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This Month
Inventor Tips AutoCAD Mechanical Tips - Dimensions not scaled automatically in viewports, Saving to Previous Versions Vault/Productstream Tips - DWF file not created when DWG file checked into Vault, Clearing Vault Server and Database history Downloads, Hotfixes, Service Packs & Other Issues 1 Inventor hotfix, 1 Inventor DWF extension hotfix, AutoCAD 2007 Service Pack 2, AutoCAD LT 2007 Service Pack 2, 2 Vault/Productstream hotfixes, Inventor Graphics database update. As it's Easter time this month's tea break brings you some Easter related trivia links. Micro Concepts Technical Conference 2007 Update The Newmarket Racecourse event is now fully booked so this is your last chance to book a place at the event taking place at Whipsnade Wild Animal Park. Please click the link below to reserve yourself one of the last few places at our 2007 Technical Update Conference.
New Sales team Member, but an Old Face
From the first of this month Wayne Parker has moved to our sales
team from the technical department.
Inventor 2008 Upgrade - What To Do Now The latest version of
Inventor is now released and subscription customers will
shortly receive their copy directly from Autodesk's
subscription team. The latest version is named 2008 rather
than 12 to tie in with the other newly released products in
the Autodesk range of solutions. With a host of new features
we know you will be keen to see and try it for yourselves,
so what is Micro Concepts advice and instruction on
installing this latest version? User Training - New features are only of benefit if you know how to use them. If you have Silver Support your upgrade training is included with your contract. Upgrade training is available throughout the year so you can fit this in at the time that is best suited and to coincide with your upgrade installation. With Content Center, vault, shared styles other shared resources Inventor is a fully fledged client server application, incorporating other technologies including SQL server, IIS Server and .net services. Although the installation process is as streamlined as possible by the Autodesk front end, which has changed again, there are lots of options and different setup scenarios that can be confusing if you are only familiar with installing a standard windows product. It is extremely important to understand the options you are choosing when you carry out the installation. There will be installation
documentation prepared by Micro Concepts which will be
published to our web site and be on our next Technical
Bulletin. There will also be
documentation on the software disc that is important to
read, particularly the Readme and implementation guides. It is, as ever, important to
ensure the hardware is appropriate and has the correct
driver versions installed.
http://www.inventor-certified.com/graphics/ will
tell you the information you need to know. So our best
advice, however you carry out the upgrade, is to make sure
you plan and research fully up front to ensure your
transition is as painless and as productive as possible.
Remember the adage that 'FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING
TO FAIL'. Micro Concepts Inventor Tools 2008 Released
We're pleased to announce the latest release of Inventor
Tools, Inventor Tools 2008, is now released. The new release has been
certified by Autodesk for use with Inventor 2008 and is fully compatible with the DWG TrueConnect
functionality of Inventor 2008. Autodesk Inventor Podcast #10 From the official blog of the Autodesk Inventor Product Management Team In the Machine, comes this month's Autodesk Inventor Podcast. This was posted on 23/03/07 by Garin Gardiner of Autodesk. Data Management 2008 Backup - including incremental backup option We have a new Technical Document for you this month explaining how to setup your Vault backup with the new Autodesk Data Management Server 2008. The new version includes an option for creating incremental backups. The document can be downloaded from the following location: http://www.microconcepts.co.uk/docs/td0118-data_management_2008_server_backup.pdf AutoCAD Mechanical - Taking Your Designs to the next level with mechanical structure We have our final document from the 2006 Autodesk University. This document explains the structure functionality available within AutoCAD Mechanical. Previously published documents can be found in the Technical Documents section of the Members area. Inventor Parts List Filtering Using Excel In your inventor Parts list you may want to filter/group by type, for example to distinguish between manufactured and purchased parts, or to interrogate parts by stock number. In Inventor you can define which columns/properties are shown in the parts list for each part and sort by these. However you cannot filter out items from the parts list or group items. You do have the option to group items easily with Productstream which maintains a link back to the Inventor file. Another method for filtering is to export your parts list to excel and use excel functionality to manipulate and examine your data. Although not dynamically linked back to the original file there are easy export functions to re-export the parts list at any stage, including full vba macro functionality within Inventor and Excel. Once the parts list is within excel one easy method to manipulate the data is to use the Data List and AutoFilter functions to easily manipulate and interrogate the data. Use the Autofilter command to allow filtering by column.
Simple drop downs allow you to filter by contents within those columns.
