This Month

Tips & Tricks
New Technical Document
Lynn Allen's Tips and Tricks For Using AutoCAD 2008 Software

Inventor Tips
Using Hotfix TS1071050 (OEM Viewer) to create a new Inventor 2008 DVD
Date Not Displayed in an Inserted Revision Table
Creating Workplanes Tangent to Cylinders
Need a Human Body Representation in Inventor, Use iMike
Angular Dimension Options
Colour of Inactive Objects in Assembly Browser

AutoCAD Tips - Control the Display of Locked Layers to make them easier to distinguish 

AutoCAD Mechanical/Mechanical Desk Top Tips - Problems Installing MDT2008 from DVD – Alternative Installation Method

Vault/Productstream Tips - Use Go To Working Folder to Create Local Workspace Folders

Downloads, Hotfixes, Service Packs & Other Issues

Inventor 2008 SP1, 1 Inventor 2008 hotfix, Inventor 11 SP3, 2 Inventor 11 hotfixes, 1 Mechanical Desktop hotfix, 1 AutoCAD Mechanical hotfix, 1 AutoCAD Electrical hotfix, 1 AutoCAD hotfix, 2 Vault/Productstream hotfixes.

Tea Break

A competition for you this month to win a Micro Concepts goodie bag.

 News

Inventor 2008 Service Pack 1 - Windows Vista Support

Inventor 2008 Update Course Schedule

Inventor11 Service Pack 3

A new service pack has been released for Inventor 11. Inventor 11 service pack 3 can be downloaded from the following link:

Autodesk Inventor® 11 DWF Extension Service Pack 3
Autodesk Inventor® 11 Service Pack 3

You must install Autodesk Inventor 11, Service Pack 1, and Service Pack 2 before you can install Autodesk Inventor 11 Service Pack 3.

Autodesk Inventor Podcasts & Skill Builders

From the official blog of the Autodesk Inventor Product Management Team In the Machine, comes this month's 2 Autodesk Inventor Podcast.

Official Inventor Podcast Episode #13 - Formula SAE Competition - This was posted on 20/06/07 by Garin Gardiner of Autodesk.

The Autodesk Inventor Skill Builder site has a few new skill builders posted to help you better understand how to create ribbon cables. If you have a need to learn how to use the ribbon cable functionality, take a look at the three part skill builder on ribbon cables. If you aren't interested in ribbon cables but are looking for something else, there are many other skill builders that might be of interest to you.

Skill Builders

 Tips and Tricks

 New Technical Documents

Lynn Allen's Tips and Tricks For Using AutoCAD 2008 Software

From May 2007, Lynn Allen of Autodesk presents her tips for using AutoCAD 2008 covering 2D workspace, annotation scaling feature, MLEADER command and many more new and current tools.

Download 32 Page PDF

 Autodesk Inventor Tips

Incorporating Hotfix TS1071050 (OEM Viewer) into a new Inventor 2008 DVD

Following the release of Hotfix TS1071050 (OEM Viewer) in last months bulletin you may like to create a new DVD of Inventor incorporating this fix in case you have to reinstall or repair the software.
If you copy the original content of the DVD onto your hard drive you can then replace the OEM viewer folder with the one downloaded in the hotfix. This will then correct the evaluation period has expired error displayed when trying to import dwg file on any reinstalls or further installation using this new DVD.

Date Not Displayed in an Inserted Revision Table

If you have inserted a revision table in an IDW or Inventor DWG and the date is not shown in the approved date column then the date property will need activating. The date is taken from the iProperty 'Eng Approved Date' which is not activated by default. To activate this you will need to open the iProperties editor and ensure the tick is placed in the check box for 'Eng Approved Date' on the status tab.

Alternatively you can access the iProperties from the revision table editor via the iProperties button shown below.

Inventor Human Representation Assembly File, iMike

iMike is a parametric Inventor assembly model of a man. iMike is not new, he has been around for years created by Michael V. Ficarra and originally posted to http://www.cbliss.com/inventor/Parts.htm

Micro Concepts have now modified iMike for 2008 format which is available to download here.

