Trouble setting custom material library as default for new projects.

[Anonymous]

Hi All!

I have created a custom material library and have set the inventor application settings to follow the path where I have saved that library on network location. So every new project that I create is now referring to that path. The only problem is that whenever I create a new project and start modelling first part file I can only see 'Autodesk Material Library' and 'Inventor Material Library' in the left pane of the material window. In order to get access to my custom material library I have to go through the option of 'open existing library'  on the bottom left corner of the material window. Then I would be able to see my custom material library in the list along with the two provided by inventor by default. I just want to save the trouble doing that every time I create a new project and create a first part. Can anybody help me to make the custom library appear there on its own for every new project.

Thank you.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am not aware of a way to pre-define material and appearance library other than the default Autodesk Inventor library. What you could do is actually simply copy and paste the project file. .ipj file is actually a text file. You can edit it in Notepad and there are sections pointing to the library files.

Many thanks!

[blandb]

Add the custom library to your project under the material and appearances and set it as the default library to use. This should take care of your issue.

[todd_cannon]

To expand on what blandb said, if the custom material library is mapped in the material section of the project dialog box, double click on the custom library. It should turn bold. This shows it is the default setting for parts subsequently created.

Cheers,

Todd

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply but I guess I still don't have answer for my question. So let me elaborate with attached picture. The 'Reliance_std_materials' in the picture is the custom material library that I am talking about. I want it to be there with bold fonts (Active) by default every time I or somebody else in my team creates a new project so that we never have to worry about making it Active library.

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@blandb wrote:

Add the custom library to your project under the material and appearances and set it as the default library to use. This should take care of your issue.

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[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply but I guess I still don't have answer for my question. So let me elaborate with attached picture. The 'Reliance_std_materials' in the picture is the custom material library that I am talking about. I want it to be there with bold fonts (Active) by default every time I or somebody else in my team creates a new project so that we never have to worry about making it Active library.

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@todd_cannon wrote:

To expand on what blandb said, if the custom material library is mapped in the material section of the project dialog box, double click on the custom library. It should turn bold. This shows it is the default setting for parts subsequently created.

Cheers,

Todd

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[todd_cannon]

So, is this an issue of other users creating project files that don't exhibit this behavior. It looks like your project is correct. I have users copy my project file to their location and rename it appropriately. That way they don't have to set the paths and defaults themselves.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Todd

[blandb]

Wait, so you create a new project file for every new job? Why not just use one single project file, set all the information one time for your company and its done, and pushed out to everyone automatically if changes are made vs. every user needing to go and alter the project on their computers risking a screw up of a link? If you work for specific clients that have specific library information they sent to you and need you to use, then I can see setting a new project file for that. But if not, everyone on the design team should be using the same project. Now you don't have to worry about it, the library will always be there.

One Project

• Design Folder -Company working files
  • 2017 jobs
  • 2018 jobs
  • 2019 jobs
    • 2019001 - First job of 2019
    • 2019002 - Second and so on.

[todd_cannon]

There is one down side to the top level project approach. When there are multiple levels of folders below the project file, load times increase significantly. This is due to Inventor searching all sub-folders to resolve links and looking for duplicate file names. I do have a top level project so that I can work with files in different lower level projects, for instance. But, I prefer to work to a project file closer to the folders containing the respective files for the lower level project. It's just quicker that way.

Cheers,

Todd

[SBix26]

In my last job, we routinely used separate project files for each project, since each project was intended to be completely independent of every other project and self-contained, except for CC parts.  But every project file was essentially identical except for the filename; the folder structure for each project was identical, the Design Data, material library, everything except Content Center files.  That makes it much easier to navigate within the project and to resolve files.

But only if projects are one-offs; if you're designing and maintaining a product line, or customizing a standard set of products, you need to be working under a single project file.

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Sam B
Inventor Pro 2019.3 | Windows 7 SP1
LinkedIn

[blandb]

In my previous job everything we did was one off. No repeat parts or cross contamination as my old boss put it other than CC. We were a system integration company with thousands of parts. But we used 1 project file. I know everyone has their way of doing things, but just makes everything easier in my opinion. I only have to manipulate one project file. If things happen to change vs. Hundreds if there were that many going on.

One company I worked for did individual projects for every job, but then switched.

But oh well.

[Anonymous]

I guess I can use the same technique as you. Ok! Let me try copying .ipj files for new projects.

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@todd_cannon wrote:

So, is this an issue of other users creating project files that don't exhibit this behavior. It looks like your project is correct. I have users copy my project file to their location and rename it appropriately. That way they don't have to set the paths and defaults themselves.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Todd

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[Anonymous]

That makes sense too. Let me explore that approach more and try to fit in for my purpose.

[xenocatalyst]

I'm with the Original Poster on this one.

We have a team of draft people working on individual projects.

If we need more than one person to work on a job we will use the same project file.

Copying an .ipj file is a hack and slash approach.

Back on the actual topic, I made a backup of the default InventorMaterialLibrary.adsklib and replaced it with my own.

which has worked for 3 years.

With release 2021, I wanted a better way to achieve this which lead me here.

If the new project default cannot be set I think I'll make a new Custom folder within the default InventorMaterialLibrary.adsklib.