Automatic change of Inventor settings

[Anonymous]

My boss was wondering if there was a way that we could have some sort of template saved on our server so that when we get a new employee or something we could just copy that file over and it would set up things such as dimensioning standards automatically.  He also wanted it to automatically install the macros that I have created, but I'm pretty sure that's impossible.

[Anonymous]

One thought I had was making one macro to install the others.  Does anyone know if it's possible to use the VBA editor from within VB.

[JamieVJohnson2]

This can totally be done, and is standard practice in a multi-user environment.

However, keep this in mind, step 1  Multi-user Inventor environment means USE Autodesk Vault (at least the free basic version) or your crap will get messed up by user error.

What you need:

1.  A central storage location.  (If vault is being used, that will be the server, then it will copy the files to each user's Vault Working Folder on their own computers, upon the Get.. command)

2.  Template documents in storage location (Inventor .iam, .ipt, .idw files with customizations like materials, logos, titleblocks, and such.

3.  A COMPLETE COPY of the Design Data.  Use the built in Style Library Manager here.  It allows to you clone a style, migrate and style and pinpoint update styles.  Also bear in mind a style library (aka Design Data file set) may be incomplete because of an EMPTY folder is missing.

4. Application Options File paths... Set these paths to look at your templates, your design data, and anything else you feel the need to set separate than 'out of the box' inventor.  Then export the Application Options to an XML file and store in your central folder for quick import later.  (also you can xml export settings for menu customization, file export options *.dwg, or *.dxf, and other settings)  Its good to have a Settings sub folder to store these xml files in.

Recommendation, EVERYTHING you customize, USE UNIQUE NAMES, do not name anything with the out of the box default names.  Every version upgrade or user error can destroy standard names by overwriting with the out of the box standard.

LOCK DOWN A PRIVATE COPY OF YOUR STANDARDS.  That way you can just refresh the server copies if they blow up by any means necessary.

And much more...

[JamieVJohnson2]

One button fixes are nice, and you can certainly create a macro that will push all your buttons, but try not to reinvent the wheel.  Especially the one you ignored, and started using for a coffee table.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that information, it'll definitely be helpful.  Please don't blame me for bad use of inventor as I'm just an intern that started here 2 months ago and only had one semester of a CAD class in high school 3 years ago.

On the subject of installing the macros,  do you know if it's possible to use the VBA editor in a macro.  I don't think I can make a file that I could "drag and drop", as my boss put it, to install the macros, but maybe I could create one macro that would install the rest of them as well as; update the folder that is used for external Ilogic, update the author on the template we use, and change the location of a file on of the Ilogic rules looks for.

I'm not sure why my boss is worried about this as you only have to set it up once and then you're done and it shouldn't take that long, but I'm not in charge so I'll try to find a way to make it work.

[JelteDeJong]

for setting up the settings of new users you can also look at this article:

https://beinginventive.typepad.com/being-inventive/2010/09/start-inventor-with-fixed-application-opt...

(even though it is stated in the article that it does not work on 64bit i know from experience that it does work.)

we have a script to install all settings a part of that script incudes starting Inventor with this parameter.

[Anonymous]

Inventor 2018 doesn't seem to have that option, but I can do a similar thing where I save my versions of the Design data,  Content Center, etc. files onto our server, and they'll just have to change the location of their files, as mentioned by Jamie.

[JamieVJohnson2]

warning about networks and lag and program stability.  We choose not to store any custom files that are actively being used on the network, but rather copy the 'whole set' to the users 'common location'  (for us it is C:\VaultWorkingFolder\CAD\Inventor\...)  Programs do not like searching a server location for settings files, that they use 'every command' so consider the copy to local method before 'mapping' to server locations.

Whenever I change a standard, I simply push my settings to the server, and tell everyone to download them (I made a simple 1 button does all program they push, and done).

There is merit to allowing update lag (within reason), because a change you make may cause something they are currently working on to fail, and it would be good they wait until the 'next project' to start using the update.  This from decades of experience.

I let users have a bit of freedom to customize their programs so long as everything designs within the company graphic and process standards.  I always tell my users, if you break it, you get my settings without question...