IMAGINiT Technologies Support Blog

Correcting unresolved file references, 'File not found' or blank 'Uses' tab display in Vault Explorer

In Autodesk Vault's Explorer view, there may be several symptoms of incorrect file references. For example, the following view of the 'Uses' tab is correctly listing the related files for an Inventor drawing:

But if the references are "dangling" they may not appear correctly under the 'Uses' tab like this.

Starting with Autodesk Vault 2012 Update 2 that is available for all variants of Vault 2012, the Autodesk Reference Repair Utility is installed in the Tools folder under Start/All Programs/Autodesk/Autodesk Data Management/Tools/Autodesk Reference Repair Utility.

For Vault 2014, the Autodesk Reference Repair Utility looks like this:

 

See the five part Walkthrough for Manually Repairing References in the Autodesk Vault WikiHelp for extensive details on the use of the Reference Repair Utility.

The Walkthrough and the video that is included show step by step how to use the utility and offers these overview details:

Why Do We Need the Reference Repair Utility?

Under certain circumstances, it was possible to break historical CAD file relationships, resulting in unresolved file references or "dangling relationships." As a result, the parent versions would no longer point to any file, resulting in a dangling relationship. If a file has a dangling relationship, common Vault functions, such as Get/Check out, Where Used, and Change State can return an error or incorrect data. These errors can manifest as references not being shown under the Uses tab in Vault, or as a "file not found" error in your CAD application.

These dangling relationships must be addressed to avoid any problems gathering relationships. Service Pack 2 for Vault 2012 and Service Pack 1 for Vault 2013 introduce ways to repair dangling relationships.

Supported File Relationships

The following file relationships are supported.

• Inventor 3D files
• Inventor 2D files
• AutoCAD DWG files with XREFs.

Once underway, the Utility examines all files from the Vault root folder or sub-folder that you specify.

AutoCAD 2012 is unable to obtain the Building Design Suite 2012, 2013 or 2014 network license.

When you run AutoCAD 2012 you receive a network licensing error, but when you run Revit Architecture 2012 you do not.  Also, all the newer programs obtain licenses just fine, AutoCAD 2012 seems to be the only program affected.

AutoCAD 2012 is unable to obtain the Building Design Suite (BDS) license, because AutoCAD was not installed from the Building Design Suite 2012 media.

Looking  at the cascading sequence they are different depending on which media you install. This was a oversight on Autodesk's part and was later cleared up in a technical solution.  If AutoCAD was installed from the BDS media it works fine, otherwise you receive a licensing error (probably [0.0.0]). 

1. We have 3 legal workarounds (we wouldn't want any other kind!):
   1) Uninstall AutoCAD from all the machines, reboot, install AutoCAD from the Building Design Suite 2012 media. You should be able to download it from the Subscription website.
   
   2) Ask your sales rep to see if they can get you an exception to run the old Revit Architecture Suite 2012 license. They typically generate an exception for 13 months, so you'd need to get everyone up and running on the newer AutoCAD before the license expires.
   
   3) Run the newer version of AutoCAD. Unlike Revit, it does allow you to save back
   to the older release.

 

See the Autodesk Technical Solution:

• http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS16981643

If you don't believe this is the cause, give us a call and we can prove it out one way or another.

UNSUPPORTED - error in the debug log file after updating your network license file.

When you upgrade the license manager or implement a new license file you just may see something like the following error:

10:48:44 (adskflex) UNSUPPORTED: "59200AMECH_PP_2009_0F" (024E CF45 AB41 CD1A ) loginname@machinename-MOBILE  (License server system does not support this feature. (-18,327:10054 ""))

This typically means that they were working in the program when you changed the license (or sometimes just the license manager) and now it's not happy.

The error will continue to log in the debug log until the user exits the program, waits a few seconds then gets back in.

 

How to borrow a network license in Inventor

To borrow a network license in Inventor, as with many Autodesk products, go to Help>About Autodesk Inventor:

In the About Autodesk Inventor dialog box, select the Product Information button:

This will open the Product License Information dialog box where you finally choose Borrow License...

Choose a date in the calendar that you want to borrow the license until.  The valid range is within 6 months:

 

It'll notify you that you've borrowed a license:

Now if you want to return a license early you can go back to Help>About Inventor and choose Return License...

 

You may not want to allow users to borrow a license for up to six months.  Here's how you can set up a maximum borrow period for your license:

Restrict Users Borrow Period

For more information on how to control who can borrow and which licenses you can borrow using an Options file see the Controlling License Borrowing section in this document.

If you're having trouble returning a license early take a look at this link:

Borrowed License won't return

Communication Failure Error when trying to install after downloading the Autodesk package

This one catches quite a few people.  When you login to the subscription site, go to the downloads and select the option to "Install now", you may receive the following error.

Communication Failure

Download and installation has been interrupted by a lost connection between the Autodesk website and this computer.  The most likely causes are:

-  The installation package was moved from the installation location, which is not support.

-  The Autodesk download website was closed or manually refreshed before the installer launched.

-  A firewall has blocked the network ports.

