default Inventor View is not set for installation.)

Some feedback needed :

Problem #6:  Vault refuses to Open any file using Inventor Pro after it has opened it using InvRO, this because of the reregistration with Windows to handle the file use.  (if you set Vault to open Inventor files using last known configuration OR Default, you get this same issue).

[Yogeshwar] - For vault workflow, are you using double click to open ? can you please check if you have double click set to 'View in Window' and not 'open'.

Just FYI Vault will obey the behaviour as you see in windows explorer open for Inventor files. 

Regards,

Yogeshwar

(Vault team)

[GeorgK]

I think there are a lot of problems in the new version.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Georg,

Do you mind elaborating what you meant by "there are a lot of problems in the new version"? Could you show me some existing threads or known issues?

Many thanks!

[clastrilla]

With this configuration in Vault Client Tools --> Options:

 - Invoke with double-click  = View in Window

 - Default settings for viewing Inventor files = Inventor Read-only

When a user double-clicks on an Inventor file in Vault Explorer, it then opens up the file in InvRO. The exception to this is when a the Inventor file has a visualization file (i..e dwf), which then opens it up in the Vault Client Window (DesignReview in Vault shell). Ideally this can be Vault client setting, i.e. the ability to open a file in InvRO even if it has a DWF file already.

Once InvRO is used to open the file, if the user then does a right-click of the file in Vault Client and chooses Open (even a different file), then InvRO is still used to open the file. Ideally if it's a deliberate open (such as right-click > Open) then it will open in Inventor Pro.

So maybe the the "Invoke with double-click" should have 3 options:

1. Open in CAD application (e.g. Inventor, AutoCAD, etc.)

2. Open in Viewer application (e.g. Inventor RO, DWG TrueView)

3. View in Window (e.g. DesignReview in Vault shell)

Also a tick-box to say to use DWF files when available, otherwise use Viewer application.

Something for the IdeaStation?

[Cadkunde.nl]

I was looking in the vault options and was facepalming myself too hard as I noticed you can only set one of the viewers as default.

What is up here. Thats exactly how 99% of engineers open files in Inventor. Please hotfix this as soon as possible.

I advise any engineer not to install update 2020.1

Please make this 'third option' as the standard setting during installation of vault.

Personally i think we need this:

Double click : Open in CAD

Right mouse: open view in window: open viewer

Right mouse: open read only: open InvRO

Sometimes you want to view a  previous version of a drawing without downloading files. (right mouse: view in window)

Sometimes you want to open a file read only without Inventor nagging: do you want to check out? do you want to update? Oh you made changes? Save? (right mouse: Open Read Only)

Sometimes you have to work (double click --> CAD)

When invRO opened I thought: oh cool, now it will open all my 'view in windows' in one application.

Also facepalmed there.

[Cadkunde.nl]

Perhaps I sound a bit too negative in previous post.

Don't get me wrong. I like the improvement over Inventor View a lot.

Engineers being able to browse a previous projects without the nagging pop-ups and accidental check outs is great.

[JamieVJohnson2]

So I would like to chime back in, and report the 'updated' findings:

First, I have installed Inventor 2020.1, but not Vault 2020.1 at this time (will get it done this week).

I have retested the behavior.

1. If you open a file in InvRO.exe using Vault "View in Window" command, then Windows changes the inventor file type registry so that if you double click on any inventor file type in Windows Explorer it will open in InvRO.exe instead of Inventor.exe.  Also, InvRO.exe still throws errors on the temp *.ipj every time it opens.
2. Following that, if you use Vault "Open" or manually open Inventor.exe (after you close InvRO.exe), then Inventor.exe re-registers (without prompt?) as the default handler for inventor file types.  At that time, any file you double-click on from Windows Explorer will open in Inventor.exe instead of InvRO.exe.

This is the unwanted behavior.  Inventor.exe should remain the default handler for all inventor file types regardless of opening InvRO.exe from Vault or manually.  Not to tell a developer how to do their job, the tasks are this:

1. Vault opens a InvRO.exe file without using windows registry information to access the dde of InvRO.exe.  This should be easy, and is probably already implemented.
2. InvRO.exe needs to NOT modify Windows Registry to assert its dominance over the inventor file types.  I bet this is left over code from Inventor.exe used to update Windows when you install a later version of Inventor.exe (like 2019 to 2020).  It sure is annoying even in that scenario.
3. If necessary, create a file handler that knows how to separate the use of Inventor.exe from InvRO.exe - like Autodesk did for AutoCAD - DWG Launcher (and I'm not advocating that is the solution exactly, because even it has its own challenges in a multi-ACAD.exe product environment).

Thanks,

[dominik.gleinser]

Hallo Autodesk-Team,

the above listed solutions would be a good workflow for file-handling using read-only-mode.

A new hotfix release for solving this with 2020 would be nice!

An other solution is a separate "Open with" button - see other inputs in the idea station...

Thank you!

Best regards

[trogmanna]

Hello,

we have the same probleme.

In windows explorer the files open with InvRO but in Inventor the open command still invoces the inventor.exe

With the command "open in Window" InvRO opens only for those files who not have an actualized dwf file.

The others are shown in the Design review window.

This behavior makes no sense.

we need the option  in Vault to open files every time with invRO!

