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This Month
 News
Final opportunity to attend Technical Update Seminar
Inventor 11 Service Pack 1
Inventor 11 Upgrade Training Course
Autodesk User Conferences 2006
New Inventor 11 Professional License Types
Micro Concepts In The Press
Tips & Tricks
New Technical Documents - Vault 5 Backup, Inventor 11 Installation - network and standalone, AutoLimits
Inventor Tips - Pack and Go quick guide, Inventor Find Tool, Assembly file contents, Limited Colours and Materials
Miscellaneous Tips - OpenGL in Windows Vista, Dragging Images in PowerPoint, Product Serial Number changes to zeroes
AutoCAD Tips - Slow Layer Dialogue, OSNAPZ System variable, Customise Scale List Vault Tips - Locating the log files for troubleshooting Vault and Productstream problems
Downloads, Hotfixes and Service Packs
Inventor 11 Service Pack 1, AutoCAD Mechanical and Mechanical Desktop 2007 Hotfix, Graphics Hardware Update, Mechanical Desktop 2006 Service Pack 2, AutoCAD Mechanical 2006 Service Pack 2
Tea Break
This month we concentrate again on Invention and Design and how not everything is necessarily the result of detailed forethought and planning.
News Graham Harrison
Final Opportunity to Attend Technical Conference Update Day
 We are running our final Inventor 11 Technical Update day on Wednesday 21st June. This is the final opportunity for SSU contract holders to take up the places already paid for in the support contract. Further information and reservation details can be found on the conference site here. Alternatively email us directly to reserve your place.
Inventor 11 Service Pack 1
The planned first service pack for Inventor 11 has now been released. Applicable to inventor 11 Series and Professional the service pack is available from our downloads section. The service pack contains a number of modifications and fixes for issues identified since the release of Inventor 11.
 Inventor 11 Upgrade Training Course
A new course has been added to the Autodesk training schedule covering the features and changes new to Inventor 11. Using Autodesk Official Training Courseware the 2 day course includes full hands on training exercises to familiarise yourself with the new tools. The course description can be found on our website here. The course is first scheduled to run on July 31st & August 1st. You can find our new look training schedule on the website here.
Autodesk User Conference 2006 - Mark Your Diary
Autodesk have announced that this years Autodesk User Conference will take place on 25th October at the Novotel, Hammersmith, London. Further details will be published in future bulletins.
New Inventor 11 Professional License Types
With the release of Inventor 11, Autodesk are introducing two new license options: Inventor Professional for Routed Systems and Autodesk Inventor® Professional for Simulation. These products provide more flexibility on purchasing the extra functionality provided in Autodesk Inventor Professional. The chart highlights which functionality is contained in each product.
The question often asked is 'Can I install and run different license types on the same machine?'
The answer depends on the license types you have. When installing stand-alone licenses, you must select the type of Autodesk Inventor product that will be installed and used on that machine by installing from the media that comes with the particular product version. In a stand-alone environment, different license types of the same Autodesk Inventor release cannot coexist on the same machine.
If you use the network licensing environment you can install a full Autodesk Inventor Professional license on all machines. Access to functionality and hence the license taken is controlled by the license option selected to start the application. Licenses are managed across all users, so users may run as many licenses of a specific type as have been purchased.
Micro Concepts in The Press
CIMTALK
Faster, Better Design at Harry Major Machine
Top Autodesk Electrical Software Reseller
Engineering Talk
Major Upgrade for CAD Capabilities
Electrical design software proves popular
Tips and Tricks Peter Barker & Guy Sheppard
New Technical Documents Paul Thurgood
Vault 5 Backup
The information you store in Vault is highly valuable. it is therefore critical to ensure you have a backup routine in place and working that will allow you to recover your data in the event of a system failure. We have created a document detailing the required setup for this backup and would strongly advise anyone running vault to read this.
TD0111 - Data Management Server Backup
Inventor 11 installation Documents
TD0109 - Inventor 11 Network Installation
TD0110 - Inventor 11 Standalone Installation
Inventor 11 AutoLimits
This white paper from Autodesk gives a brief overview of best practices to use when applying the new AutoLimits feature in Inventor 11
AutoLimits – Best Practices Guidelines
Many other documents can be found in the Technical Documents section of the Members area.
Autodesk Inventor Tips
Pack And Go - Quick Guide
To create a Pack and Go of an assembly, or drawing, find the file in windows explorer, then right click on the file and select pack and go. You will then need to select a destination folder (we advise a new folder is created to send the pack and go to), then the Pack and Go will collect all of your relevant files and copy them into the destination folder.
‘Pack and Go’ dialogue box explained
What is Contained in an Inventor .iam assembly file?
It is a common misconception that an Inventor assembly file contains all of the individual parts and components that make up the assembly. This is incorrect, an assembly file purely contains references to the locations of the part files and sub assemblies used within the assembly. The assembly file will also contain all of the constraint information required to hold the assembly together. This is why, when an assembly or part files are moved to another location the resolve link dialogue box will appear on opening of the assembly in Inventor.