Please address these issues if possible, return to the website, and then click again on Install Now, or use another download method:  Download Now or Browser Download.

 

When you use this option it downloads that huge .exe file and extracts the files to c:\autodesk\another_folder_name, then it runs setup for you. If this process is stopped or interrupted you will get that message or if you try to manually run the setup later.

This method does *not* allow you to use the setup later, only during this session.

I believe the best download method is to use the "Download Now". 

• It uses the Download Manager which is far more reliable and can be paused.
• Once you extract the files you can run the setup as many times as you'd like.
• Typically it's faster too!
• You need the original installation location to install service packs (or insert the DVD)

Once you download that huge file you can extract the install files to any location.  

Note: the default is C:\Autodesk\Filename, where Filename is the same name as the large .exe fie you downloaded.

So to get past the Communication Failure error I'd recommend downloading it again using the "Download Now" option, download it and double click that .exe to extract all the files and it will run setup for you..  

Note:  you do have to download and install the Download manager before the installation begins.

 

Inventor 2014 Update 1 is available

Inventor 2014's first Update is already here!

Update 1 for Inventor 2014

Download the zip that contains both the 32 and 64 bit installs: Inventor 2014 Update 1.zip

Run the 32-bit or 64-bit.exe needed for your operating system.

You can install this on the following Inventor 2014 installs:

• Inventor 2014
• Inventor Professional 2014
• Factory Design Suite Premium 2014
• Product Design Suite Premium 2014
• Factory Design Suite Ultimate 2014
• Product Design Suite Ultimate 2014

For complete installation instructions see the Read Me

Here are the fixes in Inventor 2014 Update 1:

• Many duplicate occurrences shown in browser of IPN's following assembly demote/promote
• Create New dialog does not remember the size and order of column in details view
• Mass property is not available after migration
• View remains raster after selecting Precise view
• iFeature insert dialog will show "Create Package" instead of the description of the iFeature
• Copying a material in the category will corrupt that material from the library
• Unable to change icon of existing custom category in Content Center Library
• Adding a material will flag existing file as out of date and unnecessarily replace/update appearances
• Weldment iAssemblies still looking for the obsolete "Use as Weldment Material" setting
• Highlight effect when mouse hover on geometry is not as good as full mode when create Dimension/Baseline/Ordinate annotation in Raster View
• GraphicsNode.RenderStyle has no effect on the graphics entity
• The translator addin imports the DWG into sketch with wrong units if custom units specified
• Legacy Section View displays incorrect line
• Title block incorrectly displayed on Zoom when multiple files opened
• Decreased performance when selecting all assets
• Decreased performance when select Derive menu Other Tab
• Slow shut down of InventorViewCompute.exe even after Inventor main window closes
• Unexpected exit when make all views raster and make all views precise
• Unexpected exit when switching to Full from Express mode
• Unexpected exit when click adjust with customized project setting
• Unexpected exit when rotating large assembly
• Unexpected exit when dragging materials in user library
• Unexpected exit when Load Express
• Unexpected exit when starting Inventor from Factory Design Suite
• Unexpected exit due to Non-transacted AddTriangleGraphics

Inventor 2013 Service Pack 2 available

Autodesk Inventor 2013 Service Pack 2 is available.

Inventor 2013 SP 2 x64.msp(64 bit install)

Inventor 2013 SP 2 x86.msp(32 bit install)

Install it regardless if you had installed any of the previous updates or not, it includes them.

Fixes added in Service Pack 2:

Cable & Harness:

• Cannot import Cable & Harness libraries in Japanese Inventor 2012 SP2.
• When autorouting more than 30 wires at a time, performance is extremely slow.

Tube & Pipe:

• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you click Hose Length command.

API:

• SurfaceEvaluator.GetXXX methods get a run-time error.
• Cannot insert AutoCAD DWG into a sketch using the DWG TranslatorAddIn.Open method.
• Other products (such as RADF Viewer) cannot open the SAT file that was generated by DataIO.WriteDataToFile with the ACIS SAT format.

Application Functionality:

• The Create New File dialog box takes too long to open when the template folder is a network Universal Naming Conversion path.
• If you use a mapped network drive as a templates path, parent folders of the templates folder are exposed in the Create New File dialog box.
• In the Create New File dialog box, in Details view, if you reorder or resize the width of the columns, the layout reverts to default the next time you open the dialog box.
• The Create New File dialog box lists all folders that are on the same level as the template folder.

Assembly Modeling:

• Inventor unexpectedly exits after generating too many iAssembly members in one assembly.
• In Constraint dialog box, when you set a parameter input using Display as an expression, the parameter does not work correctly.
• In the Assembly in-place edit environment, the Redefine Feature command for UCS is disabled.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you in-place edit a subassembly feature.
• When you drive one constraint between components that have an activated Contact set, the performance is worse in R2013 than in R2012.

Content Center:

• Custom material disappears after you migrate a Content Center library from 2012 to 2013.
• You cannot place a part from Content Center after you migrate the custom library from 2011 to 2013.

Direct Manipulation:

• The preview of a workplane that you create with 3D sketch geometry is sometimes incorrect.