If you have also used the data list command you can also add total rows (within the same data, list, sub menu) Placing Multiple 2D Sketch Constraints in Inventor When placing multiple items such as circles in a 2D sketch you can select all of these items by windowing around them or clicking on all items while holding the CTRL key down. If you have selected the items first you can then apply an equal, vertical or horizontal sketch constraint to all the selected objects in one command. This works with the equal constraint on other sketch items such as line and the horizontal or vertical with polygons etc.
Hide or Modify a Single Arrowhead on an IDW Dimension Is it possible to modify or hide a single arrowhead on a general or baseline dimension that you have placed on a view in an IDW file? Yes you can modify or hide one or both arrows on a standard (general or baseline) dimension. To do so follow the steps below:
Error Importing a SAT file When you import a SAT file into Autodesk Inventor, you receive a model failure error message. The error message reads:
You can only import SAT files that were created with the ACIS modelling kernel version 7.0 or earlier. This error indicates that the SAT file that you tried to import was created with a newer version of the ACIS modeling kernel. To determine the version number of an SAT file Open the SAT file with Microsoft Notepad. Look at the first line of the file, and note the version number. For example:
SAT - Format 15.0 - 1500 0 1 0 (1500 = SAT version 15) Only SAT files with a version number of 700 or less can be imported into Inventor. Saving changes to styles in a template file After changing some styles settings in the
Styles Editor you have saved the IDW file to the template
location. However, when you used the template for a new file the
settings were lost. This is because your project is set to
use a styles library and you therefore need to save the
changes to the Styles Library to make them available in other
files.
Now, when you create a new document using the updated template file, the changes to the styles will be reflected. Dimensions not scaled automatically in viewports In AutoCAD Mechanical versions 2002 through
2005, when you placed a dimension in the viewport of a paperspace
view, the text was automatically rescaled using the scale
factor. However, in AutoCAD Mechanical 2006 and 2007, the dimension text is always at a 1:1 scale. Saving Files to Previous Version In AutoCAD Mechanical if you use the save command to save back to earlier dwg format versions you lose all the AutoCAD Mechanical intelligence from the file. The menu options (available by clicking Options menu > Open and Save > File Save), work only for AutoCAD native file formats not for the AutoCAD Mechanical formats. This also applies if you set the default save as AutoCAD file format to earlier than the current version. To save back to a previous AutoCAD Mechanical dwg type use the following commands: For AutoCAD Mechanical 2007, use AMSAVEASACADM2007
DWF file is not created when DWG file is checked into Vault When checking a DWG file into the Vault, the DWF file was not created, despite verifying that the option Create DWF Attachment was selected. To publish a DWF file from a DWG file, one of the tabs, such as Model, Layout1, or Layout2, must be initialised. If none of the tabs are initialised, then a DWF file will not be created when a DWG file is checked in. To initialise a drawing tab:
To verify that a layout or model has been initialized and a DWF file can be published, click File menu > Publish. If the view has been setup properly, the Publish option will be available. You can now publish the DWF file. Clearing Vault Server and Database History When logging on to Autodesk Vault or Autodesk
Productstream, all previous history of servers and vaults logged
in to is retained in the dropdown lists for easy selection.
However if the some of the vaults or servers no longer exist you
may want to clear clear some of the entries in the
Server and Database drop-down lists. Downloads, Service Packs & Updates New
Downloads, Service Packs & Updates released this Month.
Major service packs and fixes in bold. Inventor
Inventor Series/Professional 11
Inventor DWF Extension Edition
Graphics Mechanical Desktop 2007 AutoCAD Mechanical AutoCAD Electrical AutoCAD Autodesk Network License Manager Update AutoCAD LT AutoCAD LT 2007 Service Pack 2 Vault/Productstream Hotfix - Unable to perform Get Latest Version of a File that is Checked Out Hotfix - Unable to Assign Imported Items to Existing Items in the Item Master Copy Design - Browse Folder Performance Improvement
For this month's Tea break we have found something topical for
you. If you've over indulged on chocolate eggs and hot cross
buns you may be interested to know the origin of these Easter
traditions. The link here
http://www.didyouknow.org/easter.htm explains further. Of most personal interest was this one:
Why does water not calm the tongue after eating hot spicy
food? With our local Shelford Train Station House being recently converted to an Indian Restaurant we are hoping to try these theories out for ourselves very soon. We'll let you know on a future bulletin exactly how much alcohol it takes to dissolve the spices. |
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Published by Micro Concepts Ltd Copyright 2007 Micro Concepts Ltd. All rights reserved. This Newsletter is provided by Micro Concepts and may be used exclusively for informational purposes by the addressee only.
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