Angular Dimension Options

When placing an angular dimension it may sometimes appear difficult to place the dimension you require when dimensioning the angle between two lines for example. If you are not achieving the angle dimension you require then there are additional options on the right click menu prior to placing the dimension. Use quadrant will allow you to place 1 of 4 different angle dimensions.

Turning off the use quadrant option can enable placement of the angle dimension text outside of the angle lines.
The use opposite angle option allows you to place angles, typically greater than 180 degrees, that may otherwise appear difficult to achieve.

Colour of Inactive Objects in Assembly Browser

When Editing Parts In Context of Assembly the inactive parts are shaded. Sometimes, depending on the windows colour scheme, the inactive parts can be difficult to distinguish from the active part in edit.

The background colour in the browser is controlled by the windows 3D objects color 1 setting. Adjust this to set the inactive objects background colour in the browser.

Micro Concepts Inventor Tools Tips

Inventor Tools 2008 - Using Pack and Go

Pack and Go is a standard function of Inventor accessible from Windows explorer, however this can be confusing to use with various different levels of searches for associated files. Hence Micro Concepts have written a simplified version of this very useful tool.

To start a pack and go select the MCTools dropdown menu and click on Pack and Go in the list.

Once the Pack and Go dialog box is active you can select a location for the zipped files to be created. This location can be changed by selecting the browse button to the right of the folder name.
Other options are to include the Styles from Design Data. This isn't always necessary and in most cases the tick can be removed as including this will add approximately 3MB to the zip file size.
Finally the Pack and Go can be sent directly to an e-mail by selecting the final tick box. To use this you will need the e-mail recipients address handy and can add text to put in the body of the e-mail. You will have needed to complete the email options on the support tab in the MCTools options dialogue.

AutoCAD Tips

Control the Display of Locked Layers to make them easier to distinguish 

If you are using many locked layers in AutoCAD it is very tricky to distinguish between locked and unlocked layers. To help you see which layer is locked and which is unlocked you can use the LAYLOCKFADECTL command to change the dimming of a selected layer by changing the value to one of the following;

   0  =   Locked layers are not dimmed

 >0  =   When the value is positive , controls the percentage dimming up to 90%

 <0  =  When the value is negative, locked layers are not dimmed, but the value is saved for switching to that value by changing the sign.

NoteThe dimming value is limited to 90 percent to avoid confusion with layers that are turned off or frozen.

AutoCAD Mechanical/Mechanical Desktop Tips

Problems Installing MDT2008 from DVD – Alternative Installation Method

If you are having problems installing Mechanical Desktop 2008 from the second Inventor DVD there is an alternative method for installation which does not require running the setup from the first DVD.

For 32 bit machines:

1. Copy the mdt folder from the second dvd to a location on your hard disk.

2. Copy the eula folder from the second dvd in to the mdt folder on your hard disk created in the previous step.

3. Run setup.exe from the mdt folder to install Mechanical Desktop 2008

For 64 bit machines:

1. Copy the mdt64 folder from the second dvd to a location on your hard disk.

2. Copy the eula folder from the second dvd in to the mdt64 folder on your hard disk created in the previous step.

3. Run setup.exe from the mdt64 folder to install the 64 bit version of Mechanical Desktop 2008

 Vault/Productstream Tips

Use Go To Working Folder to Create Local Workspace Folders

If you have no local workspace folders but would like to quickly create them, a handy tip is to right click on 'Go To Working Folder' on the lowest level folder in Vault Explorer. This will create the exact Folder structure above the folder you select, in your local workspace, and also open a Windows explorer window in that selected folder.

This will not copy ant Vaulted files to the workspace folders, just create the folders themselves so that you can start creating models in the correct folder in your local workspace prior to adding these files to the Vault itself.

 Vault/Productstream 

Hotfix - DWF Package Not Viewable in Autodesk Design Review 2008
Task Scheduler DLL Registrations for Autodesk Vault and Productstream 5