The physical size of an assembly file is often only a few hundred KB, however the assembly could contain many large components. Quite often the assembly size is asked during support calls, the information required is usually not the actual physical size of the .iam file but, a rough idea of the number of parts and their average size, so that an idea of the complexity of the assembly can be gained.
 Inventor Find Tool
With the introduction of Level Of Detail representations into Inventor 11, it becomes more important than ever to be able to find / isolate components within an Assembly.
Inventor 11 sees the “Find” button added to the assembly Browser Bar - 
This launches a search facility that enables us to search the assembly for numerous different properties:
Material, grounded parts, Number of Degrees of Freedom, BOM Structure, Colour Style the list goes on.
Using this search will enable multiple parts of matching properties to be found very quickly. The search facility also supports multiple criteria to be added to one search e.g. you could search for all Aluminium parts with no Degrees of Freedom.
Limited Colour & Material Styles
Problem - Only a few limited colours and materials available in the Inventor drop down selection?
Cause - This is a common issue and is normally caused by the Project setting ‘Use styles library’ being set to ‘No’.
Solution - Make sure all files are closed and anyone else who is using the same project file has closed down Inventor. From the file menu, select projects. In the bottom window right click on ‘Use styles library’ and select yes. If the selection is greyed out the project is read only. Make sure the first step of the solution is carried out and also try restarting Inventor. If using vault ensure you have the project file checked out from Vault.
Inventor Installation Error
When you tried to install an Autodesk Inventor product, you received the following error message:
Error 1406. Could not write value to key \Software\Classes\CLSID\{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000}\Programmable. Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.
This error occurs if you have Macromedia Flash Player 8a installed on your system. This version of Flash Player is newer than the version that is installed when you install Autodesk Inventor. Before you install Autodesk Inventor, you should check to see what version of Flash Player you have installed on your computer. If you have version 8a installed, you should uninstall it before you install Autodesk Inventor. Because Flash Player 8 is installed during the Autodesk Inventor installation, you will have a working version. Future Flash Player upgrades should not adversely affect your Autodesk Inventor environment.
Miscellaneous Tips
OpenGL in Windows Vista
Microsoft’s next generation operating system, Windows Vista will feature DirectX at its heart. This could have major implications for OpenGL, the graphics API behind the majority of CAD applications. Further details can be found in this article by Greg Corke on the MCAD website.
http://www.mcadonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=149&Itemid=73
Dragging Images in PowerPoint
Did you know, when dealing with PowerPoint images, if you want to drag objects but only in an orthographic manner, you can hold down the shift key and it will lock it into 90 degree movements.
Product Serial Number Changes to Zeroes after Reinstallation
The following article on the Autodesk knowledgebase gives information on how to address the problem of the serial number resetting to all zeroes when reinstalling an Autodesk product.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=7294572&linkID=4198944
AutoCAD Tips
Layer Dialogue Loads Slowly
When opening a drawing in AutoCAD and starting the Layer Manager, the dialog box can take a long time to load. In previous releases of AutoCAD, with the same drawing, the Layer Manager opened instantly.
A large drawing file or a drawing file with a lot of layers can cause the Layer Manager to display slowly. The Layer Manager scans every layer in the drawing to determine if there are objects on the layer so the correct icon is displayed. You can speed up the amount of time it takes for the Layer Manager to load by disabling one of the options on the dialog. In the lower left corner, uncheck the Indicate layers in use option.
OSNAPZ System Variable
OSNAPZ controls whether object snaps are projected onto a different plane parallel to the XY plane of the current UCS based on the current elevation, with the following settings:
0 - The Z-value is used from the specified point selected with the object snap
1 - The Z-value is substituted with the current value in the ELEV system variable for the specified point selected with the object snap
Customise Scale List
You can add, delete and modify items on the scale list for your viewports. Simply type SCALELISTEDIT on the command line. Then use the dialog to make the needed modifications.
Vault Tips
Locating the log files for troubleshooting Vault and Productstream problems
Listed below are the names and locations of the files, such as log files, used for troubleshooting potential problems with Autodesk Vault or Autodesk Productstream. The %temp% folder referred to in this document is the temp folder location defined for the Windows user account that is logged on to the computer. By default, this folder is located in the following location:
C:\Documents and Settings\ACCOUNTNAME\Local Settings\Temp
ACCOUNTNAME is the name of your user account in Windows.
Autodesk Data Management Server (ADMS) 5 installation log files
When you install ADMS, there may be errors generated during the installation pre-check or the actual installation. Depending on whether you are installing Autodesk Productstream 5 or Autodesk Vault 5, the actual log names may vary. The log files listed below are created when Autodesk Productstream 5 is installed.