Drawing Manager:

• In a break view, projected geometries are not in the correct position.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you insert a sketch symbol.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you move a sketch symbol after deleting one of the sheets of the drawing.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you open a drawing that was created in R7.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you move cursor, zoom in or zoom out while updating a drawing view.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you drag a hole table from one sheet to another.

Enhanced Visualization:

• The shaded style of a Drawing view is not maintained after you click the view or other Drawing views.

Frame Generator:

• Cannot select a mirrored 3D sketch when you attempt to insert it into frame generator.
• Notch fails in some custom structural shapes.

iLogic:

• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you try to select iLogic Copy Design if .NET Framework 4.5 is installed on the machine.

Materials/Appearances:

• The Material or Appearance thumbnail does not update correctly when you import a legacy style.
• The Material or Appearance thumbnail does not update correctly after you change the appearance color in the material or appearance editor.
• If you save an appearance to a library which contains the same assets and select "keep both" to create a duplicated one, you cannot apply it to any object.
• Mass value does not update in the drawing part list when you change material from the quick access tool bar or material browser.
• Appearance in-used can be deleted from appearance browser.
• The thumbnail of a material or appearance is incorrect when you migrate legacy xmls to a new or existing library.
• The material name in the document library changes after you rename the same material in the Autodesk library, Inventor library, or user library.

Part Modeling:

• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you measure an object in a Face Draft preview.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you extract an iFeature.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you create a corner seam in sheet metal.

Sketch:

• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you edit the sketch of a sheetmetal feature.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you drag the endpoint of a line in some 2D sketches.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you add a dimension between projected profiles.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you click Edit Pattern in some 2D sketches.
• Inventor unexpectedly exits when you scale a sketch.

Translators:

• Get wrong bounding box when you open an STL file with Template Units in Options dialog box.
• DWF publish time shows nearly 300% regression in SP1.1 compared to Inventor 2013.

 

Do I need to upgrade the Network license manager?

The answer is yes, always upgrade the license manager when implementing new Autodesk Networked products or new license files with old products.  From time to time Autodesk enables new features in the newer license files, which needs the latest license manager to function properly.  These new features can be incompatible with the older license managers. Newer license managers are backwards compatible, meaning the latest license manager will work with older license files, but not the other way around. It may seem to work, but it will break sooner or later.

The FlexLM version is 11.11 for the 2014 programs

• Pre-upgrade steps:
  Ensure you have the media (downloaded media counts) and you can access it from the license manager machine or see the Autodesk downloads:

If you do not have IPV6 installed (or if it's okay to turn it off), then use the IPV4 version after turning off IPV6.
http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL16273699

If you MUST run IPV6 on both the license manager and the clients, then use this one:
http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL10976858

Note:  The IPV6 version may have undesirable limitations.  Check the readme and notes at the download page.

• Obtain a new license file from Autodesk.
  • Call the Autodesk Registration and Activation department at 800-551-1490
  • Login to www.autodesk.com/register and login (you can create  login or use your subscription login)  and retrieve it.
  • Send an email to Autodesk at  authcodes@autodesk.com.  You need to include in teh body of the email the following information.  Company name, serial numbers, server name and server MAC/Ethernet address.
• if necessary, Combine your license files (check your license agreement!).

To upgrade the license manager:

1. Run LMTools and ensure you stop the service. I like to check the box for "force server shutdown" and click Stop a couple of times, then exit LMTools.
2. Uninstall the license manager.
3. Install the 11.11 license manager.
4. Configure and start your service.

Done! Under 5 minutes, if you're really good, and you don't have problems trying to stop that service.

Autodesk has developed a video with the exact steps to assist you in setup and configuration. You can go to: http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS13503006 and click the image to load up the video. The upgrade solution can be found at : http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS66079

So, what version of Autodesk programs go with what versions of Flex License Manager? 

Since the license manager is backward compatible, the newer license manager can grant older licenses. 

 

 

 

 

Installation Help for Autodesk 2014 Products

We’ve written before about how to do a network deployment for your Autodesk programs. While we wrote it awhile back, the content is still valid (though your images may differ slightly).  You will need to upgrade the license manager as well, the 2014 version is 11.11. 

If you just need to install your product on a single computer, use the helpful Autodesk guide for that.

Other things you’ll want or need include the information about your software license agreement (Autodesk has a handy page with all their product licensing information, see www.autodesk.com/eula) and how to find the serial number and product keys.

That’s it. Everything you need for installation in one handy-dandy place. If you find yourself in need of significant help, don't hesitate to contact us or check out our installation toolkit.

 

Where did all the AutoCAD sample files go?

Well, they don't come with the program anymore, however, you can download them from the Autodesk website.  www.autodesk.com/autocad-samples

 

Why would you want the sample files?

One *great* reason is for testing.  Say you have a drawing that won't copy/paste or is really slow.  Use a sample file to see if the same thing happens in it.

If it does not have the same problem, then you know that your drawing has a problem.

If it does have the same problem, then you may have an issue in AutoCAD or with your system.