Point cloud location changes after Appending .iam containing point cloud into Manage 2024

[uday3C]

Hello,

I've been trying to append an .iam with a point cloud file (attached as an .rcs) into Navisworks Manage 2024 but Manage for some reason, has been misplacing the point cloud.

Inside Inventor 2024, the .rcs is placed at origin without any Offset from Origin and Rotation along axis i.e. everything is zero'd. We try to keep everything zero'd as a standard practice, however, we sometimes align the point inside Inventor to achieve straightness as Point cloud Registrations are not always perfectly align to principal axis (X,Y,Z). 

Regardless, as the project I'm currently working on has the .rcs file zero'd at origin, I've tried appending the .rcs directly inside Manage 2024 which seems to place the point cloud at the correct location, BUT, this is not our standard workflow.

The settings inside Navisworks 2024 > Options Editor > File Readers > Inventor are:

• Active Project - <blank>
• Convert Work Surfaces - <ticked>
• load assembly with last active representation - <ticked>
• Express Mode - <not ticked>
• Convert Autodesk Materials  - <ticked>
• Convert Point Cloud  - <ticked>

I hope the information above is enough. Please feel free to ask any queries you may have about software setup/settings. Additionally, please take note that I have purposely avoided providing any images of the misplacement. We view client data as sensitive, and company policy forbids us from sharing it in public forums for security reasons. I really hope you can understand.

Do you guys have any suggestions to why directly appended .iam with point cloud has this issue in the current build?

[uday3C]

Update:

• I've also tried uninstalling and re-installing Navisworks 2024, but still, the same issue persists.
• I've tried manually entering the project location in the Active Project entry, but still no luck.

FYI, this issue is observed on multiple PCs in our Team, however, I find no trace of a similar issue on any of the online forums.

[uday3C]

Update #2:

Currently, we are forced to use Navisworks Manage 2023 to suit our standard workflow. And, I've re-done checks on most of the PCs in our team, but there has been no progress in finding the cause of this issue.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

[uday3C]

Update #3:

After some trial and error, we see that if an attached .rcs is cropped inside the .iam during save, all instances of the point cloud move to a new random location. If the same .rcs file is uncropped during save in Inventor 2024, its location in Manage 2024 is as seen in Inventor 2024. For some reason, this behaviour is not seen in Manage 2023.

FYI, the following software versions are in use:

• Navisworks Manage 2024 - 21.1.1401.33
• Inventor Pro 2024 - Build 272, Release: 2024.2

Hope that gives more context on the issue.

[uday3C]

Update #4:

After further testing with the following configurations, it is evident that this is an issue with Manage 2024 not liking cropped point cloud files inside Inventor .iam and .ipt.

I've used three files here, 2x .rcs with different names and 1x .rcp file. If one of the files is cropped, other files of the same name/extension seem to move together in Manage 2024. FYI, a reminder that this is not seen when opening the same Inventor files in Manage 2023.

Can someone validate this by trying to replicate the same? 

[uday3C · Accepted solution]

It seems like Navisworks' Devs already know this issue exists, and here's a Support page I received from Autodesk's support rep mentioning the same temporary fix I mentioned above until it is resolved.

Even though I've marked the post as answered, the solution mentioned on the linked page is a temporary fix, but it gets the job done, FOR NOW!

[uday3C]

This is to inform everyone that the above issue has carried over to the *NEW* Navisworks Manage 2025 that was released this year. There have been some updates issued for Manage 2025 however they do not address/correct it.

Hope this is just me and not everyone, regardless let me know if you get a different result when trying to replicate the above. Or if you know of a fix to resolve this.

[garnett_hendersonCBQ48]

Not helpful for inventor (nor have i found a solution), but I've found in Autocad, especially at large X,Y,Z values, Navisworks 2023 works fine (but is slow).
Navisworks 2024 & 2025 (while much faster working with point clouds) moves the cloud relative to the Autocad model, so useless.