Pre-check and diagnostic log:
%temp%\EDMLog - DiagTool.xml, DiagToolLog.xsl, KVMMigrationLog.log
Productstream 5 client installation logs:
%temp%\EDMLog\PS - AutodeskProductstream5.log
Autodesk Vault 5 client installation logs:
%temp%\EDMLog\Vault - Autodesk Vault 5.log, Autodesk Vault 5.xml, Vault5.0.log, Setup.xsl
Microsoft SQL 2005 Express (upgrade) installation logs:
%temp%\EDMLog\SQL2005 - Upgrade.log, Upgrade.xml, Setup.xsl
Autodesk Data Management Server 5 installation logs:
%temp%\EDMLog\Server - ADMS5.0.log, ADMS5.0.xml, ADMSProductstream5.log, Server5.log, PreChecks.xml, PreChecks.xsl, MSDE.log, Setup.xsl
During the installation of ADMS there may be errors generated during the installation pre-check or during the actual installation.
Folder Location and file names:
%temp%\autodeskdatamanagement
Server.MSIM-DD-YYYY.log App_log_M-DD-YYYY.log Sys_log_M-DD-YYYY.log Setup_M-DD-YYYY.log DiagTool_M-DD-YYYY.log WSEM-DD-YYYY.log MSDEM-D-YYYY.log system.nfo
Note: M-DD-YYYY refers to the date of the log. M refers to the month, DD refers to the day of the month, and YYYY refers to the year.
Vault server log files
Folder location and file names:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\VaultServer\FileStore
Vlog-YYYYMMDD.txt:
This log contains information about operations performed on the client machines against the Vault server (checking in files, checking out files, doing a getlatestversion or undocheckout, advanced searching or other operations performed from Vault Explorer or one of the supported product add-ins).
VaultManagerLog-YYYYMMDD.txt
This log contains information about operations performed within Vault Manager, such as backup, restore, re-index or purge.
ContentCenterLog-YYYYMMDD.txt
This log file contains relevant information about actions taken inside Content Center by client(s) on the server, such as error conditions.
Microsoft SQL Server log files
Folder location and file names
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$AUTODESKVAULT\LOG
Errorlog Errorlog.1 Errorlog.2 Errorlog.3 The SQL logs are named sequentially. The most recent (current) file is named errorlog, followed by errorlog.1, then errorlog.2, and so on.
DWG and DWF iFilter Log files
There are log files maintained by the various iFilters used when performing some Vault operations like a reindex. These log files can be helpful when troubleshooting problems with block attributes or when properties are not indexing as expected in Vault Explorer.
Folder location and file names:
%temp%
DWFFilt.*.log DWGFilt.*.log Indexing Block Attributes (DWG files)
When you are troubleshooting problems with DWG block attributes not indexing in the Vault, you will also want to find the FilterConfig.xml file. This file is created when you index block attributes in Vault Manager. It can be found in the following location:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Data Management Server X\Server\Web\Services
Note: If you have block attributes indexed in your Vault, you should copy this file from the backup folder into the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Data Management Server X\Server\Web\Services directory (of the new install) before you perform a Vault restore on a different server or if you are migrating to a newer ADMS. If the version of ADMS is newer, then the path will need to be adjusted accordingly. Similarly, if you are migrating to the next release, copy this file from the old folder path into the new folder path before running Vault Manager to migrate your Vault to the next release.
Internet Information Services (IIS) logs
When troubleshooting performance problems with Vault and/or Productstream, it is helpful to review the IIS logs on the ADMS machine.
Folder location and file names:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Logfiles\W3SVC1
exDDMMYY.log
Downloads, Service Packs & Updates Wayne Parker
New Downloads, Service Packs & Updates released this Month. Major service packs in bold.
A full list of current service packs can be found in the members area on the website here .
Inventor
Inventor Series 11
Inventor 11 Service Pack 1
Mechanical Desktop 2007
HotFix – Resolving Fatal Errors and Other Issues
Graphics
Hardware Library File (May 17th 2006)
Inventor Series 10
Graphics
Hardware Library File (May 17th 2006)
Mechanical Desktop 2006
Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2006 Service Pack 2
Inventor Professional
 Inventor Professional 11
Inventor 11 Service Pack 1
Mechanical Desktop 2007
HotFix – Resolving Fatal Errors and Other Issues
Graphics
Hardware Library File (May 17th 2006)
Inventor Professional 10
Graphics
Hardware Library File (May 17th 2006)
Mechanical Desktop 2006
Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2006 Service Pack 2
AutoCAD Mechanical
AutoCAD Mechanical 2007
HotFix – Resolving Fatal Errors and Other Issues
AutoCAD Mechanical 2006
AutoCAD Mechanical 2006 Service Pack 2
Tea Break Wayne Parker
We all spend many hours engineering and designing but there are some surprising everyday products that have been discovered purely by accident. Some of these products are bi products of design failures for the designs original intentions. There are many links to these 'accidental' inventions. Here are just some we have encountered:
http://www.chiggerridge.com/accidental_inventions/accidental_inventions_index.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111766/accidents.html
http://forum.quoteland.com/1/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=586192041&f=4511947895&m=515100931
Let us know any other sources you find. The best feedback will be rewarded. | 