Regards

ATR

[Cadkunde.nl]

---

@trogmanna wrote:

This behavior makes no sense.

we need the option  in Vault to open files every time with invRO!

And to be complete: If there is an invRO open: use that one

[JamieVJohnson2]

'If there is an InvRO.exe open use that one'

So what is happening here can just as much be window's fault.  Windows has the ROT (running object table) that is a hash table, a list of unknown objects, that only responds with the first item of its kind when you ask for said item.  So if I have 2 Excel.exe applications running and I ask for Excel, windows will only let me have one, the last on opened.  There are many ways and tricks to solve that problem, but fundamentally its the core of the problem.  The other issue is when the application does not respond to Marshal.GetObject windows command.  This can be when Excel is in background mode, or busy, or just crashed and stupid but still running.  In that case windows reports error, and the handler will just tell windows to open a new Excel.exe application.  This is how your computer gets multiple hidden programs running behind your back.  This is also why Vault open document application is crippled, it can only work with what Windows gives it, or what it opens itself.  A smart coder, would open an application and KEEP reference to that application so long as it can.  That way if windows is not getting a good vibe, the programmers reference could be used (first) instead.  But now it is on the coder to know if the application is still functioning, or do they have a pointer to a dead stick.  For Multi-document programs that do more than 'read only' access where the multiple documents interact (like nested references), it is not very smart/safe (who cares about safety right?) to open a document when you know there potential file locking issues happening from multiple application instances of the same, AND you can't get reference to all instances of the application from Windows (unless you wrote the application to report a different name in the ROT for each running instance), so you can't verify if the file is open and in use already.

All that said, the InvRO.exe does not allow for file modifications, so we can open the same file in 30 application threads without issue.  That also means we can hold onto a single instance of InvRO.exe when first opened and keep reusing it so long as we don't close Vault (which drops the pointer).  So if the program went like this:

1.  Vault - has instance pointer of InvRO.exe 

1a.  Yes - use it to open next document.

1a1.  Document opens successfully, done.

1a2.  Document fails to open, drop pointer and go to line 3.

1b.  No - continue to statement 2.

2. Windows - ROT has instance pointer of InvRO.exe

2a.  Yes - use it to open next document.

2a1.  Document opens successfully, done.

2a2.  Document fails to open, drop pointer and go to line 3.

2b. No - go to line 3.

3. Windows - Create instance of InvRO.exe, Vault keep reference to InvRO.exe just opened for long as can.

That's the best you can do without 'hacking' the ROT or cheating the system (which could be done if you wanted too).

[Anonymous]

I think this is just an extension to an existing problem. Remember reading that the problem starts with different Autodesk applications sharing the same CLSID in Windows registry. I have Inventor 2014, Autocad Mechanical 2014 and Vault Professional 2014 installed on this computer. When selecting a DWG-drawing and choosing 'view' in Vault any of 3 things can happen. The drawing opens in a Vault preview window, the drawing opens in TrueView or Autocad is started up. When Autocad is started it's even possible that it comes up with a new, empty drawing instead of the requested one. I've stopped asking why and when this different behaviour occurs. It's annoying, that's for sure. On the old computer I had 2 versions of TrueView installed. As a result any of the 2 versions could open.

[JamieVJohnson2]

The AutoCAD issue I've already got a grasp on.  If you use the 'dwg launcher' it goes into the windows registry at this location, and runs what is set to the apps - default key.  Inside of apps is a list of keys that allows it to choose which app is appropriate to use for said dwg file.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\DwgCommon\shellex\apps

You will also notice that it hosts the exact acad.exe startup string.  This string should match your favorite icon string with the added %1 or /print %1 (%1 means open selected document).  This is where you can eliminate the competition (such as remove DWG True View), and make sure that acad.exe opens with /p for profile and all other start flags, here is an example of the startup icon string for Civil3D (the longest one I have).

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2020\acad.exe" /ld "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2020\\AecBase.dbx" /p "<<C3D_Imperial>>" /product "C3D" /language "en-US"

Then to get vault to stop trying to pick the program automatically, put it in Default mode for all file types (Tools\Options\Open file behavior settings), and it will fall back on window's registry control (aka the dwg launcher if you set it to use that for the dwg file).  This is where the user could have more control.  If a user could 'set' vault to run a specific program startup string under a specific file type \ command call (open, open in viewer, open read only), and then the user would be in control of setting a stable environment custom to their workflow.  If AutoCAD Vault add-in had a button to allow you to set vault acad startup to the current environment, that would be perfect.  Same for all other command + environment + file type scenarios.

[Anonymous]

I had the same problem. When installing IV2020 do not unistall your previous IV version. I openened one inventor file by right klicking on it in windows explorer and than chosing the option "opening with inventor 2017" (in my case). Then you will be asked that Inventor 2017 needs to register. Click on ok, your Inventor 2020 session and Vault 2020 will stop working and the file will be opened with the previous Inventor pro application. When you close everything after doing this, start Inventor 2020 and the Vault 2020 app. Go to a file in the Vault, right click on it and it opens in Inventor 2020 pro and not the RO-version anymore. 

I hope it will work with you guys that still have this issue.

Luc.

[frank.gavilar]

We're also having to re-register inventor a couple of times a day. Please fix this issue it is really annoying.